Hell's Kitchen game

After last night's episode of Hell's Kitchen I noticed an add for a computer game based on the show. You can play it here for free (Windows-based PCs only currently). I haven't had a chance to try it out (that will come tonight), but it looks like it could be fun for a few minutes.

It looks like it might be bit like the Sushi restaurant game {C} sent me last week. That game is very addictive (and quite hard!)

In terms of this season's HK, I must say I don't really think any of the chefs are that impressive, and I'm not so invested in any of them. I predict Christina will win, but that she won't actually get to cook much at Gordon's new restaurant. (They'll probably leave that for the real chefs).

In other Gordon Ramsay news, the US version of Kitchen Nightmares will return to Fox in the fall. While it is not half as good as the UK version, it will have to do. Perhaps they will try to emulate the UK show a bit more, instead of trying to stir up drama and conflict.

Wombles

Yet another example of how much British TV I got to watch growing up in South Africa is that I know who/what the Wombles are. They were surprisingly environmentally-conscious and Green for their time, and the show was great fun to watch. (Granted, I was about 5 at the time).
Here's their theme tune on YouTube. And, Dear Lord, they were on Top Of The Pops.

There's something about the sound of the word womble that makes me want to still use it every now in coversation. (I tend to reserve the term for stupid people I come across at work. Muppet works well for the same purpose - what is it about furry kids-show characters being well-suited for insults?)

TV in a dry,dry season

There's not much decent on TV at the moment, mainly due to the Writer's Guild strike dragging on. You know times are lean when the most entertaining thing on TV is "American Gladiator" and "The Biggest Loser" goes from 1 hour episodes to 2 hours...

Further adding to my sense of ennui is news that Battlestar Galactica is now due bug in April, but there are a few glimmers of hope. Somehow they managed to get a new episode of "House" out this week (there are three new episodes scheduled). How did they manage that?

There are a few surprises though, like the new AMC series "Breaking Bad". This is a deliciously black comedy from one of the producer's of "The X-Files" (Vince Gilligan). The show stars Bryan Cranston (the dad from "Malcolm in the Middle"), and tells the story of a high school chemistry teacher that has a bit of a mid-life crisis and decides to cook crack. Great writing, photography, music and acting in the pilot episode really grabbed me. (And it helps that I am a fan of dark comedies). I'm hooked - the DVR is set to record the rest of the season (which sadly has been cut short due to the afore-mentioned strike).

For more info, check out the show's blog here.

Deep thoughts about the American "Kitchen Nightmares"

I confess to really enjoying the UK "Kitchen Nightmares" series. I generally enjoy Gordon Ramsay in whatever show he does - even the American "Hell's Kitchen" was not too bad (although the most recent series was pretty lame).

For those unfamiliar with "Kitchen Nightmares", the premise is a simple "reality TV" format where Gordon is brought in to rescue a failing restaurant. He spends one week working with the owner, chef, servers, etc. sorting things out, and usually manages to turn things around by the time he leaves. He then pops back a few months later (seemingly unannounced) to check on how things have progressed. This is the cherry on the pudding for me - I like to see what advice has stuck, and what has been forgotten; who has stuck to their promises, and who has been forced out (or quit).

The UK show is quite simple, with what feels like no scripting, minimal editing or "saucing up" and often some really good drama as relationships are forged under intense pressure in a short time. Chefs that are resistant and hate Ramsay at first often get won over and become his best friends by the end of the week. Lowly kitchen helpers are recognized as having great potential and given their chance to move ahead in their career. Really inspiring stuff.

So, back to the American version. It's pretty bad - not a huge surprise given it's on FOX and seems to be done by the Hell's Kitchen bunch. What do we get?

1. Almost continuous background music that tries to manipulate your emotions and whip up the tension but just gets on your nerves,
2. Tedious re-hashing of footage, especially after the frequent ad breaks. Episode 2 was particularly bad, with a 5min+ sequence of "re-runs" in the middle of the episode. Trust me, guys, I can remember what happened 5 minutes ago and how we got there...
3. A scripted feel. Some of the scenes seem contrived and designed to inject arguing and swearing into the show. One of the refreshing things about the UK version is how nice Gordon is. Sure, he drops the f-bomb and s-bomb quite often, but he's not as shouty, and seems to use anger on when it's really needed. The US version seems to be trying to get everyone - Gordon and the restaurant staff - to the point of exploding.
4. No return visit. The episodes end with Gordon's trade-mark "summing up" monologue, expressing hope that things will continue to go well now that he's righted the ship. We get no check-up to see if things actually have continued to do well.
5. Loads of money thrown at the problem. I guess I should be happy that there is no overt sponsorship/advertising in the show, but each episode (there have been two so far), has featured Gordon bringing in experts and/or large sums of money to fix things. That doesn't feel right, and is in contrast to the UK show, where the restaurants are pretty much on their own. (In one episode of the UK show, Gordon asked the vain chef to sell his car's vanity plate to get more funds to put into the renovation of the restaurant). In the US series so far we've had: a complete new kitchen provided for free, a total redoration, professional steam-cleaning of the kitchen, and a "consulting chef" to do the actual cooking.

In closing, here's an interesting thing I noticed after the 2nd episode, which featured Dillon's Indian restaurant in New York (now called Purnima). From the start of the show it's clear the restaurant is atrocious before Gordon arrives. So, I looked around for some old reviews (pre-Gordon and Vikas Khanna) on the web. Nada. The closest I could find (and the address matches Purnima) is Dillon's, but the menu doesn't have anything remotely Indian. (Perhaps only the American menu made it online? They had what looked like two menus, one with Indian items). Here's the official website for Dillon's - the page came up blank for me for a while, but the Google cache still a copy.

It also looks like Dillon's is a theatre venue of sorts None of the stage/theatre stuff was mentioned in the show which is odd... This NY Magazine review also doesn't mention Indian food (or flies or cockroaches).

Which makes me wonder - was the Indian Dillon's a very recent start-up that took over the Dillon's Bar location (likely)? Did Purnima manage to get the old reviews taken offline (not likely)? Or did "Kitchen Nightmares" create the place and it never really existed? :)

South African auto ads

I recently was browsing around on YouTube looking for South African TV snippets, and found two distinctly different but memorable advertisements.

This one is for Ford, and has some fun with the "new" South Africa:


This one for VW is more sentimental and almost avoids being an auto ad until the last few seconds. VW ads in South Africa have a long track record of excellence, what with the David Kramer "volksie bus" ads. I might have to blog about that in them future :)



(Shockwave required to view the movies)

I must say these seem more interesting and memorable than the auto ads I've seen in America.

30-second skip works!

Woohoo! The nicest thing about the updated Comcast DVR software is that 30-second skip works!

I had "hacked" my remote a while back and reprogrammed one button we never use to send the command to jump ahead 30 seconds . (If you're looking for info on how to do this yourself, go here.)

With the old DVR software, hitting the button would just bring up a "not supported" message - but the new software happily jumps ahead. Not quite up to the level of my old ReplayTV unit (which would skip adverts automatically), but I'm quit happy.

Comcast DVR updated

Yay! Our Comcast HD DVR finally got the software update (see my previous post here).
I had a quick look at the new UI this morning, and it looks pretty slick. The response time is definitely better, and the interface is much mroe intuitive.

I'll have to see whether the box still reboots randomly (some discussion at work indicates that you can swap out the DVR box for a newer model for free, and the new models are a lot more robust). Hopefully that won't be needed though (I'd lose all my recorded shows! sob!)

My only niggle so far is the new Search functionality under the main menu. The way you enter program titles is a bit odd, and it's harder to find results. (I tried searching for "Hell's Kitchen" and it took ages to find it...)

Training your palate for wine, the Vaynerchuk way

Gary Vaynerchuk is always interesting to watch - his Wine Libary TV video podcasts are fresh, funny, and informative.

For something a little different though, take a look at this segment from his recent appearance on the Conan O'Brien show (a late-night talk/comedy show in the US). Nuts! :)

Slate have an interesting article on The 'Chukker too.

Bayete Nkosi!

I just realised that the excellent South African TV series depicting King Shaka's life is available in the USA on DVD (Netflix have it).

This was produced in the mid-80's when I was a young teen, and made a huge impression on me. It was a huge hit in South Africa, and the theme tune found its way into many people heads, so that you'd find walking around singing "Bum-bum-bum BA-bum BA-bum BA-bum... Bayete Nkosi!"

There was an urban legend that the actor that played Shaka, Henry Cele, was a garbage collector prior to being discovered, but I see from the Wiki entry that's not true (he was a goalie for several pro soccer clubs)

Some advice: The "sequel" (Shaka Zulu: The Last Great Warrior) is really bad. But then you probably knew that already since is starts The Hoff.

Flight of the Conchords on HBO

I saw a teaser for the new HBO series "Flight of the Conchords". I've wrtten about these guys before (see this post). This is a new series following "the trials and tribulations of a two man, digi-folk band from New Zealand as they try to make a name for themselves in their adopted home of New York City."

Update: I just noticed Slate have a story on the show.

Hopefully it will make its way to DVD so I can watch it :)