By Paul Lane
NIAGARA GAZETTE (NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y.)
NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y.
Tue, May 13 2008
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Somewhere hidden inside “Hell’s Kitchen” is a decent show with gripping drama.
With so many campy thematic elements and cartoonish moments, though, it’s hard to find.
The fourth season of the Fox reality series once again sees chef Gordon Ramsay flambee and fricassee a group of aspiring cooks as they compete against each other while preparing meals for actual diners in a restaurant.
The screaming and berating are fine (and plentiful); even if Ramsay seems to be going over the top at times, he’s at least got an honest objective in mind.
All of this is OK if you’re able to stomach the amateurish opening sequence, which almost made this reviewer want to completely skip the rest of the debut episode. After giving the viewer a quick tour of the house — all decked out in red flames and pitchforks, of course — the contestants are introduced in a second-rate illustration featuring them actually cooking in Hades.
Cringe-inducing, to be sure.
Once you get past that, there are some entertaining elements. Ramsay went undercover as a contestant on the bus taking the 15 players from the airport to the show’s house. His goal was to get to know the contestants, and none made a bigger impression than Niagara Falls native Bobby Anderson — he proclaimed himself the “Black Gordon Ramsay” and Ramsay’s “four-star general.”
In trying out the contestants’ signature dishes during their first hours in the house, Anderson earned himself a demerit. He was panned as “embarrassingly lazy” for deep-frying the fish he made for Ramsay, with another player’s meal literally making the host sick.
Few dishes — including the one made by Buffalo resident Shayna Raichilson-Zadok — managed to impress. Nor did the teams during their first night on the job, as neither the men nor women were able to make a servable dish before the restaurant cleared out (more than an hour passed before the first appetizers were ready).
“Hell’s Kitchen” went the stereotype route in giving viewers tired, predictable characters meant to maximize drama. Rosann is the tough-on-the-outside New Yorker (complete with horrid accent and superior attitude) who quit cooking to be a receptionist, while Dominic is the timid, quiet stay-at-home dad who goes with the flow. The looks-first blonde girl, overachieving/back-stabbing man and humble country girl help round out the cast of 15.
Despite this, there really is some decent television brewing somewhere in “Hell’s Kitchen.” Adequate tension is created in the kitchen scenes as contestants were unable to eat the food they cooked, while Ramsay is amusing to watch even as he grates on the viewer.
There’s a lot of pointless style to get past to get to the substance, though. The point is established that we’re in “Hell’s Kitchen” well before the flames shoot up from the bottom of the screen to end each scene. Just stick to what’s happening and cut the extras.
Buffalo-area viewers have two reasons to tune in to “Hell’s Kitchen,” but whether they should stay if/when the locals get cut remains to be seen.
Paul Lane writes for the Niagara (N.Y.) Gazette.
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IF YOU WATCH
• WHAT: “Hell’s Kitchen” fourth season
• WHEN: 9 p.m. Tuesday
• CHANNEL: Fox
• RATING: Two stars out of four
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