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November 16, 2001
Iron Chef USA
Ah, America. A great land of freedom and opportunity...to suck that is. Yet another great premise from another country has been stolen by America and, in American fashion, turned into a great way to market sex, egoism and William Shatner. Didn't survivor teach us anything?
I must admit to being a fan of Iron Chef, mostly for it's cheesiness. However, it's a classic cheesy that William Shatner prancing around in a dress jacket and stuffing caviar down his face while Michael Burger discusses the intricacies of sea urchin gonads and "love juices" just doesn't convey.
First of all, does anyone in the world not know who William Shatner is? Does anyone in the world buy him as one of the great culinary minds of this century? I'm guessing the answer is no. Why in the world would they put him on the show? Half of the fun of Iron Chef is that it's actually believable. You look at Kaga and even though you know he's an actor playing a part, you think "ok, I can believe that's he's actually a chairman of a gourmet academy." With Shatner, not even the Chef's could keep a straight face (one of them referenced Star Trek). I won't even go into Shatner's bad acting. As I said, everyone knows Shatner already.
Secondly, what the hell was wrong with the announcers? When did we get 13 year old boys to comment on cooking shows. I know the only edible part of a sea urchin is the gonads but Michael Burger seemed a little too tickled to repeat the word over and over again. Then he insisted on pointing out how the Baywatch chick was eating. "I'd like to see a close up that". I think someone needs a little something more than food. Maybe a good kick to the edible portion of a sea urchin or a trip back to the 6th grade when that was actually funny.
The judges also left a little to be desired. Maybe the translators just make the Japanese judges sound smart but these judges were shoving it in with both hands and making no decent comments whatsoever. It seemed as if nobody on the show had any culinary experience at all. The floor reporter didn't do a good a job, the commentators didn't have any real insight and the judges didn't seem to know anything about food except how to eat it. Is that a big deal? No. Food is just to supposed to taste good afterall. However, it takes away from the things I enjoy about Iron Chef.
All in all, I think this show will last 2 episodes. But, being UPN and seeing as how they only show crap, it'll probably be on for 15 years. YAY!!
Posted by vixen at November 16, 2001 07:08 PM
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Comments
Iron Chef is a bad show as it is. Where's the concept in it?!?
Two chefs in a cooking compotition to see who can fry squid the fastest. And, in the midst of it, having Japanese celebrities aking complete asses of themselves. You're right, this will go on for generations to come.