aktick

Can't wait for this tonight. Hell's Kitchen got boring for me after a season, but I've always loved this on BBCA. Hopefully they don't "Americanize" it too much.

DJariya

I really like the UK version on BBC America and Ramsay knows how to make good TV. I've been looking forward to this since Hell's Kitchen ended. Anyone notice the new season on BBC America is now just him re-visiting restaurants from past shows to see if they have changed much since he left?

lordzeppelin

My first thought is...wow, this place is worse than any of the establishments that they had on the UK version. The second thought was that I'm surprised that the place isn't named "Guido's", since it's full of a bunch of them. I'm 100% Italian, and it's embarrassing how some of these people act like a fucking stereotype. These guys have quoted mob movies more in the first 2 segments than I do in a fucking year. It's ridiculous.

Then there was the parsley on the dish...the hallmark of a mediocre Italian restaurant.

Timber

The BBC version didn't seem as staged as this is. That walk in was a disaster and Perer is obvioulsy playing a character.

flashburn

This version of Kitchen Nightmares isn't even a shadow of its BBC version. They need to have Gordon doing the narration. It is also incredibly lame that Gordon (or Fox or whoever) gave them basically an entire new kitchen for free. It was always so impressive that Gordon's knowledge and expertise was enough to help restaurants that are failing come back and succeed. I hope this isn't a normal thing that they do for every restaurant.

lordzeppelin

I agree that it's not as good as the UK ones...but it's damn funny. The look on the head chef's face when Ramsay was giving Guido (peter) a lecture was priceless.

Edited to add...the show was fun, but you can tell it's been 'foxed'. I'll watch it because it's Ramsay, but I'm disappointed that there was little focus on the food, because normally he pisses all over the chefs. Perhaps it was just this episode, because they had the whole section devoted to Guido's temper and the altercation...

Keith6601

I agree it doesn't compare to the UK version but overall I enjoyed it. It kept the main factors that have made the show such a huge success and that was my main concern.

My main complaint is Gordon putting "Guido" in the kitchen to show him how horrible it is for food service, only to redo the whole kitchen himself.

"Guido" knocking his father to the ground while arguing and then going after the collector for doing it was a great moment.


They haven't actually filmed the "new" season restaurants yet I don't think. The bbc site for kitchen nightmares was advertising to apply for the next season a couple weeks ago when I went looking for information on when it would actually be new restaurants.

aktick

That's what annoyed me the most, pretty weak. It's like they think Americans will only watch a reality show if something valuable is given away.

firteen88

That place is right down the block from my house. I've eaten there plenty of times....No more

aktick

Didn't the owner of one of these restaurants sue Fox or Ramsay? I'm guessing that episode won't air?

Keith6601

Yes, it was Dillons in Manhatten. They claim Gordon used faulty furniture, hired actors to make the place look full after his advice and pretended food was rotten. Last I saw, the judge put it into arbitration.

Sweet Baby James

I loved how they called Pete's loan sharks as "bill collectors". Peter was just too much. He killed me at how he was always looking around like someone was going to gun him down. The guy thinks that he's John Gotti. I also enjoyed it when Gordon told him to get lost and go wash his wheels. I am sad to see that F Murray Abraham had to take a job as head cook. I didn't realize that his career was in such trouble.

slop101

Too late!

I pretty much echo everyone here, saying that what made the BBC version so great was that Gordon kicked people in the ass, but they did all the work themselves and never relied on charity - that was really cheap, but I guess there was nothing else they could do.

Also, compared to the BBC version, I really REALLY hated the way it was edited. I haven't seen a reality show in a long time, so maybe that's just how they're all edited now, but it was really distracting and annoying. But I guess it falls into Fox's aesthetic more than the documentary style of the BBC version would - and that right there is the show's biggest problem.

And what the hell was the deal with the beginning of the show, giving me a full six-minute preview of what I'm about to watch. I already tuned into your fucking show, you don't need to keep selling it. Fucking Fox...

boredsilly

Amen.

This was really bad. I expected them to "jazz" it up a bit for American audiences, but this was practically unwatchable.

The worst thing was the constant playing of the "dramatic" music. That shit never stopped playing from the beginning to the end of the episode. It doesn't make things tense, just aggravating. The BBC version is a thousand times better, but I guess its quieter and more thoughtful approach would be more at home on Discovery or TLC. This is Fox, so I can't act all that surprised.

Season pass, canceled.

DJariya

Well, I caught the premiere tonight and I have to agree with alot of the comments here that this version lacks alot of the heart of the BBC version. I was a little disappointed.

Giving away a free kitchen annoyed the crap out of him...In the UK, Gordon would force the owners to find the money to make their restaurant better on their own. If that clown Peter were in the UK, Gordon would probably force him to sell his car to help raise some cash to put back into the restaurant.....he did that in 1 episode of the UK version with one struggling place.

I felt like they focused way too much on fucking Peter's theatrics as opposed to Gordon sampling the food, finding out what's wrong and then seeing the gradual progress of it getting better.

I'll continue to watch because I'm a Ramsay fan, but man what an annoying start to this series.

Giantrobo

I still don't get what Italian "Homestyle" is.

Anyway, I wasn't going to watch but I liked it a lot more than I thought I would. Maybe they did and I missed it, but I wish they had shown the place a few weeks later after GR was away to see if things fell apart again.

DJariya

Well, that probably could have happened, but it felt like they wasted 20 minutes of show content showing Peter as a "tough guy."

FinkPish

I was pretty disappointed with this new version of the show. I really liked the BBC version, mostly because it felt real and honest. Ramsay, as big as an asshole he can be sometimes, seemed to really want to help the restaurants, mostly by letting them see their faults and helping them improve. He (or the show, rather) didn't go buying them new kitchens; he had to deal with what they had, which again added to the realism and honesty.

This version felt poorly and shamelessly manufactured with the editing, the music and the voice-over. This is a shame, especially with this first episode, because the family seemed to be pretty outrageous already; they didn't necessarily need to be enhanced with all the phony cutting and fucking over-dramatic music (through the entire goddamn show!). The British version of the show did just fine without having all of these things. I may catch another episode, but if they wrap up every episode as ridiculously warm and happy as this one, I'm gonna give it a pass and keep my eye out for the BBC show instead.

I also missed him challenging the chefs to create better food; maybe that's something that will come out in other episodes, but for me that was one of the highlights of the BBC version. It could be that this one had so much more to do with the guy running the restaurant rather than the chefs in the kitchen, but previously he always seemed to find someway to force the chefs to think out of the box occasionally.

clckworang

I agree that the BBC version is better. It doesn't show Gordon to be quite as much of a caricature. Yes, he does a lot of yelling and ball busting on the British version, but it also shows him with more heart.

But, come on, this is Fox. Of course it would be more over the top!

I agree that the new kitchen thing was too much. I kept waiting for Gordon to force Peter to sell that car, the watch, his wardrobe ... something!

And I also missed the return visit that is in the British version, where we can see if the restaurants truly took Gordon's advice and how they are faring.

But I still had fun watching this. I'll definitely tune in next week. It's entertaining enough for me.

Bill Needle

I enjoyed it - not in the same way as the BBC version for many of the reasons mentioned - but I'll definitely keep watching if for no other reason than Ramsay is facinating to watch. In the mean time, they need to lose the ridiculous dramatic music, have Gordon tell the story, include more focus on the cause of failure and the strategy for turnaround, and drop the phoney-baloney bits that were sprinkled in.

Premise

I enjoyed it, it was obviously Fox-ized compared to the original, but Ramsay is always fun to watch.

Sernov

I enjoyed it, the "guido" calling everyone a "tough guy" the whole show was hilarious. I don't get the BBC channel so this is the first time I've watched it.

mnementh

Maybe it's incentive to keep Gordon Ramsay from getting punched in the face.

pyro383

what restuarant was it?

boredsilly

There wasn't any of this in the episode was there? Any one on one time with the chefs. It was all about Peter acting like an ass.

If this were the BBC version, to compare yet again, he would have made him sell his car and let one of his other family members take over as host.

But maybe the food was already decent enough where that wasn't necessary?