@erierierierierie I know to some it doesn't really matter. I personally would not recommend doing any order but the show then rebuilds. If you don't watch the show first I don't think anyone can appreciate the choices of the rebuilds justly.
I feel like one of kitchen nightmares biggest strengths was that it hadn't come out yet. I highly doubt there's anyone they visit now that hasn't seen at least some of the show
Honestly it has a similar issue as most reality shows, they just don't hold up as the world changes, which just proves why we have to know when to move on, just like anything in life really.
I had that same question about To Catch a Predator. Considering these guys are already criminals, I feel like a few of them would see Chris Hansen sitting there, realize their lives were essentially over, and come at him with murderous intent.
@thunderphoenix440 Many had the opposite reaction. Because they knew they'd be arrested as soon as they left, they stayed in the house to put it off, making it more likely that Hansen would get an interview out of them. On the topic of the OP though, this was why Dom Jolly stopped doing trigger happy TV. A fly on the wall prank show is less effective when everyone recognises who you are.
I could be wrong but I’m pretty sure the first season of Kitchen Nightmares was part of the wave of reality TV that swept over basically every American network in response to the 2007 writer’s strike. So I think you’re definitely onto something connecting the revival to the 2023 writer’s strike. It’s almost poetic.
@@CordeliaWagner1999 All of the "writing" in reality TV is pretty much in post-production. They may ask someone for a second take or to re-record something they said if there was something wrong with their audio, but they're not really given lines on a script.
There's definitely that, and also (like Emily pointed out) there's the UA-cam channel now. I'm 100% convinced that if it wasn't for the UA-cam channel doing so well, in combination with the strike, this new season would not exist. Imagine: a whole new season you can chop up into literally hundreds upon hundreds of clickbait clips and memes, it can keep the channel chugging along for years. That's why they have to stick to the formula even when it makes absolutely no sense. If you don't, you can't post the clips out of context on the channel.
The thing is rn the worse restaurants are just ghost kitchens. The kind of family restaurant that used to be the bread and butter of Kitchen Nightmares is not really around anymore
Changing times. Reminds me of how Peter Parker working as a freelance Spider-Man photographer for a newspaper doesn't make sense anymore, since (1) no one reads newspapers as much, and (2) a newspaper wouldn't buy photos of Spider-Man since he'll be recorded on countless smartphones anyway.
@@MK_ULTRA_HDTV I think they mean the run-down family-owned restaurants of questionable character and quality. That sort of place is less likely to thrive long enough in a world of online reviews and delivery apps to get a chance to be on Kitchen Nightmares. Of course there are plenty of excellent or even just mediocre little dining spots still out there.
@@vitoc8454 Didn't they address that in one of the movies by having him set up professional grade cameras around the city and posing for them so the papers got HD pics vs blurry or far-away phone shots? I can't remember which movie that was in. Too many Spidermen.
Something worth mentioning is the aesthetic dissonance between the 2000s and now the 2020s. Every restaurant that Ramsey went to in the original run of the show definitely looked like it was a mom and pop operation. Everything was in that era of finally exiting the 90s restaurant aesthetics while barely having one foot in the 2000s. They really all matched the feel and look of the small middle of nowhere towns they were located in. But there was never any doubt based on how they looked that they probably barely turned a profit, if at all. The restaurants of today, as was pointed out in the video, survived the gauntlet that was the pandemic. They can clearly turn a profit and obviously have the money to keep up with current aesthetics. The show is grasping at straws for what makes these restaurants "nightmares". The problems are problems that customers probably feel on some level, but it isn't enough for them to not want to come.
Ya I definitely agree with the pandemic point Essentially even if there were a ton of restaurants that would be amazing for kitchen nightmares, they all got purged during Covid. Everything that survived are already profitable
Kitchen Nightmares is definitely one of those "background noise" shows that I feel like most people just throw on when they're focusing on other stuff. I think that the showrunners are 100% aware of this, which is why they end up reuploading the same episodes and compilations over and over again. Edit: I don't know why showrunners is highlighted and links to Wikipedia, UA-cam does that automatically.
@@tiraXpyrrha And it's so jank too. If you opened the reply section of a comment that has the hyperlink, it will automatically disappear for ALL links on the whole comment sections. UA-cam be adding the most random update, I'll tell you.
In Drew Gooden's video "Everybody wants to waste your time," he brings up worrying reports that some producers have accepted the "background noise" status of shows, and have straight-up told writers to make sure that a show can be put on in the background and still be understandable (i.e. make characters repeat the same info over and over so the audience can still catch it)
I feel like the show should add the Culinary Gangster as an antagonist who can show up whenever there isn’t enough going on in an episode. He already has the name and look of a villain, and he has a motivation to hate Gordon since Gordon ruined his job. Whenever an episode doesn’t have any real need for changes, the Gangster could show up as a foil to Gordon, convince the restaurant to make bad renovations and ruin the menu, and then Gordon has to save the day.
That might work, but it'll be heavily dependent on whether The Culinary Gangster has some free time available if he lands his job auditioning to be a Batman villain.
What if instead of bad decisions, he has a contrasting viewpoint of making the restaurant cut every possible corner in name of profit? Frozen food, storebought ingredients, reheating stuff from last week, turning entire thing into a ghost kitchen... Instead of making it a good restaurant, make it profitable by any means necessary.
Honestly I wish Gordon hard focused on that show he did on Disney+. I forget exactly what it's called, but the concept is that he's going around the world to learn not only how certain meals are made in a more survivalist setting. Edit: Gordon Ramsey Uncharted. I love that show because Gordon looks genuinely happy to be learning new techniques in cooking
@creed8712 Tom was Great as that version of Drake and I'll die on that hill. In the last 3rd when he actually puts on the iconic gear, I really felt it. He did great with what he was given.
Two things: 1. Daniel Saffron wasn't the one running that crypto scheme, it was his brother, who wasn't on the show and as far as I know not involved in Burger Kitchen at all. 2. I think the most damning thing about the Kitchen Nightmares reboot is that the UA-cam channel doesn't feature any new clips at all. Considering they've been keeping the brand afloat by recycling the same 10-15 year old clips, you'd think they'd jump at the chance to throw some new clips in there to shake it up, but apparently not.
the youtube channel only recycles like the same 25% of highly rated episodes too. There seems like a large majority of episodes that are never featured on there (there are some real shit eps)
A consistent issue I've always had with Kitchen Nightmares, even the original run, is its tendency to make "saving the family/marriage" a central plank of certain episodes even when it revolves around "saving" a blatantly toxic relationship. I wish the show was more willing to just say "you know what, sometimes the answer is to trim the fat" instead of playing into the idea that saving the marriage is the most important thing in the world. I also wish there hadn't been episodes that platformed open gaslighting and emotional abuse while acting like the victim was wholly in the wrong, but that's a separate issue.
The UK series had an episode with a family restaurant where the husband was an absolute garbage human being toward his wife and daughter One comment went, "people would kill for what this man is taking for granted"
@malenaisme The drive-thru Italian place, I forget the name. The scapegoat was undeniably a fuckup but the show just straight-up platformed the owner and her daughter emotionally abusing him for the whole episode.
There was an interview with Gordan Ramsey on his break from Kitchen Nightmares awhile ago, and in it he noted that in some cases the food was a legitimate health hazards that did impact his health between the quality and the stress of the show. Its probably also toned back a bit to make it physically and mentally easier on him.
"There is not much to say about Hotel Hell." "Hotel Hell is the same as Kitchen Nightmares but in a hotel." Gordon shows his bare ass to the camera a lot in Hotel Hell whereas he does not in Kitchen Nightmares. I think that's distinct enough.
I think one of the reasons this show might not work anymore is because the restaurant industry in the US has changed so dramatically post-COVID. No restaurant with the kind of issues from previous seasons would rarely even exist today. The vast majority of struggling restaurants are actually run very well. EDIT brought up at 8:20
I'm also at least 70% sure that the US show was made during the Recession, which would explain a lot of the failing status of the restaurants well after them being fixed.
Gordon's talked about having a new baby on the new season of Hells kitchen and how much it kills him to be away so he probably wanted to stay close to home for the new season of nightmares
Kitchen Nightmares (UK) was actually a pretty good show, Kitchen Nightmares (US) was a version of the UK show with all of its moments cranked to 11 with more focus on showmanship than actually helping restaurants, the new season of Kitchen Nightmares is the Tv equivalent of Flanderization, there is almost none of the DNA of the original UK show in it and is entirely TV slop the comeback was a show made in an era after one of the biggest financial and economic disasters in not just US history but in the world, and while watching it the only thing i see are families and restaurants with the business equivalent of survivors guilt hanging on by a thread after barely surviving the pandemic getting the final nail in the coffin that is being featured on KN. it's not funny like the original US run was, its just kinda sad
100% this. I loved the UK version so much. Gordon actually cared about helping those people succeed. You could hear it in his voice, the stories he told, how he invested in them. The US version perverted that into Reality TV, and was so much the lesser for it. I can't tell how much of that is TV, and how much of it is just how much more colossally famous Ramsey is now than he was 20 years ago, but I haven't been able to stomach him much in anything since...
The biggest example that proves how different they are is that in the UK version, Gordon was served raw/undercooked oysters. He ate one, then went outside and threw up. When he came back inside he went to the people who gave him the oysters and calmly explained how dangerous that was. No insulting, no arguments, just "It's important to make sure your seafood is cooked properly, or you could kill someone"
@@carmencrincoliMy engagement with Gordon Ramsey stopped after watching Kitchen Nightmares UK (which I've gone back to several times) very early into watching US, simply because I didn't find US all that engaging. It feels so weird to me that he's got a reputation as this angry yelly food man - I get that it's the character he's playing in all his shows now, it's his brand, but in my head when I picture Gordon I picture the way he was portrayed in the UK show, where, sure, he could get quite heated, but he didn't raise his voice too often and he was portrayed as legitimately really wanting to help out and be a positive influence in these people's lives (and to a smaller extent his recent TikToks where he just seems really pleased at well-cooked beef wellingtons). It's like if Mr Rogers wasn't all that famous for Mr Rogers Neighbourhood, but went on to have an influential career as a comedy car reviewer a la Jeremy Clarkson, but I only thought of Neihbourhood.
Yes, exactly this. The UK shows had heart, he was a stern but fair guy who seemed to actually give a damn. The small crew helped foster a real sense of intimacy in the episodes and, possibly most importantly, he failed sometimes. He wasn’t always the big damn hero.
If you go back and look at Season 1, it was all restaurants in NY/NJ, and CA. They clearly picked places near where Gordon's other business ventures existed so they could easily schedule his time. They only started branching out after it was clearly a success and wanted to expand the format. It feels like Season 8 was the same idea..."let's do it locally on the cheap and see if it floats."
The fact that you highlighted Burger Kitchen made this a masterpiece. I was always kinda sad that Amy’s Baking Company got all the focus while that drama factory got laid by the wayside.
@@SongbirdAlom yeah, i think part of what makes amy's so fun to watch (and rewatch) is how batshit off the walls the owners are. trying to watch burger kitchen just makes me sad
There's some great non-Amy episodes! My favourite is Lela's (S1E8), featuring Buzzard - the guy who steals constantly. I think about that man once a week
I love how you talked about the difficulty of making a comeback, the changes in the world and self over the passage of time, and then admitted to not remembering your own analysis - an earlier discussion that makes this current discussion a kind of comeback of its own. Accidental self-referential humor!
i used to work at a restaurant owned by the former owners of the zekes episode that appears as b roll throughout the vid. they learned nothing after their first place closed and got way worse to staff. no one that worked there ever got breaks and the owners pocketed almost all the tip money.
I always thought Gordon didn't go hard enough on that couple. That episode frustrates me a lot, but I really adore the staff on it. I can't imagine wasting such a talented group
The real elephant in the room is that Ramsay's old now. US Kitchen Nightmares premiered when Ramsay was 41. He turned 58 five days ago. And the man built his brand off of this high intensity, high energy, tempers flaring presentation style that worked great when he was in his mid-40s, but now he's almost 60 and that's not really something you can keep up into old age, diet and exercise or no. The decision to stick to NY-NJ may have been as simple as not wanting to go through the stress of traveling cross country every other week for a few months. Compare S1 US Hell's Kitchen (Ramsay at 38) to current season Hell's Kitchen (Ramsay at 57). Then compare it to Boiling Point (Ramsay at 32). There's a clear trend line here. And it's not just changing audience expectations or fear of social media outrage. Finally, this stuff takes a toll on one's health. I forget the exact figure but he had something like 10 stomach ulcers through the original run of US Kitchen Nightmares. Stress and food poisoning and constant travel and the very need to keep up his own presentation persona makes for a terrible combination in regards to physical well being. It's maybe not shocking he's slowing down and wanting to eat at places who's food won't run the risk of killing you or who's owners aren't connected to organized crime. It does make for poorer entertainment, but that is the devil's bargain. Ramsay built his persona off of the attention he received from Boiling Point - off of the very real stressors one faces when running a high profile restaurant. The fact that he's managed to convert that into everything he has now is nothing but a blessing. But nobody can - or should - be expected to keep that up forever.
Just finished that grilled cheese bonus video on Nebula now and genuinely really good in it's own right. Really sums up the duality of cooking videos in general and why I appreciate channels that focus on building kitchen confidence over being super show-off-y.
something about the phrase "fish and chip restaurant" just rolls off my brains like water off a duck's back. Gordon, its a "fish and chip shop." you know this.
I feel like I had the ideal experience with Kitchen Nightmares (2023): had no idea it was coming out and got to watch new Kitchen Nightmares episodes. And then I just re-watched all of Kitchen Nightmares. Something you didn't mention I feel plays a big part in the crushing of the narrative is that the new episodes are HALF as long as the originals.
I always love the idea of a guy in a disguise with a full camera crew around them with large mic, not to mention they're probably having showrunners and security come and scope the place out beforehand
They usually lie about what they’re doing with the cameras and stuff. “We’re getting set up ahead of the shoot date” “Gordon will arrive tomorrow” “we’re filming what a day’s service looks like without Gordon being present” “it’s B roll”
@@sideways5153 execpt that didn't happen as much during the Ellicott City episode in Howard County, where I live in Maryland. We all knew Ramsey was coming to save the town after 2 floods wrecked our beloved city once Calvin Ball drop the news.
If you look at the IMDB basically the entire crew is new for this season. New producers and new editors means the creative team that puts those stories together has basically no continuity. Arguably those are the roles that make reality tv. Only Gordon really remains. It's like making a grilled cheese in a new kitchen, with new ingredients, but the same kind of cheese and expecting it to taste the same.
I really love the original UK Kitchen Nightmares. There's no design crew working behind the scenes, no formula, all the drama feels genuine; it's just Ramsay analyzing the restaurant's troubles, and looking into what they can do within their means to turn things around.
I'm 3 minutes into your vid but i can pose my immediate problem with this new season i noticed when i started watching it: the filming. They're using a very shallow depth of field lens aperture to give it a cinematic look. That does not at all jive with the style of filming we're used to with all the old episodes. I hate the look, and even funnier, it causes them to lose or miss focus on subjects. Also the early to mid 2000's and 2010's are nostalgic at this point
Here from Nebula to say awesome vid, absolutely worth the wait! Honored to have sat in for some of the Kitchen Nightmares viewings. Even though this new season is exceptionally trash, watching along with pals who have media literacy, can see through the reality TV illusion, and who find it interesting enough to search up the restaurants and personnel afterward makes the spectacle 100x better 💜
I love how in a sea of manufactured, timely videos designed solely to feed UA-cam's algorithm, Emily makes videos about whatever she feels like at the moment. It's so simple, but it feels like a lost art form at this point. This one was a real treat, Emily. Hell, I didn't even know Kitchen Nightmares initially ended ten years ago (!) until I saw this.
I understand what you mean but there's a million UA-camrs out here still making whatever they want that's not just what the algorithm wants u just gotta search for them
It's kinda poetic, really: A channel that waves the flag of genuineness high and proud on a platform that went from being THE way to document reality to being the biggest free scripted programming streaming platform making a video about a show that used to encapsulate the beauty of reality TV but has now fallen victim to the genre's fakeness. (I'm sorry, that was the longest sentence in existence, but I couldn't say it any other way)
No love for the original UK version of Kitchen Nightmares? No yelling, no "shut it down," no renovations. Where he'd identify real, actual issues with the restaurants and then spend time addressing them, sometimes over several days. You'd watch and feel like you were getting some sense of the realities of running a restaurant. It clearly took time to film so i understand why they'd pivot to something cheap and fast, but it seems like the original incarnation has been memory hole'd
I loved it. Watched it before the US version, so I suffered quite the whiplash when I tuned in for the American production. Never went back for seconds (episodes)
That’s so booooring. Where are the snake hissing sounds edited in post? Where’s the exact same violin sting they use multiple times, every episode, every season, for 8 seasons? Where’s the meme editing? To be serious, I do understand the UK show having a cult following but Kitchen Nightmares is most successful as a circus sideshow, not a job shadow as Gordon does real consultant work. The format of the show is literally finding the most dysfunctional restaurants possible and then seeing them struggle to align with reality. The narratives about “saving” the restaurant are as meaningful as the narratives in My 600 Pound Life about improving the health of the subjects. The show just works better as mindless, cruel slop rather than niche industry behind the scenes stuff
I come to Lady Emily videos for the thoughtful, educated media analysis. I stay for her indignity at Gordon Ramsay butchering Cajun cuisine and shouting out specific Louisiana tourist trap restaurants as being better.
I did enjoy this season specifically because Gordon felt softer, if that makes sense. Like his age is tempering his, well, temper, and I appreciated that. I agree with your critique even if I still like the season, you raised good points. I do have a bone to pick with all chef's though that you touched on briefly: If you put *anything* on a grilled cheese sandwich that isn't cheese, it stops being a grilled cheese sandwich and becomes a melt. Grilled cheese literally has two ingredients: Bread and cheese (and whatever you decide to cook it in depending on method). Anything else and it's a melt. This is a hill I will die on.
It's not age that makes Gordon "softer". If you watch the original UK Nightmares (which are far superior to the US version) you can see that Gordon originally wasn't this always angry, screaming and insulting man which is now his persona
For what it's worth, this series was only rebooted because the writer's strike had just started and Fox needed new factual content to fill the gap that it was going to present in the schedule. Nobody's heart was in this.
Gordon Ramsey did an episode for a restaurant in my hometown once, and he insulted one of my classmates. idk many details bc i never went to this restaurant except like a few months before they filmed the episode and didn't really talk to this classmate, but i wouldn't wanna be too willing with info that can link back to me anyways. anyway, i do know that ramsay just kinda yelled at them for like a week and then the place went right back to business as usual. Idk if any of the drama on the show was real or not, or if the insults made it onto TV. They sold the place some time back. That said, I watched part of the episode and it showed how weird reality tv is. He's teleporting around different corners of the town while having a continuous conversation, sometimes revisiting the same places in the same convo, and i just couldn't trust TV's Gordon Ramsay to be honest with me after that. If the conversations aren't real, how can i trust the food to be?
What drives me crazy about the golf cart thing is that right after the owner explains to Gordon that there's typically little interest in food, a golfer "randomly" asks if they sell salad. I can understand a burrito or wrap or something, but salad, really? Gonna tuck into a nice spring mix in the middle of your round? Gonna set up a little picnic on the fairway?
Funny that this is one thing that the Polish version, Kitchen Revolutions with Magda Gessler has it beat, since there was no significant decrease in quality over 29 seasons constantly produced since 2010.
@@pokemonprimed Yep! They didn't even stop for Covid, they just run one shorter season instead of 2 that year. They should honestly subtitle it, Gessler has about as good of a personality as Ramsay.
Kitchen Nightmares UK >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Kitch Night US The uk version was at times very heartwarming. It was less emotionally forced. It was also infinitely more educational. The show shouldn’t just be “entertaining”…
Watching the new one makes you realize how much of the charm of the original was that it was from the late 2000s/early 2010s. Like reality shows in the modern day just aren't edited and presented that way anymore and that alone makes the new one feel wrong.
There are 10s of thousands of resturants that need help. But now that the formula of Kitchen Nightmares is baked into our psyche, it'd really take a ballsy owner to ask Gotdon to help.
I never knew how badly I needed a Lady Emily video on a shared hyperspecific interest in Kitchen Nightmares as a cultural touchstone worthy of both valid praise and criticism until now
The reality is that the new kitchen nightmare isn’t god awful owners who are incapable of running a restaurant, it’s the companies and investors that bought those restaurants out and turned them into operationally functional but soulless places. That’s a much less palatable story to put on TV, and anyway Gordon himself is one of those investors.
"If you'll indulge me," we are 19 minutes into a 30 minute essay on Kitchen Nightmares, people not willing to indulge you have long since been filtered out
When I heard “he and another guy were charged with” after talking about a reality show contestant who ran a BDSM dungeon, I braced myself for the exact crime you’d usually expect to follow that. Nothing could have prepared me for “yoda is arrested for running a crypto Ponzi scheme.”
I'm surprised that they never did that Bar Rescue crossover with John Taffer. Pretty much every video on the BR channel has at least one comment beckoning for it. Seems like easy money.
There’s also the knowledge that Ramsay stopped Kitchen Nightmares the first time in part due to the gastrointestinal issues he suffered from eating so much just plain bad (and badly made) food. When I heard a new series was announced I did think it would be unlikely to find anywhere as bad as the original KN - USA simply because of this reason. Also - spot on with 24hrs! I could never get my head around it.
It's strange to think of the reality show brand of Gordon Ramsay being fast-paced when the last time I watched his personal youtube videos about recipes, they're pretty calm.
honestly as someone who also has an ostomy, colon removed and everything, the tess episode was maybe the most viscerally upsetting episode of reality TV I've ever seen. i really hope she's doing better now. i work in a library and absolutely cannot imagine a restaurant career where you're on your feet in a high stress environment all the time with an ostomy. it must be exhausting.
You know? When Kitchen Nightmares first came up here in Spain we got a really dull, soulless narration dub that made the series super uninteresting to watch (It also happened with various other shows such as Top Gear), so later on when I found about the popularity of the show I really didn't understand why people liked it so much. It was only when my english got really good and I decided to rewatch it in the original language that I understood how much charisma Gordon had and how entertaining it was to follow along with his weird personality. The little I saw from the new episodes brings back that dull, boring feeling I had originally watching it all those years back.
it's freaking me out watching this critical analysis of kitchen nightmares. this show got me through 2020, I've never seen people actually talking about it in this way before! Awesome!!!!
If you like the original version of this show, there's a program in the UK called The Hotel Inspector with a similar premise. But, the host is actually a really caring nice person and only gets mad when the Hoteliers deserve it. Might make a nice watch if you're looking for a more relaxing Kitchen Nightmare's-type show. A bunch of full eps are free on UA-cam.
So glad to get another video from you! And a sequel to the one I've often used to get video-essay-skeptics onto your channel! I'm glad you sound like you're doing much better x
Gordon making frozen food is still the most absurd thing to me because I remember how often he'd chew people out for serving anything that was flash frozen, but now he's doing it himself because he just had too much brand power I guess.
I think it's different. I'm OK cooking a frozen pizza at home. If Little Caesars gave me Digiorno's, I'd be annoyed and feel cheated out of my money, and that is considering the bar is on the floor for LC.
Apples to Oranges. A TV Dinner is exactly what it advertises to be; a stomachable and relatively cheap meal per the convenience of pulling it out of the freezer and into the microwave. I expect much more from a $20 sit down meal at a restaurant. At that price point, I'm paying for a quality experience and meal. Additionally, for myself and a lot of other paying customers at restaurants, I could just as easily make at home what they're serving at the restaurant. You need to at least meet, ideally exceed what quality people can meet at home for your restaurant to be worth spending money at. Because if not, then I can either get cheaper, more convenient food somewhere else, or make my own quality food for less money than you charge.
@@based-ys9um I’m still surprised ppl can hate ppl they’re never met. Unless it’s a “oh yeah that guy filmed a dead body and posted it to YT” or “they did a dance after being exposed for SA” situation, it always confuses me. I guess I don’t hate that easily?? Idk.
Hell and Back + New Kitchen Nightmares has the same problem that Kitchen Nightmares had by the end. It requires sticking to the formula so hard and making zany TV moments that it shows how disingenuous it all is.
Love Bites really pissed me off, how that girl hasn't divorced that complete piece of shit is an absolute mystery to me. He verbally abuses her in front of BOTH of their moms, the customers AND Ramsey. Can only imagine the way he treats her at home.
After seeing this video I now wanna play the Kitchen Nightmares bingo game as well. Keep up the great content Lady Emily your videos are always worth the wait.
Came here from Nebula to give you some info from a UK perspective. Gordon Ramsay is from Glasgow. We don't have 'grilled cheese', we have 'toasties' of which the simplest is just cheese, but can be cheese & ham, cheese & onion, cheese & haggis ... . He is making UK style 'toasties' and thinking they are equivalent to 'grilled cheese'. Also, in the UK the broiler is called the grill and many people DO use that for making toasties. (Having said all that, he's and insufferable arse and I refuse to watch any of his content or go to any of his restaurants.)
This is a great video! There is another video called The pure ideology of Kitchen Nightmares by user Jack Saint that is another take on this same topic. You both have done a really good job at breaking down the cinematic elements at play which are used to carry the central theme of the show. Namely to enforce the idea of Gordon being the defining morality of everything and also the way the show functions as a semi advertisement of products. I know in this day and age, that the word “propaganda” is thrown around quite a lot. This show feels quite like it to me.
I feel like part of it is just that Gordon Ramsey has been stretched so thin between all his ventures, that pretty much everything has to be ready and planned by the time he shows up a the restaurant.
Towards the end of their careers, Bruce Willis and Steven Seagal apparently got roles where they don't have to do very much (basically walk around and talk). Bruce Willis seemed to have a body-double for a scene where he's just *walking,* and Seagal looks like had to dub over *himself* since his lips don't move right in a scene. Might have heard stories about how Bruce in this one film preferred to have his filming done in like, a *day(?)* Then the tragic news came out that Willis had a degenerative disease and he was doing as many movies as he could to secure his family before his disabilities took over.
You are back! I'm really curious about this video. I love the UK Kitchen nightmares and it was such a pity they got removed from UA-cam. I had a whole playlist of them and I used them as podcasts to listen to while working. I can only watch/stand some of the episodes of the US version (though I love Hotel Hell).
One thing that always perplexed me about Kitchen Nightmares' is that sometimes Gordon Ramsay will just, actively, objectively, unambiguously make a mistake, and the show never actually wants to address it. Like there was this one episode where the head chef is bad at cooking and the sous chef is good at cooking, as determined by like a blind taste test challenge or something, so Ramsay switches them around. But then when the actual service comes, the sous chef has no idea how to keep the kitchen organized and under control and starts cracking under the pressure of managing the whole thing, until eventually he just gives up and leaves, and the former-head-chef-now-sous-chef-now-head-chef-again has to step up and take over. And they make this whole thing super dramatic like, "oh no all this drama might be costing them their only chance to save the restaurant," and then when the guy steps back in they play it as like this heroic redemption moment and Ramsay does a whole lot of yammering about how the guy "took responsibility" and "showed improvement." But, like, this whole debacle was objectively Ramsay's fault? He made the unilateral decision to put the sous chef in charge, and they completely gloss over that and never once bring it up again or have anyone point out that ol' Gordy really beefed it this time, and even if they had he would've just started throwing a tantrum and it would've been edited to make it look like he somehow managed to strike everyone dumb and win the argument via shrieking out some unstoppable combo of Reddit-tier focus-tested insults. (In case it's hard to tell, I kind of hate his whole public image and the level of hero-worship and weird parasociality his fans attach to him)
Ngl really hating someone you don’t know is the exact same level of parasocial as loving someone you don’t know…. You’re kinda like the tails to their heads. Not that you asked but my advice is just ignore it and move on lol
Your complaint confuses me, you say that the show will never show Gordon to be wrong or make a mistake but then you listed an example of him being wrong/making a mistake that's in the show that they could've easily edited or cut out. Also the dude he said took responsibility/showed improvement was the dude that was originally the head chef that was ass at his job and kept making mistakes beforehand, so he did take responsibility and show improvement regardless. Idk this is kind of a weird comment and like gary said, this just feels like the opposite of the loving someone parasocially, this just seems like hating someone parasocially. Also for context the reason he chose the sous chef, which you seem to leave out for some reason, is because the head chef was doing an awful job prior and didn't have a palette so he tried with the sous chef since the dude at first looked like he was willing to take charge and then he flopped. There's no real reason to outright say "Gordon beefed it" cause it shows on the TV, it was an honest mistake, move on from it was the mentality used there. Trust me, there are stuff you can call Gordon out on since the guy is by no means perfect, but THIS is a very weird and odd example to use.
@@garymcjerry Oh, sure, I don't hate Gordon Ramsay the *person*. He's just some guy-I don't know what's going on inside his head, what he's "really" like off-screen, etc... People constantly say, "oh, he's actually really nice in real life" or whatever, and they might be right. I don't really care. I hate Gordon Ramsay the *character*-Ramsay the character is verbally abusive, frequently careless, hypocritical, arrogant, and sanctimonious. I further don't like that the this character is presented, both in his shows and in the general publicity around him, as being righteous, "tough but fair," secretly deeply caring, only abusive when that abuse is necessary, completely justified in his arrogance, etc., and how the narrative is always woven such that all challengers to his behavior are entitled, wimpy, lazy, etc., as if there's no possible reason why somebody might object to a grown man screaming in their face besides lack of moral fortitude. And it really bothers me how this portrayal is largely consumed uncritically, such that most of his fans seem to genuinely believe that the Ramsay shown in the show is a positive figure, despite all of the very clearly displayed negative traits. If there's any major complaint I have against Gordon Ramsay, the person, it's that he's willing to play Gordon Ramsay, the character.
@@DackAttack The thing is that US Kitchen Nightmares (and all other television properties utilizing the Ramsay character) are all edited extremely unsubtly-it really does not want you to need to exercise any interpretation to figure out what's going on. Like, you'll have a candid shot of a guy going "I'm just... so sad..." and then the sad piano music will kick in and it'll cut to a confessional of the guy going "I have to admit, in that moment, I was just really, really sad," and then it'll cut to the narrator going "with Owner Bobathan down in the dumps, will this restaurant be able to bounce back from its owner's sadness? Find out after the break, on Kitchen Nightmares!" and then after the break they'll show all the same footage again just to make sure everyone is 100% on the same page that this guy is sad. So that's why, in that particular episode, it stuck out to me that at no point was there any mention at all of the idea that Ramsay might've actually made a mistake. You'd think if the show was intending for you to understand this as an error he had made, they would've had him go "I'm sorry, guys, this was your big night and I really should've put the sous chef through the wringer more, made sure he had the management skills to go along with the cooking skills. This one's my bad, but I'm glad the head chef guy stepped up," or whatever. But instead it's just completely glossed over. My suspicion is that completely editing out the sous chef leaving just to preserve Ramsay's image would be a really dumb idea, since it's dramatic and reality shows live and die on drama, so instead it was just edited in such a way that the fact that it was Ramsay's decision (within the show's narrative, at least) to put the guy in charge is never mentioned again in hopes that everyone would just move past that and focus on the heartwarming redemption story or whatever (never mind that the problem with the ex-head-chef was supposedly that he sucked at cooking and had a bad palate, which I guess was miraculously fixed in two days). I said this to the other commenter just now-I don't really care about Gordan Ramsay the person, I hate Gordon Ramsay the character, who is played on television by Gordon Ramsay the person. I also didn't leave out context, see: "there was this one episode where the head chef is bad at cooking and the sous chef is good at cooking, as determined by like a blind taste test challenge or something."
In terms of the main issues with 24 Hours to Hell and Back and this latest season of Kitchen Nightmares, it's possibly a producer issue. I'm not sure who his old producer was, but perhaps they are no longer working on the show so it doesn't have the same "narrative" cohesion and tighter feel.
The German version of Kitchen Nightmares also got a new season last year after six years. They got a new TV famous chef in the Gordon Ramsey role and somehow found interesting restaurants to "save".
OK! I get it! I'll watch Neon Genesis Evangelion already
Zankoku na tenshi no you ni, Shounen yo, shinwa ni nare...
You gonna do show, rebuilds, both? If both what order?
@@GravellionDaizeenshow -> eoe -> rebuilds is the correct way? or am i mistaken
@@erierierierierie I think?
@erierierierierie I know to some it doesn't really matter. I personally would not recommend doing any order but the show then rebuilds. If you don't watch the show first I don't think anyone can appreciate the choices of the rebuilds justly.
I feel like one of kitchen nightmares biggest strengths was that it hadn't come out yet. I highly doubt there's anyone they visit now that hasn't seen at least some of the show
Honestly it has a similar issue as most reality shows, they just don't hold up as the world changes, which just proves why we have to know when to move on, just like anything in life really.
The Tom Green and Jackass conundrum. Guerilla TV becomes difficult when the faces are so recognizable and people know what the show is.
It's kind of like when everyone is in on a joke and it isn't as effective anymore
I had that same question about To Catch a Predator. Considering these guys are already criminals, I feel like a few of them would see Chris Hansen sitting there, realize their lives were essentially over, and come at him with murderous intent.
@thunderphoenix440 Many had the opposite reaction. Because they knew they'd be arrested as soon as they left, they stayed in the house to put it off, making it more likely that Hansen would get an interview out of them.
On the topic of the OP though, this was why Dom Jolly stopped doing trigger happy TV. A fly on the wall prank show is less effective when everyone recognises who you are.
I could be wrong but I’m pretty sure the first season of Kitchen Nightmares was part of the wave of reality TV that swept over basically every American network in response to the 2007 writer’s strike. So I think you’re definitely onto something connecting the revival to the 2023 writer’s strike. It’s almost poetic.
It's like poetry, it rhymes
But "reality" TV is scripted. You need writers for that immature artificial Drama
@@madDesparadaI understood that reference
@@CordeliaWagner1999 All of the "writing" in reality TV is pretty much in post-production. They may ask someone for a second take or to re-record something they said if there was something wrong with their audio, but they're not really given lines on a script.
There's definitely that, and also (like Emily pointed out) there's the UA-cam channel now. I'm 100% convinced that if it wasn't for the UA-cam channel doing so well, in combination with the strike, this new season would not exist. Imagine: a whole new season you can chop up into literally hundreds upon hundreds of clickbait clips and memes, it can keep the channel chugging along for years. That's why they have to stick to the formula even when it makes absolutely no sense. If you don't, you can't post the clips out of context on the channel.
The thing is rn the worse restaurants are just ghost kitchens. The kind of family restaurant that used to be the bread and butter of Kitchen Nightmares is not really around anymore
Changing times. Reminds me of how Peter Parker working as a freelance Spider-Man photographer for a newspaper doesn't make sense anymore, since (1) no one reads newspapers as much, and (2) a newspaper wouldn't buy photos of Spider-Man since he'll be recorded on countless smartphones anyway.
Even back then, the actual worst "restaurants" were just fronts for illegal services like drug dealing or prostitution
That's just not true.
@@MK_ULTRA_HDTV I think they mean the run-down family-owned restaurants of questionable character and quality. That sort of place is less likely to thrive long enough in a world of online reviews and delivery apps to get a chance to be on Kitchen Nightmares. Of course there are plenty of excellent or even just mediocre little dining spots still out there.
@@vitoc8454 Didn't they address that in one of the movies by having him set up professional grade cameras around the city and posing for them so the papers got HD pics vs blurry or far-away phone shots? I can't remember which movie that was in. Too many Spidermen.
Something worth mentioning is the aesthetic dissonance between the 2000s and now the 2020s. Every restaurant that Ramsey went to in the original run of the show definitely looked like it was a mom and pop operation. Everything was in that era of finally exiting the 90s restaurant aesthetics while barely having one foot in the 2000s. They really all matched the feel and look of the small middle of nowhere towns they were located in. But there was never any doubt based on how they looked that they probably barely turned a profit, if at all.
The restaurants of today, as was pointed out in the video, survived the gauntlet that was the pandemic. They can clearly turn a profit and obviously have the money to keep up with current aesthetics. The show is grasping at straws for what makes these restaurants "nightmares". The problems are problems that customers probably feel on some level, but it isn't enough for them to not want to come.
yeah, most that survived dont need the help so to speak but def need some guidance to get further
this is true, also the previous financial crisis, basically survival of the fittest...
Ya I definitely agree with the pandemic point
Essentially even if there were a ton of restaurants that would be amazing for kitchen nightmares, they all got purged during Covid.
Everything that survived are already profitable
Kitchen Nightmares is definitely one of those "background noise" shows that I feel like most people just throw on when they're focusing on other stuff. I think that the showrunners are 100% aware of this, which is why they end up reuploading the same episodes and compilations over and over again.
Edit: I don't know why showrunners is highlighted and links to Wikipedia, UA-cam does that automatically.
Why is "showrunners" shown as a link that auto searches the word on mobile, is this some new mad feature they've introduced
@@EmperorDankI noticed that random words have auto search link embedded in them on mobile for almost a month now and I hate it
@@tiraXpyrrha And it's so jank too. If you opened the reply section of a comment that has the hyperlink, it will automatically disappear for ALL links on the whole comment sections. UA-cam be adding the most random update, I'll tell you.
In Drew Gooden's video "Everybody wants to waste your time," he brings up worrying reports that some producers have accepted the "background noise" status of shows, and have straight-up told writers to make sure that a show can be put on in the background and still be understandable (i.e. make characters repeat the same info over and over so the audience can still catch it)
@@tiraXpyrrha What a strange addition
I feel like the show should add the Culinary Gangster as an antagonist who can show up whenever there isn’t enough going on in an episode. He already has the name and look of a villain, and he has a motivation to hate Gordon since Gordon ruined his job. Whenever an episode doesn’t have any real need for changes, the Gangster could show up as a foil to Gordon, convince the restaurant to make bad renovations and ruin the menu, and then Gordon has to save the day.
i agree with this
just like real reality tv!
Why does this sound like an anime?! 😂
That might work, but it'll be heavily dependent on whether The Culinary Gangster has some free time available if he lands his job auditioning to be a Batman villain.
What if instead of bad decisions, he has a contrasting viewpoint of making the restaurant cut every possible corner in name of profit? Frozen food, storebought ingredients, reheating stuff from last week, turning entire thing into a ghost kitchen... Instead of making it a good restaurant, make it profitable by any means necessary.
Honestly I wish Gordon hard focused on that show he did on Disney+. I forget exactly what it's called, but the concept is that he's going around the world to learn not only how certain meals are made in a more survivalist setting.
Edit: Gordon Ramsey Uncharted. I love that show because Gordon looks genuinely happy to be learning new techniques in cooking
The name is Gordon Ramsay Uncharted
@@spydrwolfGordon Ramsay as Nathan Drake is a bold choice.
That sounds actually interesting.
@@shytendeakatamanoir9740better than Tom Holland
@creed8712 Tom was Great as that version of Drake and I'll die on that hill. In the last 3rd when he actually puts on the iconic gear, I really felt it.
He did great with what he was given.
This is the best No Nostalgia Critic November present ever.
No nutting, have to grow a mustache, AND can't watch nostalgia critic? This is bullshit
This will keep us fed for the whole month
?
Er?
LOVE this comment. 🗣️Lol so school sucks, grow a damn pair of balls 🗣️
Fun fact: one of the new season restaurants was recorded pre Covid, we could tell because we lived near it and it closed over Covid
You mean over the government forcing restaurants to close and ruining a lot of peoples' lives
Two things:
1. Daniel Saffron wasn't the one running that crypto scheme, it was his brother, who wasn't on the show and as far as I know not involved in Burger Kitchen at all.
2. I think the most damning thing about the Kitchen Nightmares reboot is that the UA-cam channel doesn't feature any new clips at all. Considering they've been keeping the brand afloat by recycling the same 10-15 year old clips, you'd think they'd jump at the chance to throw some new clips in there to shake it up, but apparently not.
the youtube channel only recycles like the same 25% of highly rated episodes too. There seems like a large majority of episodes that are never featured on there (there are some real shit eps)
But was it Daniel or David that ran the BDSM clubs??? I GOTTA KNOW!!!
The reboot is on a different production company, that's why they aren't posting it on KN channel. Classic case of tv bureaucracy.
daniel goes by DogecoinGrogu
@@no-man_baugh David, not the Daniel we see in the episode.
Judging by her social media, Tess got away from that abusive weirdo.
Thank GOD for that
Good for her! I hope she is doing much better now.
i almost felt sick watching that stuff going on🤢🤢, good for her
Oh good! She and Fernadez from the last episode were the only people I cared about this season
thank god, that episode and how it tried to paint a narrative of them “reconciling” truly sickened me.
A consistent issue I've always had with Kitchen Nightmares, even the original run, is its tendency to make "saving the family/marriage" a central plank of certain episodes even when it revolves around "saving" a blatantly toxic relationship. I wish the show was more willing to just say "you know what, sometimes the answer is to trim the fat" instead of playing into the idea that saving the marriage is the most important thing in the world.
I also wish there hadn't been episodes that platformed open gaslighting and emotional abuse while acting like the victim was wholly in the wrong, but that's a separate issue.
The show just have the people who the run restaurants act like what they are it's no fault's he even calls out when people go to far.
The UK series had an episode with a family restaurant where the husband was an absolute garbage human being toward his wife and daughter
One comment went, "people would kill for what this man is taking for granted"
Wait, which episode is that??
@malenaisme The drive-thru Italian place, I forget the name. The scapegoat was undeniably a fuckup but the show just straight-up platformed the owner and her daughter emotionally abusing him for the whole episode.
There was an interview with Gordan Ramsey on his break from Kitchen Nightmares awhile ago, and in it he noted that in some cases the food was a legitimate health hazards that did impact his health between the quality and the stress of the show. Its probably also toned back a bit to make it physically and mentally easier on him.
"There is not much to say about Hotel Hell."
"Hotel Hell is the same as Kitchen Nightmares but in a hotel."
Gordon shows his bare ass to the camera a lot in Hotel Hell whereas he does not in Kitchen Nightmares. I think that's distinct enough.
Damn, well if I wanted to watch a British ass laid bare, I'd just watch the Piers Morgan show.
I was absolutely FLABBERGASTED when I first saw that on Hotel Hell.
a mosaic… of zzsemen
maybe the new season of kitchen nightmares would be good if there was more bare gordon ass
A big part of Hotel Hell was honestly Gordon Ramsay pandering to his fan base of thirsty middle-aged moms, IMHO.
I think one of the reasons this show might not work anymore is because the restaurant industry in the US has changed so dramatically post-COVID. No restaurant with the kind of issues from previous seasons would rarely even exist today. The vast majority of struggling restaurants are actually run very well. EDIT brought up at 8:20
I'm also at least 70% sure that the US show was made during the Recession, which would explain a lot of the failing status of the restaurants well after them being fixed.
Gordon's talked about having a new baby on the new season of Hells kitchen and how much it kills him to be away so he probably wanted to stay close to home for the new season of nightmares
Kitchen Nightmares (UK) was actually a pretty good show, Kitchen Nightmares (US) was a version of the UK show with all of its moments cranked to 11 with more focus on showmanship than actually helping restaurants, the new season of Kitchen Nightmares is the Tv equivalent of Flanderization, there is almost none of the DNA of the original UK show in it and is entirely TV slop
the comeback was a show made in an era after one of the biggest financial and economic disasters in not just US history but in the world, and while watching it the only thing i see are families and restaurants with the business equivalent of survivors guilt hanging on by a thread after barely surviving the pandemic getting the final nail in the coffin that is being featured on KN. it's not funny like the original US run was, its just kinda sad
100% this. I loved the UK version so much. Gordon actually cared about helping those people succeed. You could hear it in his voice, the stories he told, how he invested in them. The US version perverted that into Reality TV, and was so much the lesser for it. I can't tell how much of that is TV, and how much of it is just how much more colossally famous Ramsey is now than he was 20 years ago, but I haven't been able to stomach him much in anything since...
The biggest example that proves how different they are is that in the UK version, Gordon was served raw/undercooked oysters. He ate one, then went outside and threw up. When he came back inside he went to the people who gave him the oysters and calmly explained how dangerous that was. No insulting, no arguments, just "It's important to make sure your seafood is cooked properly, or you could kill someone"
@@carmencrincoliMy engagement with Gordon Ramsey stopped after watching Kitchen Nightmares UK (which I've gone back to several times) very early into watching US, simply because I didn't find US all that engaging. It feels so weird to me that he's got a reputation as this angry yelly food man - I get that it's the character he's playing in all his shows now, it's his brand, but in my head when I picture Gordon I picture the way he was portrayed in the UK show, where, sure, he could get quite heated, but he didn't raise his voice too often and he was portrayed as legitimately really wanting to help out and be a positive influence in these people's lives (and to a smaller extent his recent TikToks where he just seems really pleased at well-cooked beef wellingtons). It's like if Mr Rogers wasn't all that famous for Mr Rogers Neighbourhood, but went on to have an influential career as a comedy car reviewer a la Jeremy Clarkson, but I only thought of Neihbourhood.
Yes, exactly this. The UK shows had heart, he was a stern but fair guy who seemed to actually give a damn. The small crew helped foster a real sense of intimacy in the episodes and, possibly most importantly, he failed sometimes. He wasn’t always the big damn hero.
Christ I can't think of a more generic comment than the obligatory "did you know the UK version was better and I am smarter for knowing that"
If you go back and look at Season 1, it was all restaurants in NY/NJ, and CA. They clearly picked places near where Gordon's other business ventures existed so they could easily schedule his time. They only started branching out after it was clearly a success and wanted to expand the format. It feels like Season 8 was the same idea..."let's do it locally on the cheap and see if it floats."
The fact that you highlighted Burger Kitchen made this a masterpiece. I was always kinda sad that Amy’s Baking Company got all the focus while that drama factory got laid by the wayside.
The Burger Kitchen one is almost hard to watch, for real. That kid is so brow-beaten and the dad is just... so much, it gives me a tension headache.
@@SongbirdAlom yeah, i think part of what makes amy's so fun to watch (and rewatch) is how batshit off the walls the owners are. trying to watch burger kitchen just makes me sad
There's some great non-Amy episodes! My favourite is Lela's (S1E8), featuring Buzzard - the guy who steals constantly. I think about that man once a week
My favorite is Mills Street Bistro
@@salty_oven2152 Wasn’t that the one Jon Bois wrote about?
I love how you talked about the difficulty of making a comeback, the changes in the world and self over the passage of time, and then admitted to not remembering your own analysis - an earlier discussion that makes this current discussion a kind of comeback of its own. Accidental self-referential humor!
i used to work at a restaurant owned by the former owners of the zekes episode that appears as b roll throughout the vid. they learned nothing after their first place closed and got way worse to staff. no one that worked there ever got breaks and the owners pocketed almost all the tip money.
I always thought Gordon didn't go hard enough on that couple. That episode frustrates me a lot, but I really adore the staff on it. I can't imagine wasting such a talented group
The real elephant in the room is that Ramsay's old now. US Kitchen Nightmares premiered when Ramsay was 41. He turned 58 five days ago. And the man built his brand off of this high intensity, high energy, tempers flaring presentation style that worked great when he was in his mid-40s, but now he's almost 60 and that's not really something you can keep up into old age, diet and exercise or no.
The decision to stick to NY-NJ may have been as simple as not wanting to go through the stress of traveling cross country every other week for a few months.
Compare S1 US Hell's Kitchen (Ramsay at 38) to current season Hell's Kitchen (Ramsay at 57). Then compare it to Boiling Point (Ramsay at 32). There's a clear trend line here. And it's not just changing audience expectations or fear of social media outrage.
Finally, this stuff takes a toll on one's health. I forget the exact figure but he had something like 10 stomach ulcers through the original run of US Kitchen Nightmares. Stress and food poisoning and constant travel and the very need to keep up his own presentation persona makes for a terrible combination in regards to physical well being. It's maybe not shocking he's slowing down and wanting to eat at places who's food won't run the risk of killing you or who's owners aren't connected to organized crime.
It does make for poorer entertainment, but that is the devil's bargain. Ramsay built his persona off of the attention he received from Boiling Point - off of the very real stressors one faces when running a high profile restaurant. The fact that he's managed to convert that into everything he has now is nothing but a blessing. But nobody can - or should - be expected to keep that up forever.
Just finished that grilled cheese bonus video on Nebula now and genuinely really good in it's own right. Really sums up the duality of cooking videos in general and why I appreciate channels that focus on building kitchen confidence over being super show-off-y.
An almost year long absence only to return with a video on Gordon Ramsey. I cannot be more hyped.
something about the phrase "fish and chip restaurant" just rolls off my brains like water off a duck's back. Gordon, its a "fish and chip shop." you know this.
I had the same reaction, my brain viscerally shunned it 😅
I feel like I had the ideal experience with Kitchen Nightmares (2023): had no idea it was coming out and got to watch new Kitchen Nightmares episodes. And then I just re-watched all of Kitchen Nightmares.
Something you didn't mention I feel plays a big part in the crushing of the narrative is that the new episodes are HALF as long as the originals.
I always love the idea of a guy in a disguise with a full camera crew around them with large mic, not to mention they're probably having showrunners and security come and scope the place out beforehand
If I wasn't uniquely incapable of being a patron of a restaurant, I'd love to be the false flag here.
@phineas81707 you've intrigued me, internet stranger. what is it about you that makes you incapable of being a restaurant patron?
@@icymoons Limited diet *and* I start choking easily.
I'm working on the latter, but it's not been easy.
They usually lie about what they’re doing with the cameras and stuff. “We’re getting set up ahead of the shoot date” “Gordon will arrive tomorrow” “we’re filming what a day’s service looks like without Gordon being present” “it’s B roll”
@@sideways5153 execpt that didn't happen as much during the Ellicott City episode in Howard County, where I live in Maryland. We all knew Ramsey was coming to save the town after 2 floods wrecked our beloved city once Calvin Ball drop the news.
NO. NO. NO. EMILY NO. ID FORGOTTEN ABOUT HIS GRILLED CHEESE. ID WIPED IT FROM MY BRAIN. HOW DARE YOU DO THIS TO ME. NOOOOOO
If you look at the IMDB basically the entire crew is new for this season. New producers and new editors means the creative team that puts those stories together has basically no continuity. Arguably those are the roles that make reality tv. Only Gordon really remains. It's like making a grilled cheese in a new kitchen, with new ingredients, but the same kind of cheese and expecting it to taste the same.
I hate to break this to you but the only ingredients you need for grilled cheese is cheese so your analogy doesn't really work
@@ennayanne There are different types of bread, cooking methods, did you use butter or not, what type of butter?
@@ennayannehomie there are more cheeses besides American cheese
@@ennayanne this is the most american comment i could think of
"Cheese is cheese" lmao
@@turkiedurkie4895 American cheese isn't cheese
Lady Emily's Cowriter's high school theatre director 🤝 Kitchen Nightmares
Strangely obsessed with golf cart
LORE
That was Sarah Z's HS theatre director, not Emily's
@@freakfoxvevo7915 Fixed!
I really love the original UK Kitchen Nightmares. There's no design crew working behind the scenes, no formula, all the drama feels genuine; it's just Ramsay analyzing the restaurant's troubles, and looking into what they can do within their means to turn things around.
Kitchen Nightmares is my favorite shonen series
Not enough evil bread people.
Idk, there's enough swearing for it to be a Seinen
True to form, Ramsay Boruto'ed his own magnum opus
I'm 3 minutes into your vid but i can pose my immediate problem with this new season i noticed when i started watching it: the filming. They're using a very shallow depth of field lens aperture to give it a cinematic look. That does not at all jive with the style of filming we're used to with all the old episodes. I hate the look, and even funnier, it causes them to lose or miss focus on subjects.
Also the early to mid 2000's and 2010's are nostalgic at this point
Here from Nebula to say awesome vid, absolutely worth the wait! Honored to have sat in for some of the Kitchen Nightmares viewings. Even though this new season is exceptionally trash, watching along with pals who have media literacy, can see through the reality TV illusion, and who find it interesting enough to search up the restaurants and personnel afterward makes the spectacle 100x better 💜
💙💙💙 love you Ellie, hanging out and dunking on this stuff is always a blast
let's have a media literacy circle jerk 🥵
I love how in a sea of manufactured, timely videos designed solely to feed UA-cam's algorithm, Emily makes videos about whatever she feels like at the moment. It's so simple, but it feels like a lost art form at this point. This one was a real treat, Emily. Hell, I didn't even know Kitchen Nightmares initially ended ten years ago (!) until I saw this.
I understand what you mean but there's a million UA-camrs out here still making whatever they want that's not just what the algorithm wants u just gotta search for them
It's kinda poetic, really: A channel that waves the flag of genuineness high and proud on a platform that went from being THE way to document reality to being the biggest free scripted programming streaming platform making a video about a show that used to encapsulate the beauty of reality TV but has now fallen victim to the genre's fakeness.
(I'm sorry, that was the longest sentence in existence, but I couldn't say it any other way)
No love for the original UK version of Kitchen Nightmares? No yelling, no "shut it down," no renovations. Where he'd identify real, actual issues with the restaurants and then spend time addressing them, sometimes over several days. You'd watch and feel like you were getting some sense of the realities of running a restaurant. It clearly took time to film so i understand why they'd pivot to something cheap and fast, but it seems like the original incarnation has been memory hole'd
I loved it. Watched it before the US version, so I suffered quite the whiplash when I tuned in for the American production. Never went back for seconds (episodes)
That’s so booooring. Where are the snake hissing sounds edited in post? Where’s the exact same violin sting they use multiple times, every episode, every season, for 8 seasons? Where’s the meme editing?
To be serious, I do understand the UK show having a cult following but Kitchen Nightmares is most successful as a circus sideshow, not a job shadow as Gordon does real consultant work. The format of the show is literally finding the most dysfunctional restaurants possible and then seeing them struggle to align with reality. The narratives about “saving” the restaurant are as meaningful as the narratives in My 600 Pound Life about improving the health of the subjects.
The show just works better as mindless, cruel slop rather than niche industry behind the scenes stuff
The Momma Cherri's episode is so endearing!
7:05 i know you're making a joke, but this genuinely unironically looks exactly like the stairway down to the basement kitchen in Resident Evil 1
I come to Lady Emily videos for the thoughtful, educated media analysis. I stay for her indignity at Gordon Ramsay butchering Cajun cuisine and shouting out specific Louisiana tourist trap restaurants as being better.
I did enjoy this season specifically because Gordon felt softer, if that makes sense. Like his age is tempering his, well, temper, and I appreciated that. I agree with your critique even if I still like the season, you raised good points. I do have a bone to pick with all chef's though that you touched on briefly: If you put *anything* on a grilled cheese sandwich that isn't cheese, it stops being a grilled cheese sandwich and becomes a melt. Grilled cheese literally has two ingredients: Bread and cheese (and whatever you decide to cook it in depending on method). Anything else and it's a melt. This is a hill I will die on.
Obvious exception: Butter or mayonnaise (I personally use butter, and then cook it in olive oil)
It's not age that makes Gordon "softer". If you watch the original UK Nightmares (which are far superior to the US version) you can see that Gordon originally wasn't this always angry, screaming and insulting man which is now his persona
Would you call a grilled cheese with tomato a tomato melt though?
@@moritz7521He kinda was the same way though it is more popular in the U.S
I mean “grilled ham and cheese” is literally the name; never have I heard it been called a ham melt like tuna or patty melts
The passion here is so incredible. The research makes me smile. Every part about this is a delight. Thank you queen
For what it's worth, this series was only rebooted because the writer's strike had just started and Fox needed new factual content to fill the gap that it was going to present in the schedule. Nobody's heart was in this.
0:26 oh this intro is a bit, this is a bit about Emily herself being gone. Ohhhh! Okay.
I love how the video immediately goes into an existential nightmare about being a public figure
This is the content I am subscribed for!!
Gordon Ramsey did an episode for a restaurant in my hometown once, and he insulted one of my classmates. idk many details bc i never went to this restaurant except like a few months before they filmed the episode and didn't really talk to this classmate, but i wouldn't wanna be too willing with info that can link back to me anyways. anyway, i do know that ramsay just kinda yelled at them for like a week and then the place went right back to business as usual. Idk if any of the drama on the show was real or not, or if the insults made it onto TV. They sold the place some time back.
That said, I watched part of the episode and it showed how weird reality tv is. He's teleporting around different corners of the town while having a continuous conversation, sometimes revisiting the same places in the same convo, and i just couldn't trust TV's Gordon Ramsay to be honest with me after that.
If the conversations aren't real, how can i trust the food to be?
What drives me crazy about the golf cart thing is that right after the owner explains to Gordon that there's typically little interest in food, a golfer "randomly" asks if they sell salad.
I can understand a burrito or wrap or something, but salad, really? Gonna tuck into a nice spring mix in the middle of your round? Gonna set up a little picnic on the fairway?
Funny that this is one thing that the Polish version, Kitchen Revolutions with Magda Gessler has it beat, since there was no significant decrease in quality over 29 seasons constantly produced since 2010.
Is she still throwing plates at people, I haven't watched an episode in like 7 years
Damn, 29 seasons? Impressive, wish I knew polish
@@pokemonprimed Yep! They didn't even stop for Covid, they just run one shorter season instead of 2 that year. They should honestly subtitle it, Gessler has about as good of a personality as Ramsay.
😮 i might check it. It sounds super fun !!
How does one forget an entire video they made
The Saints Row video games match that analogy you made perfectly 😭
OG uk version is the one i miss most
So much less mean spirited and dramatic, for the better imo
@@AlexKavanagh-hj5vuIf there's bad food people to know.
Kitchen Nightmares UK >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Kitch Night US
The uk version was at times very heartwarming. It was less emotionally forced. It was also infinitely more educational. The show shouldn’t just be “entertaining”…
All of them are watchable and teaches one how not to run anything.
Watching the new one makes you realize how much of the charm of the original was that it was from the late 2000s/early 2010s. Like reality shows in the modern day just aren't edited and presented that way anymore and that alone makes the new one feel wrong.
There are 10s of thousands of resturants that need help. But now that the formula of Kitchen Nightmares is baked into our psyche, it'd really take a ballsy owner to ask Gotdon to help.
I never knew how badly I needed a Lady Emily video on a shared hyperspecific interest in Kitchen Nightmares as a cultural touchstone worthy of both valid praise and criticism until now
The Return of the Queen
The reality is that the new kitchen nightmare isn’t god awful owners who are incapable of running a restaurant, it’s the companies and investors that bought those restaurants out and turned them into operationally functional but soulless places. That’s a much less palatable story to put on TV, and anyway Gordon himself is one of those investors.
24 hours is also confusing because owners/staff will say "it's been a crazy week" which by definition isn't 24 hours.
"If you'll indulge me," we are 19 minutes into a 30 minute essay on Kitchen Nightmares, people not willing to indulge you have long since been filtered out
So great to get a new video from you! I didn’t know why the new season didn’t feel the same, but you’ve really put your finger on it!
When I heard “he and another guy were charged with” after talking about a reality show contestant who ran a BDSM dungeon, I braced myself for the exact crime you’d usually expect to follow that. Nothing could have prepared me for “yoda is arrested for running a crypto Ponzi scheme.”
Comebacks are hard to do, as she comes back after a year. Iconic
2:26 So Gordon Ramsey is Emily's wife? Just making sure I've got that right.
yeah, there’s a few bonus chapters in the manga about it
i thought that was the green goblin
@@yanet5906 no Emily is the Green Goblins wife, Ramsey is Emily's wife. Hope that clears it up.
@@ash_sundayIt was stated in CFOYW
I'm surprised that they never did that Bar Rescue crossover with John Taffer. Pretty much every video on the BR channel has at least one comment beckoning for it. Seems like easy money.
I don't know, I can't help thinking John and Gordon would spend most of the episode getting on each other's nerves.
@@KMerrowAll the more reason to do it, right? They love the drama for tv
A Lady Emily video on a topic I couldn't agree more with? Today is a good day.
Please watch the Ramsay-produced spinoff "kitchen commando" where a buff ex military chef keeps making the restauranteurs do pushups
I just wanted to say I saw this on Nebula earlier this morning after watching your grilled cheese sandwich!
There’s also the knowledge that Ramsay stopped Kitchen Nightmares the first time in part due to the gastrointestinal issues he suffered from eating so much just plain bad (and badly made) food.
When I heard a new series was announced I did think it would be unlikely to find anywhere as bad as the original KN - USA simply because of this reason.
Also - spot on with 24hrs! I could never get my head around it.
It's strange to think of the reality show brand of Gordon Ramsay being fast-paced when the last time I watched his personal youtube videos about recipes, they're pretty calm.
honestly as someone who also has an ostomy, colon removed and everything, the tess episode was maybe the most viscerally upsetting episode of reality TV I've ever seen. i really hope she's doing better now. i work in a library and absolutely cannot imagine a restaurant career where you're on your feet in a high stress environment all the time with an ostomy. it must be exhausting.
You know? When Kitchen Nightmares first came up here in Spain we got a really dull, soulless narration dub that made the series super uninteresting to watch (It also happened with various other shows such as Top Gear), so later on when I found about the popularity of the show I really didn't understand why people liked it so much. It was only when my english got really good and I decided to rewatch it in the original language that I understood how much charisma Gordon had and how entertaining it was to follow along with his weird personality. The little I saw from the new episodes brings back that dull, boring feeling I had originally watching it all those years back.
it's freaking me out watching this critical analysis of kitchen nightmares. this show got me through 2020, I've never seen people actually talking about it in this way before! Awesome!!!!
If you like the original version of this show, there's a program in the UK called The Hotel Inspector with a similar premise. But, the host is actually a really caring nice person and only gets mad when the Hoteliers deserve it. Might make a nice watch if you're looking for a more relaxing Kitchen Nightmare's-type show. A bunch of full eps are free on UA-cam.
So glad to get another video from you! And a sequel to the one I've often used to get video-essay-skeptics onto your channel!
I'm glad you sound like you're doing much better x
I just tuned in to watch Gordon find the food disgusting, inspect the gross kitchen, and then I switched off.
Wasn’t even aware there was a new season
Gordon making frozen food is still the most absurd thing to me because I remember how often he'd chew people out for serving anything that was flash frozen, but now he's doing it himself because he just had too much brand power I guess.
I can't stand Gordon . I actually hate him. But selling frozen food in a restaurant is different to selling frozen food at a store
I think it's different. I'm OK cooking a frozen pizza at home. If Little Caesars gave me Digiorno's, I'd be annoyed and feel cheated out of my money, and that is considering the bar is on the floor for LC.
Apples to Oranges.
A TV Dinner is exactly what it advertises to be; a stomachable and relatively cheap meal per the convenience of pulling it out of the freezer and into the microwave.
I expect much more from a $20 sit down meal at a restaurant. At that price point, I'm paying for a quality experience and meal. Additionally, for myself and a lot of other paying customers at restaurants, I could just as easily make at home what they're serving at the restaurant. You need to at least meet, ideally exceed what quality people can meet at home for your restaurant to be worth spending money at. Because if not, then I can either get cheaper, more convenient food somewhere else, or make my own quality food for less money than you charge.
there’s a difference between selling frozen tv dinners and selling frozen food to unknowing restaurant customers, but it is a bit ironic still.
@@based-ys9um I’m still surprised ppl can hate ppl they’re never met. Unless it’s a “oh yeah that guy filmed a dead body and posted it to YT” or “they did a dance after being exposed for SA” situation, it always confuses me.
I guess I don’t hate that easily?? Idk.
God dammit... Is the gordon ramsay grilled cheese video gonna be the thing that finally makes me get nebula?
I missed you.
Edit: This came off creepy and parasocial, I’m very sorry. I meant it more so that I like your videos and missed seeing them.
I missed her personally, as my lover and only friend and reason to live
@@BruceRobertson-mn6pg Hey Bruce, you need to find your own parasocial waifu. I already called dibs, mate.
@@dawgwiddaglasses ey woah there
Hell and Back + New Kitchen Nightmares has the same problem that Kitchen Nightmares had by the end. It requires sticking to the formula so hard and making zany TV moments that it shows how disingenuous it all is.
Love Bites really pissed me off, how that girl hasn't divorced that complete piece of shit is an absolute mystery to me. He verbally abuses her in front of BOTH of their moms, the customers AND Ramsey. Can only imagine the way he treats her at home.
After seeing this video I now wanna play the Kitchen Nightmares bingo game as well. Keep up the great content Lady Emily your videos are always worth the wait.
Came here from Nebula to give you some info from a UK perspective. Gordon Ramsay is from Glasgow. We don't have 'grilled cheese', we have 'toasties' of which the simplest is just cheese, but can be cheese & ham, cheese & onion, cheese & haggis ... . He is making UK style 'toasties' and thinking they are equivalent to 'grilled cheese'. Also, in the UK the broiler is called the grill and many people DO use that for making toasties. (Having said all that, he's and insufferable arse and I refuse to watch any of his content or go to any of his restaurants.)
This is a great video! There is another video called The pure ideology of Kitchen Nightmares by user Jack Saint that is another take on this same topic. You both have done a really good job at breaking down the cinematic elements at play which are used to carry the central theme of the show. Namely to enforce the idea of Gordon being the defining morality of everything and also the way the show functions as a semi advertisement of products.
I know in this day and age, that the word “propaganda” is thrown around quite a lot. This show feels quite like it to me.
I think you are overthinking if the show comes off as that to you.
I feel like part of it is just that Gordon Ramsey has been stretched so thin between all his ventures, that pretty much everything has to be ready and planned by the time he shows up a the restaurant.
Towards the end of their careers, Bruce Willis and Steven Seagal apparently got roles where they don't have to do very much (basically walk around and talk). Bruce Willis seemed to have a body-double for a scene where he's just *walking,* and Seagal looks like had to dub over *himself* since his lips don't move right in a scene. Might have heard stories about how Bruce in this one film preferred to have his filming done in like, a *day(?)*
Then the tragic news came out that Willis had a degenerative disease and he was doing as many movies as he could to secure his family before his disabilities took over.
Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares is 1000x times better than Kitchen Nightmares. If you know, you know.
EVERYONE PIPE DOWN!!! LADY EMILY IS SPEAKING!!!!
Perfect way you mirrored you and Ramsey’s return.
Welcome Back ❤
*Iwatodai theme plays*
Glad to see you again!
… but what happened to your shapeshifting wife???
You are back! I'm really curious about this video. I love the UK Kitchen nightmares and it was such a pity they got removed from UA-cam. I had a whole playlist of them and I used them as podcasts to listen to while working. I can only watch/stand some of the episodes of the US version (though I love Hotel Hell).
There's a few different playlists with the UK episodes. I watched a couple of them yesterday
One thing that always perplexed me about Kitchen Nightmares' is that sometimes Gordon Ramsay will just, actively, objectively, unambiguously make a mistake, and the show never actually wants to address it. Like there was this one episode where the head chef is bad at cooking and the sous chef is good at cooking, as determined by like a blind taste test challenge or something, so Ramsay switches them around.
But then when the actual service comes, the sous chef has no idea how to keep the kitchen organized and under control and starts cracking under the pressure of managing the whole thing, until eventually he just gives up and leaves, and the former-head-chef-now-sous-chef-now-head-chef-again has to step up and take over. And they make this whole thing super dramatic like, "oh no all this drama might be costing them their only chance to save the restaurant," and then when the guy steps back in they play it as like this heroic redemption moment and Ramsay does a whole lot of yammering about how the guy "took responsibility" and "showed improvement."
But, like, this whole debacle was objectively Ramsay's fault? He made the unilateral decision to put the sous chef in charge, and they completely gloss over that and never once bring it up again or have anyone point out that ol' Gordy really beefed it this time, and even if they had he would've just started throwing a tantrum and it would've been edited to make it look like he somehow managed to strike everyone dumb and win the argument via shrieking out some unstoppable combo of Reddit-tier focus-tested insults.
(In case it's hard to tell, I kind of hate his whole public image and the level of hero-worship and weird parasociality his fans attach to him)
Ngl really hating someone you don’t know is the exact same level of parasocial as loving someone you don’t know….
You’re kinda like the tails to their heads.
Not that you asked but my advice is just ignore it and move on lol
Your complaint confuses me, you say that the show will never show Gordon to be wrong or make a mistake but then you listed an example of him being wrong/making a mistake that's in the show that they could've easily edited or cut out.
Also the dude he said took responsibility/showed improvement was the dude that was originally the head chef that was ass at his job and kept making mistakes beforehand, so he did take responsibility and show improvement regardless.
Idk this is kind of a weird comment and like gary said, this just feels like the opposite of the loving someone parasocially, this just seems like hating someone parasocially.
Also for context the reason he chose the sous chef, which you seem to leave out for some reason, is because the head chef was doing an awful job prior and didn't have a palette so he tried with the sous chef since the dude at first looked like he was willing to take charge and then he flopped. There's no real reason to outright say "Gordon beefed it" cause it shows on the TV, it was an honest mistake, move on from it was the mentality used there.
Trust me, there are stuff you can call Gordon out on since the guy is by no means perfect, but THIS is a very weird and odd example to use.
@@garymcjerry Oh, sure, I don't hate Gordon Ramsay the *person*. He's just some guy-I don't know what's going on inside his head, what he's "really" like off-screen, etc... People constantly say, "oh, he's actually really nice in real life" or whatever, and they might be right. I don't really care.
I hate Gordon Ramsay the *character*-Ramsay the character is verbally abusive, frequently careless, hypocritical, arrogant, and sanctimonious. I further don't like that the this character is presented, both in his shows and in the general publicity around him, as being righteous, "tough but fair," secretly deeply caring, only abusive when that abuse is necessary, completely justified in his arrogance, etc., and how the narrative is always woven such that all challengers to his behavior are entitled, wimpy, lazy, etc., as if there's no possible reason why somebody might object to a grown man screaming in their face besides lack of moral fortitude. And it really bothers me how this portrayal is largely consumed uncritically, such that most of his fans seem to genuinely believe that the Ramsay shown in the show is a positive figure, despite all of the very clearly displayed negative traits.
If there's any major complaint I have against Gordon Ramsay, the person, it's that he's willing to play Gordon Ramsay, the character.
@@DackAttack The thing is that US Kitchen Nightmares (and all other television properties utilizing the Ramsay character) are all edited extremely unsubtly-it really does not want you to need to exercise any interpretation to figure out what's going on. Like, you'll have a candid shot of a guy going "I'm just... so sad..." and then the sad piano music will kick in and it'll cut to a confessional of the guy going "I have to admit, in that moment, I was just really, really sad," and then it'll cut to the narrator going "with Owner Bobathan down in the dumps, will this restaurant be able to bounce back from its owner's sadness? Find out after the break, on Kitchen Nightmares!" and then after the break they'll show all the same footage again just to make sure everyone is 100% on the same page that this guy is sad.
So that's why, in that particular episode, it stuck out to me that at no point was there any mention at all of the idea that Ramsay might've actually made a mistake. You'd think if the show was intending for you to understand this as an error he had made, they would've had him go "I'm sorry, guys, this was your big night and I really should've put the sous chef through the wringer more, made sure he had the management skills to go along with the cooking skills. This one's my bad, but I'm glad the head chef guy stepped up," or whatever. But instead it's just completely glossed over. My suspicion is that completely editing out the sous chef leaving just to preserve Ramsay's image would be a really dumb idea, since it's dramatic and reality shows live and die on drama, so instead it was just edited in such a way that the fact that it was Ramsay's decision (within the show's narrative, at least) to put the guy in charge is never mentioned again in hopes that everyone would just move past that and focus on the heartwarming redemption story or whatever (never mind that the problem with the ex-head-chef was supposedly that he sucked at cooking and had a bad palate, which I guess was miraculously fixed in two days).
I said this to the other commenter just now-I don't really care about Gordan Ramsay the person, I hate Gordon Ramsay the character, who is played on television by Gordon Ramsay the person. I also didn't leave out context, see: "there was this one episode where the head chef is bad at cooking and the sous chef is good at cooking, as determined by like a blind taste test challenge or something."
The show is not about helping people, it’s about publicising Gordon Ramsay.
so what you are saying is; the new Kitchen Nightmares walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, but doesn't quite taste like a duck 😆
Love Bites gets my vote for the worst episode ever because it's showing us actual verbal abuse and no one's doing anything about it.
It just feels so gross to watch. Her mother and his mother keep babying him the whole time, and you just feel terrible for her the whole time.
In terms of the main issues with 24 Hours to Hell and Back and this latest season of Kitchen Nightmares, it's possibly a producer issue. I'm not sure who his old producer was, but perhaps they are no longer working on the show so it doesn't have the same "narrative" cohesion and tighter feel.
Oh boy! A thirty minute video about a show I've never watched! Does anyone need any Kernel Season's for their popcorn? I have plenty of white cheddar
If I knew this was a Lady Emily video I wouldve clicked on it sooner
I am SO GLAD I stayed through the Patreon outro. That burger twist holy shit
One could say there were too many cooks.
Too many.
Well, some people could say it would spoil the broth.
The German version of Kitchen Nightmares also got a new season last year after six years. They got a new TV famous chef in the Gordon Ramsey role and somehow found interesting restaurants to "save".
Grape torcher