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Clarkson's Farm (2021)
A bit contrived and played for laughs
There are some genuinely funny moments, and characters. And some insights into the bureaucracy and red tape that farmers face. But this is stupid-idea-driven-to-its-conclusion TV, like the car journeys in Top Gear, or Grand Tour, but without the mateish banter. The formula of faux naive Clarkson deliberately jumping into tasks feet first without doing any research and then the filming of the ensuing chaos, and "hilarity" a bit contrived and it wears a bit thin after the first couple of outings. Clarkson is not a stupid man. Stop acting the eejit. But perhaps I'm not the target audience.
Hell's Kitchen (2005)
Ritual humiliation in a rut
There is a formula for this show.
Pick a group of delusional people who believe they are great chefs, yet lack basic knowledge, such as being able to cook a steak.
The greater the levels of hubris and arrogance the better. Because we are in the business of crushing dreams. The further they have to fall the better, our wax winged Icaruses.
Add a volatile perfectionist with anger issues.
Set the contestants some cooking task, at which most will not succeed.
Stand back as each failure ignites the blue touchpaper and sends our perfectionist into an incandescent rage.
Admire the Michelin starred fireworks as a tirade of invective humiliates our hapless victim... erm... contestant.
Repeat ad nauseam.
I suppose the appeal of the show is the Schadenfreude one feels at watching someone crash and burn, sometimes quite literally as this is a cooking programme. One can but marvel at the remarkable nominative determinism of that shouty force of nature, Gordon Ramsay, his emphatic verbal aggression, not so far removed from the charge of a testosterone maddened ram in rutting season. While that feeling might be enjoyed as a guilty pleasure, it is not an aspect of my character that I would seek to cultivate.