S03.E01: Angler's Lodge

[OnceSane]

In the Season 3 premiere, Gordon Ramsay visits Island Park, Idaho to rescue Angler's Lodge, which fell into disrepair after the owner suffered a family tragedy and lost his passion for the business.

[mlp]

Well, that was.........boring.   And totally predictable.  Too many things were hard to believe.  Gordon supposedly visited half the town in one morning?  And somehow came up with family pictures without the family knowing it?  His team renovated rooms in one night and also taught the small kitchen staff a whole new menu that they were executing perfectly the next night except during the footage with the female "chef" who should have been booted first thing?  Bah.

[ZoloftBlob]

I'm so terribly nosy - do we know what the terrible tragedy was?

[ZoloftBlob]

Ah, the pass out game - what a shame.

I also sort of love that Gordan took it upon himself to fire the chef.

And it was nice to see a hotel that wasn't an utter dump and that had a successful concept to begin with. Hopefully these people really just needed a lil tough love

[LittleIggy]

The location was stunning, and it was impressive that the owner built the place himself. I didn't like the taxidermy decorations though. According to TripAdviser, the lodge has only 15 guest rooms.

[spiderpig]

While I would have preferred less family therapy, Gordon is nowhere as irritating as Irvine.  Besides, my attention was constantly diverted to the furry dead legs hanging on the wall behind Gordon's right shoulder,

I hope this place makes it.

[BusyOctober]

I've never understood the actual room make-over aspect of this show...does the production team re-do ALL the rooms in these heaps or only a couple to show off at the end?  It would be very expensive to get all the rooms re-painted, re-carpeted, re-furnished, but if they only do one or two rooms in a 10-20 room place, it really won't make a difference to the owners or future guests.  And please God tell me when they re-do whatever number of rooms that thy replace the mattresses & pillows along with the duvets!  So skeevy to see stains in the room I'm staying in.  I always bring a sheet from home and my own pillow when I travel.

Another thing I don't get on any of these "rescue" shows...when the owners say they've lost their passion, or don't want to work so hard any more, or their kids don't want to take over...why don't they just SELL the business?  I guess in some markets it may be tough, but that place in Idaho is in the middle of fly fishing paradise! Looks like it could be sold in a heartbeat.  If I've been struggling and my relationships have been suffering for years because my former passion has become a soul-sucking, wallet draining albatross, I don't think 3-5 days filming my depression and failure with occasional pep talks from Gordon Ramsey would be enough to turn that ship of the damned around.

[spiderpig]

They don't keep hammering home a dollar/time limit on Gordon's show as they do on RI.  Hotel Impossible doesn't either, but the past few episodes have involved such disgusting fleabag joints and horrible owners that you found yourself rooting for foreclosure.

The Idaho property could be lovely if properly managed.

[Julia]

That scene with the son was bizarre. If somehow he managed to get through this much of his life without ever hearing of Gordon Ramsay, if you're trapped in your parents' money pit of a dream and you can't leave until its fixed wouldn't you look him up? The english gentleman he expected. Really?

[CoyoteBlue]

10 hours ago, whimsey98 said:

Their ten-year-old son died: http://2paragraphs.com/2016/05/hotel-hell-anglers-lodge-rescued-after-10-year-old-sons-death/

Dang, kids are doing auto-erotic asphyxiation before they're old enough to masturbate? Kids these days....

Edited May 25, 2016 by CoyoteBlue

[Uncle Benzene]

This show is supposed to be cringe-inducing in a funny way. This show is supposed to be about Gordon Ramsay being a dick to jerks and crazies. Very Special Episodes are supposed to be about Ramsay being an extra special kind of dick to an extra special group of jerks and crazies, a la Amy's Baking Company over on Kitchen Nightmares. I don't need or want to see Ramsay trying to "fix" people who are obviously broken as a result of a very real family tragedy. I understand why Ramsay (and production) want to do it, but they shouldn't have, and in retrospect, I certainly could have done without witnessing it. Hell, I can understand why the owners would want to do it (or at least feel like it's a last-ditch effort to save their business, as I'm sure most of the owners on HH and KN do.) But in this case, both parties should have declined. The whole thing was unbearably uncomfortable to watch. These people weren't clueless arrogant idiots, they were beaten and broken, and it was just sad. I sure hope this one was just an ill-advised one-off, rather than an indication of some kind of retooling that's intended to be long term. Bring back the hilarious opening theme song and bring back the yuks for crying out loud!

[Surrealist]

Am I the only person who was expecting Gordon to be completely naked when pulling up the lodge?

[spiderpig]

33 minutes ago, Surrealist said:

Am I the only person who was expecting Gordon to be completely naked when pulling up the lodge?

At least he could have taken his shirt off.

I think GR is cute. (hides)

[OnceSane]

1 hour ago, Surrealist said:

Am I the only person who was expecting Gordon to be completely naked when pulling up the lodge?

Was he naked at all this episode? If so, I missed it.  And I need to rewatch.

[Julia]

4 minutes ago, JennyMominFL said:

Here is a heartbreaking account of what happened to the son, written by his brother

http://dalton-eby.memory-of.com/legacy.aspx

I truly, truly am trying not to judge, because this would be an inexcusable place for a parent driveby, but I find this young man describing the 'game' that killed his little brother as "Just do anything that cuts off your air-supply. Youth do it by hanging themselves, sitting in chairs that are positioned in such a way that allows air supply cut off-other youth can literally choke you until you pass out" and calling it "harmless" incredibly disturbing.

[spiderpig]

I'd never heard of the passout game in children. It was always in an autoerotic connotation in adults.

No wonder this family was/is traumatized.

[Madding crowd]

I thought this was an odd episode for a premiere too. I thought this was cancelled so I was surprised to see it show up on my DVR. The lodge looked beautiful, but when a family experiences a tragedy, it almost seems better to move on to another location. I have never heard of a child that young playing The Choking Game, but the world is getting more dangerous with the ability for any child to see things on the internet.

I think they remodel only a room or two to get the idea out of what can be done, but how hard is to know than linens must be cleaned and filters dusted? If the family doesn't know that my now, they are not going to succeed. My husband fell asleep before the end and asked me if Gordon appeared nude at all during the episode. I said, no, this is really a weird episode. No nudity at all. 

[placate]

5 hours ago, spiderpig said:

I think GR is cute. (hides)

He looks decent when he doesn't have the stylists from Masterchef giving him Bieber hair.

[Drogo]

^^  Is this what the son was expecting? ^^

[Julia]

Only maybe with a touch more donkey bollocks.

[Pepper the Cat]

Yawn.

an incredibly boring episode.

[Surrealist]

On 5/25/2016 at 10:28 PM, Madding crowd said:

I thought this was an odd episode for a premiere too. I thought this was cancelled so I was surprised to see it show up on my DVR. The lodge looked beautiful, but when a family experiences a tragedy, it almost seems better to move on to another location. I have never heard of a child that young playing The Choking Game, but the world is getting more dangerous with the ability for any child to see things on the internet.

I think they remodel only a room or two to get the idea out of what can be done, but how hard is to know than linens must be cleaned and filters dusted? If the family doesn't know that my now, they are not going to succeed. My husband fell asleep before the end and asked me if Gordon appeared nude at all during the episode. I said, no, this is really a weird episode. No nudity at all. 

Hahahahahahaha. It's great to know I wasn't alone in the episode. Also, I think it's hilarious your husband notices that Gordon's always nude in each episode. I wonder why Gordon hasn't gone there.

Then again, we're only into the first episode.

Edited May 27, 2016 by Surrealist

[CJBinATX]

They definitely seem to be taking a different tone this season. They even ditched the 80s-rock theme song. 

[BogoGog24]

Yeah I was disappointed they ditched the opening theme. 

We didn't see Gordo nekkid because he never tried out the shower. 

Does anyone else find that tiny silver suitcase amusing? I just find it funny because he literally uses the same one everywhere he goes. And it's so small. 

I almost wondered if that fight between the son and Ramsay was scripted. Has he seriously never watched Gordon on TV before? Or did any research on the guy before he came? Bullshit. 

[Surrealist]

46 minutes ago, BogoGog24 said:

We didn't see Gordo nekkid because he never tried out the shower.

That's no excuse. He could have skinny dipped in the lake.

Edited May 27, 2016 by Surrealist

[Julia]

Hey, maybe that's why touchy son didn't get the english gentleman he expected. He's seen the BBC Pride and Prejudice and he knows toffs randomly take off their shirts and jump in the nearest body of water.

[dstranger99]

On ‎5‎/‎24‎/‎2016 at 10:53 PM, whimsey98 said:

Their ten-year-old son died: http://2paragraphs.com/2016/05/hotel-hell-anglers-lodge-rescued-after-10-year-old-sons-death/

For some reason I thought this show had not been renewed....maybe that was the restaurant makeover show I was thinking of.  This never seen like a promising premise to me, but I've been wrong before.

Kids still play the passing out game? F*cking morons.....

[Sir RaiderDuck OMS]

I thought it was hilarious how the son chewed out Gordon for swearing in front of his parents, then drops an s-bomb the very next sentence.

That head chef was a clueless idiot. Gordon was right to chase her out of the kitchen.

FYI to people who thought the show had been cancelled: Hotel Hell only airs every other season. I assume it's because Gordon probably schedules each taping when he has a week off here and there. Between his three or four other shows currently airing plus overseeing his restaurants and whatnot, it probably takes two years to get the logistics right for the eight episodes per season.

Edited May 28, 2016 by Sir RaiderDuck OMS

[BogoGog24]

Oh god that chef was a nightmare. Like a deer in headlights. Why was she trying to do everything herself when there are 2 other sous chefs/cooks/whatever right there?

[ZoloftBlob]

So I will throw her a bone - the chef - and say this.

No matter how shitty I am at my job - I expect my employers to find a way to fire me *themselves* rather than send in Gordon Ramsey to fucking kick me to the curb on national tv over not meeting *his* - and not my *employers* standards.

I'm not defending her as a chef, I am no expert but she seemed pretty piss poor, but no one deserves this level of public humiliation when they didn't ask for it. It was the owners of the hotel to asked Gordon to come NOT their staff and I am genuinely a bit sad for this woman who as near as I can tell never heard a word from her boss before she was fired on national tv as a shitty cook by Gordan Ramsey. It's apparently a not so large town, where is she supposed to go, what about her possible not dead by auto erotic asphyxiation kids?