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S14.E02: Hibachi Heroes

Jaded

By Jaded
in Worst Cooks In America [V]

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Jaded

Jaded

Quote

The recruits enter boot camp and find it has been transformed into everyone's favorite game show, Family Food! The teams go head to head in trivia rounds and culinary tasks testing their knowledge of the kitchen. The recruits watch a Teppanyaki chef perform dazzling tricks over a grill, and then chefs Anne Burrell and Robert Irvine teach them how to make a hibachi-style meal for the main dish challenge. The recruits who light up the kitchen will continue on, but those who stumble will go home in a blaze.

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LexieLily

LexieLily

I don't know when this show took the turn to become overall mean-spirited but I don't like it. I feel like Anne and Robert spend most of the time laughing at the recruits as opposed to helping them, and that Anne especially going around to her team and telling whoever it was (Linda and Carla?) that she could feel like they were stressing out/spinning out of control was really unhelpful when there were multiple people on both teams starting fires on their stations. That is why I liked Marcus and Carla (in their talking heads, anyway) to basically tell the chefs to leave them alone and they might do better/become less stressed.

  • Love 5
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Amarsir

Amarsir

Didn't watch at all.

I mean that's not something I would normally bother to post. But I just wanted to share a little support for those of you who dropped out mid-episode that at least you had more endurance than I did.

  • Love 3
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backformore

backformore

Yeah, this show used to be kind of fun.  take people who have no cooking skills, and teach them some basics. 

Now it goes from being fake and staged, to being mean-spirited.  Let's have people who pretend they are completely clueless in the kitchen, and make fun of them for not being able to cook complicated meals within a time limit.  

  There's not much to like about it any more. 

  • Love 4
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Simon47

Simon47

I was sorry to see Linda go, older women just keep it under pressure and she was one of the great examples so far.

15 hours ago, spiderpig said:

I can't even get through this episode.  I flipped over to Dateline about a 20-year-old murder.

Why couldn’t you? Explain to me what happened that made you not want to watch this episode.

  • Love 2
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Amarsir

Amarsir

1 hour ago, Simon47 said:

Why couldn’t you? Explain to me what happened that made you not want to watch this episode.

Speaking only for myself, there's very little reality left in this "reality show". The contestants have big exaggerated personalities and are making deliberate mistakes because they were told that being wacky is what gets them the TV spot. Anne knows this which is why she feels comfortable openly laughing at them, when in reality she's a good and compassionate teacher. The producers know so they schedule lobster for the very first lesson since it's the most dramatic. And the editors clearly got the "wacky" memo as well so they insert as many visual and sound effects as they can excuse. It's overkill and not relateable.

It's like a sitcom - say Big Bang Theory - which hammers the laugh track after every sentence and has lost all sense of realistic characters. Obviously people like BBT and Worst Cooks must still be doing well too. And I have nothing against anyone who likes either one. But for me it's tiring and manufactured.

I used to think the first 1-2 episodes needed to be endured but then they got a little more realistic until the end. Maybe I'll tune in again if it turns out the top 4-6 are reasonable. But again the editing would be better if they would pull back 50% on the effects.

  • Love 8
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Yeah No

Yeah No

3 hours ago, Amarsir said:

Speaking only for myself, there's very little reality left in this "reality show". The contestants have big exaggerated personalities and are making deliberate mistakes because they were told that being wacky is what gets them the TV spot. Anne knows this which is why she feels comfortable openly laughing at them, when in reality she's a good and compassionate teacher. The producers know so they schedule lobster for the very first lesson since it's the most dramatic. And the editors clearly got the "wacky" memo as well so they insert as many visual and sound effects as they can excuse. It's overkill and not relateable.

@Amarsir, you hit that nail on the head!  That's exactly how I feel too.  I don't mind a little wackiness but with every season it has gotten progressively dominant to the point where it's taken over the entire show now and there's nothing real about it at all.  I blame the celebrity edition for this.  I think the producers found out that the increased theatrics and cartoon wackiness of the celebrity edition got ratings, so they amped up those aspects of the regular edition as well.  I guess it does sell or the show wouldn't have gone in that direction, but to anyone that has any kind of appreciation for seeing genuine novices learn something, it's a real let down.  I'm seriously considering dropping it from my repertoire after this season, and I rarely do that.  I have to wonder how other people feel about this, though.  Often when I think I'm in the minority I find that there's a huge crowd out there online complaining about the same thing, so who knows?

  • Love 4
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Yeah No

Yeah No

(edited)
5 hours ago, Simon47 said:

I was sorry to see Linda go, older women just keep it under pressure and she was one of the great examples so far.

I will agree with this.  I was sad to see her go*, I thought that she had actual potential and wasn't just there to supply theatrics, unlike a lot of them.  But I will say that if she was 60, I'm 50 (I'm actually 60 but she looks much older, in my opinion).

* which I didn't actually see because I fell asleep, but heard here.

Edited by Yeah No
  • Love 3
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spiderpig

spiderpig

6 hours ago, Simon47 said:

Why couldn’t you? Explain to me what happened that made you not want to watch this episode.

Amarsir explained it better than I could.  This show has become a culinary version of The Gong Show, which I couldn't stand in its first incarnation.  And I don't like any of the WCIA contestants.

1 hour ago, Yeah No said:

@Amarsir, you hit that nail on the head!  That's exactly how I feel too.  I don't mind a little wackiness but with every season it has gotten progressively dominant to the point where it's taken over the entire show now and there's nothing real about it at all.  I blame the celebrity edition for this.  I think the producers found out that the increased theatrics and cartoon wackiness of the celebrity edition got ratings, so they amped up those aspects of the regular edition as well.  I guess it does sell or the show wouldn't have gone in that direction, but to anyone that has any kind of appreciation for seeing genuine novices learn something, it's a real let down.  I'm seriously considering dropping it from my repertoire after this season, and I rarely do that.  I have to wonder how other people feel about this, though.  Often when I think I'm in the minority I find that there's a huge crowd out there online complaining about the same thing, so who knows?

I'm right inline with ya, Yeah No.  (Wanna order a pizza?)

  • Love 2
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backformore

backformore

Got to agree with @Amarsir.  In earlier seasons, there were contestants who were earnest in wanting to learn, and a couple of people who had colorful or wacky personalities.  But they weren't pretending, they were being themselves. Now, we have every contestant playing a role, acting a part based on a stereotype. None of these people seem very likeable, because we never see their real personalities, we see amped-up manic versions.   And the mentors/coaches, whatever, are more interested in bringing and making faces when people do something wrong, than they are in actually teaching.

And maybe that's what bugs me the most. I've had experiences in my life where I needed to learn to do something - drive, see, cook, etc, where the person teaching me had that approach. Let me do it wrong, then exclaim "what are you doing? That's not how to do it!"  This show brings back those feelings.

 

Oh, and Linda? Age 60? I'm 60, and she looks like my mother's age.

  • Love 5
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aliya

aliya

On 8/23/2018 at 4:20 PM, backformore said:

And maybe that's what bugs me the most. I've had experiences in my life where I needed to learn to do something - drive, see, cook, etc, where the person teaching me had that approach. Let me do it wrong, then exclaim "what are you doing? That's not how to do it!"  This show brings back those feelings.

Twelve years of Catholic school - back when the nuns wore full-on habits and carried rulers (which they were not afraid to use). I hear you, my friend.

  • Love 2
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backformore

backformore

1 hour ago, aliya said:

Twelve years of Catholic school - back when the nuns wore full-on habits and carried rulers (which they were not afraid to use). I hear you, my friend.

Only 12 years?

I have that, plus college and grad school. (Jesuit priests instead of nuns)

  • Love 1
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aliya

aliya

On 8/30/2018 at 11:59 PM, backformore said:

Only 12 years?

I have that, plus college and grad school. (Jesuit priests instead of nuns)

When my son did something that I thought indicated a lack of discipline, I used to tell him, "I should have sent you to the Jesuits!"

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