So Fox has put together a US version of Hell’s Kitchen which was originally a British reality show featuring the extraordinarily gifted yet explosive chef Gordon Ramsey. So far episode 1 of the US version is pretty bad. Seems like they’re trying too hard to paint a picture of Ramsey the way they think would be entertaining when they should just let him be himself because he’s far more of a caricature then anything any American producer could dream up. The British version was exceptionally good television, featuring an extremely witty host who did his thing on live tv. The other thing the British version had going for it was that the contestants were celebrities. Well, b-level celebrities anyways, featuring some that only people in the UK would know, like Abi Titmuss, Jennifer Ellison, and some cantankerous old lady Rowena Curry who I guess used to be in government. The only one I knew was Belinda Carlisle who was brought to tears by Ramsey’s harsh ways in the kitchen. As I said, if they just let Ramsey be himself, they’d have exactly what they wanted, an over the top loon that makes Simon Cowell look like a pansy. The one point in the US episode where he got to be himself was naturally when he was in the kitchen running service. Two California bimbo types came up to the pass and tried to get his attention. He was too busy to deal with them and asked for the maitre d’ to “please escort these ladies back to plastic surgery”. That’s the real Gordon. Speaking of the maitre d’, I was very pleased to see that Gordon brought over Jean-Phillipe who was the maitre d’ in the British version of the show. He was utterly hysterical, how he would totally take Gordon’s ripping him a new asshole with total grace. I hope he gets a lot of airtime on this show, but I don’t really know if I’ll be able to sit thru too many more episodes if it continues to be this dull and staged. Also, the two chefs that Gordon brought over don’t have anywhere near the appeal of Sarge and Angela. Too bad.

In better news, thru the miracle of Google’s cached pages, I managed to find someone in Brooklyn that has the entire Sakura series on DVD. He’s already sent me the first half of the set; there’s 26 discs in total, and I’m totally loving it. I can’t believe how fortunate I am. I am so hooked on this series it’s embarassing. Now I just have to pace myself because if I just gave in to my indulgence like I usually do, I would have to take a day off from work to watch all these dvd’s; I think there’s around 160 episodes in all. I hope this doesn’t interfere with my WSOP training!