Fresh show, stale ingredients?

Last updated 10:19 08/10/2012

Today's guest post was written by long-time reader Ben Biggs, who kindly offered to fill in for a day while I'm unavailable - though, if I'd known he was going to compliment Jersey Shore so heavily, I might have reconsidered ... just kidding Ben, thanks for helping out! - Chris

My name is Ben, and when I heard that Chris was going away on holiday, I offered to write a guest blog post in his absence. A quick intro about myself: I've been following On the Box for almost two years and I share a lot of the same tastes in shows as Chris, such as Fringe, The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones (to name just a few). I also watch plenty that would make poor Chris cringe - Jersey Shore and Geordie Shore, and I've been a Shortland Street fan since 1998.

I am a fan of On the Box and feel that, in being a guest blogger, I have big shoes to fill ... which leads me quite nicely into today's blog about My Kitchen Rules (MKR, to those in the know).

I must admit to being a late viewer of this show. A fair few couples had cooked at their Instant Restaurants before I began viewing, though I did manage to see the potential in-laws combo of Sam and Jillian and the doctor/lawyer pairing of Peter and Gary, who had the shocking three-hour wait between entrée and main course while cooking for the judges and fellow teams. Honestly, six university degrees between them and they still slice beans individually? Really?!

Anyway, from that point on I was hooked and have been following it ever since, though, with working night shifts, a lot of this series is stored on MySky, waiting to be viewed.*

I am impressed with the format, where the bottom three teams from each side of the competition had to go through the Instant Restaurant process a second time to find out who would be eliminated - plenty of pressure, having to cook a three-course meal twice, and trying to better their first efforts.

Clearly, I am not the only person impressed or passionate about this show, with Facebook pages dedicated to the love or hate of particular couples and contestants like Peter and Gary, Thomas and Peter and Gary again.

Thomas and Carla have clearly caused the most controversy with their "strategic" voting to keep themselves safe. They gave a score of 1 out of 10 on purpose to keep Emma and Andrew firmly in bottom place. Could this be classed as cheating, like rigging the round-robin tournament of an Olympic sport to benefit from it? Do you agree with this approach?

Obviously the other teams have a moral conscience, keeping the competition fair and on a level playing field. If I can put my own opinion out there: I would much rather have seen Peter and Gary leave a few weeks ago than those quirky West Australians, Emma and Andrew, the engaged scientists, who used chemistry and Heston Blumenthal-style techniques to cook. Peter and Gary are far too cocky and think themselves better than any other team there, even though there are better teams there!

In terms of big shoes to fill, or any shoes for that matter: is this show screening too soon after the plethora of other cooking shows on TV - Masterchef, Come Dine with Me, and the Gordon Ramsay monopoly of shows?

Or is it filling the shoes by being a combination of these shows - think Masterchef combined with Come Dine with Me (an elimination cooking show mixed with cooking for other people in your own home). MKR is now up to the all-teams-competing-against-each-other stage now, with each night a different challenge and the two lowest teams into a sudden-death cook-off.

Does MKR improve on these two standalone shows by combining them? Does the show work because it draws from everything that has come before ... thus is it actually an unoriginal idea? Or does it put an original spin on other shows and therefore get viewed as something new and refreshing?

This then got me thinking about shows that are flailing, that could be boosted by being combined with a show of similar kind? I'm sure Chris would hate me for saying so, but maybe a Geordie/Jersey Shore combination could work? And on the other side of the coin, what about combining two powerful shows to make a super-show - like Fringe/Supernatural or Justified/Sons of Anarchy?

In the words of Murray Deaker - "your thoughts please"?

(*) Yes, I realise this season has already aired in Australia, and I could quite easily find the winners online, but I am enjoying the suspense of not-knowing.

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This is a spoiler-free blog - please comment responsibly.

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bOb   #1   10:38 am Oct 08 2012

I like to see Shortland Street combined with Dexter... for obvious reasons.

AR   #2   10:47 am Oct 08 2012

MKR is the only cooking show that I watch. I love it. This season has been particularly good.

janet   #3   11:42 am Oct 08 2012

I love MKR and have been trying to work out why given all the other cooking compeititons. I think it's the dynamics you get within the teams itself. The contestants work off each other which you don't get in the other individual shows. This allows the personalities to come out more making for good tv.

Alan   #4   12:14 pm Oct 08 2012

I detest reality shows, information programming and endless loop news programmes. The best recent news for the NZ TV industry is Close Up FINALLY is finishing - I am certain it will be replaced by programming that as usual will not fill the void. Creativity intelligence thought provoking and quality are not terms the NZ TV industry understands or pursues. Insulting your intelligence is their forte. I wish quality films quality live sport and quality programmes (often mentioned in this blog) were brought back to free-to-air telly. Unfortunately the race to the bottom has ensured that will never happen. The powers-that-be will not read this - they are illiterate. And I would sooner eat my own flesh then listen to Deaker.

ScottJ   #5   12:26 pm Oct 08 2012

Merged shows could hardly be any worse than most of the garbage our eyeballs are currently subjected to. I almost said "brains" before I remembered that thinking and TV don't have anything to do with one another any more.

I can't really come up with any good mergers - although I do like b0b #1's suggestion. Heck I might even watch it. But to stick with the cooking line, maybe Glee with any random cooking show - the contestants have to do song and dance numbers while they cook. It should come naturally to most of them.

Ben...   #6   01:56 pm Oct 08 2012

And MKR is even better now that the eliminated teams are now the Jury for the remaining teams. Peter and Gary are nasty though and give scores, not based on food, but on the personalities of the teams. No wonder they are hated. I agree with you Janet.

Myk   #7   03:18 pm Oct 08 2012

A merge could be quite good for many reasons. I'd suggest merging Dexter with all "reality" shows.

Mike L   #8   03:22 pm Oct 08 2012

I am a big fan of MKR, we 'My-sky' each episode and watch it once the kids are in bed. Is it just me or does everyone want to punch Thomas in his smarmy little face?

Seeker_Of_Sins   #9   03:49 pm Oct 08 2012

Love this show and am an avid watcher. I have especially loved this series and the way it has had my wife seething at various teams such as Thomas and carla and Peter and Gary. She is also desperate to see the Princess thrown out because she is convinced that her eye is going to fall out into a pot of soup one day. Yeah!! LOL

I also life the come dine with me omnibus on Saturday mornings. Both shows are more about the people than the food. I think thats what makes for compelling viewing. I am not overly interested in watching someone boil an egg but it is watchable when the people involved have something else going on at the same time.

AlfaAlfa   #10   03:51 pm Oct 08 2012

I love MKR ! this is the first season I've watched it and I would say it's my fav cooking show ! It's the only one I watch with true dedication & I love that it's on 3 nights a week.