Iron Chef!

Ok, I'm one of those weird people that likes watching cooking shows. I'm hooked on the Food Network and I really like the show Iron Chef. Tonight, I got to watch the "USA" version of this show and let me say that I was extremely disappointed. The thing I like about Iron Chef is that the chefs have no idea what the "theme" ingredient is going to be, and then they have to come up with dishes using that ingredient. It's interesting to watch them put together things I had never seen or heard of and yet come up with something that sounds absolutely wonderful. Not to mention the fact that they have to do this in an hour. Plus, the commentary on the original show actually talks about the ingredients so that you understand what is going on.

This is not the case with the USA version of the show. I mean, come on already, I know that the Iron Chef is somewhat silly but it's still a pretty good show. The USA version is a joke. The guys that provide the commentary know less about cooking than I do and it sounds like they belong on The Man Show. They would mention an ingredient from time to time, but overall they would just talk about how stressed out the chefs looked or make crude jokes about the ingredients (gonads was a favored word for them, appearently). Not to mention the overuse of graphics for tracking the time. Just about every time they would switch from one chef to another they would use this fire ball explosion thing that got old after the first 15 times it was used.

It's rather obvious that UPN has missed the boat yet again with this show. They don't understand what makes the original show such a hit so they throw William Shatner on there in the hopes that he will be able to bring in the audience. Give me a friggin break. Cut down on the special effects, have some people in there that actually know how to cook as commentators, and tell Shatner to quit overacting and they may actually have a decent show.

Rant off.