Can we give it a rest?

(popculturemadness)

The “Food Network” isn’t the only perpetrator here but they definitely produce a good amount of garbage, in my opinion. Don’t get me wrong I like of few of the shows but for the most part, and this may be because I’m reading Anthony Bourdain’s books, but the food shows are getting old.

I begin by talking about shows about cake, cupcakes, or cake products. Is it really necessary to have more than one show? Did other channels find that there had been so much success with Food Network’s “Ace of Cakes” that TLC needed to go and create “Cake Boss”? I, for one, kind of liked “Cake Boss” for those of you who are unfamiliar it takes place in a New Jersey Italian bakery. This makes for great Soprano-esque accents and certainly a lot of yelling. However, like all of these shows about cake you watch for a while and then realize… it’s about fucking cake! Somehow these shows manage to instill a sense of tension when a big cake is being walked down the stairs; we’re supposed to be sitting on the edge of our seats while the suspenseful music plays in the background. I’ll concede though, for a few episodes they had me. Take some silly accents, a friendly looking Italian guy like Buddy (The Cake Boss), and you’ve got simple mindless television that people will watch, it’s genius.

 Next are shows about shows which involve a traveling host who tries food and makes silly faces and snappy comments to the camera. (Yes I’m aware that Anthony Bourdain does this but I choose to believe that he’s above everyone else.) There’s really not many of these I can stand, and yet for some reason I’ve watched more than my fair share. I choose to believe that this is how most people feel about these shows, lots of people watch them, lots of people don’t know why. The Travel Channel’s,  “Man vs. Food” follows a host, who apparently has a background in the food industry, while he travels the country and stuffs his face. There are many others, but I’ll jump to my main point, the zaniest of them all, Guy Fieri. He travels the country in his bowling shirts, classic cars, and perhaps most noticeable, his frosted tips. I’m sure he’s a perfectly nice guy but his show literally has no point. He watches food get prepared, eats food, then licks his fingers and lets out an emphatic “good golly miss molly” or similar catch phrase. 

 There’s much more to go on this topic but this has turned into a rant perhaps to be continued at another time. My one wish is that for every Paula Dean on the Food Network there was three Giada’s instead of the other way around… have you seen Giada? Look at her, she looks like a beautiful food-cooking goddess, she should be an inspiration to women everywhere.

Sources: (Guy Fieri, Giada)