Come Cry With Me (Come Dine With Me)

Member Name: hewhoisme

Product:	Come Dine With Me
Date:	02/09/09 (25 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: It isn't half as unpleasant as Hells Kitchen

Disadvantages: Everyone is a judgemental overlord.

Come Dine With Me is another in a seemingly endless list of reality competition TV shows, in which four members of the public pit their culinary and social abilities against each other for a grand prize of £1000, not to mention a personal victory over their generally obnoxious peers.

Like most reality TV shows the entertainment from Come Dine With Me stems from the humiliation and crushing failures experienced by many of the contestants, whilst watching several of the more obnoxious would-be gourmets get blind drunk and make complete donkeys of themselves. The show follows the preparations of each contestant whilst the other three sneer at their menu choices, before appearing in person to sneer at their previously sacred homesteads. The cook, or target as I often call them, then reveals the fruit of their labours whilst trying to play the genial host, much to the internal scorn of everyone else. When the mock social-interrogation is over, during which some of more loud spoken individuals will have berated their gracious host on their political, lifestyle and religious choices, a score out ten is awarded by each player, and the one with the highest overall score wins.

As you may have guessed I am not a fan of this show, partly because it takes the cherished dining room tact of the British and publically dismembers it, but mainly because for every half decent human being on this show there's at least two complete morons. In typical car crash TV style the contestants are chosen more on the basis of contrasting personal beliefs than their cooking ability, creating such an antagonistic atmosphere it's a miracle the seemingly pleasant day time show doesn't descend into a complete bloodbath. Call me idealistic, but I find watching hard working (not necessarily talented but never-the-less hardworking) people having their best efforts privately, and sometimes publically, ridiculed by a group of rampant snobs upsetting, especially when they often tear their host's personal lives apart over what was supposed to be friendly dinner. Fortunately there is an element of karma in the show, as the most repulsive and unjustifiably confident contestant turns out to be significantly worse than the people they were previously mocking, and end up with a metaphorical pie in the face, and the sole reasonable candidate often goes on to win.

In a nutshell Come Dine With Me is a cooking show with a heavy dose of judgement, in fact more than your average cooking show, and whilst it is undeniably entertaining, it can occasionally be so incredibly cruel that I'm left with a deep sense of guilt after watching it. To be honest, £1000 is not enough money to go on this show, at least in my opinion anyway.

Summary: Yet another barely watchable reality show