jamie oliver food revolution: a subversive critique on the socio-economic state of LA
grandpa_shig
5,799 Posts
any u dudes watching this? i just got current thru hulu but goddamn one of the more interesting reality shows of last year has really been sticking it to LA. its one of the few shows that proves its point through outright failure. right from the start, in contrast to last year which took place in small town west virginia, the dudes inability to negotiate his way through a major metropolitan bureaucracy challenges the idea that cities are progressive and rural small towns are not.
the racial segregation is amplified and somewhat reiterated by oliver but you kind of have to know the geography of LA to see it. thats the subversive part and im kind of wondering if this was done on purpose to show the hypocrisy of this city. for one his test kitchen is i believe in westwood and it seems to have a communal feel to it. however the people that he identifies as in need of help are clear across town in west adams. thats like opening up a soup kitchen in the gated community of bel air.
i mean theres more but really this is just 3 episodes in. i havent even scratched the surface when it comes to small business practice in LA. not no boutique some rich housewife is opening, but real dudes trying to scrape by and again oliver come across as a pompous failure for not understanding how businesses on that economic level survive.
brilliant show tho. especially since the dude is basically failing at everything for most the season. highly recommended. i mean, when have you ever gotten a clearer picture of america on a reality show?
the racial segregation is amplified and somewhat reiterated by oliver but you kind of have to know the geography of LA to see it. thats the subversive part and im kind of wondering if this was done on purpose to show the hypocrisy of this city. for one his test kitchen is i believe in westwood and it seems to have a communal feel to it. however the people that he identifies as in need of help are clear across town in west adams. thats like opening up a soup kitchen in the gated community of bel air.
i mean theres more but really this is just 3 episodes in. i havent even scratched the surface when it comes to small business practice in LA. not no boutique some rich housewife is opening, but real dudes trying to scrape by and again oliver come across as a pompous failure for not understanding how businesses on that economic level survive.
brilliant show tho. especially since the dude is basically failing at everything for most the season. highly recommended. i mean, when have you ever gotten a clearer picture of america on a reality show?
Comments
see i think thats whats brilliant about his show. his eagerness to show you how he is going to fail miserably to shed light on whats really the problem. like some obiwan kenobi shit.
wait til you see when he goes to school. oliver and the cfo that holds the contract for the charter school are literally the only white people on campus. diversity in LA is somewhat of a misnomer.
hulu! the show is way more layered and interesting than should ever be allowed on network american tv. though its never outright spoken, they are beginning to move towards the notion of availability of healthy food choices in low income areas.
and to keep it music related, marvin gaye's dad's house (where he was shot and killed) is a few blocks away from the school he's at.
Cosign.
its the old ladies in the cafeteria who cant fathom changing the processed food culture theyve been locked into.
drama unfolds.
Yeah, we shouldn't help our children live better.
Of course we should. We just don't need a mush-mouthed douche like Jamie Oliver to take care of it.
To be fair to him he often makes some decent points and all that, just a shame he's such a punchable bellend.
Perhaps they can bulk-buy a whole bunch of SA warehouse gold whilst they are at it.
I'll take a mush mouth douche over nothing.
You guys love it.
Must be some latent S&M thing.
:roll:
b/w
Piers Morgan. Take him, keep him.
You see this is where you're wrong. There are people on the ground, in school districts all over the country who work every day to make the lives (including nutrition) of our children better every day.
The difference is, none of them have TV shows where they get to grandstand about doing it.
People really ought to think twice about where they see their saviors coming from, especially when it's TV.
Which is kind of why it's been cancelled, right?
If it's any consolation - and I doubt it will be - Oliver has been doing similar things in the UK for a few years now with equally divisive results. He's doing it for all the right reasons, though. The chummy geezerishness of his public persona gets him a lot of criticism from some people, but I admire the way that, a) he puts his money where his mouth is, b) he isn't afraid to make policy makers at all levels look stupid, and c) he isn't afraid of looking stupid himself.
And now, back to Man Vs. Food...
QED
you are totally missing the point. he could very well be grandstanding solely about his new cookbook or silverware set or whatevers. but he chooses to focus part of his opportunity of grandstanding on health issues. and youre gonna fault him for that? that doesnt make any sense.
I've had similar discussions about Oliver with my gf. Whatever you think about the guy, the stuff that he does is intended to help. And the ultimate question for me is that would the various people he involves in his shows be better or worse off if they hadn't been involved, and in the majority of cases I think they're bound to be better off, if only for having had a new experience/opportunity that they wouldn't have had otherwise.
But he can come across as a knob-end, but that's 'cos he's over-enthusiastic about a subject that the mainstream cares very little for.
and im not trying to say that lausd doesnt have to balance a delicate predicament of their own. but hiring more bureaucrats while firing actual field workers makes as much sense as your argument.
b/w
Let the muppet do his thing and show still how fucked our food system is here.
For what it's worth, most of us don't know the difference between Gordons Ramsay and Brown.
Understandable though, they're both craggy faced Scots with anger issues whose fall from popularity has been as quick as their rise. Easiest way to remember is Brown is the one with the wonky eye who keeps his shirt on.
My lady is obsessed with the Food channel on satellite so I feel well versed in these shows these days. Import highlight for me is definitely creepy steroid man show, Dinner: Impossible. There's a man who could solve the world's woes.