As many of you know, Mark Burnett's new reality show "The Restaurant" premieres Sunday night (7/20) at 10 PM on NBC. In today's edition of the Wall Street Journal, the show received a rave review, which referred to it as "riveting." It's especially notable because the WSJ critic, Dorothy Rabinowitz, doesn't care for reality TV in general.
I'm reprinting the review here.
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This review contains LOTS OF SPOILERS about what will happen over the course of the show. If you don't want to know, don't read it.
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http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB105849897956639200,00.html?mod=weekend%5Fjournal%5Fsecondary%5Fhs
"THE RESTAURANT," a new reality show unlike anything previously seen in that genre is itself something of a soap opera. From Mark Burnett Productions (creators of the "Survivor" series) this unscripted enterprise (Sunday, 10-11 p.m. on NBC) follows the adventures of chef Rocco DiSpirito, late of Manhattan's Union Pacific, as he struggles to launch his own restaurant, Rocco's on 22nd.
In the film's opening scenes Rocco holds forth on his youth, and on parties in a basement, explaining that the new restaurant was going to be all about his background.
Training Day
An ominous beginning note. Fortunately, the charming Rocco moves quickly on from there to the main drama -- his struggle to find the right space, deal with his financier, assemble a staff and get the place going in time for the opening date. The tension builds as his busy press agent gets him prized promotional spots on radio and TV -- things he can't get out of. Thus does the chef find himself in the unenviable position of announcing his new restaurant opening, without being able to say where it will be. As opening day approaches he has yet to find the space, and get -- and train -- a staff.
The whole show comes sharply alive when he begins interviewing for restaurant talent. Now long lines of aspiring employees (a lot of them attracted by the cameras) stand waiting for the chance to sell themselves as perfect for the new venture -- a scene thick with telling social notes, and one as emotional as a theatre casting call. One delicious montage offers a steady succession of applicants announcing, "I'm a people person."
The show maintains its life throughout, no small thanks to Rocco himself -- whose master chef's soul reveals itself when he enters the kitchen -- and to the 1,001 disasters that occur, including the kitchen fire on opening night, the absence of chairs and the half-tiled floor. Include, also, the hilariously mixed-up waiter, certain that diners want to engage in protracted conversation with him, when it is abundantly clear that at least one of them would prefer to kill him. And all this was just the "soft" opening -- mainly for friends and specially invited guests. Not a few of those friends and special guests looked as though they thought they'd stumbled into Fawlty Towers.
Even people who view reality shows as a blight on the TV landscape (for good reason) can risk a look at this one. Riveting stuff. Rocco's of 22nd Street is, it can be reported, now up and running and doing very well.
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