Bar Rescue

I have mixed feelings about Bar Rescue.

On the one hand, the typical "Reality" TV formula and attendant drama gets old fast. If you watch Bar Rescue more than once, you learn the formula: a clueless bar owner + Jon Taffer blowing a gasket + a big show down between Taffer and the owner + a disastrous "stress test" + redemption, training, makeover = happy ending.

Personally, I could do without the yelling, screaming, crying, fighting and the needlessly- tight (usually five day) turnaround to "rescue" the bar.

On the other hand, when Mr. Taffer gets in to the analysis of why some bars work and many fail the show becomes very interesting. Learning facts like that a bar that alienates women will likely fail, and that bartenders over-pouring due to a lack of training - or as an effort to boost their tips at the expense of the establishment's inventory- are the kind of insights that make the program watchable.

Taffer's ultimate point is that running a bar is not a good-time job or excuse to party. It is a business and like any small business, if an owner wants to be successful at it he or she has to be ready to effectively deal with the necessary inventory, personnel, budget, compliance and marketing responsibilities.

A challenge Bar Rescue has to contend with is that viewers can easily see for themselves how the rescued bar does after the show's filming.

By the time an episode airs the renovated bar has had a few months to operate under the new recommended fixes. A quick Yelp search usually undermines the rosy ending. In many cases the bar still fails, or reverts to its old habits. The reviews sometimes reveal that the rapid 36-hour renovations done for dramatic effect and production schedules are pretty slap-dash on closer inspection, or that the changes to the bar made by the show were not in compliance with local law.

I actually think Bar Rescue could spruce itself up if it was a more professional, measured presentation that took more time than just five days to really work with transforming a bar. The formulaic theatrics and shouting, coupled with the slapdash renovation and the uncomfortable sense that a lot of the fixes really won't stick detracts from what could be a really interesting program about how to run a successful bar.

This is the first time that I've ever written an online review. I was so upset when I saw the beginning of an episode. All I know is the bar owner's name was Max and he had helped who he thought was a veteran. He posted the video online and from there things went haywire. When Jon Taffer came in, it was so hypocritical and abusive. I just couldn't handle it. He was so insanely ridiculous despicable and disgusting. Everything was so sensational for the cameras. Here was a war veteran who was rough around the edges but was trying to rebuild his life and instead of appreciating that, Taffer basically tried to break down this man to the point that his brother suffering from PTSD could not be part of the initial rescue. I was sickened and disgusted. I have no idea what happened for the rest of the show and I'm not interested in the turnaround. Abuse is abuse! And help could have been offered in a more productive manner. This type of TV is revolting and we really need to stop feeding into the crap out there. We can help people without breaking them before we build them. Jon Taffer left a huge impression on me and I will never support anything that he does and we'll steer anyone I know away from the crap that he puts out there.

Jon is firm but usually fair, and there's plenty of great advice on running a bar. Some episodes are wild and raunchy, while others are borderline tearjerkers. My only beef is occasionally Jon goes too far with the remodel and strips the bars of their characters, making it all generic and hipster-like. They usually knock it out the park though. But overall, this is a good time waster and it'll definitely keep you hooked.

There's no way in he** some of these bars could stay open with the bugs, rats(!),dirty kitchens etc without the health department taking notice and shutting them down.

In that regard, it's exaggerated drama.

One episode was filmed right down the street from me, a Vegas sports bar transformed into the Bacon Bar.

Talking to the employees, they said a lot of the arguing, drama etc was scripted. The tv crew wanted them to act, not "be themselves".

So why do I watch? I admit, the finished products are awesome. It's more than just a cleanup and some fresh paint.

Bacon Bar as an example: I visited it before and after the change. It's a complete remodel inside and out.

I mainly watch to see the transformations. Like most reality tv, the added drama doesn't work for me.

But I do like the show. John comes across as a loud bully but again, it's all scripted so I don't read too much into it.

I happened to catch this episode (i am reviewing the Portland Tonic Lounge episode) because i was in portland when they shot it.

One of the most dramatic scenes is when there were bugs EVERYwhere, some flying around, but most of them were dead, lying on countertops, on dishes, on food, on cooks' utensils in the kitchen, EVERYwhere. Later, they shine a flashlight under a bottle of gin (or something) from the bar so we can see the tonic is filled with dead bugs! Eewww.

Now for what really happened. Of course they couldn't possibly be open to the public with dead bugs everywhere. Did they plant all of these bugs to set the storyline up?

Of course not! That would be just plain.. WRONG, not to mention immoral. and unethical. Instead, they left the doors to the building wide open all night long and let the bugs fly themSELVES in and die all over everything, and then shot the video the next day. That way you see, they can't be accused of engineering any sort of story they want to- they're not like that- it was the bugs who did it.

It's a ridiculous waste of time unless you're easily amused by funny editing. But i kept watching, and the rest was filled with other distortions and manipulations of half truths, not to mention the parts where the staff got pretty heated. Sure some of it happened to one degree or another. But it's not hard to notice some of the crooked editing.- hair is a different style during the "same" conversation, you can hear the cuts when they decide to reorder parts to make them seem more dramatic and pissy. They copied the owners laugh and pasted it in awkward parts to make him laugh when he wasn't for effect. Well this is all pretty obvious to most, i just don't get why people watch this kind of stuff enough to elevate the show to where they are. OK, maybe it's the same reason i watched it.

After the TV people left, portland hated the penis room, especially the name. It was changed to The Raven for awhile, now it's back to the tonic lounge. Some of the changes made inside were OK, but everyone really liked the original format and hated to see it go, replaced by more of the same with a scary name. Some of the better ideas stayed, but mostly it's back to being the Tonic Lounge that everyone loved. In the bigger picture, the show was probably good for the Tonic, but for mostly bs reasons.

At the end the host looks like the genius bar savior that came from a far off land to save ye townfolk from thyselves, or something, along with more tricky editing to make it stick. Oh, bonkers.