Chef!

Excellent show by Lenny Henry. Good thing show only lasted three seasons so he didn't have to kill Everton! :) Seriously, Lenny Henry was perfect as the sarcastic, egotistical, but excellent Chef! who has to deal with blundering fools, drunken assistants, and of course a wife who makes Sybil Fawlty look like Mother Teresa. And those are on the good days!

I loved the first season of Chef!, in fact, I thought that we were going to served a plate of classic Fawlty Towers with a side dish of Hell's Kitchen. To my surprise, we were. The first season demonstrated the comic genius of Henry and his ability to bring humor to the kitchen. Sadly, unlike most other reviews of this series, it is lost after the first season. The second season is watchable, while the final season is so glossy with obvious financing that you completely loose the characters, the structure of the original series, and everything that one could fall in love with. I had to check the box to with the final season to ensure that I picked up the right series. I nearly didn't recognize it. I have always wondered why most of the BBC's television programs only last a couple of seasons, and Chef! explained it to me perfectly. If this had continued further, we would have only deepened our loss for Henry's original obnoxious character and would have filed through nearly all of Britain's finest "would-be" actors to play the part of the ever-changing staff. It would have been a debacle of grand proportions that would have left this series with a horrible hangover that could never have been remedied.

I will state it one more time. I loved the first season of this television series. It was fresh, it was funny, and it had so much imagination that one could simply watch this first series over and over again while experiencing the same enjoyment they had the first time they viewed it. I loved watching Henry argue with the staff, continually sleep on his days off, while still showing quite a human element to his wife Janice. While they did argue throughout the program, I thought that it was nothing more than "love" spats between the two. I felt, at least in the first season, that Gareth and Janice knew each other, accepted each other, and supported each other. Similar to Fawlty Towers there was a bond between them that could not be broken. In fact, they wanted to go in to business together to support each other. This was the beginning of a great series. While this drama happened outside in Gareth's personal life, it was what occurred inside the kitchen that provided most of, if nearly all, the laughter. The connection with the staff, the education of the inexperienced and Henry's obsession with perfection created a very original program. It was bright, it was intelligent, and it was … to sound repetitive … funny. This was not a show that could succeed in America, and I think that is what I loved about it. Then … as if the forced that be were against this program … the second and third season were created.

The second season isn't bad. It does falter a bit at times, perhaps giving us a subliminal indication of what is to come, but it still can stand on its own. Gareth and Janice have their restaurant and are attempting to boost their business. They argue about the finances and the staff, but the love is still there. The staff has completely changed, but I was willing to ignore that for this time. Everton was still present in the kitchen, so I felt a bit comfortable with the lack of familiar faces. Henry is still obnoxious and himself. He stays true to his character from the first season constantly yelling sarcasm to institute perfection from his staff. The timing seems a bit off, but overall it feels like the original. As we chuckle (not quite laugh) our way through this season, there is no way to prepare ourselves for the horrid disaster that we shall simply call, "How Money Ruined Chef!" also known as season three.

The final season was a disaster. The characters that we fell in love with are have completely disappeared. We are introduced randomly to new characters that we are forced to laugh at and enjoy. There is no indication of this at the end of the second season, so it felt like hitting a brick wall. Lenny Henry is not funny. I would go so far as to say that he completely lost his character from the first season. He isn't angry, his sarcasm is very weak, and he does things in the kitchen that I would have never imagined him doing in the first season. Gareth Blackstock lost his spine in this season. While he has a personal crisis happen near the beginning of the season, that does not have to be the central focus of the show. What made this show fantastic in the beginning was the kitchen, and somehow in this season we completely disregard the kitchen (the basis for the show) and bring the comedy out into the "real world". For me, that didn't work. It is obvious that this season had more money due to the crisp visuals and Americanized standards. The music was a horrid choice and displaced any humor that tried to escape. Food was not important any longer, and the structured themes that created this series were torn down with cliché lines and childish acting. This final season ruined this series for me because it wouldn't stay true to itself.

Overall, thanks to the final season, this was a mediocre television series. Lenny Henry is funny, but as the monetary dollars rose, his sense of humor seemed to fall. What began as lyrical humor eventually devolved into physical humor that wasn't funny. This series sank and never had the opportunity to resurface. If you must watch Chef! stick to the first season, you will be pleasantly surprised, while if you continue you may find yourself pleasantly angry by the results. Don't say I didn't warn you!

Grade: *** out of *****

When you get down to it, a Chef is an artist. They take ordinary ingredients and make extraordinary tasting dishes out of them. And like all artists they can be temperamental, demanding and demand nothing less than perfection from those around them. And if you've worked in a restaurant or kitchen at any point in your life you've run across such a person. Lenny Henry delivers this in "Chef!".

The plot is rather simple. Lenny Henry plays Gareth Blackstock, the head chef at the celebrated Chateau Anglais. It's a very exclusive, and expensive, restaurant. Gareth treats his staff like dirt, demands the very best from them and doesn't accept anything less than perfection. But that's only because he doesn't accept anything less than perfection from himself. Gareth is scathing in his critiques, quick-witted in his comebacks and not one to suffer fools gladly. Surrounding him are colorful characters that you find in all sitcoms, chief of which is Everton played by Roger Griffith. He's an aspiring chef with talent but he's a bit of a bumbler and often times is the source of Gareth's ire.

There's three seasons and I find the third to be the weakest of the lot. See it if you're a completionist or just stick to the first two if you want to laugh.

Chef Gareth Blackstock cares about nothing so much as preparing the finest meals for the guests at his restaurant, often to the frustration of his beautiful, intelligent wife and long-suffering staff. Chef understands how difficult he can be in his never-ending quest to be the best. He describes himself as knowing nothing else: he has no hobbies, doesn't help out friends, or go out at night. In fact, he (loudly) describes himself as "a personality problem under a silly white hat." The humor is rapid-fire and intelligent, as Chef verbally eviscerates anyone who dares to come between him and a perfectly prepared plate of food. Lenny Henry is acerbic perfection as Chef Blackstock, exhibiting both broad humor and extremely dry, biting wit, and still remaining a sympathetic character. Highly recommended for Brit-com lovers and anyone who enjoys sly, rapier sharp, lightning fast wit!

`Chef' is an utterly hilarious show that I love to catch an episode of on BBC America. Lenny Henry's portrayal of the short-tempered Gareth Blackstock is right on the nose. It's hard to believe, but I have met a couple people quite like him. Unlike them, here you can sit back and laugh at these poor souls who are forced to work with him. My dad says it's just a show about a guy shouting at people, but I disagree. Few if any people have such a great wit when they're angry. `Chef' is about a man who has a great deal of frustration like many of us, but, unlike most of us, he's not afraid to vent it at the people who much of time deserve it. It's painfully funny, too.