Come Dine With Me starts a new series next week. But has it lost its sizzle ? or is it still addictive fare?
Competitive cookery show Come Dine With Me has always had a devoted following. It has certain old-fashioned appeal; it may qualify as reality TV, but the focus on kitchen and front room makes it feel like a play from the early 1960s. It is kitchen sink drama without the emphasis on the sink. But more recently, it has become a less appetising prospect ? way more contrived than in the early days. The weirder the contestant, the better the show seems to be the thinking.
The premise is simple enough, and that hasn't changed. Gather four or five strangers together, and have them host dinner parties over a week, scoring each other out of 10 in a bid to win �1,000. The food is secondary of course. The contestants/victims are carefully chosen to ensure fireworks ensue. And it has thrown up some brilliant episodes ? the one set in Preston that was repeated a few weeks ago was memorable for the genuinely oddball diners and their spectacular rows over the plates of demoralised dinner. One over-refreshed woman went to bed after serving her starter, while Nigel, the fiercely garrulous nightclub owner, tried to steal a march on his guest with a marquee full of artificial flowers.
But more recently, the contestants seem a bit too self-aware, rather than the card-carrying freaks of old. The show set in Brighton for example, had a cavalcade of "characters": DJ Melody with her "I'm mad, me" antics, and the 60-year-old transvestite, whose dinner had a Teddy Bears' Picnic theme, ensured a high octane but ultimately irritating week. And even though the participants know preparation is everything, each episode has some disaster where someone "tries something new", or has forgotten to buy a key ingredient, or gets sozzled while preparing the food. And you'd think fussy eaters would know better than to go on a dining show.
When it first hit our screens in 2005, its target audience was students, housewives and the unemployed, but it quickly gained a cult following largely due to narrator Dave Lamb's sarky voiceover ("you can't buy class like that") and the contestants invariably getting drunk. But over the years it has gradually become more knowing, with contestants delivering rehearsed lines like "the main course was like roadkill" and "truffles? Aren't they the chocolates you get in Thorntons?"
The celebrity versions, as with Big Brother, sometimes offer a few surprises. The show is a great leveller ? so-called "real" people are just as vile as celebrities, if not more so. But even these seem stuffed with what feel like choreographed tantrums. Add to this the show's ubiquity in the schedules ? it's pretty hard to avoid it of a weekend ? and it's no wonder it has fatigued some viewers.
So what do you think? Is Come Dine With Me a novelty show with nowhere to go ? or will you be tuning in on Monday?
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2011/jan/14/come-dine-with-me
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