If you enjoy the first two seasons, do yourself a favor and skip season three. It moves from great comedy to more of a soap series. The fun in the first two seasons stems from the great kitchen scenes and Henry's tirades, both of which are almost absent from the third series. The new kitchen actors are terrible, especially the American woman.
shareYou sure hit the nail on the head! Season Three is from another planet - complete trash. If it's any consolation to one's respect for logic - it is also written by a different person than 1 or 2
Most series usually get thru the 3rd season before falling apart - if they do - but here's a clear case that they should have wrapped up everything after two
It really makes one wonder about how producers, networks, etc. can approve such drastic degradation.
I gave a 9 on the voting but have to say it was after I'd seen the second season - never expecting such disaster would be forthcoming - season 3 should get a 0.1
It is truly aweful. Chef! improves between seasons 1 and 2 by becoming a bit less broad and by showcasing Chef's weaknesses to great effect. Season three has almost nothing (Everton is about the only unchanged element) good carried over from the other seasons. And, has been said, the actor turnover rate is ridiculous, and no explanations are offerred. Where did Crispin come from and where did he go? How about Debra? Lola? I can hear the stupid, clueless, witless, self-assured BBC execs huddling over their tea, "No one will notice - just get rid of that one, and put that new bit in, it'll be great...and save on the budget,"
The lighting and smudgy-oversaturated-BBC-Soap-camera-look ruins it as well. It looks like they chopped the budget, and brought in some "script-consultants" to intelligent-ectomy the funnier, wittier dialog and action, being sure to replace it with overly broad and lowest-common-denominator pablum. Most of the scenes are so poorly lit and staged that they wouldn't even pass on a pilot in most markets. The lighting was better on "Are You Being Served" than it is in the third season, whereas the first two are much better lit and often filmed in 16mm, especially the outside scenes. The culinary plotlines are very enjoyable (look at how popular "Iron Chef" became later, all on the strength of eccentric chefs and challenging ingredients/cooking).
The script in season 3 is awful, the very few jokes can be seen a mile away, and the acting is *horribly* contrived and over the top. It's not even the same series. Season 2 is the best in my opinion (though Lucinda is missed), with the original Gustave LaRoche being a very entertaining addition. Season 1 got better as it went along, and season 3 is an absolute abomination, and disgrace to the series. Those responsible for its downfall should be neutered and shot, or possibly sauteed in their own stupidity and banality. From what Ricky Gervais has revealed, though, the BBC really is run by a bunch of corporate idiots who are profoundly under-qualified for their jobs and who wouldn't know "funny" if it bit them on their bald, empty little heads.
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i MUST agree. to me series 3 of Chef! was a series 8 Red Dwarf.
That so pissed me off when they just sat in jail, most likely trying to save the series by going back to its "roots"
Yeah, Season 3 was horrible. 1 and 2 are all you need and just skip the last. Why would the remaining actors even agree to it? Probably all for the money.
I do agree that Everton was the only good thing about the 3rd season.
I think the high "turnover rates" for the cast reflects the real life high turnover rate for most kitchen employees. A nice touch, but unfortunately, there are some things in real life that doesn't work that well for a TV series. And I agree, season three is utter boll0cks...British sitcoms have a tendency to fall apart on their last/next to last seasons (Coupling season 4 anyone? I missed Jeff!)
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I think the thing that irks me most about series 3 is the totally contrived "break up and get back together" plotline between Chef and Janice. I seem to remember reading she was written out of season three due to her (the actress Caroline Lee Johnson) pregnancy but it was a long time ago and I may be mistaken.
In any case, the whole series 3 was weak and cringeworthy but the plotline I mention above was *horribly* written and carried out. The climax "who's baby is it?" scene almost seemed as if Henry and Johnson were fighting to finish the scene, it must have been terrible trying to act the horrible material.
I like Series 2 although I agree with other posters, the loss of Lucinda was really a strike against the show. I loved how she ended up being a "mini-chef" by the end of series 1, berating and ranting at Everton and others (well, she did it in the first episode where they fired that guy so maybe it wasn't an early development).
"I think the thing that irks me most about series 3 is the totally contrived "break up and get back together" plotline between Chef and Janice."
I couldn't agree more. I thought they actually made a great team- chef and manager. It was especially awkward to go from "England Expects" when Janice completely supports and helps Gareth win the competition to her leaving him. Not that much time could have passed since Gustav and Everton were still at the restaurant. If the actress was pregnant, it seems like there would be a better way to keep her out of many scenes- other shows have had pregnant main actresses and still managed to make good episodes- Will & Grace, Friends, The Office (American version), etc...
~ j'adore faire l'amour ~
I agree -- Renee/Rene person was a complete bitch and the only continuing comme was Everton. There was NO one else unless you count that drunk old chef in seasons two and three. (God that reminded me of Gourmet Night Ep of Fawlty Towers!!)
The american (though sorry to say that she paints us in a bad light) is indeed a terrible actress and a pushy demeaning little hag.
You're laborers, you're supposed to be laboring! That's what you get for not having an education!!
I agree with much of what is being said re. season three. The Savanna character was bad in so many ways, to the extent that it was nearly a caricature of the inaccurate, generalizing caricature that most Brit shows paint of Americans, from this show to Spooks and beyond. I think the "Chef" of seasons one and two would have pointed this out in an amusing tirade, but 'twas not to be. The writing credits for series 1 and 2 are listed, but I cannot find the writing credits for this season. Perhaps nobody wanted to take the blame? I associate Lenny Henry with that comedy-mafia crowd which includes French & Saunders, Rik & Ade, etc., but this season is nothing near the Lenny Henry whom we all know in that context. It has its moments, but it does smack of the same turn to low-brow humor that Red Dwarf 8 suffers from at times, such as Cyril's strip at the end of ep 1. The tirades provided many of the clever references, and those apparently sprang from Lenny Henry's writing contributions, which are absent here.
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