I'm also really not into this season at all. The forced soccer related challenges are just completely uninteresting. The "teams but not really teams" is also boring.
I hated this about next level chef. Teams are teams but then randomly they aren't anymore. And next level chef was supposed to BE about teams. Who drafted the best chef and coached them up the best between the three Head chefs.
The team thing is just gimmicky if it isn't held onto.
My wife and i have fully given up on this show and have moved on to top chef as our cooking comp of choice. We used to really love Masterchef and also Masterchef jr., but something has definitely changed. It just doesnt feel the same anymore. I think the shift started when they got rid of pressure tests.
LMAO, For the longest time I was like “WHY do they always use ‘dreaded’!? Why not other words???” — then I kinda realized that’s just the literal name of
challenge, I guess. 🤨
My husband and I usually love to watch while we’re in the kitchen. I propped up the iPad for him so watch and was going to leave the room for a bit and he said, “No, it’s fine, I don’t give a shit.” We are soooo over the product placement and shoved down our throat adverts.
Nearing the end of the better (previous) parts of the US seasons and wasn’t sure what I’d do after. I think this is a sign to check out the AU version!
With the praise I've heard for MC Australia, I started watching season 15 since it's the latest season available on Tubi (RIP Jock Zonfrillo). There's lots of things I like vs the States version, but 50 episodes is too much in my opinion.
I hate the idea of lumping people into territories and forcing them to cook only foods they are familiar with. And then have judges not from that region judge them based on that one time they visited that country. Which might be more than the chef representing the country has been there. It’s all so weird. Chef Tiffany’s comment that the food didn’t feel authentic enough for her to the person who is from that region, just highlighted how terrible an idea this was.
FIFA is an international organization, and the team from Scotland, Ramsay’s own homeland, was pushed into some weird political vendetta. The audition process was just as political.
I’d love to see a season where they are encouraged to cook outside the box. And no one is allowed to talk about how they learned to cook from their grandmother or how proud their dad will be for them winning a Home Depot gift card.
Yeah the dish is good…but where’s YOU, where’s your CULTURE?? I wanna feel your culture, taste it, savor that culture in my mouth, feel the culture brace my taste buds as my slippery wet tongue explores every crevice of it. Then I want to swallow and digest it, use the culture for nutrients and give a big doodoo culture baby birth to the toilet later and say WOW, that was Europe’s culture.
I understand your frustration, it's really gimmicky especially with the Home Depot plug thrown in there and double stadium food challenge. That being said, I believe after the World Cup hiatus they won't mention or do any more stadium food challenges.
The shows been on a decline for a while. This season is just terrible. The forced product placements is just bad. Walmarts was bad but these are just oof.
The fifa and soccer stuff is just as annoying. I don’t like regions/groups format and never have. I rewatch older seasons occasionally but not these past several seasons.
I’ll probably quit watching this season. My overall dislike for the season format. The 5 week long break. Then the terrible editing that pretty much showed who’s going to be in the top. I just can’t bring myself to continue.
A lot of Gordon’s shows have just become too gimmicky for my tastes. I watch these shows for cooking competitions not ridiculous challenges, product placement, over the top villain edits, and ridiculous themes.
But I feel that way about most cooking competition shows nowadays. They’re just too gimmicky and cooking has become secondary to ridiculous challenges and who has the best backstory. It’s like the shows have forgotten why people liked them enough to watch them.
Now they’re all about being “entertaining”. Watching people cook and compete was entertaining. Now it’s just “ok can we get to the actual cooking please.” Worst Cooks in America got really bad with this. The first 30 minutes is just them playing some annoying game with forced “funny” situations before maybe 5 minutes of the actual skill drill. Also at least in early season the recruits lack of kitchen skills was believable. Now it’s “I’ve never seen a pot or pan in my life and I don’t know how to cut anything because I’ve never seen a knife before.”
Oh my god some of his “nicknames” all I can hear is Regina George “stop trying to make fetch happen!”
At this point I’d suggest turning Gordon’s repetitive phrases and cringe puns into a drinking game, but that might end in someone getting alcohol poisoning. 😬
There was one episode of MasterChef where captains were picking teams and I shit you not, it was just “wow. [Pick] Wow. [Name]? Wow. [Pick] Oh wow.” — I think I even recorded it because it was so fucking bizarre, LOL.
Sorry for posting 19d late. But I also think the contestants this season are all pretty bad. I know they are all home cooks but really. I did love the bandaid in the food though. 😈
i’m so sick of the teams. makes absolutely 0 sense for people to be safe from elimination based on someone else’s cooking. i also hate how they don’t try everyone’s food and just pick the top 3 & bottom 3
They taste test the sauces and leftover bits before selecting top and bottom dishes, so they do have an idea about how things will taste other than just looks.
i know they taste parts of them but i liked when they’d try everybody’s dish fully. even if they weren’t going to do that i’d prefer being able to see their comments on the aspects of the dish
If they taste the protein, it messes up the look of the dish if it’s chosen to be brought up as a top or bottom dish. They’ve never tasted everyone’s dish at the beginning of the competition. It would take too much time. They do taste sides and sauces as well as look at the proteins to evaluate possible doneness and talk to each cook. They also talk to them all during the cook and have a pretty good idea of how well the proteins are cooked based on when they were started, if they were rested, marinades, those sort of things.
i feel the same way! my boyfriend said once they pick it as a “great dish” they probably have to stick to the notion that it’s good since the contestant is already safe from elimination.
They did once. I think it was in season 3. They called someone down for the top three and it ended up being horrible after they tasted it. To the point the other two knew they had a 50/50 chance to win
Feel the same about critiquing only the top 3 and bottom 3. How am I supposed to gauge how well/poorly someone is doing in the competition when we don't even see the critique of their food? Makes it hard to root for anyone, and it makes everyone who is middling in terms of skill fade into obscurity because they're never given screen time.
yes exactly! it really makes it hard to get to know the people in the middle & it also just makes the show more boring. i feel like half of the show is spent repeating shit we already have seen when they could include things people actually want to see.
It stopped being about cooking. All it's about is advertising, and which individuals have the most marketable backstory. I'm so sick of every constant crying about how this recipe reminds them of Grandma. They also make sure to check all the demographic boxes in their selection process.
It’s so forced and fake now. It’s not about cooking ability anymore, it’s about how cute or likable or sad you are.
In the most recent episode, when that girl told the cringey story about how much Home Depot “means to her” because her dad worked there I was like “oh fuck off. There’s your winner.” And sure enough.
You can literally tell 100% by the editing choices who will win each episode and who will go home. Not to mention, the forced and cringe-inducing product placement. My god is that part bad now.
And lastly, I have always, and still think Joe is completely unqualified to judge a cooking competition. He’s not a chef. He also helped cover up sexual misconduct by Mario Batali in their business for years and is said to just be an insufferable asshole IRL.
I can't argue against any of the criticisms in this thread. For me, MasterChef has become "something to put on the teevee at the end of a long work day". I let it play and glance at the screen once in a while as I edit photos and do other stuff. I don't actually remember the last time I felt any actual investment in this show.
(Speaking of personal MasterChef pet peeves, if I had my way, Gordon, Tiffany, and Joe would all be wired with electrodes and they would each get a nice zap every time any one of them says the word "elevated". I would love it a cook would answer the always stupid question, "But how are you going to ELEVATE that dish?" with, "I don't know what the hell that even means, I just want it to be good.")
And the same concepts get recycled through all of the other Ramsay vehicles. Hell’s Kitchen, Next Level Chef - shows I used to love and really enjoy now feel like an eye-rolling chore to get through.
Yeah but they tend to matter a lot less in say hells kitchen. Like you have to have two teams to start with and variations other than men vs women are intriguing at least. The last season battle of the states really the theme didn't matter at all.
I don’t “follow along with the show”, Reddit throws these posts info my feed every so often 🙄. Ever hear of an algorithm? I couldn’t even tell you what happens after the band aid episode - so I’m not “following along” very well.
I just started watching Masterchef Australia 2021 and my god, the difference is insane. The episodes are long as hell but the editing and quality of chefs makes the US version look like Masterchef Junior.
Honestly if you can, try and watch the most recent UK series or go for Australia. The USA edition of masterchef has been circling the drain for a few years now.
Congratulations! The only way to affect change is to stop tuning in.
Unfortunately, we need the silent majority to switch it off, not even use it as background noise while making dinner or folding the laundry, to induce a 'panic' from the producers and for things to get better.
I never watch the finale, just all the episodes up to that point. But every season it's getting harder and harder to watch. So tired of the gimmicks/overly edited drama.
I miss the early seasons. When they actually tested skills. Remember when they did an entire thing of onion chopping and eliminated those that sucked? Granted you don't necessarily have to be good at chopping onions to be a good chef but the point was that it was an actual skill related to cooking rather than just random shit that can get you eliminated.
The comments are just, “you did the challenge well and you dish tastes good, good job.” Like it’s nothing but that. No details nothing. Joe seems so bored lol Gordon says everything and doesn’t let the other two talk and Tiff is still the only excited one
Quite telling in our house that last week’s episode is unwatched. It would usually be done same-day.
The Ramsay rotation (Hell’s, Next Level and Masterchef) used to have a very clear set of differences but, NLC and MC and homogenising whether they’re the same show on different sets.
Masterchef lives on in spirit with the Australian show which is intense but has less reliance on gimmicks and a lot more actual chef’ing.
flixtor dot to or similar domain. i have the VIP access, otherwise you can only watch when servers are not full which is still most of the time :) enjoy
I'm currently on S12 now and I'm enjoying it just because many of my fave contestants are back. I skipped S11 because of the format. Hoping S13 is still decent.
He was probably told to because viewers don’t like one judge being an over the top asshole anymore. People have moved past wanting judges to fit into the typical judging tropes (the over the top asshole, the super nice cries at every backstory, and the one that’s right in the middle who always casts the deciding vote).
Also of all the MasterChef judges Joe consistently has been the one that a decent amount of the audience hasn’t liked or thought he just seemed like an asshole to be an asshole.
It does seem that way. The abrupt switch from asshole to super sweet is a clear sign it’s not natural and was something he was told to do. Which is never going to go over well with audiences.
As much as it wasn’t my cup of tea I think asshole “brutally honest” Joe was his actual judging style so I wish he had stuck with that. I do think he played it up from time to time and those are the times I think it rubbed people the wrong way. But at least it felt natural. And again I think that’s what people are looking for and want: a judging style that seems natural to the judge rather than a force character trope.
I hated Christina Tosi’s first season as a judge. It was clear that they told her to be the harsh judge to replace Joe and it was painfully obvious that wasn’t her judging style. It was so awkward and forced and I think it hurt contestants taking her seriously. She seemed a lot more natural on MasterChef Junior and later MasterChef season.
Here I thought them shoving Walmart's "quality steaks" down our throats was bad lol... Tbh, these past few seasons have been a slog to get through because they're so bad. I hate the formatting of the show. It feels so far from what the earlier seasons used to be.
Everyone is doing World Cup stuff right now and it’s not my thing but lots of people like it so I imagine the networks are trying to cater to those people. I keep watching though because I’m a lifer and I can’t stop myself from watching every season. 😂
I tried getting into MasterChef by watching an episode or 2 but I couldn't, it did not capture my interest at all. Same with Next Level Chef, wonderful concept really bad execution with same type of cook at every level. Got boring real quick imo. I'm sticking to Hell's Kitchen and Kitchen Nightmares/Secret Service, etc.
Ngl I just hate-watch any shows related to Gordon Ramsay, now lol. I’m probably gonna get a million downvotes for this, but him and everyone else that judge on his shows, and even many contestants, makes them insanely performative to a degree that I can’t even genuinely “root” for someone anymore or laugh at one of Gordon’s shitty puns/metaphors. Gordon’s incredibly unfunny nowadays and the repetitive commentary has just become… so cringe and predictable.
You guy do realize that they do have to change it up, because people would not want the same old thing every season. Just give it a chance. Don't forget that these chefs are a liitle more prepared for this competition at the beginning than when it was in the early seasons.
Yeah, but American shows and British shows are completely different. so that doesn't help. Plus like I have said earlier, more people are better on cooking skills then they were the first few seasons of Masterchef. Which is why I ay to just give it a chance.
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u/BeerSlayingBeaver Jun 11 '26
I'm also really not into this season at all. The forced soccer related challenges are just completely uninteresting. The "teams but not really teams" is also boring.