Man v. Food

Back in the day this show was a fun, amusing and interesting show. Adam Richman seemed to respect the people, establishments, and the food while having a lot of fun doing his job. The scary thing was you could actually see him gaining weight rapidly and you knew he couldn't do it for long. He rode off into the sunset, while getting his weight down, and they replaced him with a dullard that is his polar opposite. While Casey seems to be a genuinely nice guy, he is just too awkward and cringey to take seriously. He stares at the camera creepily and often while making moronic comments that you can see the people around him with "Wtf?" looks on their faces. The show is watchable though because of the food, most of which looks very good. While Adam beat some seriously difficult challenges in during his stint, Casey rarely comes remotely close to beating any. He won't stop talking during the challenge. Eat, you fool! Entertain us, clown!

This decade has been a bit of a disappointment in terms of television programs. After a decade of excellent cartoons, sitcoms, and dramas, the 2000s has been quite lackluster in terms of prime time. With few exceptions (My main one being ABC's LOST) out there, I've turned my attention to video games and especially movies for entertainment much more often. However, there's a television show out there that delivers some of the most entertaining television in recent memory. The Travel Channel has been on a roll lately with rising ratings and whatnot, but thanks to Man vs. Food, the Travel Channel and reality programming in general has reached new quality peaks.

Man vs. Food is easily, hands-down, the best new television show within the last two years. Well-edited, perfectly hosted, and with enough energy to generate Manhattan, this program is a wonderful breath of fresh air for television. While it isn't for weak stomachs, the content is family-friendly, well-paced, and thoroughly enjoyable. The host is entertaining, caring, lovable, and has a love for food that most of us can only dream of having.

The concept is nice and simple: Adam Richman travels the country in search of food challenges that could make your arteries clog just witnessing the carnage. To add to the mayhem, he also scours the city in search of the more popular and successful eateries in the area. Unlike Andrew Zimmern, Richman doesn't attempt to really gross out, he tires to expand your horizons as to what you eat and how you actually eat it. Man vs. Food focuses on quality as well as quantity. Richman has already on Season 1 introduced us to a dozen award-winning restaurants as well as over a dozen crazyinsane eating challenges. Along the way he interviews people, and also runs into celebrities from time to time—ranging from Gladys Knight to baseball star Kevin Youkilis. The spotlight is never hogged; Richman shares the camera with the scenery, the local folks, and of course the food.

The main appeal in Man vs. Food are the challenges in the end that pretty much prove that Americans are easily among the biggest lovers (and most creative crafters) of food in the entire world. The human versus food battles range from eating a 12-pound pizza to eating a 5-pound burger (plus 5 pounds of fries) to fighting a 7-pound breakfast burrito to even taking on spicy food so hot it can make people bleed. Adam Richman, despite his lack of competitive eating skills, rises to almost all the challenges and the results range from hilarious to gross to perhaps even uplifting. It's just much too easy to root for him to win them all. Plus, why go against someone that introduces you to slices of pizza larger than babies and donuts bigger than your face? Locations are scattered all over, never limited to any one type of food or one region of the country. He has traveled as far north as Seattle and Boston, and made his way all the way down to Atlanta, and all the way west to Los Angeles and San Jose. But have no fear, with so many lovely cities in the United States, I can guarantee that we won't find an end to all the pursuing challenges; his main enemies are time, and his health. The only drawback would be if your city has yet to be featured in the program. Give it time, at this rate, he'll be knocking on your door.

Bottom Line: The best new show on television, hands-down. The concept has been done before, but has never been done with such humor and bubbly energy. Adam Richman is the best host in all of Travel Channel, and remains one of the few modern shows I'm willing to watch multiple times. America is never seen in a negative light, as the subtle and hidden beauty of the diversity and creativity of the country sparkles throughout the all-too-short 30 minutes of the program. I wish this show all the success in the world, because it deserves it, and I'd hate to see another Arrested Development situation develop. Highly, highly recommend.

There are a lot of shows on television that travel to a variety of locations to show off the different foods that we can eat, but Man V. Food is far and away the best of the bunch. Host Adam Richman travels the country to find the great pig-out places all over our great land. He also tackles a food challenge in every city he visits, ranging from 15 dozen oysters in New Orleans, to a giant burger challenge in Boston, to the Don Juan Taco Challenge in Austin, Texas(You have to watch the reruns on the Travel Channel to view the winner). Sometimes the winner is man, sometimes the winner is food. No matter who reigns victorious it is still an extremely entertaining half hour, even if you are not a big fan of these types of show. What sets it apart from other shows in this category and other shows period, is the host, Adam Richman. First of all, I can say, Adam can eat. You can clearly see after watching a few episodes that he is also having a lot of fun in what I would classify as one of the top twenty jobs in the United States. He gets to travel, he gets to eat. What else can I say. Beyond that he is intelligent about food, he is extremely funny for someone who has just downed seven pounds of burger and fries, and the viewer even gets to learn a little food history. Beyond that, its just fun to sit on the couch and say "I can do that" or "There is no @#$*& way I could eat that." So if you want to watch the best show on TV right now, turn to the travel channel. And Adam, if you ever want to try the Carnivore Pizza Challenge again, Give me a call. Great show.

For a couple of years now they're showing more and more Cooking- and Food-shows on German (private) Television, something that has been lacking for quiet a few years (this is, unless you enjoy a 60-something lady cooking "Toast Hawaii", a combination of toast, ham, cheese and a slice of pineapple). Gordon Ramsays "Kitchen Nightmares", Andrew Zimmerns "Bizarre Foods", Bourdains "No Reservation", to name but a few. Among one of the more entertaining of those shows is "Man v. Food" which, in my opinion has some very positive features, but also some rather negative aspects. Let's start with the bad first: For one, Adam Richman isn't the most charismatic of presenters. Quiet the opposite: occasionally he comes across as pretty obnoxious, something between a hyped-up Frat-brother, wanna-be Hip-Hopper and a professional glutton. Sure, the variations of the concept are limited, but then again: there are only so many ways with which to stuff food into one orifice within a limited time. During the final, "challenge"-segments, it occasionally also hurts the taste-buds to see plates of food, that look definitely delicious, being so mindlessly destroyed within a limited time. But maybe that's only the food-snob within me speaking.

Which brings us to the good: Many Europeans, who have never visited the US, have the preconceived notion that Americans live on Hamburgers, Steak and the occasional fried chicken alone. Apart from the mindless gluttony of the challenges, the show gives some very nice travel-tip for outsiders, showing them that there is another world apart from McD's, Burger King and (for the obesity-conscious) Subways. "Man v. Food" gave me quiet a lengthy list of "to-dos" when I visit the States the next time and once I sit down at the Orochon-Ramen-house in Little Tokyo, I'll do so on recommendation of "Man v. Food". However, no "challenge" for me. See, I do enjoy enjoying my food and taking less than an hour for a good meal does seem like swallowing in haste.

In other words: Thanks for the recommendation, Mr. Richman, as well as for the freak-show.

As far as the more "exotic" food-shows go, I'd give it a 6/10

4 of 10 because that's how many seasons Adam had. They were all FANTASTIC! Adam is so personable, entertaining, funny and likable. Casey... sucks.

Adam was the heart and soul of the series. It's just an empty shell now.