RETRO GAMERS
5.10pm, Sunday, SBS Viceland
Sometimes you don't quite understand the value of something until you lose it.
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In terms of Retro Gamers, I'm talking about narration - of which there isn't any.
What we have here is an extended period where the camera focuses on retro hardware collector Cameron Bonde, who is basically left to run free and talk about whatever he wants.
The result is a show that's really aimless, and lacking in direction and focus.
That's the sort of thing a narrator (who is also serving as host) would provide. Narration would provide the context to what we're seeing, why it matters and why we should even care.
Without that, all we have is a group of people who love retro gaming; and like most people who really love something, it can be hard for them to gain any perspective on that.
And that also makes it harder for the viewer to get any perspective - or even care.
If you're already a retro gamer, chances are you'll like this documentary. If you're not, you won't.
KITCHEN NIGHTMARES UNITED STATES
9pm, Tuesday, Seven
One has to wonder whether these days, Gordon Ramsay is a chef or a TV host.
He is one of those who has been tagged a "celebrity chef" but it seems to me he's now more of the former than the latter.
Perhaps he's realised making money through TV shows is easier than trying to do the same in the restaurant caper.
The difficulties of making money through a restaurant is ably spelled out in this series.
After a break of a few years, Ramsay has returned to the US iteration of Kitchen Nightmares to make the eighth season, so he must be enjoying critiquing other people's food rather than cooking his own.
Notching up its eighth season, it shows there is no shortage of American restaurants in trouble.
This time, Ramsay takes his best sweary attitude to Bask 46 in New Jersey, where the big problem is Chef Bobby. You know he's the problem because he refers to himself as the "gangster chef" and has even printed up his own business cards.
Chef Bobby's is all gangster when he's talking to the camera about how he's going to smash Ramsay if he says anything bad about his food. Though he should know that's the way it goes; Ramsay always slams the food, if it was good the restaurant wouldn't be failing.
But when Ramsay is in front of him, the gangster goes to water and it's all "yes sir, no sir, three bags full, sir".
THIS IS GOING TO HURT
9pm, Wednesday, ABC
In 2017, British doctor Adam Kay wrote a book about medical training called This is Going to Hurt.
It was popular enough that he was able to turn it into a TV show, which he also created and wrote.
What he wrote is something that is a very, very acquired taste, something that is bound to turn off some people.
The onscreen version of McKay is very deadpan, unnecessarily nasty and really quite unlikable. While having a lead character you hate isn't always a problem, when you see everything through his eyes it is.
It means you have to spend the entire episode with him - that was something I couldn't hack.