A deeper dive into the third season of “Crime Scene Kitchen”
Unveiling the chaos in the kitchen
The third season premiere of Fox’s mystery bake-off competition, “Crime Scene Kitchen”, has left viewers both entertained and exasperated. The episode, which aired on September 26, showcased contestants missing crucial clues, overlooking explicit instructions, and creating dishes that ignored key ingredients. This season’s participants seemed to stumble more than their predecessors, much to the chagrin of the audience.
The armchair detective syndrome
For those of us watching from the comfort of our homes, it’s easy to play the role of an expert baking detective. We find ourselves yelling at the screen, pointing out obvious directions to the bakers as they navigate the “Crime Scene Kitchen” under the watchful eye of host Joel McHale. However, McHale offers a different perspective on the challenges faced by the contestants.
“Now that people know the show, thank God, they know there’s a lot of tricks now. On top of that, it is much different when you are in the actual crime scene than when you’re sitting at home,” McHale explained. “When you’re sitting at home, you’re gonna just ace ‘Jeopardy.’ You just nail that singing question: it’s freaking Lionel Richie! Then you get there, and all of a sudden, lights, cameras, travel, waking up early and you’re on the spot. And the game is definitely harder, just because people know what to expect and we had to make it harder.”
The friends vs. family dynamic
As we delve into the second episode of Season 3, we are introduced to a new batch of bakers. This time, the competition pits friends against family duos, adding a unique twist to the dynamic. Judges Yolanda Gampp and Curtis Stone believe this twist will increase the difficulty, as personal relationships bring a different kind of tension to the kitchen.
Stone shared his thoughts on the matter, drawing from his own experience working with his brother:
“My brother and I opened a restaurant together and he’s my business partner now. It’s a little bit nuanced, because he lives in Australia and is at arm’s length. But we did run the restaurant for about three years together, hand in hand. He was running the front, I was running the back. And like anything in business, you don’t always agree with the person that you’re working with, right? And I think the benefit of a family is you don’t hold back. You do say what you think. And you do have some of those moments that you end up screaming at each other. If that was a friend, you’d wake up and think, holy shit, what happened yesterday? Is it OK? Is it going to work out? Are we still going to be in business together? When it’s your brother, he ain’t going anywhere, neither am I. I think the family members have that slight advantage.”
Gampp, however, offers a counterpoint:
“I don’t know, because when we see the teams that are like mother and daughter, for example, that’s a very different dynamic than Curtis and his brother or two sisters. I mean, I would never tell off my mom. Even if I wanted to, I wouldn’t do it on camera.”
Innovative challenges and new twists
Showrunner Conrad Green has teased multiple new ways to challenge the contestants this season. The introduction of savory elements, alongside the traditional sweet bakes, adds an extra layer of complexity. Green elaborated on the innovative clues and challenges designed to test the bakers’ skills and adaptability.
“We have dabbled in savory. We are still largely a sweet show, but a little bit of savory and mixing it up is always good to add an extra layer of confusion,” Green said. “And we’re always trying to work out different ways to do clues, so [in an upcoming episode] when they searched the kitchen, there was a packet of edible flowers, but there was a couple of lines of flowers missing. And then halfway through the bake, we came along and showed them a photograph of the full packet. But in many cases, they then had to try and remember what the colors were in the package to see which one had been used. We do like that thing of adding extra clues during the course of the bake itself. But it’s kind of tricky to do it in such a way that it allows people to pivot without completely throwing them. You don’t want to do it so late that there’s nothing they can do anyway. The timing of these things is key in how we proceed.”
Final thoughts
As “Crime Scene Kitchen” Season 3 progresses, viewers can expect a series of intricate challenges and unexpected twists. The friends-and-family dynamic, combined with the innovative clues and savory elements, promises to keep both contestants and audiences on their toes.
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