Being one of the most popular and lucrative forms of entertainment, it's no surprise that networks continue to pump out new reality shows every year. From dating shows to hidden cameras to documentary-style series, these shows continue to dominate the market. And of course, the inspiration has to come from somewhere. But are all forms of inspiration appropriate to develop into reality TV?
For over 25 years one of the most popular reality TV show stars in the world has been chef Gordon Ramsay. He has over 20 cooking reality show credits to his name and is a general household name due to his aggressive nature, creative insults, and of course great cooking talents. One of his most recent series is a cooking competition show entitled Next Level Chef. It's a fairly different style to most cooking competitions and its gimmick seems quite creative. However, many have pointed out its eerily similar plot to a Spanish horror film.
On Next Level Chef, Ramsay and two other celebrity chefs named Nyesha Harrington and Richard Blais. Each chef is a mentor to their own team and in each episode, the teams are assigned a cooking task to succeed at. The gimmick comes into play as each team is also randomly assigned a kitchen to cook in. Stacked on top of each other are three kitchens, with the top floor containing state-of-the-art appliances. The middle level is a standard commercial kitchen, and the bottom level is limited in equipment and quality. To further the advantage of being on the top level, ingredients are picked off of a platform that starts at the top and works its way down. Competitors have 30 seconds to grab whatever they need, and the bottom level gets the leftovers.
The premise of Next Level Chef is a little strange as the ability to succeed seems to very much just be luck of the draw. However, maybe the point is that the best chef can make an amazing meal with shoddy equipment and leftover ingredients. It's a unique seeming premise for a series that promises some drama and tension. Given though that there's a horror film on Netflix with an incredibly similar plot at play, only released in 2020, it's hard to believe that this idea just came out of nowhere.
Spanish horror film The Platform is also about a platform of food that moves through levels of people. However, the people in that film are not chefs in a cooking competition. They're prisoners in a vertical tower and are randomly switched between many levels. The platform of food is what delivers their meals, meaning the top level is essentially gifted a feast while the bottom levels are given only scraps, often left in a disgusting state. The film is incredibly hard to watch for those with a weak stomach and there are some really heavy scenes and mature themes throughout.
Given the creative idea and the social experiment style plot, it's maybe not too much of a stretch to think that this concept would be used in other media. Of course, other serious works have been used as inspiration for reality TV shows -- most notably the incredibly popular Big Brother which was inspired by George Orwell's novel 1984. There are still critics of this choice however due to the sociopolitical themes of this film and how they seem to be contradicted by using the concept in the way Next Level Chef does.
The Platform has a real message about greed and over consumption. On the platform, there is really enough food for everyone, but because the people at the top are greedy the people on the bottom suffer. This echoes what tends to happen in the world, as wealthy people and nations use a lot of resources while others starve when there is more than enough to go around. People especially resonated with this kind of message during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic as people hoarded resources to themselves while others went without for no real reason.
Using something with that kind of message in a cooking competition show, where lots of fresh food and good ingredients are used for no good reason, is strange. It's surely interesting to watch, but it's wasteful in concept and uses The Platform's plot to do exactly what the film is criticizing. That doesn't mean that the show isn't good or that Gordon Ramsay is a bad person by any means, especially as this is a great opportunity for people who have dreams of making it into the cooking business. But it does cause a pause for some thought, and it is an odd juxtaposition.
Next Level Chef will certainly not be the last reality TV series to be inspired by a famous film or book, as the ideas for new shows have to come from somewhere. Though there hasn't been extreme outrage over the similarities between the show and The Platform, those who've seen the film have absolutely noticed and there has been some criticism. Perhaps this could be an example to future showrunners, and a sign to take care in the message they are portraying with their shows and choices of inspiration.