Common Sense Media Review
By Melissa Camacho
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Restaurant reality serves up strong themes, salty language.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 14+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Watch
What's the Story?
Canadian reality show CONVICTION KITCHEN challenges 24 ex-cons with no culinary experience to learn the restaurant trade and open a high-end restaurant in just three weeks. The hopefuls -- all of whom served time for crimes ranging from bank robbery to drug trafficking -- train with renowned chef March Thuet and his wife/business partner, Biana Zorch, in hopes of being one of the 12 chosen to help successfully manage the couple's new restaurant. Each participant must prove him/herself by preparing dishes, waiting on tables, and behaving professionally. Once the new restaurant is opened, they have three months to turn a profit -- or risk losing it all.
Is It Any Good?
Part reality competition and part social experiment, Conviction Kitchen serves as a platform for highlighting the many challenges that people with a criminal background face when they try to turn their lives around. Thuet, who himself is an ex-convict, views the project as a way of giving back to the community.
But the pressures of building a successful business, combined with Thuet and Zorch's no-nonsense personalities, lead to lots of tension and profanity-filled moments. And the fact that some of the trainees' can't handle the pressures associated with running a restaurant professionally results in plenty of angry confrontations and potentially violent situations. Still, the show's overall message about giving people a second chance is very positive.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about how ex-convicts are presented in the media. What is the value of featuring people convicted of serious crimes on a reality show? Entertainment? Exploitation?
Do you think celebrities who've been convicted of crimes have a
responsibility to use their status in the media to help others to turn
their lives around?
TV Details
- Premiere date : September 13, 2009
- Cast : Biana Zorich , March Thuet
- Network : Planet Green
- Genre : Reality TV
- TV rating :
- Last updated : September 19, 2019
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