Guilty Pleasure: Hell's Kitchen

2020 was a year that delivered a gift of seemingly infinite time to kill and nothing to do. We were all staying home finding that family time that was otherwise limited to a few blissful gatherings or fleeting moments now became the everyday. We started eating together; not quick stops to a communal table, each of us scattering after the plate was swiftly cleared, but long and quite honestly, lovely meal times that had no expiry. With all this newfound time comes restlessness, and this is where the guilty pleasures start to come into play.

We also discovered streaming, because let's face it- anything was better than the onslaught of breaking (always devastating) news. Netflix, Hulu, Roku...shows were added that would not have been due to the time constraints and perpetual busyness of 2019 and prior. Suddenly, there was not so much scrutiny about what to watch. Time constraints that prevented you from going all-in or the concept of guilty pleasure in the form of binge-watching television with the family seemed trivial. We all needed these guilty pleasures, distractions and closeness with in-home family members to try to get through these strange and unsettling times.

For my family, we established a pandemic room. Not a bomb shelter, not a panic room- but a room stocked with snacks, drinks, and the firing up of "Hell's Kitchen" on the tv. It was the perfect show to binge on, with chef Gordon Ramsay's signature stream of expletives and dozens of seasons just waiting to be watched. For a household with an age range of 19 to 43, this show seemed to be the ultimate unifier. It had all of the elements of a binge-worthy show; excitement, suspense, a healthy dose of profanity, and food, glorious food. As far as the eyes can see. And so much drama, the good kind.

From the first episode, we formed contestant favorites, established contestant villain's, and watched friendships forged, sabotage initiated, and rooted more often than not for the kind or silly underdog that left us devastated when they were voted off.

This show is more than a cooking competition. It is about the survival of the fittest, but also, it is about something more endearing. It shows you how hard work pays off, and how being kind to others can sometimes lead to camaraderie, but also the potential for a proverbial knife in the back. We laughed, we cringed, we tallied who we predict would be next to leave... it was all so immersive, so light-hearted and so reliable for our new evening routines.

Prior to all this family together time (and time home, for that matter), I doubt my kids and I would have banged out 6 seasons of "Hells". But during the weird lost-in-space time that 2020 gave us, we found ourselves gathering at dinnertime, casually saying, "Hells?" as we tallied who was in for that night's big watch party. One episode a night, and we moved a table into the room so we could have a little dinner theatre. We saw some delicious food prepared, and even more thrown angrily into the trash when a chef did not meet Ramsay's expectations. By the time we rounded dessert, another contestant was ousted. And we scattered to bed or to do our own stuck-at-home nightly routines, but it was really comforting and somehow kept us a bit saner to know that the next day, regardless of what other uncertain events may come to be, we would be watching another Hell's Kitchen and ending our night with the habitual, "Now f**k off out of here." And we did, until the next episode.