Reviewer's Bias*
Loves: Cooking shows, Kitchen Confidential
Likes: Quirky Fox series, Erin Hayes
Dislikes: Anthony Bourdain
Hates: The ratings system

The Show
Every time a series like "Kitchen Confidential" gets a quick hook, it hammers home the point that people in my demographic (males 18-35 with a college degree, some taste and a desire for something different) are not the target audience for network TV. Each cancellation also makes me pine for the early days of the Fox network, when they would try anything, and not be so fast to dump a series that hadn't found an audience in three episodes (Thanks NBC for picking up that mantle.)

If only "Kitchen Confidential" had had a comfy home alongside "Scrubs" and "The Office," we might still be watching the misadventures of the crew of Nolita to this very day. Sadly, we have only these 13 episodes, based on the book of the same title by noted chef and asshole Anthony Bourdain. His fantastic tome was enthralling and hysterical, and the series captures the same tone, following misfit culinary superstar Jack Bourdain (Bradley Cooper), as he attempts to get his career back on track after booze, drugs, sex and egomania knocked him down to line chef at a family pasta chain.

Hired by the restaurant's intimidating owner Pino (Frank Langhella), Jack has to pull together a kitchen crew in less than 48 hours, and calls on the criminals and miscreants he's worked with in the past, along with Jim the Mormon (John Francis Daley, "Freaks and Geeks"), a left-over from the restaurant's previous staff. As a result, the kitchen is full of interesting characters, like Stephen, a resourceful chef and compulsive thief, and Teddy, the neurotic seafood chef.

The show exists in an odd hyper-realistic world that is grounded in the world of restaurant chefs while allowing for sitcom set-ups and fantasy moments that could have easily taken away from the show, but instead enhanced the show's breakneck pace. Anything can happen at any time in the kitchen of Nolita, including the loss of fingers, eyebrows flambe and the appearance of the virgin Mary. But throughout it all, you can believe that this is what happens when you go out to eat.

The stories, including fantastic tales about a chef (John Laraquette) who wants to die from Jack's food, a battle with the French chef (Michael Vartan) across the street, and an recurring storyline involving Becky (Erinn Hayes), a female chef from Jack's past, are the show's backbone, even if it telegraphs plot twists from miles away. The Becky character is one of the best female roles on TV in some time, alternately hilarious and sexy. One subplot sees her getting into a game of sexual one-ups-manship with one of the chefs, culminating in a brilliant kitchen tango with a wonderful pay-off.

The writing is great, but the fantastic and incredibly deep cast makes it all sing. Cooper, in what should have been his career-defining role, has great chemistry with Hayes and his right-hand man, Owain Yeoman, and the supporting cast, including John Cho, Jaime King and Bonnie Sommerville, create a rich world you want to return to. That the show is delivered with a huge dollop of style and a healthy sense of dark humor makes this a tasty treat for viewers looking for some fun and different.

The DVDs
Can't tell you much about the packaging, as we received pre-final discs, but the two DVDs have well-designed static anamorphic widescreen menus, which offer a play-all option, episode selections, language options and special features. There are no audio options, but subtitles are available in English and Spanish, along with closed captioning.

The Quality
It's kind of funny, but despite being unwilling to air more than four episodes of this show, Fox felt the need to slap a watermark on the discs they sent out, to apparently foil the surging bootleg market for this show. The result is an annoying amount of pixelation during the fast-moving scenes in these anamorphic widescreen transfers (of which there are many.) When not troubled by the handicapping, the image is pretty clean, with a high level of detail and good, solid color. There's no dirt or damage, and just a bit of excessive grain during darker scenes.

The audio is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks that sound great, with crystal-clear dialogue, strong music and tight sound effects that utilize all the surrounds to create an oddly deep soundfield for a TV comedy. I get the weird feeling there may be some music replacements (the theme is still in place), but I can't be certain, as I don't have original broadcast recordings.

The Extras
When the DVDs were announced, besides being listed as full-frame (thankfully, a mistake), they were also basically bare bones, with just a "vintage" interview fluff piece and a trailer. Instead, there's actually a decent spread of bonuses, starting with a pair of audio commentaries on the series pilot (Cooper, producer/director Darren Star and show creator Dave Hemingson) and finale (Cooper, Hemingson and writers Karine Rosenthal and Dean Lopata.) With a proper amount of time passed, these tracks are sentimental and entertaining, as the groups look back at the show and say "oh, he's great" a lot. These commentaries are like a eulogy in a way, and are a nice way for those involved to put a cap on the series.

"Tour of the Nolita," is a three-minute featurette shot at the time of the series, with Cooper leading the camera on a tour of the set. It's not the most in-depth piece, but some info on the kitchen is shared. It's followed by the more substantial 13-minute "A Recipe for Comedy," which brings back much of the cast and crew, including Star, Hemingson, Cooper, Yeoman, Daley, King, Hayes and Sam Pancake (scene-stealing waiter Cameron) to talk about the experience, their thoughts on the show and, of course, food.

The discs wrap up with the aforementioned trailer.

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*The Reviewer's Bias section is an attempt to help readers use the review to its best effect. By knowing where the reviewer's biases lie on the film's subject matter, one can read the review with the right mindset.