If you have ever seen Gordon Ramsay's BBC America show The F Word, then you know that the angriest chef in the biz has a soft side for his beloved pigs and amateur cooks. But something about that transcontinental flight must put a bee in his bonnet because the contestants on Hell's Kitchen, starting its sixth season tonight, subject themselves to the worst working conditions imaginable for a shot at a chef job. Last time we checked, sending a resume and cover letter results in less emotional scars.
Hell's Kitchen [8 PM, Fox]
Ramsay promises better chefs this season, but considering that no winner of this program has ever gone on to significant culinary fame, there's no way they attract the best of the best to those casting calls. The prize this year is the head chef position at Araxi Restaurant, in Whistler, British Columbia, but it's the journey that matters in life, even when that journey involves an English guy yelling at you a lot.
Primetime: Family Secrets [10 PM, ABC]
The death of Walter Cronkite has many people thinking about how much different news is now, for better or worse. Tonight's Primetime episode falls into both categories, as ABC milks a family's struggle with a father's gender-reassignment surgery for an hour. Forty years ago, no news department would touch a story like this, to that's a public good. But the emphasis on hoping a child cries on camera or using editing to magnify a wife's personal pain are modern additions to the news cycle that Cronkite never approved.
The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien [11:35 PM, NBC]
Guests: Jonah Hill, Cheryl Hines, Dan Naturman. As late night talk show bookings go, tonight's line-up flies in the face of the conventional wisdom. Simply put: Too much funny. Three comedic actors/comedians in a row is way too many people telling witty anecdotes and exaggerated stories. In between Jonah and the comic Naturman, you could have thrown a starlet or a news personality to balance it out. Not that Cheryl Hines isn't pretty, but shooting a show in Los Angeles entitles bookers to a large canvas of guest possibilities. She would be better as a second guest with a more serious lead like Johnny Depp. See if the experiment pays off. It's odd to say, but there is such a thing as too much funny.
Stripes [8 PM, AMC]
If you are a Bill Murray comedy fan and want to distinguish yourself from the Caddyshack pack, then you should embrace Stripes as your favorite Murray flick. It is not on television that often (though if AMC shows something once, chances are it'll be around for a month), and no one has done the funny guy in the military film better since this was released in 1981.