While I didn't get to see either of tonight's episodes (opting for the conclusion of Prime Suspect 6 on PBS, which was solid as usual), I did want to weigh in on Iron Chef America. This is not to be confused with the Iron Chef USA shows that UPN put together a few years back. The Food Network version of things tries to stay closer to the Japanese original, but where the UPN version embraced the over the top nature a bit too much (Shatner as Kaga), the Food Network version is a little too staid.

Let's start with the Chairman, who in the new series is Kaga's nephew. He's a martial artist who has equal passion for food, and with the uncle's OK sets up a Kitchen Stadium here. The new Chairman is about a tenth as flamboyant as Kaga, and to make up for it he's given extra mouthfuls of verbose dialogue, which doesn't fill the bill. In watching IC America I realized that much more what Kaga means to the original. There's also no build up to start the episode - the new Chairman announces who's fighting, what the ingredient is, and off we go. And the chefs don't even have to run up to the ingredient stand - they're standing right next to it when the ingredient is announced! The Food Network folks have completely missed the boat on all of the things, major and minor, which gives the original version its spark.

Keeping in the staid category there are the new Iron Chefs: Bobby Flay, Mario Batali, and Wolfgang Puck. They make great food, but seem a little restrained, especially in the face of the Japanese Iron Chefs who come over to do battle. I mean, Sakai made ice cream with trout! You'd never see any of the new Iron Chefs do that. I do think the new Iron Chefs are probably the right ones for the job (especially as they all have shows on Food Network, nice synergy there), but perhaps need a little extra schooling as to the originality that the original Iron Chefs put into things.

The judges are also pretty dull, though we don't get to hear enough of their comments to really judge. Most of the celebs are c-list to boot (J. Peterman and the guy who plays Gunther from the coffee shop in Friends, for example).

On the plus side, Alton Brown does a good job filling in for Dr. Hattori as color commentator, but he's also expected to do play-by-play. That's no good, too much is going on for him to fill both roles. The floor commentator, whose name escapes me, is no Otah. In the first episode he couldn't recognize foie gras, while in the second he thought tomato paste was sun-dried tomatoes. Perhaps hiring someone who knows something about food would have been a first step for the floor guy.

So while I can't say I'm crazy about Iron Chef America, I do give the Food Network props for the attempt, and hope that they have a chance to tinker in making future episodes.