I've seen several seasons of this show now, and still do not understand what the heck it's all about. i'm always left shaking my head about why it's filmed and edited and directed the way it is. "artificial importance", would be my label for this show.it's so unnecessarily self-important - from the need to plaster the logo on everything that isn't moving, to the overuse of adjectives - "fantastic tuna", "beautiful, majestic venison", "incredible chocolate cake". it's never been clear to me what the actual goal is, or the ultimate prize for the winner. you never hear from any of the winners again, apart from their single appearance on an episode addressing the new chefs. why is it like this? maybe it's our need as americans to have english people be rude to us (gordon ramsay and simon cowell, but also, that lady from "the weakest link"), but that's the downfall of the show to me. i won't be watching any longer.

First .. i thought i had written a review for this before .. but apparently not?Masterchef as well as Hells Kitchen are TOTAL guilty pleasures for me. I am fully aware how terribly aweful they are .. and i mean really, REALLY aweful in terms of cringeworthy or just pitiful.Then again, i kind of like 3 dudes shout at a "random" assortment of nobodies. But lets get to the details... Masterchef is - at its core - a VERY good concept .. but the network is too cowardly to really adhere to the idea and instead makes it a meaningless soap opera or worse .. a telenovela.The idea of professional cooks to judge homecooks on increasingly higher stakes and more difficult "challenges" .. great .. i would call that a winner .. and NOT a guilty pleasure if they actually did that.Sadly though the quality of the food and the skill of the contestants is obviously irrelevant compared to what can only be called "drama potential". That does not mean that the finalists are not good cooks ... but the judging becomes a fárce early on .. when it becomes just too blatant that they do not judge on the quality of the dish at all.The selection of characters to compete is usually interesting enough .. but follows typical focus group results. You get a sassy black woman, a bossy white male, a shy woman, a tough guy/girl, a very young and innocent girl and of course someone who causes the maximum drama by being antisocial or just a loudmouth with no filter. Now it is not even clear that this is actually the case, cause the episodes are edited in such a narrative .. but it does become old quckly.What is good about it?Aside from watching food ... there is a certain narrative of character progression. I caught myself being quite invested in start to around the end of the 3rd forth .. and then not caring much who actually won. The challenges are often quite nice .. but it would have been interesting to see how the contestants actually prepare for them, cause they certainly do not spontanously come up with their dishes .. so there must be a lot of learning in their spare time and interaction (something that might be interesting and that Hells Kitchen does show a little more of...)Well, but why a 9/10? that is an awefully high score i hear you exclaim!Yes, yes it is .. and it is also a totally biased one. I just have fun binge watching this garbage sometimes. I can switch my brain off and rant at the rediculous jingoism, the pitiful veneration of military and american values, the cartoonish drama and the godlike bossy chefs that hover over everything like saints, resolving everything with amazing authority and skill.So, its just fun .. mindless, stupid fun. Objectively it is terrible though ....

I MEAN COME ON! this show seems to be about Gordon Ramsay, it is so not a nail biter yet the music seems to think it is about a protagonists journey to take over the world. THE FOOD is sh*t. My 8 year old sister can plate better? S08E02 a woman paired unseasoned salmon with badly fried potatoes and some "indian" broth? AND WON AN APRON!? The food takes up 10% of the show and the rest is annoying music and OVERLY DRAMATIC personas, its so obvious that they casted the weirdest people and told them to amp it up to the point were they are almost sh*tting themselves. It is definitely some manuscript here somewhere, and it is BAD. If you like food, don't watch this cr*ap hole of a show. Masterchef Canada is like the US version was in the beginning, almost good and pretty enjoyable to watch. Masterchef Australia HOWEVER is the reason why i absolutely hate this show. There its about food to 100%. The judges are professional chefs. If master chef Australia is a seared rib eye you are eating at the base of mt Fuji in the finest weather possible, master chef us is a dry Kraft mac and cheese at the base of a lake of sulfur. The 2 star rating is because of Joe, he was a damn good judge and i very much get why he jumped of this train of crap in time.

As someone who has seen the other country versions of Masterchef, I personally expected fun. But this show is awful. There's a lot of things wrong with it.First up - The contestants. Mix Big Brother-Real World with cooking in the middle and you'll get Masterchef US. My God, they are terrible - Arrogant, cynical, whiny. There is not an episode where they aren't insulting each other. Which is an extreme surprise because it's supposed to be a cooking competition and incredibly unlike the other Masterchefs (Australia for one is very viewer friendly) and even Top Chef might I add (which is also viewer friendly and actually has contestants keep up with their professionalisms). I personally don't know if it's scripted or spontaneous but it's a terrible watch full of probably psychologically challenged contestants who have anger issues and were probably bullies during their high school days.Then it's the judges. I'm sorry but they are terrible, even Gordon in this one. One can watch Masterchef Aus and compare it to this one and witness major differences. The judges in the Aussie version are demanding, unrelenting, whilst being caring, and sharing genuine insight with the contestants as well as the viewers. It's dreadful, how the judges in this show acts. Absolute disaster.The 1 star is just so that this review could pass for submission, my ratings for this show is absolute Zero out of Ten (0/10). Not recommended unless you want to be angry, and like to see people tear each other with no sense of decency instead of competing whilst showing class, then by all means you should watch it.