The Best Reality Television Show This Decade Will Drive You To Drink
Reality Television is considered lowbrow entertainment, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be entertaining. It also doesn’t mean that all reality television shows are equal, as there’s a huge difference between Top Gear and Chopped, compared to Below Deck and The Kardashians. At the top of the ladder, in my opinion, is Bar Rescue, which found a fun formula and hasn’t messed with what’s working.
The Bar Rescue Formula
The opening of each Bar Rescue episode will remind you of Jon Taffer, a bar-owning legend with decades of experience. Taffer visits bars and nightclubs that are in danger of going under, and he’s here to save them. He does so through the same steps every time: hidden observation, inspection, training, stress test, renovation, and then the final grand opening.
You’ll Think You Can Run A Bar
Very rarely does Bar Rescue change the formula, as sometimes, you’ll get a special episode about Veterans or rebuilding after a natural disaster. And yet, the formula, for hundreds of episodes, works. As the series goes along, Taffer starts to do return episodes, and will try to save a bar for a second time, though typically, the second time is less successful.
Typically, Jon Taffer is met with a belligerent owner, or checked-out owner that’s letting the staff run the business. Overpouring, overserving, and swiping from the till are just a few of the issues that come up over and over again. By the time you finish bingewatching Bar Rescue, you’ll think that you can start a bar.
Some Episodes Are A Smashing Success
Of course, not every episode is created equally, with some that manage that to stand out from the pack, either because of wildly successful the rescue is, such as Spirits on Bourbon (Season 3, Episode 1, “Turtle On Its Back”) or because of how horrible the bar is. It’s that latter type which produces some of the all-time greatest episodes of Bar Rescue.
The Trainwreck Episodes
The infamous O-Face episode, “Punch-Drunk and Trailer-Trashed (Season 3 Episode 33)” is the stuff of legend, as the first bar that Jon Taffer walked out on. While the bar is still running today, it will always be a part of Bar Rescue history thanks to the epic Taffer meltdown that ensues. Another Season 3 episode, “Play. Some. Janet. Jackson!” (Episode 15), is an awe-inspiring snapshot of a failing business that has to be seen to be believed.
Staff To Root For
While Bar Rescue features horrible owners, in almost every episode, there’s one or two staff members that you can get behind and root for. Partly, this is thanks to the editing, but it’s also because in any business, there’s going to be a few hard workers that even Jon Taffer starts to respect. One bartender was so good at her job, that she appears in later episodes as one of his team of experts.
It’s not just a show to point and laugh at people that can’t run a business to save their life, okay, it’s mostly that, but there’s a number of uplifting stories tucked behind the usual trappings of reality television.
The Reality Show Of The Last Decade
REVIEW SCORE
Bar Rescue has been on the air for over a decade, turning Jon Taffer into a media empire unto himself, and it’s still a staple of cable television. The formula works, the drama works, and Taffer is the rage-prone glue that holds everything together. If you want to throw on some background noise this weekend, or sit and rest in front of a bingeworthy show, there’s almost none better.
Bar Rescue is currently streaming on Paramount+.
