There are two types of shows that I like to watch while I’m working: crime shows and cooking/baking shows. So Fox seemed to be targeting me specifically with their newest series, Crime Scene Kitchen.
The series is exactly what you might expect from the name (recognizing that Fox isn’t allowed to murder a new person each week for their reality tv competition). Which means it is exactly that ridiculous. And exactly that fun.
The structure of each episode is fairly straightforward. In the first round, contestants are given a limited amount of time to investigate a “crime scene.” This crime scene isn’t about dead bodies and blood spatter. It’s a kitchen strewn with clues, like chocolate covered almond slices on the counter, egg shells in the sink, and (unopened) raspberries in the refrigerator. From the clues, the contestants have to try to determine what kind of confection was made.
Some of the clues are intentionally planted to throw the contestants off the scent – like the unused pie tins and unopened raspberries. And some of the contestants hear the sound of hoofbeats and think zebras and not horses (as the saying goes), imagining confections that I’ve never even heard of instead of the more common – and accurate, in this episode – answer. At the end of the round, the winning team gets an extra clue to help them in the final round.
The final round is similar to the first. The contestants again have to investigate a “crime scene.” It bears noting that the “crime scenes” in these kitchens look far neater than the remnants left behind in my kitchen when I bake. But I digress. Piecing together the clues – carrot pieces inside a grater, a dirty spice container – they have to deduce and then bake the show stopper challenge. The team that was the weakest over the two rounds is eliminated, sadly without a staged murder of their own to set the stage for the next week.
As a show premise, it’s ridiculous. Completely absurd. It’s also entirely too much fun. So will I be tuning in each week to watch? You better believe it.
Crime Scene Kitchen airs Wednesdays on Fox.
