Working in the kitchen of a countryside hotel, Roland can cook with the best of them when he puts his mind to it but laziness gets the better of him, much to the annoyance of restaurant manager Caroline and his long-suffering sous chef Bib. It doesn't help that Skoose the apprentice chef has zero respect for Bib or that quirky waitress Kiki takes orders for eggless omelettes.
Situational awareness is one of the greatest sources of comedy. Knowing where the humour works best and implementing it at the right time, will always determine whether a gag is successful or not. Situational awareness does seem to be rather lacking in their choice to host the 2010 BBC series Whites. While Whites fits into the two main themes of being British/European and consisting of eight or fewer episodes, there is little for the Acorn TV audience to gain from Whites beyond nostalgic re-watchability.
Whites is a short-lived six-episode series from over a decade ago, that was never renewed for a second season. A quirky occupational-based episodic series, very much inspired by the classic Fawlty Towers or the more recent classic, the fourth-wall-breaking, The Office. The small scale of the series and low number of episodes meant the majority of the show was dominated by the main characters, Alan Davies and Darron Boyd, with no real opportunity to properly develop any other characters or relationships.
The biggest concern (and this is where situational awareness comes into it) is that the whole affair is unenticing and lacks energy. If you consider TV Chefs like Gordon Ramsay, for example, who have been on repeat on mainstream international television since 2004, across at least 17 different series, there is already a lot of content out in the market, around cuisine-related situations. Hells Kitchen and Kitchen Nightmares hyped things up further by displaying the dysfunction that occurs behind those two-way kitchen doors, to such positive ratings that every culinary show has tried to benefit from that style.
Considering the reality shows, this comedy absolutely pales in comparison. It would have been enjoyable to those trying to avoid reality TV back in 2010, but in 2021, for new audiences, Whites provides nothing new, and it provides it all in a blasé fashion.
The blasé mood is, of course, intentional, and creates a lot of conflicts which does work for the humour, but everything has not aged well. What may have been a well-sculpted set-up and reveal a decade ago, now telegraphs a highly predictable situation with a dry sense of humour that elicits very few laughs for its runtime. Low laughs, one-dimensional characters, and an aimless pair of protagonists all culminate in a mediocre show; neither offensive nor inoffensive. It merely coasts by on the charisma of Alan Davies.
If they had been given 12 episodes, Whites could have generated some reasonable character developmental arcs that would have allowed the series to move outside of the restrictive environment of "culinary events in a castle". To transform Roland's (Alan Davies) lack of ambition and do justice to Darren Boy's Bib who was, without a doubt, the heart of the series.
If you have already seen Whites and enjoyed it, you can rejoice as there is a legal way to rewatch the series. If you haven't seen it yet, then you may be in for some quiet viewing sessions, as the comedy fails to outdo the natural comedy that exists in reality shows already.
Whites is on Acorn TV from April 5, 2021
Originally posted to: https://djin.nz/Kr8832