Series horribly compulsive viewing
This show is wrong, wrong, wrong in every conceivable way. It glorifies not just greed but gluttony. It features disgustingly large amounts of food being scarfed down in very quick times - so quickly and in such amounts that there cannot be any pleasure in it. Even the title - Man versus Food - is telling.note Food stops being a pleasure and something to appreciate and enjoy: it's not even fuel for the body. It becomes an opponent to be vanquished and a challenge to be mastered. And to people outside the USA it reinforces notions of American Excess, of the USA over-consuming just because it can, of a nation of obese waddling three hundred pound people.
Yet - gods help me, it's also compelling viewing. Adam Richman is hard to dislike. He's an infectiously enthusiastic presenter. He's a guy you'd love to go and have a normal, sensibly-sized, meal with.
And some of the foods he describes and you see being made - you do want to eat them, albeit in a more sensible portion size, on a normally sized plate, meant for normal people with normal stomach capacity. It's an entertaining journey around the variety of ethnic cuisines of the USA - you discover it isn't all Big Macs and Taco Bell. And - again Gods help me - you wonder if it's going to be time for a British version showing off our best stuff. But British eateries tend not to do these daft portion sizes or challenges...
Incidentally, why do all American foods have "secret ingredients" - is it mandated by Federal Law?
Series Typical American propaganda that glorifies unhealthy comforting food high in cholesterol and trans fats.
Man v. Food is a piece of television propaganda used to appease and pacify American viewers wanting to escape reality because of their everyday lives working jobs, taking care of kids, going to school, paying bills, etc.
The show is almost entirely glorification of junk food and unhealthy food - Adam Richman doesn't even bother to mention that the food is extremely unhealthy and he ensures that he gets cheered on and gets kisses from beautiful young women while eating a giant challenge such as an 11 pound carnivore pizza, 50 hot wings that weigh in over 5 pounds and a 12-egg omelette.
Adam Richman also only shoots restaurants that have very good attendance so as to give them all a more powerful boost and the only reasons those restaurants are fully stocked and overwhelmed with attendance is because they offer very large-portioned foods which are contributing to the U.S. obesity epidemic that are killing off Americans everyday, with children and elders being the most vulnerable. Richman is part of the obesity problem, he's both a victim of obesity AND a proponent of obesity.
I also don't think Richman is that great of a competitive eater - he fails half or more of his challenges. I know lots of competitive eaters who can eat way more than what Richman tried and still not get fat like him.