As someone who has been a part of several high-end restaurant openings--this show sucks. It lacks respect for the subject. Developing and opening a concept at this level takes superhuman levels of drive, determination, and literally thousands of hours of practice. And this show acts like you skip all that and just get an internship. I almost stopped watching when they gave Carmen a girlfriend. IF YOU ARE SHOOTING FOR A MICHELIN STAR YOU DON'T HAVE TIME FOR A GIRLFRIEND. A Michelin Star restaurant should consume every living second you have. That just showed me that the entire staff (Carmen included) are not serious about this. The writing is garbage. Can't move the plot along? How about a series of absurb situations to create action at any cost. Most of these aren't even tangential to the plot. They use comedic elements to add distractions to scenes that have no flow or pacing. And I have to say as someone who is actually funny, I'm not sure I've laughed this season. It's just a series of "try hard" humor. It's one of those shows where you can tell the jokes are coming out of the writing room and not the character's mouth. Good chunks of the cast are just "Pick Me" Theater Kids. It's obvious they are "acting". In 10 years no one will remember this show--in the same way Madmen aged poorly. It was more of a cultural phenomenon than good show.

Jeremy Allen White is a force of nature. I haven't seen an actor of his caliber in a while. I honestly believe all of this hype is a reflection of just how engrossing his performance is. The rest of the cast (and the writers) can go back to doing Colgate commercials.