What's on TV: Monday, October 29
Family Food Fight
Nine, 7.30pm
In its first season Nine's reality cooking show presented itself as a celebration of regional cuisine and passed down tradition as family teams competed in the studio kitchen – it was silly yet recognisable and endearing. Renewed for a second season on average ratings it returns with the full reality makeover: the introduction promises rule changes, contestants arguing, ludicrously complex dessert recipes, and enraged walkouts. Do we need a My Kitchen Rules clone when we're so over the original? The teams – reduced to duos from quartets – are guided by chef Matt Moran, punky pastry chef Anna Polyviou and imported British food writer Tom Parker Bowles, and while there's still a focus on authentic recipes the snappish editing rhythms and confrontational chatter make set up a season that looks all too familiar. CM
Bride & Prejudice
Seven, 7.30pm
"Lily is a controlling feminist vegetarian." With that rebuke, delivered by a Queensland mother who apparently disapproves of women who speak their minds, the animosity gets underway on the second season of Seven's reality relationship show. There is staged marriage proposals and "intense family therapy", but the show always teeters on the verge of sourness because beyond the confrontations and tears lies the spectre of vilification. Presenting itself as a social experiment allows the program to platform not just a parent's florid angst, but also anti-gay marriage rhetoric in the case of a lesbian couple and an angry father. This is what reality television means by drama, and perhaps it has a happy ending, but I'm not sure the journey to that point is worth enduring. CM
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