Anger / Management.

Some months back my algorithm started feeding me lengthy videos from episodes of Hell’s Kitchen and Kitchen Nightmares, Gordon Ramsay’s competitive cooking and business makeover shows. I had never watched either of these shows while they were airing regularly; I had no interest in the subject or the format.

And for maybe three solid weeks I found myself glued to these clips in spite of myself. In a moment of self-reflection, I understood that I hadn’t suddenly discovered a new appreciation for reality shows or Gordon Ramsay as an individual. What had happened was that I needed to consume vast amounts of content in which people responsible for a specific job — people who were supposed to be competent at said job and often spoke loudly in praise of their competence — were shown to be unable to handle their work and were then berated with savage, merciless glee by a screaming blond Englishman.

This all happened right before the government shut down, after months of DOGE shenanigans and other nonsense from the malignant officers of this chaotic administration. Gordon Ramsay’s television shows were not something I particularly enjoyed but they were providing a catharsis I didn’t know how to access.

In recent weeks I’ve been binging old episodes of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, a show I never bothered to spend very much time with during its decades of airing.

Gosh, I wonder why.