Netflix's The Final Table is "a pretentious display of global overconsumption"

Decider

"The televised cooking competition has reached its decadent, over-budgeted endgame" with the reality competition The Final Table, says Neal Pollack. "The show," he says, "is filled with self-regard to the point of absurdity. Master chefs from around the world emerge from a tunnel to a display of light and noise that would embarrass Vince McMahon. A studio audience five times the size of The Price Is Right‘s applauds and whoops while overlooking a cavernous arena of gas stoves and a pantry filled with enough luxury goods to feed Los Angeles’ homeless population for a month. Because the ingredients are of such high quality and the cheftestants so talented, much of the food that gets prepared looks amazing. It’s like watching a junket, playing out in real time, that makes you simultaneously want to travel the world eating everything but also burrow in a hole and starve out your days for supporting such a spectacle."