By Dean Robbins
‘Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution’ deplores America’s diet
In “Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution” (Friday, 7 p.m., ABC), the British chef arrives on our shores to change the way we eat, beginning with the statistically proven “unhealthiest city in America” — Huntington, W. Va. It sounds like an annoyingly self-aggrandizing project, but Oliver is no British reality-series showboat on the order of Simon Cowell or Gordon Ramsay. He’s a low-key bloke with a working-class accent who simply wants to stop us from eating ourselves to death. His sincerity is evident as he strives to change a local school’s horrific lunch menu.
But Huntington won’t go down without a fight. “We don’t want to sit around and eat lettuce all day,” says an outraged local radio host, standing up for the city’s right to feed its kids a steady diet of corndogs. The crusty school cooks insist that their menu of chicken nuggets and “breakfast pizza” conforms to federal nutrition standards — which, sadly, it does. They protest when Oliver proposes a meal of fresh chicken, fruit and rice. “I might as well be a criminal going into that kitchen with fresh produce,” he says.
Indeed, Jamie may well end up in a Huntington jail before the series runs its course. You separate America from its corndogs at your peril.
‘The Real Face of Jesus’
Tuesday, 8 p.m. (History)
This documentary purports to shed new light on the Shroud of Turin, the cloth that supposedly contains an image of the crucified Jesus. It uses new digital technology to reveal “the most accurate representation ever seen of what many believe to be Jesus Christ!”
Come on, now, History channel. Given Jesus’ importance in the grand scheme of things, do you really think he’d be reduced to revealing himself to us via bed sheets? CV
