Summary
Unlikely to interest anyone who isn’t already aware of Paik-Jong-won, as this is more of a basis for listening to the drunken stories of the South Korean chef and his celebrity guests, rather than to educate the audience on cooking tips.
This review of the Netflix reality series Paik’s Spirit Season 1 does not contain spoilers.
So what exactly is Paik’s Spirit? Well, it’s a reality series that features the South Korean chef Paik-Jong-won. Paik-Jong-Won himself is not just any chef; he has 26 restaurant franchises and has published over 10 different books. Not only that but Paik-Jong-won has had involvement with approximately 24 different food-based television shows, where he had the roles of judge and host, among others. Paik’s Spirit may be Paik-Jong-won’s first Netflix show, but there could be many more shows that audiences may know Paik-Jong-won from, such as Paik’s Mysterious Kitchen, Baek Jong-won’s Top 3 Chef King, and Delicious Rendezvous.
There’s a host of famous faces in Paik’s Spirit; episode 1 has rappers Jay Park and Loco join Paik-Jong-won. There’s a good basis for the reality show to start with, as each episode features a likewise amount of famous faces. Later appearances include actors Lee Joon-gi, Kim-Hee-ae, and volleyball star Kim Yeon-koung. These famous faces are what allow Paik-Jong-won to develop deep and personal stories along the show’s run.
It doesn’t quite have the flares or thrills that Hell’s Kitchen has. There’s needs to be more drama and fewer longing shots of Paik-Jong-won drinking or bottles of beer. Even just one or two of these shots are pointless; did the show really have to fill every episode with dull and boring angles of a can of alcohol? If these shots got removed they could have been replaced with the deep and personal stories that were meant to be present in Paik’s Spirit. Furthermore, it does make one wonder though; those who even class themselves as fans of Paik-Jonh-won be interested enough to watch 6 episodes of him eating and drinking with his celebrity pals?
Consequently, Netflix has other reality-based shows such as Titletown High that are more interesting to watch. But if you do fancy giving Paik’s Spirit a watch, the reality show has 6 episodes that range from 45 to 70 minutes in length.
