ESPN’s The Good, The Bad, The Hungry review: Competitive eating is harder than you think

By Meg Dowell | Jul 1, 2019

ESPN’s The Good, The Bad, The Hungry chronicles the extended rivalry between competitive eaters Joey Chestnut and Takeru Kobayashi.

Every year, audiences all over the world tune in to ESPN and gather to watch seemingly ordinary people attempt an extraordinary feat — eating as many hot dogs as possible in 10 minutes.

For just one day of the year, Coney Island New York is home to the ultimate competitive eating championship. And for its top eaters, it’s the day they hope all their training will significantly pay off.

Nathan’s Famous International Hot Dog Eating Contest takes place on July 4 every year, and brings the world’s best competitive eaters together on one stage to compete for both prizes and renown. The Good, The Bad, The Hungry follows two of these eaters in their quest to be the best of all time.

The ESPN film chronicles the extended rivalry between competitive eaters Joey Chestnut and Takeru Kobayashi. Even though the film focuses on food, it ultimately showcases what it takes to withstand the pressures of consuming massive quantities of food for a living.

Kobayashi recalls not taking competitive eating seriously at first. He gained massive respect for the sport, though, and decided to dedicate the rest of his life to eating competitively. He was just a teenager when he came to America to compete for the first time in 2001. The same way he hadn’t taken the sport seriously as a whole at first, in the beginning, none of the other eaters thought he belonged there.

More from Food TV

That all changed when Kobayashi ate a record-breaking 50 hot dogs, smashing the previously held record of an American eater and taking home the prize.

Chestnut actually became interested in competitive eating because of watching Kobayashi on television. But the first time the two competed in a competition together, it didn’t look like the Invincible Kobayashi would ever lose his crown.

Chestnut lost to Kobayashi after struggling to keep down the (as usual) impressive number of hot dogs he had consumed.

The most important rule of the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest: Keep those hot dogs down, or you’re out. Eaters are immediately disqualified if there is any “reversal.”

There was only one problem with Kobayashi’s persistent wins: He just kept winning. His story lost its interesting angle. He was no longer the underdog Japanese teenager blowing away his American competitors and breaking records. The only records he continued to beat were his own.

This got boring. So everyone began looking for someone who had the potential to finally beat him. Chestnut was the eater they believed could do it.

The two professional eaters would butt heads in competitions many times over the years. Watching their stories develop and their battles grow more intense makes The Good, The Bad, The Hungry a journey worth watching.

THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE HUNGRY photo courtesy ESPN Films

What makes this film intriguing — whether you follow competitive eating or are just now learning it’s a sport — is that it isn’t just about the hot dog eating contest. It’s about Chestnut and Kobayashi’s journeys to becoming the best eaters in the world. And who doesn’t love a true story about people with unique talents who make all their dreams come true?

Throughout its 77-minute runtime, you see a lot more of their training to prepare for competitions and reflections on wins and losses than actual competition footage, but it’s a healthy mix of tension and a surprising amount of surprises and twists if you don’t already know the story.

The Good, The Bad, The Hungry does exactly what it set out to do: It shows the human side of competitive eating. It’s easy to see these eaters as superhuman when you watch the speed and quantity of their food consumption, but they’re still regular people with hopes and dreams.

They have feelings. They experience pain. Despite how uncomfortable they might appear at the end of an intense competition — we don’t blame them — they’re overjoyed when they emerge victorious, and are disappointed when they fall short.

Related Story. Chili’s: July deals and Margarita of the Month. light

Maybe this film will motivate you to pursue your own hopes and dreams — even if they involve consuming six hot dogs or more in a minute. Maybe you’ll realize how glad it turns out you are that your job doesn’t involve eating tens of thousands of calories a day. It turns out it’s not nearly as glorious as we’d all like to believe.

The Good, The Bad, The Hungry premieres July 2 on ESPN.