Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Superhot: The Spicy World Of Pepper People’ On Hulu, A Docuseries About The People Who Grow And Eat Super Hot Peppers

In the first scenes of the docuseries Superhot: The Spicy World Of Pepper People (Hulu), three people are shown eating super hot peppers, just to show their reactions when the heat hits them. The ten-part docuseries is directed by Brian Skope, narrated by Ben Schwartz, and produced by David Chang (among others). It examines the subculture of “pepper people,” which includes both the people who grow super hot peppers and make products like hot sauces from them, along with the people who eat those peppers and revel in the sometimes hallucinatory high that comes with consuming them.

SUPERHOT: THE SPICY WORLD OF PEPPER PEOPLE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Three people are shown as blurs, then they each come into focus. A producer asks them if they’ve signed the waiver and have accepted the risk of eating a super hot pepper, and they each say yes.

The Gist: The first person we meet is Johnny Scoville, one of the top pepper reviewers on YouTube. Yes, he took his moniker from the Scoville Heat Unit scale, which was actually invented by Wilbur Scoville in 1912. We also meet James Morrow, aka Jimmy Pickles, who grows a number of varieties in the backyard of his suburban Pittsburgh home.

He’s one of the many pepper experts that the producers talk to who think that there are hotter peppers out there Carolina Reaper, which holds the Guinness record for the world’s hottest pepper; Scoville dismisses Guinness as “a marketing organization.” Jimmy Pickles thinks he has one of those peppers, what he calls the “JP Piranha.” He wants Scoville to come out to try the pepper and review it; Jimmy won’t package the pepper and send it to Scoville, for fear of the seeds falling into the wrong hands.

We also get to know Bobby McFadden, known as “The Mighty Mustache” on YouTube. The New Jersey native bemoans the fact that he can’t afford to get his peppers tested to measure its Scoville Heat Units, so he also courts the attention of Scoville. He actually drives out to Scoville’s unnamed hometown to meet him in person and have him try his peppers. But when they meet, Scoville tests him by giving McFadden a tincture of one of the hottest hot sauces he ever had, just to see if McFadden can take the heat.

Another grower is Aurea DeGuzman, a nurse who hydroponically grows peppers in the basement of her Chicago home. She’s known online under the moniker “Chilipino Pepper Co.”, and she’s kept her pepper growing hobby a secret. But she’s inviting colleagues over to her house for dinner, where she’ll come out of the pepper closet, so to speak, and give them tastes of the hot sauces she’s developing.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Superhot has a bold style reminiscent of other not-so-serious docuseries, like Pepsi, Where’s My Jet?

Our Take: We like spicy food as much as the next person, but we get perverse pleasure in watching people eat superhot foods and suffer through the effects. We’d imagine many others do, too, which is why Hot Ones is so popular on YouTube. So while we sometimes cringe when we watch docuseries about people who are deep within particular subcultures, we enjoyed the first episode of Superhot because these people do what we wouldn’t dare to do.

What we’re not sure about is if there’s ten episodes’ worth of entertaining pepper people. Sure, we’re going to follow Scoville, Jimmy Pickles, DeGuzman, McFadden and others as they seek out and achieve new heights in heat. But like with anyone that’s deep inside a subculture, their obsessions and attention to detail starts to grate on us laymen after awhile.

It’s up to the director, Brian Skope, and the show’s producers to keep our interest up. Will there be some drama, manufactured or otherwise? Probably. As colorful as these people are, there still needs to be something along the lines of conflict and stakes to be able to sustain this for ten episodes. That will likely be Scoville’s quest for the hottest pepper, one that’s so hot that it’ll make him quit eating chilis forever, at least according to him. But as we go along, and meet more growers and eaters along the way, how interesting is that quest really going to be?

Sex and Skin: Lots of closeups of chili peppers, but that’s about it.

Parting Shot: As we see scenes from the season, Schwartz intones, “This season, Superhot will take you deeper into the fire.”

Sleeper Star: We loved how scared DeGuzman was to reveal her pepper-growing hobby, and how excited and receptive her co-workers were when she told them.

Most Pilot-y Line: We aren’t told where Johnny Scoville lives. Maybe it’s in an effort to keep pepper heads everywhere from descending upon his tiny apartment, begging him to taste their peppers. But it would have been nice to see where the Mecca of chili tasting is located.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Superhot: The Spicy World Of Pepper People is full of colorful characters and it’s about a subculture we’re interested in. We’re just not sure there’s enough there to sustain the show for ten episodes.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.