On Your Marks, Get Set, Baaaaake! A Thread for Great British Baking Show / Bake Off & all of its sundry delights

i felt like the showstopper challenge in the finale maybe didn’t assign enough time or something, it didn’t feel as grand as other finales somehow idk

it felt a lot like getting them to cater the final party

I'm hoping we'll get that over here. I watched a couple of episodes of the Canadian version of Bake-Off that he presented, and it wasn't brilliant but he was so lovely on it.

― trishyb, Sunday, November 20, 2022 4:21 AM (yesterday)

I'm not that dedicated to this franchise, but I watched the most recent Canadian season (S6) and liked it quite a bit. The judges & hosts (Dan Levy is no longer involved) are still kind of stiff—though I find the "comedy" on the British version detrimental at this point, so the relative ignorability of the Can hosts is more of a plus—but the contestant cohort this season was very likeable without seeming like proto-media people

the Australian version is fun, all the presenters likeable

This was the hardest season for me to get through, but I honestly didn't connect with many (or any) of the bakers much. (Sandro possibly being a ringer didn't help.) The number of baking fails doesn't bother me so much except at the end.

I do kind of worry that the show has crossed a point of no return with its Bigger Is Better, and Less Time Is Best ethos.

otm

the craziness/unfamiliarity of the technicals and the bizarre spectacle element of the showstopper are def rivers that can’t be uncrossed

Yeah they're chasing drama that the core audience of the show doesn't want. We want to see people stretching themselves and performing at their best, not sweating a time limit or some absurd decoration exercise which is more suited to a Lego challenge than a baking contest. The core values are amateur spirit, and the generosity of contestants to each other. Also baking, which seems pretty negotiable these days.

Yeah, the show has basically become the professionalization of amateur baking!

Paul?

https://alafoss.is/collections/sweaters-for-men

Junior Bake Off mon-fri the next 3 weeks.

today's "9 robot fondant fancies" probably the worst mess i've ever seen

Can't wait. Glad I don't have to clean up after it.

Immy is chaos personified

This programme is chaos this year. I love how the challenges are all liquid and tall and precarious and runny and full of dye and colouring and MESS. Like, watching the kids break off their intense challenge to help catch the "burglar" had strong Tiswas vibes.

Immy telling Harry conversation about what she liked about Charlie wasn't appropriate for children's television was my highlight of week one but the burglar was a close second.

Pottery Throwdown is hitting a really sweet spot for me this year: likeable contestants, chilled vibes, the tasks are challenging rather than impossible,and (what I like most of all) the focus is on doing and trying rather than *winning*. Plus Siobhan McSweeney, not exactly a subtle host, spends more time showcasing the contestants rather than prattling though ironically bad comedy skits. Also, the pottery is great!

beg to differ but i may be looking for the wrong thing in the wrong place

The adult version would be so much better with Rav and Liam as judges, none of that stares and handshakes and 'are you sure you want to do that' crap which only makes the show worse.

Liam's been giving out fistbumps

the junior one is so good! but why does anyone have to get kicked out :( :(

i do not like the posh boy. it is unnatural for a child's favourite cheese to be gruyere.

(the correct answer is dairylea)

Do we care about GABS? https://people.com/food/the-great-american-baking-show-names-ellie-kemper-and-zach-cherry-as-co-hosts/

I like Ellie Kemper but do we really need Paul/Prue?

it's on the roku channel?

I’ve seen some of this and I guarantee you Paul and/or Prue will have a line of bakeware or similar launching in the US soon. Hollywood in particular must have been coached to be kinder and more positive.

It was interesting that on yesterday's Sewing Bee (made by the same production company), they did exactly what people in this thread were suggesting for Bake Off: had an expert guest judge in for West Africa week. They brought in Nigerian designer Banke Kuku to throw her eye over the proceedings and take the White/British look off it all. Obviously she's not a TV presenter, so the regular two still did most of the talking, but she seemed pretty relaxed and certainly classed up the joint. I would love to see them do something similar on Bake Off.

bump

i'd have figured it was Noel that was leaving...

oh god, a sketch

Still not sure how Noel hasn't been Branded over Pixie Geldof.

Beaver beaver beaver, oh fuck off.

I like Dan and Abbi and Tasha. Saku's endearing battiness is going to get very annoying very quickly and the rest of the country is going to love her.

Drinking game - shot every time Alison says "babes". You'll be dead by the first ad break and not have to listen to this shit innuendo.

always fun in episode 1 to guess who's off by the amount of coverage they get during the show: the skimmed-over people are obviously going to hang around.

i have never noticed the missing raspberry.

Abbi looks shockingly like ilxor csharpmajor.

In unsurprising rural news, Saku is the wife of a friend of our neighbour.

We thought you may have crossed paths.

xpost - yes!

carry on up yr beaver and what have you

dan giving me a bit of a richard the builder vibes, he’s quite good & v charming

loved amos :(

one of my friends used to bang on about the missing raspberry but it always just seemed like some sort of faux-“ocd” dogwhistle so i ignored her lol

kinda loved that everyone hurdled the technical pretty nicely, i like when that happens

I'm surprised it took this long to do the title sequence cake as a technical, a really nice idea which they all executed reasonably well.

always fun in episode 1 to guess who's off by the amount of coverage they get during the show: the skimmed-over people are obviously going to hang around

They also do this in the Apprentice, someone always shows up in a task in about week 3 and me and my husband both look at each other and go "where did that person come from?". Cristy was that person tonight, I swear she just popped up halfway through the show and we were all "no, wait, she hasn't been in it all the way through, has she? Did she just sneak in?"

For all the hype about Alison Hammond, I thought she was... fine? Maybe she comes across better in the later episodes when there's more room for her shenanigans in the final edit. (I say this as someone who likes Alison Hammond enormously.)

that extra slice table looks *tiny* after 3 years of social distancing

This is such inessential viewing this year, I completely forgot to watch it last night.

I watched it and still don't think I could tell you who was star baker and who left. It's just TV wallpaper this year.

Noel is really annoying this year, like he's really ramped up the mischievous pranking to compensate for Alison just being *nice*. Honestly I'd just tell him to fuck off if he was standing there breaking stuff while I'm trying to win a competition.

Haha, I honestly can't remember who left either. Was it Dana? There's no obvious winner this year at all. It's just so nothingy.

Can't remember her name but it was the young 'fur baby mummy'.

Saw a thing on twitter yesterday from a friend who's rewatching old Blankety Blank episodes (who says we don't know how to have fun) and a contestant says to Wogan "can you just be quiet for a bit Terry, I'm trying to concentrate". Would be refreshing if someone said that to Noel.

Actually that's telling in and of itself that over halfway through the series I still don't think I know anyone's name except Dan.

dana left
star baker was some bloke

I like Tasha.

Also like Tasha a lot, she seems nice in an unstudied, not practicing-for-TV kind of way.

Alison's USP is her "realness", but it feels like she's trying to keep the hardworking showbiz striver part of her personality under wraps, and (to me, anyway) the dissonance is a bit off-putting. And, like Matt and Noel, she seems curiously uncurious about the contestants - this was Mel and Sue's key strength and what's been horribly missing since they left

When Noel takes himself seriously, which is almost never, he's a decent host. But his unboundaried creepiness is quite ugly to watch

On the other hand I'm very glad there are fewer comic bits since Matt left. And weird Paul is still weird Paul, which is good.

Sewing Bee and Pottery Throwdown are much more enjoyable IMO, perhaps because they don't have to flatten it out for overseas sales