A Tent Full of English Short Crust: The Great British Baking Show

[Egarwaen]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1305914285176942595

The 2020 season of the Great British Baking Show will be streaming weekly on Netflix starting on Friday!

Netflix is on a three-week delay from the UK BBC broadcast, so if you're a UKizen or otherwise watching ahead through Thoroughly Legitimate Means, please clearly indicate the provenance of your spoilers!

 

[Rascally Badger]

Friday you say. Do I want to watch it new, or just binge it when its all done?

 

[Falselogic]

Recently started rewatching these on Netflix! Looking forward to getting to the 'latest' season.

 

[Phantoon]

It got off to a decent start. Sandi Toksvig is gone and it's a big loss as she's a national treasure. Matt Lucas is a decent replacement, however.

 

[zonetrope]

Ugggggggh fondant

 

[Egarwaen]

I was indeed pleasantly surprised by Matt.

Paul’s judging is as scattershot as ever, post-Mary. One of the contestants literally did not complete the technical and had catastrophic results for her other bakes but instead he exiles the one whose flavorings were a bit too strong. I mean the scotch bonnet chili powder was probably a bit much but at that point she was also clearly already Done With Paul’s Shit. And Paul going afterwards “well as a judge I can’t really give advice”... Yes you can! You do it all the time! Especially when you’re trying to get into a contestant’s pants!

 

[Egarwaen]

Episode 2: overall much better. I definitely like Matt better when he isn’t playing his “I know nothing about baking what is this tent and why am I here” character. He’s particularly good at one-on-ones with the contestants. I really liked how Pru handled the technical; I feel like often they hand out technicals with kind of arbitrary time limits, but here the contestants who did the best were the ones who recognized that the allotted time was longer than usual.

The judging seemed more even this time as well; and I particularly liked how Dave and Bearded Guy Whose Name I Won’t Look Up Because Spoilers really got a chance to show off, while Obvious Wunderkind still managed to do pretty well.

 

[Adam]

That's two wrong decisions in a row. If they save an old white person who can't get shit done by sacrificing another dark-skinned person who did just fine again, I'm done.

 

[Jeanie]

Don't get me wrong, I like Older Gay Martin Freeman, but he should have been gone.

 

[zonetrope]

Maybe I just haven't seen enough reality TV to get used to this, but I really hate the super drawn-out pause before the elimination, coupled with long, weighty shots of the bakers most likely to be thrown out. I love watching the baking on this show, but the editing is super manipulative.

 

[Little Sampson]

Yeah, I’m gonna suggest you definitely shouldn’t watch any other reality competition shows. Especially American ones

 

[Egarwaen]

That's two wrong decisions in a row. If they save an old white person who can't get shit done by sacrificing another dark-skinned person who did just fine again, I'm done.

Yeah Paul’s judging is... Even more scattershot than usual this series. Especially since he’s justified the elimination two episodes in a row with “but the other contestant has so much potential”.

I’m just waiting for the sole Young Hot Girl to realize exactly how much she can get away with and start pushing boundaries, because it’s going to be glorious.

 

[Rascally Badger]

I was genuinely shocked by the result. I really thought the obvious choice was going and Mak was tossed in to add some drama to the proceedings.

 

[SabreCat]

Yeah, my disappointment was audible, there. That was some white bullshit (said from the perspective of a pasty Wisconsinite).

 

[muteKi]

I believe the popular consensus is that the show's gone downhill since moving to Channel 4 and while I enjoyed series 9 quite a bit and thought 10 was good but the technical challenges in particular have been ridiculous because they no longer test fundamentals so much as which bakers have sat down and scrolled through the Wikipedia "list of pastries" page. Can't wait in 3 episodes where they prepare komaj sehen, the most well-known of, uh, british delicacies

 

[Egarwaen]

I honestly think the biggest problem is that Mary (and to a lesser extent Mel and Sue) was willing to tell Paul he was full of shit, and Pru isn't.

 

[lincolnic]

Someone please tell them to stop attempting to make bagels. As a native New Yorker, I feel personally attacked.

 

[Rascally Badger]

So glad we kept that guy around for another week.

 

[muteKi]

Someone please tell them to stop attempting to make bagels. As a native New Yorker, I feel personally attacked.

You are not the only one I've seen say this and I can't really argue (have not seen any of this season yet though)

 

[zonetrope]

Ugggggggh fondant

Ugggggggh white chocolate

 

[Jeanie]

Make brownies, but don't make them sweet. No wonder everyone failed that challenge. JFC.

 

[Egarwaen]

Paul is really lucky that Sura utterly whiffed it, otherwise he’d have had to really stretch to keep Lottie on the show.

At this point the chocolate episodes really feel unfair. The first time they had chocolate plus surprise heat wave it felt like bad luck. Now it feels like they plan for it, and expecting professional-grade chocolate work out of a kitchen without climate control is thoroughly unreasonable.

 

[Rascally Badger]

I saw a spoiler of who was leaving the show this week and was kind of upset by it, but by the end of the episode I can't say she didn't deserve it.

Should have just busted out some Betty Crocker mix for those brownies.

 

[Egarwaen]

It’s also really obvious at this point that Paul does not give a shit about the technical except maybe as a tiebreaker.

 

[Phantoon]

Ugggggggh white chocolate

That's hot truth right there

 

[Jeanie]

Like white chocolate is fine in small doses, but a whole big cake of it? No, thank you.

 

[Egarwaen]

Paul’s judging and participation is remarkably improved when dealing with topics he cares about (pasties) over those he obviously doesn’t (chocolate). And the spectacle of Prue just totally losing it was really something. Hard to tell if it was produced or not, but it really seemed like she felt like she’d given a freebie technical and literally two of the contestants managed to even complete it. Compare with past seasons, where making choux pastry and eclairs was something the entire tent could be safely entrusted with after episode three or four.

 

[lincolnic]

I meant to come back after last week's episode and ask this: what is it with this show and white chocolate? Is white chocolate a British Thing? I feel like it's an ingredient they use all the time but I almost never see it here.

Compare with past seasons, where making choux pastry and eclairs was something the entire tent could be safely entrusted with after episode three or four.

Yeah! It's weird, the general standard and level of quality has risen exponentially over the past few years, but the fact that no one could handle this one was shocking. Seemed like such an easy lay-up.

 

[Egarwaen]

Yeah! It's weird, the general standard and level of quality has risen exponentially over the past few years, but the fact that no one could handle this one was shocking. Seemed like such an easy lay-up.

I dunno, last season - or was it two seasons ago? - we had the Donut Debacle, where it appeared that not a single person in the tent had ever fried anything before. That was pretty appalling.

 

[lincolnic]

I dunno, last season - or was it two seasons ago? - we had the Donut Debacle, where it appeared that not a single person in the tent had ever fried anything before. That was pretty appalling.

To be fair, I think most people have never used deep fryers like they do on the show. Even though it's relatively simple, it's not a piece of kitchen equipment a lot of people own.