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great british baking show thoughts [3, 5, 8]
Friday, February 19th, 2021 02:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hyojungssi'm going to do this post without references because every time i try to google info about this show i get spoiled.
SPOILER-FREE commentary:
i just really like this show. it's very formulaic and of the season's I've watched there are no major differences lol. because of that I think you need to be in the right mood to watch it, like you don't really gain anything out of it but when you are stressed out or bored that's actually the perfect time to binge a season. because there is still tension, there's still excitement and the editing is really good. you get to choose your faves and look at mouthwatering food and maybe if ur lucky it will inspire u to get in the kitchen...
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SPOILERS for collection 3/5/8 of the show (netflix numbering).
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the great british baking show collection 8 (2020)
i watched this season first (last december starting at a friends house during a power outage) because 1) netflix queued it up first and 2) i didn't know if i'd want to watch multiple seasons so i had no reason to start with an old one.
i think from the beginning my favorite was peter and it pretty much stayed that way throughout? i love his attention to precision and also just his really cheery and passionate personality... he seems like such a joy to be around, and u can really tell that he loves what he does and came into the show because he loved it so much. seeing other seasons i can see other bakers who might have been influences for the way that he bakes and i think that's really neat. also of course he's so young and it's only natural i think to be biased towards people who are close to your age! his work is very neat and just very beautiful to look at generally (except for that week where he made the christmas jelly and almost flopped out. he was very lucky that someone else made worse stuff) and it's the main reason i want to rewatch this season at some point... i just want to see his bakes. though i do follow him on ig it's just not the same!
i also loved lottie even though in general she was a lot messier and chaotic. i think she exited the show at the right time but i really loved her charm so i was sad when she did leave. bakers who seesaw from really great (typically family recipes) to total messes (especially in the technical, you can tell they're just not as technically skilled and are a lot better at things they've practiced) can be so hard to root for bc u are rooting for them but u know that they're just not at that level T_T
first week losses are also so hard because it's usually bakers that just mess up 3 times in a row and ur like i really wish i could see the rest of your potential but u did deserve it..... :( but second week is the one that upset me because 1) iirc to me the person who got saved got saved because of their history of ideas (and to keep the show a little more interesting the next week) rather than because they had the potential to pull of their bakes properly LOL... and i remember the following week, one of the other bakers used an ingredient given to them from week 2's loss and was like this one's for you since u didn't get to show it T__T gutted... the fact that this was the pandemic bubble season that was filmed in a condensed time makes it more special to me.
the semifinal was seriously the toughest episode to watch because u had two good bakers and two who were really inconsistent and i know the choice between them was hard and the fanbase got like super up in arms because of who got kicked, especially considering how the final episode turned out. that being said the final was so close.... toughest choice in the history of finals or something like that. thinking of the show as a total arc i'm glad who won won, but i do feel bad for the other candidate! and v proud of their improvement, not that they were horrible at the start but just that they really demonstrated and strengthened their skill over the show!!
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the great british baking show collection 3 (2015?)
i watched this season next because kaia said it was her favorite! my memory of this is actually rusty because no primacy effect no recency effect soim going to wikipedia fingers crossed i dont see anything ok the pbs website has saved me!! i watched this right after season 8 i think, probably the same week or the week after.
i can't even decide who my one favorite baker from this season was... i would say i really liked tamal and flora. tamal was so much fun i have these screenshots saved in my memes folder: "I hate you. I hate all of you. / I mean, I love my fellow bakers." i really liked his personality and earnesty, and also thru the season his friendship with nadiya. flora is another youngest kiddo soft spot and her strength definitely lied in things looking prim and pretty but her flavors were lacking? style over substance a lot of the time... because of uhhh reasons i knew she wasn't going to reach the final and i was like :( to kaia about it but kaia said her narrative arc came to an appropriate close and i think i'd agree with that. i was definitely rooting for both of them to have successful bakes all throughout, just rly wow the judges esp because their bakes were hit or miss a lot of the time!
i think ian and alvin were also bakers i was fond of, it was very satisfying to see ian's creations and i love when bakers use their own homegrown ingredients in the bakes it makes it very personal... ian is one of those bakers who started out really well but couldn't really surpass their own level by /that much/.
if i remember correctly, the final episode consisted of one baker doing really well in all three challenges and the other two only doing slightly, but noticeably worse. i actually did spoil myself for the winner of this one not by wikipedia but because i went into the netflix recs of the season and the winner's show(?) was there so i was like...... well. technically i didn't know they were the winner but it just became very predictable is all and took out some of my tension but i do remember their final bakes being v good so it's not like there would have been much of a battle!!
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the great british baking show collection 5 (2017)
after season 3 i ended up hopping around to watch the first ep of each of the seasons to look for bakers i really liked LOL. the problem is that i looked up info and discussions and i of course spoiled myself for some of the seasons. thankfully i did not spoil myself for this one. but i watched the first 2 eps of the season back then and just watched the rest of the 8 this week to procrastinate on my group projects :)
my favorites.... when i tweeted about losing favorites in eps 6-8 it's because i lost favorites in eps 6-8. julia and yan...... i was like shocked when i found out julia was 21 and married. but i really grew to like her she's very charming... i had remembered reading in a discussion that peter (season 8) reminded someone of yan either because of his precision or his equipment, and i think it was equipment only because yan does not know precision LOL... her science tools were cool but i do not actually think they helped her in an instance i can remember. julia tended to struggle i think partially because she didn't grow up with a lot of traditional british food but i was still really impressed by what she came up with. yan had her flavor hits too it was just... with a lot of technical misses aldkflskd it's like she had the right ideas, even technically when she was able to say out loud what she was supposed to do but it just didn't execute right most of the time? which was disappointing.
liam... liam..... so fond of that kid he was doing so well actually at this stage of the show and his flavors always sounded so good... he just had a bad week.... like this season i was saying i knew who two of the finalists would be from the middle of the show and it was just about who the third one was. again for... reasons i was pretty sure liam wouldn't make it in but i was disappointed in that because he honestly did have the potential to be a finalist mostly because the other top5 candidates were also seesaws... the week he was eliminated was fair but it was sad :( good flavors and just endearing and striving for better, and again the generation gap was really cute lol
my other favorite was kate!! i think she really stepped up as a fave sometime after julia left, because i remember the week she got star mainly for her cake i was like man that shouldve been [someone else] lol sldjkfldf but i really like her now. she's a history nerd and the running joke about her mistakes being a draw for a future husband and the strainer in front of her face (crying emoji) and she got her masters in occupational health and safety or something like that i just think she's neat!! and she really had a ton of bad moments and was close to getting kicked too many times. i thought she'd end up like [redacted] from a different season but she did soooo well in the final two signatures... it was so funny like kate smashing the signatures and bottoming in the technicals. but anyway i was also so proud of her final showstopper because she usually sucks at presentation and precision so i was like she's going to flop at this (crying emoji) but hers was so beautiful. i did not anticipate the final episode being the 1v1 that it was looool... but i really enjoyed it. also winner of the season deserved.
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i want to watch another season but i have to find one that i haven't been spoiled for LOL i'd just rather not know who the winner is on day 1. i like prue and noel so i'd rather watch the later seasons but i think i might have to go earlier which is fine. it's just a question of if i do that now when i am supposed to be doing work or if i go attempt to be responsible. you already know the answer to this.
SPOILER-FREE commentary:
i just really like this show. it's very formulaic and of the season's I've watched there are no major differences lol. because of that I think you need to be in the right mood to watch it, like you don't really gain anything out of it but when you are stressed out or bored that's actually the perfect time to binge a season. because there is still tension, there's still excitement and the editing is really good. you get to choose your faves and look at mouthwatering food and maybe if ur lucky it will inspire u to get in the kitchen...
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SPOILERS for collection 3/5/8 of the show (netflix numbering).
︾
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the great british baking show collection 8 (2020)
i watched this season first (last december starting at a friends house during a power outage) because 1) netflix queued it up first and 2) i didn't know if i'd want to watch multiple seasons so i had no reason to start with an old one.
i think from the beginning my favorite was peter and it pretty much stayed that way throughout? i love his attention to precision and also just his really cheery and passionate personality... he seems like such a joy to be around, and u can really tell that he loves what he does and came into the show because he loved it so much. seeing other seasons i can see other bakers who might have been influences for the way that he bakes and i think that's really neat. also of course he's so young and it's only natural i think to be biased towards people who are close to your age! his work is very neat and just very beautiful to look at generally (except for that week where he made the christmas jelly and almost flopped out. he was very lucky that someone else made worse stuff) and it's the main reason i want to rewatch this season at some point... i just want to see his bakes. though i do follow him on ig it's just not the same!
i also loved lottie even though in general she was a lot messier and chaotic. i think she exited the show at the right time but i really loved her charm so i was sad when she did leave. bakers who seesaw from really great (typically family recipes) to total messes (especially in the technical, you can tell they're just not as technically skilled and are a lot better at things they've practiced) can be so hard to root for bc u are rooting for them but u know that they're just not at that level T_T
first week losses are also so hard because it's usually bakers that just mess up 3 times in a row and ur like i really wish i could see the rest of your potential but u did deserve it..... :( but second week is the one that upset me because 1) iirc to me the person who got saved got saved because of their history of ideas (and to keep the show a little more interesting the next week) rather than because they had the potential to pull of their bakes properly LOL... and i remember the following week, one of the other bakers used an ingredient given to them from week 2's loss and was like this one's for you since u didn't get to show it T__T gutted... the fact that this was the pandemic bubble season that was filmed in a condensed time makes it more special to me.
the semifinal was seriously the toughest episode to watch because u had two good bakers and two who were really inconsistent and i know the choice between them was hard and the fanbase got like super up in arms because of who got kicked, especially considering how the final episode turned out. that being said the final was so close.... toughest choice in the history of finals or something like that. thinking of the show as a total arc i'm glad who won won, but i do feel bad for the other candidate! and v proud of their improvement, not that they were horrible at the start but just that they really demonstrated and strengthened their skill over the show!!
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the great british baking show collection 3 (2015?)
i watched this season next because kaia said it was her favorite! my memory of this is actually rusty because no primacy effect no recency effect so
i can't even decide who my one favorite baker from this season was... i would say i really liked tamal and flora. tamal was so much fun i have these screenshots saved in my memes folder: "I hate you. I hate all of you. / I mean, I love my fellow bakers." i really liked his personality and earnesty, and also thru the season his friendship with nadiya. flora is another youngest kiddo soft spot and her strength definitely lied in things looking prim and pretty but her flavors were lacking? style over substance a lot of the time... because of uhhh reasons i knew she wasn't going to reach the final and i was like :( to kaia about it but kaia said her narrative arc came to an appropriate close and i think i'd agree with that. i was definitely rooting for both of them to have successful bakes all throughout, just rly wow the judges esp because their bakes were hit or miss a lot of the time!
i think ian and alvin were also bakers i was fond of, it was very satisfying to see ian's creations and i love when bakers use their own homegrown ingredients in the bakes it makes it very personal... ian is one of those bakers who started out really well but couldn't really surpass their own level by /that much/.
if i remember correctly, the final episode consisted of one baker doing really well in all three challenges and the other two only doing slightly, but noticeably worse. i actually did spoil myself for the winner of this one not by wikipedia but because i went into the netflix recs of the season and the winner's show(?) was there so i was like...... well. technically i didn't know they were the winner but it just became very predictable is all and took out some of my tension but i do remember their final bakes being v good so it's not like there would have been much of a battle!!
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the great british baking show collection 5 (2017)
after season 3 i ended up hopping around to watch the first ep of each of the seasons to look for bakers i really liked LOL. the problem is that i looked up info and discussions and i of course spoiled myself for some of the seasons. thankfully i did not spoil myself for this one. but i watched the first 2 eps of the season back then and just watched the rest of the 8 this week to procrastinate on my group projects :)
my favorites.... when i tweeted about losing favorites in eps 6-8 it's because i lost favorites in eps 6-8. julia and yan...... i was like shocked when i found out julia was 21 and married. but i really grew to like her she's very charming... i had remembered reading in a discussion that peter (season 8) reminded someone of yan either because of his precision or his equipment, and i think it was equipment only because yan does not know precision LOL... her science tools were cool but i do not actually think they helped her in an instance i can remember. julia tended to struggle i think partially because she didn't grow up with a lot of traditional british food but i was still really impressed by what she came up with. yan had her flavor hits too it was just... with a lot of technical misses aldkflskd it's like she had the right ideas, even technically when she was able to say out loud what she was supposed to do but it just didn't execute right most of the time? which was disappointing.
liam... liam..... so fond of that kid he was doing so well actually at this stage of the show and his flavors always sounded so good... he just had a bad week.... like this season i was saying i knew who two of the finalists would be from the middle of the show and it was just about who the third one was. again for... reasons i was pretty sure liam wouldn't make it in but i was disappointed in that because he honestly did have the potential to be a finalist mostly because the other top5 candidates were also seesaws... the week he was eliminated was fair but it was sad :( good flavors and just endearing and striving for better, and again the generation gap was really cute lol
my other favorite was kate!! i think she really stepped up as a fave sometime after julia left, because i remember the week she got star mainly for her cake i was like man that shouldve been [someone else] lol sldjkfldf but i really like her now. she's a history nerd and the running joke about her mistakes being a draw for a future husband and the strainer in front of her face (crying emoji) and she got her masters in occupational health and safety or something like that i just think she's neat!! and she really had a ton of bad moments and was close to getting kicked too many times. i thought she'd end up like [redacted] from a different season but she did soooo well in the final two signatures... it was so funny like kate smashing the signatures and bottoming in the technicals. but anyway i was also so proud of her final showstopper because she usually sucks at presentation and precision so i was like she's going to flop at this (crying emoji) but hers was so beautiful. i did not anticipate the final episode being the 1v1 that it was looool... but i really enjoyed it. also winner of the season deserved.
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i want to watch another season but i have to find one that i haven't been spoiled for LOL i'd just rather not know who the winner is on day 1. i like prue and noel so i'd rather watch the later seasons but i think i might have to go earlier which is fine. it's just a question of if i do that now when i am supposed to be doing work or if i go attempt to be responsible. you already know the answer to this.
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Date: Fri, Feb. 19th, 2021 08:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Mon, Feb. 22nd, 2021 04:41 am (UTC)