Great British Bake Off - Netflix Collection 8 - season thread *spoilers*

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So, fans of GBBO on Netflix might not have noticed that a new episode popped up last Friday. Last season and this one, the makers of the show are releasing each episode individually to Netflix, rather than making fans wait until the entire season/series is done before getting an opportunity to watch.

It's nice because you can't get spoiled over information, but you have to wait every week like a regular OTA show.

That being said - on to the seasonal discussion

Putting the entire series into a bubble, rather than the weekly coming and going is interesting. The foundation of the show usually allows competitors to practice the week before. Instead they are staying together for a shorter period of time in order to minimize risk of Covid. They are there for 7 weeks, which makes me think that they do get a couple of days practice prior to the next "weekend" of competition. It's typically 10 episodes, which would make me think that they would quarantine for 5 weeks while allowing cleanup, staging, and rest periods. Instead, they are quarantining for 7 weeks, which gives a couple of days practice for each episode.

Who can leave their jobs for 7 weeks so that they can film a tv show? Is it big enough in Britain that no one would really argue? Or did they choose people specifically who could leave their jobs for 7 weeks. There is always at least one young person, who is usually a college student, so I would hope that he would still be able to do his schoolwork online, but maybe it was filmed in the summer break (or he took the term off).

That being said, I haven't learned their names yet and probably won't until further into the season, as repetition is required for me to learn them. I did like the fact that the young guy really killed it. He's such a cutie.

 

That was awesome. As was the dude who was walking his dog (one of the Marks?) along with his wife and the dog suddenly darts to the side, yanking the dude off screen. I just lost it. I love that they kept it in.

 

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I completely agree. US shows seem to think that drama must be created through conflict with each other, rather than conflict over the topic. Top Chef has conflict with contestants, but there are plenty of times where they help each other out. I like those seasons better. Some people found them boring. The respect that the bakers give each other in GBBO is what makes me enjoy watching it time after time.

 

I agree. Sculpture type stuff like this is problematic when it's not something you do often. However, they really didn't judge them for perfection on it. They just wanted to see if it evoked who they were. Peter was smart in choosing a head that didn't really have a face or hair (the Sir Chris Olympic dude).

I think Bob Marley would have worked had she gotten more of the face.

In reality, the task is to see if you can support multi-tiered cake without it falling apart and falling over. None of them used rice crispies in order to lighten the load, so I'm guessing they weren't allowed. Same goes with supports between some of the layers. I think that was the real challenge. They were allowed some supports, but not a lot.

 

So week 2 - I pulled out names, but will still give some descriptions to try to remind who is who.

My thoughts so far - Matt Lucas is growing on me. Aside from the intro last week, his schtick felt a bit forced. He was funnier this week. It seems like the technical bakes are easier this season than last - at least, so far. I love the mix of accents. And I think I have a crush on Peter.

Mak (serious dark hair and silver beard with a very short forehead) goes home. Not a surprise, really. He didn't follow the brief on what was required. You were supposed to mold your biscuits and he just built them out of squares. Rowan bothers me. His vests are cute, but he is way overboard on what he plans, and it never looks good.

I still love Peter (youngest in the tent and who got star baker last week). He's going to be a force to reckon with in the tent. He seems quite skilled in comparison to many others.

Noel was teasing Sura quite hard over her mistake of knocking over Dave's pineapple upside down cakes last week. She took it well and kept laughing, which is good.

I've seen some online chatter thinking that Matt and Noel were being too mean in their teasing. It seemed pretty mild to me. Maybe it's the difference between American and British sensibilities. It admonished Matt Lucas for saying they had 5 minutes left when they had 15. The writer of the article seemed to think that was cruel. However, the writer has no idea if they were telling them beforehand that it was going to be an incorrect time call. Besides that, I'm sure time calls are filmed multiple times here and there to get the funniest take.

 

I agree. However, I'm guessing that the difference is that Rowan at least tried to mold his biscuit, whereas Mak didn't. I'm sure Rowan will be going home soon as well.

I'm a fan of soft cookies over crispy ones as well. I think the difference is that they only look at biscuits as the crispy ones. They do have cookies that are softer and are fine with those. But a biscuit means something very specific to them, rather than a general "cookie" does for us.

 

Well, Rowan went out like expected this week. Putting so much polenta/cornmeal into a soda bread to make it feel gritty is just too much. He had such grandiose ideas, but they were, for the most part, bad. He's all about being artistic than flavor. They never value style over substance.

I was glad Hermine got a handshake for her salmon and cheese bread. I was surprised. I wanted her to have chive butter to go with it. Everyone just seemed to make, for the most part, plain butter (not everyone). Paul wanted something unique and she gave it to him.

I think Peter's reliance on gluten free stuff is going to bite him sooner or later. He keeps ending up in the middle of the pack because of it. I'd hate to see him as a one trick pony. He seems to know a lot about baking and has some great flavor combos.

 

I do like the fact that Paul (and Prue) will participate in the introductions with the hosts. They started it last season (IIRC) and Paul isn't afraid to make fun of himself. I think they were jealous that Noel and Sandi were having all the fun.


Obviously not a lot of us are watching. Sura was eliminated last week. It really isn't a surprise after how she performed this week. I did like her, though. She seemed like a sweet woman. Linda seems to be growing into her own. The way she looked the first week, I didn't expect it to happen.


I found an article on how they are doing the series bubble. They film 2 days on, 2 days off. Everyone had to self-isolate for 9 days and take 3 tests for Covid before they could enter the hotel. The hotel houses all cast and crew alongside 20 hotel staff members, 80 producers, and around 20 children, chaperones, and dog walkers. They also built 12 practice kitchens for the bakers to use on their days off. I guess one for each baker.