Ohmo

I'm not sure. I've had the feeling that Netflix has interviewed Jewish and Indian couples who've been married for many years and were matched by a matchmaker, but it wasn't necessarily Sima. In Aleeza's case, many of the Jewish couples they interviewed were much older than Aleeza and had been married for decades. She wouldn't be old enough to have been their matchmaker.

I understand what you're saying, too, and there's definitely a certain type of people who are attracted to doing reality TV. However, both Aleeza and Sima refer to matchmaking as their jobs. Presumably, Aleeza's paid comparably to what Sima's paid. We've only seen one marriage between Indian Matchmaking and Jewish Matchmaking, and Sima didn't set up that match. I'd just like to see the process actually work, even if it's retroactively. Couples who were matched before Netflix, but they can at least say, "Yes, Sima (or Aleeza) matched us in Year X. Either we got married in Year Y, or we've been in a serious relationship since we were introduced."

I just finished the season. Aleeza is fabulous! More please. That said, if this is her profession, I need to see a couple where the matchmaking has worked---a couple who's engaged or about to be married. After watching Indian Matchmaking and Jewish Matchmaking, it's feeling like I'm watching some very entitled people who have lots of money act immaturely and entitled, waste people's time, and not take the process seriously. Fewer Oris, Nadias (Indian Matchmaking), and Harmonies. More Arons (college professor), Pamelas, Stuarts, Fayes, and the Sikh cardiologist from Indian Matchmaking. I'm not Jewish (Aleeza makes me sad about that. Ha!), but I think chocolatine said it best. I could never choose the path Faye has chosen, but you gotta give her props. She seems earnest, genuine, and committed to a frum life. I respect that, I hope she's successful, and it'd be nice if we could see that type of maturity and success instead of this immature dating merry-go-round. I started watching these shows to see the development of actual relationships, but i feel like I'm watching a dating app on TV.

I just finished episode 3. I understand that physical attraction is necessary, but Harmonie is as obsessed with ripping someone's clothes off as Ori is about beautiful women. I'd rather ditch Harmonie from the series and focus on the college professor.

In addition to here, the subject of Luke being the winner is being discussed on Reddit and Twitter. I don't have access to Twitter, but during her last radio interview, Molly mentioned that posters are discussing the format of the show. In what I have been able to read on social media, people are making comparisons to last year. Luke seems like a nice guy, but I think it's a valid conversation with valid criticism. I hope the show pays attention because people are paying attention to the show.

https://listenupyall.com/2023/05/03/this-week-with-molly-recap-for-ep-9-of-the-spring-baking-championship-on-food-network/ Part 2, starting at 5: 28: "...you didn't see this, but we've had twists every episode. They just didn't show them all....Pretty much every episode....A lot of things are incorporated in our desserts that were actually twists."

In one of the episodes of the Mississippi radio show that Molly has done during the season, she said the twists still exist, but they weren't all shown.

It's an issue because recent winners (Jaleesa and Luke) have exposed the fact that there's a flaw in the system. There have been several years when the system has worked fine because those who appeared in the finals have shown over the course of time that they had demonstrated skill in the competition. I'm thinking Douglas, the winner of HBC from a couple years ago. He was a skilled pastry instructor and viewers had seen that skill demonstrated over the course of the finals. Specifically, the past two years have shown that people have been in the finals who were noticeably not as skilled as other competitors over the course of the competition. Less creativity, less execution, and less innovation overall, and those people have won the entire competition. I agree with those that say the rest of the competition is meaningless. This year, we saw Clement and Christian make beautiful creations time after time. Luke made a few, but not to the quality of Christian or Clement over a consistent basis. We watched it happen. If the network wanted to walk Christian, Clement, and Luke in off the street, have a $25,000 wedding cake competition over the course of five hours---ready set go, that would be one thing. However, by having a 10-episode competition, the implicit message that FN is sending is "This person is the BEST and MOST-SKILLED of all of these competitors. They have shown that over the course of time and the consistency of their work." In the past two years, when compared to those around them, Jalessa and Luke managed to win the last challenge with a lower level of skills, and they were considered "champions." When Luke is compared to Clement or Christian, he made a nice wedding cake, but he is not a champion in terms of the skills that Clement and Christian have. The same is true for Jalessa when it comes to Romy. To declare Luke a champion over Christian and Clement minimizes what we actually saw over ten episodes. You don't need a multi-episode competition if you're not going to reward anything but advancement. I watch Holiday, Spring, and Easter, and these last two SBCs are the only times I can remember where the championship has been awarded to someone when others have had noticeably superior skills throughout the competition.

I completely think they should raise the prize money for all of the Backing Championships. It used to be 50K a long time ago. They should go back to that. TOC's 100K.

That, as well as the fact the network isn't going to get contestants who are the caliber of Clement or Romy any more. Think about all the high-level artistry both of them did. Why do it? It doesn't seem to be rewarded. If I were Clement, I'd be seriously pissed. Christian as well. All three (Romy, Clement, and Christian) took risks throughout their respective seasons. Didn't matter at all. Nancy always likes to crow "This is the Spring (or Holiday) Baking Championship." Well, then JUDGE like it! It's seriously irritating to see this happen two years in a row! I really do think this is a Duff, Nancy, Kardea issue. I also watch Spring Baking Championship Easter and don't recall that show's judges having an issue. Henderson won this year, and he was strong throughout the competition. My eyebrows didn't raise when he won. It made sense given what he did over the course of the six weeks.

I thought he said they dried---that she should have re-hydrated them or ground them into a powder.

But even that argument (which I don't agree with for this length of a competition) doesn't hold water. Clement's engagement dessert was light years better than Luke's offering. The show can't have it both ways. Viewers can't taste, but we can see. Over the course of the entire series, Clement earned six tokens. His work was AMAZING! Whether Food Network likes it or not, I'd guess that most viewers view SBC (and others) as a cumulative process at least on some level. Luke couldn't even get INTO the final without the bake-off, and now suddenly he's outskilled BOTH Christian and Clement to take the ENTIRE competition? Simply put, no! I had Luke as solidly third. If Christian would have won, I would have been OK with it. What FN is trying to sell is that Luke and Jalessa are better than Romy and Clement. That is absolutely NOT true! (I want a bake-off between Romy and Clement.) The network should change the format if the judging is going to be this way. Make it $1,000 for a pre-heat and $2,000 for a main heat. Then total prize money before the finale and the top three are in the finals. I would be fine if Luke won $2K for that cake. Not $25K or the whole competition.

I'm going to be the cranky-ass poster. No way do I think Luke should have won. The judges need to stop judging a ten-week competition like it's one episode of Christmas Cookie Challenge. Christian and Clement are both stronger bakers than Luke, in my opinion. I'd probably put Clement first, Christian second, and Luke third. This season is the second year in a row that we've had two highly skilled French pastry chefs and neither won the competition. Luke didn't even have decorations on his cake until the last 15 minutes. Both Christian and Clement were more skilled and innovative over the course of the competition, in my opinion. I like this show, but the judging is leaving much to be desired.

I'm binging Seasons 2 and 3 of this show after watching Season 1 several years ago. Nadia was terrible to Shekar! He deserves someone much nicer. He is lovely, and he also deserves someone much better than that woman who didn't know the location of Ohio in the US. She was from LA. I'm from Ohio and have heard that comment more than once in my life. It made her look ignorant and entitled.

I always thought partridge was a small bird, as in partridge in a pear tree (the 12 Days of Christmas). Jet is terrific, and if you watched him as mentor on BBQ Brawl 3, he's quite good. I'd imagine (hope) Michael Voltaggio has to be happy for Mei, She used to work for him.

I like jet, think he's a genuine person, and an outstanding chef, but I don't think he was robbed at all. I like TOC and I watch a lot of competitive cooking shows, but I'm not a full-scale foodie. The significance of Daniel as a judge is lost on me. Are we talking Taylor Swift status in the world of cooking? People seemed to be falling all over themselves that he was there, including the other judges.

You're welcome Ellee. I'm never met a spoiler I won't read. Glad you enjoyed them. :)

A country music station in Mississippi is having Molly (the contestant) do recaps for some of the episodes https://listenupyall.com/mid-days-with-olivia/

The spoilers are back! I know the winner of TOC IV. It is...

A police officer moved the gun. It ended up on the kitchen counter. The police took Jonathan's bed apart. A shell casing fell out. They took pics of where it ended up but can't document where it was at the start. They don't have Brenda's DNA. They swabbed her hands for GSW. The DNA they thought they had ended up being Jonathan's blood on her hands, not a clear sample of her own DNA. They didn't try and get prints off the gun until after it had been tested for DNA, which obliterated any potential prints. She completely did it, IMO. I wish the foreperson of the civil jury hadn't said out loud that they would have convicted her in criminal court. While I agree with him, he just publicly tainted any possibility of a jury pool.

To use a sports analogy, the reality is that superstars get calls: Tom Brady and Peyton Manning got calls that a rookie NFL player would not get. Ditto LeBron. They paid their dues and they get calls. Even sports columnists know this to be true. Jet is the Peyton or Tom of TOC. He has the standing to petition like he did. He's earned the chops to do that. Jet essentially petitioned the ref for a call. I have absolutely no problem with it. TOC is just a different kind of competition. If you don't think LeBron, Tom, or Peyton ever did what Jet did, you've never seen them play.

Justin's curls are lovely. It's unfortunate that he doesn't think so.

My thought on that was that everyone has been saying over and over again that you have to play the game. Jet's an OG TOCer, and he knows that Guy always plays to the crowd. Jet did the same thing. I thought it was a clever move. Who knows? Maybe for TOC V, that will be a wildcard option---audience veto. This final four works for me. Either another woman wins and that streak continues, or Jet becomes the first man to win. That seems fitting. Simon, I beg you. Will you please hide the stuff that Justin puts in his hair? I'm Team Curls. My order of preference for an overall winner is Jet, Mei, Britt, Maneet

To my fellow TOC spoiler friends, I didn't forget you, but I have nothing to report. I get my Discovery+ access through Amazon. Every Sunday morning, the new episode is usually there, ready for me to watch and report. Today, no new episode. I've also noticed that HGTV's Rock the Block doesn't load early either. However, SBC usually loads early. I'll see what happens with that tomorrow. So, I guess we all have to wait for tonight...and watch commercials. Sigh...

I haven't paid attention through both of her episodes, but has she eaten all sandwiches with a knife and fork? I thought she ate Stephanie's with a knife and fork because it was wet from the au jus.