Aulty

Someone go and toss an Omeprazole into Mt. Doom, to help with that sudden case of heartburn 🙃

My father is a professional furniture maker and has his own business so this a bit more relateable to me than the jewellery show. As impressive as the big structures are, sometimes (I watched the first season too) I wonder if it would be more appropriate to see them do something like apprentice pieces, which are smaller or miniature versions of furniture with a focus on proper joins or other techniques. Or some upcycling like they do on Money for Nothing. I think that would be a realistic for a DIY wood worker to do. I don't know how I feel about giving them immunity in the short challenge. Last season too there were a couple of people sent home because others with a worse built had immunity. Tom Dyckhoff, for those who remember this show, was the presenter on the OG Great Interior Design Challenge with Daniel Hopwood and Sophie Robinson (I miss that show) They get to work with some nice woods on that show

I liked Bonnie's (?) pearl necklace, but very few other things. It doesn't help that Katherine wears quite nice jewellery that makes the jewelers' output look a bit crafty in comparison. We did Sepia casting in school. I think there is even a brief glimpse of it in LOTR. Its quite versatile, but the pieces need a good polishing. I wonder why the Pottery Throwdown works so well, but All That Glitters struggles to draw me in. I miss the Great Allotment Challenge, and the Painting Challenge. At least the second season of the woodworking show with Mel just started again.

Its funny that I like the updates but everyone else hates it 😄 In my defense, I was in hospital when I watched the first 4. The judges just aren't very verbose, are they? Peter Gordon is ok, but Jordan in particular doesn't bring much original commentary and that unexcitable, half-asleep expression that I associate with the Billie Eilish generation. The show needs a Maggie Breer (Matt and Maggie will not be back for the next Australian Bake Off btw.)

Are the producers running their challenge ideas through a 'what would Francis do with that' filter nowadays? Asking them to produce something that looks like something else in 2 of the 3 challenges is a bit much. I prefer flavour driven tasks. Macarons inspired by classic (fruit or nut) pies for example.

Thx, I was wondering what he did to lose weight. He doesn't have that haggard look people get when the've had gastric band or bypasses fitted. Good for him.

I watched the first few episodes and imho the show is vastly improved. It was already a step up when they switched to the proper 3 challenges format last (?) year. The new presenter is very likable and the duo already feels like a better match. The comedy bits feel less exaggerated. And they've finally added more Maori expressions to the standard Bake Off platitude catalogue. The new judges are alright and give good feedback - they feel a lot warmer, much more like the Canadian duo.

I thought this was one of the better ones. Their specials have become very formulaic, especially the predictable 'lets build somewhere to sleep' or 'we've camped in the middle of a road, track, exhibit' bits, but when they package it right, it is still entertaining. Because I worked in motorsport for a bit, I've actually driven all 3 cars (my boss had the Audi as his private car and he often sent me out in it to run errands). I always liked the Evo (8+9) best. James was very lucky to walk away from that crash with just a couple of bruises. How were they allowed to do this without helmets??

The makers of GBBO have a new show starting on E4 and All 4 next Monday: a hair styling show called The Big Blowout I remember the BBC's short-lived show 'Hair' that they were sued over by Love Production (=GBBO's studio). Wonder if it's similar to that or if they've found a more interesting angle. Styling without cutting or colouring became a bit repetitive. They also have some piano talent scouting show coming, but that sounds like a whole different kettle of fish

This is the first episode that made me bemoan the weekly release schedule. Thats a good thing, the story telling is finally getting somewhere. I find it a bit odd that the last episode was titled 'Adar' when we really really didn't get much beyond the orcs chanting the name and only met him this week. I did enjoy that small glimpse of orc culture. I still think some of the dialogues in Numenor are a bit too ... modern? I do like Arondir, Ismael did a good job there. Didn't miss the Harfoots this week but I think they might become more interesting once their story gets merged with the others'. The scene between Durin the elder and Durin the younger was the opposite of what I expected. Love Disa. That scene between Theo and the old guy has me on tenterhooks now.

Didn't love this one either. The dialogues in Numenor were terrible. When the queen regent handed over the sword it felt very snow white and the huntsman. The orc tunnel scenes could've been a lot more menacing and longer. And that warg ... FFS The hobbit scenes were just ok, very Bilbo's party and speech. I hope the time they spend on that tribe pays off.

If only it was that easy. What Amazon bought for 250 million (outbidding Netflix) limits them to stories of the second age (Gandalf isn't in Middle Earth in the second age) and they mustn't show events from the LOTR or the Hobbit (those rights are with Warner iirc). The Tolkien estate is quite protective of their stuff and who can do what is a bit complicated. My money is still on him being one on the Blues.

The trusty Wayback Machine has one: Link

Do they still have the Bake Off jingle collection on shuffle repeat for the whole episode? That's what has spoiled every Kiwi season for me so far.

New season has just started this week on BBC 1. They replaced the female judge. Its a nice enough bunch an Katherine is doing a neat job presenting again.

Who should do the narration on an Eleanor or Fabiola episode? An old, curmudgeonly, thespian for Eleanor? Or William Shatner would be fun. Fabiola's might be some Stephen Hawking style, robot voice? Or someone really quirky for juxtaposition's sake?

I'd love to see Aparna meeting a male version of herself and hear what she has to say about him.

I have to take this interview with a healthy dose of salt. Isn't season 4 in the can already? And even if it isn't, why is he so vague about John McEnroe being in it, and why wouldn't he be? - they would've nailed this down when Netflix announced the final 2 seasons.

Looks like season 4 will have a slice of Dan Levy in it. I love that. https://www.instagram.com/p/ChclOmts8f- Levy will be joined in the show’s fourth season by fellow newcomers Anthony Lexa, Thaddea Graham, Felix Mufti, Marie Reuther, Alexandra James and Imani Yahshua. A few extra bits: Season four of the Netflix drama sees Otis and Eric arrive at Cavendish Sixth Form College following the closure of Moordale Secondary. Meanwhile, Maeve is at the prestigious Wallace University in the US being tutored by Mr Molloy. Molloy (Dan Levy) is a famous author and Maeve’s US course tutor at her Ivy League college.

How many 'revamps' has the American version had so far? Thats some determination to make it work. The US is a big market, to try and recreate the 'magic' this show has in the UK must be a challenge. Especially with so many other cooking shows available to viewers.

If you are from the UK, maybe she reminds you of Anita Rani. Thats who I first thought of.

I finished the last couple of episodes and I wonder whether the American-Indian people they cast have they wrong, or at least a slightly skewed, idea of what matchmaking is. Like they can outsource finding 'The One' rather than finding 'A One'. Thats why Sima kept banging on that fulfilling 60-70% of their criteria should be enough. If the next season really is UK focussed, I'm interested to see how UK-Indians compare to the US lot because there are large SO-Asian communities in the UK. I liked the first girl Vinesh met and would be more interested in following her matchmaking story than watching both, Viral and Shital. Or Arshkeel's dentist girl.

bfffffffffff I got really excited when I say the new season available on Netflix but I wasn't a fan of them bringing back some of the season 1 crew because it already became quite clear back then that the process doesn't work well for them. At times it felt like a reality TV show, rather than a documentary. Aparna isn't really entertaining to watch. It never goes anywhere with her. Nadia, its very telling that she said she wants a boyfriend, not husband. Pradhyuman found himselft a very pretty girl, it was odd that they didn't show much of her family and the meeting of the families - they were big on that in season 1. Arshneel was very likable and his dad seemed like a very nice guy too - his reaction as a parent to the whole matchmaking business was more relaxed than I expected. I also felt Arsh's list of wants in his first meeting with Seema was the most realistic of the new bunch. The Pryanka Chopra and Nick Jonas references got very repetitive As with last season, for someone who is supposed to be one of the best matchmakers we see very little success on this programme.

Subscribing enemies to spam? I totally did that too 🤭 Get lost Ben, I can't take another round of this.