SirOsisOfLiver

Is the quality of the contestants dropping? No argument from me, and I was glad they took a break instead of putting in contestants straight out of school. But my issue is the challenges. I've read plenty of comments on here complaining about "too many monsters" but I think this is pushing it to the other extreme. It's like nothing else matters except doing a pretty face. Go back to some previous seasons, find challenges that worked and do them again if need be. The TV industry seems to think that everything MUST be changed every season. Every season MUST be "fresh" and "different" and "never done before". Blech. Or maybe I'm just a grumpy old fart.

Martha is from UK season 5 along with Chetna, Richard the builder, Lavender Norman and Iain of Baked Alaska fame. Don't know what season PBS called it.

Unpopular opinion, probably, but I'm rapidly being bored to tears by this show. Make a Disney character. Make a princess. Make a fairy. Make a queen. Make a cutesy high school monster girl. Remember back when the show started and people created entire bodies and extra heads and limbs and wings and things that moved and lit up? Remember how astounded people were at how much these people could create in such a short time? Now it's been reduced to make a pretty face. Almost no manufacturing or construction. Rarely if ever see them doing anything with wardrobe - it just magically appears now. It's become a makeup competition. It's not what I want to watch for an hour.

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Meat and meat and meat and meat... Lamb chops for breakfast. Going out for a run? Eat a side of beef first! As a meat lover, I found myself thinking that some veggies might be nice.

From the documentary "Standing In The Shadows Of Motown", Joan Osborne and the Funk Brothers cover Heat Wave. Killer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8lAeyFipHg

One of my faves a friend used to mis-sing, by Deep Purple: Smoke on the water, and fire in the sky, right? Nope. Slow talking Walter, the fire engine guy.

I bet I'm older still, and believe me, it gets worse. Wait until you hit the stage where young'uns have never even HEARD of your favourite bands. Twenty-five years? Try forty or more. I watched a BBC documentary called "Forever Young: How Rock & Roll Grew Up" and one of the classic lines was, "I can't pretend I didn't grow up with the Beatles. I don't believe music started with Siouxsie & The Banshees."

I'm not sure what it is that left me feeling 'meh' about the whole show. All I know is, we'd be disappointed to miss an episode of GBBO. If we missed an episode of this, I'd probably just give a 'whatever' shrug. Then again, I have a bit of a bias in that my experience has been that an American redo of any British show is always a pale imitation and generally eye-rollingly lame. The hosts, the contestants, the challenges, judge Johnny - they all felt like weak copies of the real thing.

Gulp - unpopular opinion time, maybe. Could men do all these things? Certainly we could, if our bodies had been biologically designed to work that way. It's not like women do these things by strength of will or something, right? I'll go duck for cover now.

I got faked out. I was sure the other would be named the winner. I have to say, I found the fawning over Queen Mary to be a little excessive, particularly by Johnny. That needs to be dialed back if there's a sequel.

For those who aren't aware, this is a remake of a British show called "SAS: Who Dares Wins" which has had two seasons already. The Brits also did a show called "Special Forces: Ultimate Hell Week" where they brought in special forces vets from other countries to test the contestants. One of the American SEALS from that show is "Ray" on The Selection. You can also look for a series called "Navy SEALS: BUDS Class 234" which was on Discovery Channel. All very similar in that it's civilians being tested to the extreme by people you wouldn't want to cross.

"I absolutely refuse to believe that a baker of her experience has never heard of a snicker-doodle." They may not be as common as you think. I'm Canadian and I'd never heard of them before, so I'm not surprised that a Brit hasn't.

Nadiya's season was season 6 on BBC and it had 4 Masterclasses, plus a Christmas Masterclass which came out a couple of months later.

It's hard to imagine that her injury would just cure itself overnight. Doesn't she face another week of rehearsing? How can she practice? I thought Melvin was awful but he didn't deserve to be punted that way. Anastasia should have taken the high road and withdrawn. The show looks bad because of it. It'll look even worse if she can't compete next week. Dumb decision by everyone, in my opinion.

With all the talk about bad blood between BBC and Love Productions, it makes one wonder what happens with a show like Great British Sewing Bee when it comes time for renewal.

I totally agree, dubbel zout. It sounds like code for, "diversity will be more important than quality". It already sounds like it's doomed to be eye-rollingly bad. And I was not a fan of the hosts. At all.

For what it's worth, I thought "Back In Time For The Weekend" was even better. If you liked the first, you'll love the sequel. Not so foody, but very entertaining and informative.

For the Mary Berry fans: In 2015, BBC did a 6-part series called "Back In Time For Dinner". They took a family back to the 1950s, remodelled their home and furnishings to the period, then took them through the decades a year every day, using food as the driver, but delving more into the social and cultural changes. Mary is on a couple of episodes, including a brief stint of her as a TV presenter from the 1970s, advising housewives on how to best deal with this newfangled appliance called a deep freeze. The show was so successful that BBC did it again in 2016 with a new 6-part series called "Back In Time For The Weekend". Same idea. They took a lovely family back in time from the 1950s up to the modern age, focusing on the social and technological changes. They're both very entertaining and educational, particularly to us in North America. The cultural differences between us and Britain are very obvious. especially back in the 50s-60s. I can't remember a time when we didn't have a fridge, but apparently very few homes had one in the early 1960s in Britain, for example. Lovely families, particularly interesting to see the moms and daughters and the cultural changes. You can't tell much from looking at the guys, but a quick glimpse at the hair and clothing of the women tells you exactly what decade they're in. Highly, highly recommended. Depending on your age, you'll have lots of deja vu moments and plenty of genuine amusement. You can find them on a certain video site, but beware, you'll end up wanting to binge-watch all the episodes. BBC does this stuff so well, and it's mostly about the casting. Again.

There's a joke out there about The Roadkill Cafe where the menu features dishes like Flat Cat, Chunk of Skunk, Smear of Deer and Poodles 'n' Noodles. The slogan is "You kill it, we grill it!". I always think of it when discussion comes up about Ian's drive-thru larder.

A topic already existed. Maybe you didn't scroll down far enough past the ad (or the space where the ad would be if it wasn't blocked).

If it can work in Australia, why couldn't it work in the U.S.? For me, it's entirely possible, as long as, (a) Don't cast assholes and (b) Don't show drama, even if it happens. Contestants on Masterchef Australia live in the same house for MONTHS. If they have any drama, we don't see it. Great Aussie bake off worked because the people were nice and helpful to each other. American producers think we all want to see screeching backstabbing bozos. The love for GBBO would seem to indicate that the problem with American shows isn't Americans, it's the casting and editing. Distance isn't the issue. Casting from the same flawed premise is the issue.

For those of you who might be interested, the music for the show is available for download from Amazon or iTunes. Look for Tom Howe, Great British Bake Off. There are 18 tracks, most of which are only a minute or two long, but fans of the show will be smiling in recognition.

Recorded it again. First bout was about 8 minutes in, second bout didn't happen till about the 20 minute mark. Skim past several other matches, then show us one that lasted all of 5 seconds at the end. So bad. So very, very bad. I think I'm done. The editing of this show is just atrocious and the actual content isn't worth waiting for, despite Hot Girl In A Tight Dress.

We recorded the program and then watched the whole 2 hours in about 20 minutes. So much useless chatter and filler. Hosts add absolutely nothing to my viewing pleasure.