Blown Away Christmas

[Door County Cherry]

Coming Nov. 19, 2021

Quote

Glassblowers compete in a series of Christmas-themed challenges; the winner will receive a $10,000 cash prize, plus an additional $10,000 will be donated to his or her charity of choice.

 

Please put all discussion of the streaming special in this thread. Fair warning, since this will be a combined thread, there may be spoilers if you haven't finished it when you read it.  Enter at your own risk. 

[binky101]

I was happy, for the most part, with the glassblowers they decided to bring back for the special, and the challenges/ themes felt appropriate for the overall holiday concept. Interesting choices throughout, in terms of approaches to the themes/ challenges. It was fun to see talented people doing something that I still don't entirely understand, and learn (or re-learn) terminology and see various techniques for particular shapes and effects. The number of episodes was a disappointment, but I'm someone who nearly always wants more, so I can fully immerse myself in a world for a longer time.

[dleighg]

I enjoyed this, and agreed with the winner. It seemed more light-hearted than the "real" seasons. 

[Mabinogia]

59 minutes ago, dleighg said:

I enjoyed this, and agreed with the winner. It seemed more light-hearted than the "real" seasons. 

It was rather refreshing to agree with every elimination. I like this show. I liked them all so as it got closer to the end it got harder and harder to pick who I wanted to leave. It was a strong bunch, and a nice variety of styles. 

I did find the final pieces a bit underwhelming thought, but that might be the difference between watching it on TV and actually being surrounded by the work in 3D. 

[Passing Strange]

I liked all the artists, thought the prize was nice for a limited series, and enjoyed the themes for all the challenges. I was hoping the charities of the eliminated artists would get a small donation, though, as that happens sometimes. Never thought I'd miss Nick Uhas and I didn't, actually. I just really, really disliked Bobby Berk.

[dleighg]

7 hours ago, Passing Strange said:

I just really, really disliked Bobby Berk.

Is he "somebody"? I thought he had an air of pretentiousness, I guess with his repeated implication of his "cultured sense of art." 

[HurricaneVal]

I was happy with the mix of artists they brought back, I always wanted to see more from them.  I can't quibble with who left the show, or in what order, but I also felt the final show pieces to be extremely underwhelming. 

But what bugged me the most were the bumper interstitial still shots between scenes showing those cheap ass plastic Christmas ornament balls hanging from a tree branch that clearly showed they were cheap ass plastic Christmas ornament balls by featuring the seam fitting the two halves together.  I mean, whoever the set designer, director, cinematographer, or cameraperson couldn't look at that and go "Oh man, we should give that ornament a quarter turn so the seam doesn't show on that cheap ass Christmas ornament." 

I guess I understand why they couldn't use actual blown glass ornaments, considering one of the challenges was to create ornaments so they didn't want there to be any confusion for the viewers if they were looking at set decoration or competitive pieces, but still....  That seam bugged me almost as much as the missing raspberry on the Great British Baking Show intro!

Spoilered for anyone who hasn't seen the episode yet:

Spoiler

I had to laugh when the judges praised Kat's nutcracker, especially his prominent schnozz, when quite literally, standing there in the studio, was a ginormous nutcracker floor-to-ceiling decoration that Kat pretty faithfully reproduced in glass, including the giant schnozz.  I still think it was cute, and there was a lot of tiny detail she had to fiddle with to make it look right, and hanging it out of the stocking was also an inspired bit.  But....every time the bumper shot featured the nutcracker it made me wonder if Kat really does have a huge collection of nutcrackers at home, or if she was struggling for inspiration, saw the decoration, and thought "Hey, I can do that and talk about my grandma!"

 

Edited November 22, 2021 by HurricaneVal
Make my words more better

[Passing Strange]

8 hours ago, dleighg said:

Is he "somebody"? I thought he had an air of pretentiousness, I guess with his repeated implication of his "cultured sense of art." 

He thinks he is. 😄 He's an interior designer, currently on Queer Eye. Air of pretentiousness is spot on.

I hope the next host/judge is somebody with glass knowledge and experience.

[Mabinogia]

5 hours ago, Passing Strange said:

He thinks he is. 😄 He's an interior designer, currently on Queer Eye. Air of pretentiousness is spot on.

I actually love him on Queer Eye, he's my second favorite after my fellow corgi loving Antony, but he did come off VERY pretentious here. IDK if he was trying to play a part, and if so what part, or if without his posse he felt it was his time to shine, but I didn't care for him as much as I thought I was going to. I was excited when I saw he was hosting but by the end I was glad I wouldn't have to watch him anymore. 

I guess interior designer links somewhat with glass blower? In that he might use glass pieces in his design? That's a stretch. I know they probably couldn't because of season bias, but I wouldn't have minded one of the former contestants being the host, then just have two judges with glass blowing expertise judge and the host just host. That would eliminate the bias issue. 

[chaifan]

I hate single threads for multiple episodes, because you'll always get spoiled...  So I'm going to mark mine with headers:

Episode 1 - memories of past gifts.  Spoilers ahead...

I love that Nao did a food based "gift", and think she's totally right.  Gifts aren't always physical presents, they can be cherished memories.  I thought the mimosa glass was amazing. 

Alexander's planets were understated, but very elegant.  As a set they were just gorgeous.

Cat certainly deserved the win with the nutcracker and stocking.  Those were really impressive. 

And what the fuck?!?!?   How the hell did Edgar survive this round?  His catch a ball thing was crap.  Absolute crap.  And he admitted to forgetting the only thing that makes it an actual toy - the string!  Otherwise it's a cup and ball.  woo-hoo.  And he even left early.  Sorry, no, he should be out of there.

Andi's candy was abstract, yes.  But everyone knew it was candy.  And it was really cool.  And very artfully done.   She was robbed.  Totally robbed.

 

ETA:  I just noticed that on IMDB Nao's waffles & mimosa are pictured for Episode 2 - festive food.  But she did the bento box for that one.  Someone over there isn't paying attention to the actual episodes...

Edited November 26, 2021 by chaifan

[chaifan]

Episode 3 - Christmas Tree Ornaments

OK, you knew this was going to be a challenge.  I'm glad they included the tree topper, because I was thinking from the beginning that would be a challenge, but not enough to really stand on it's own.  Unless they're topping the White House tree or the tree at Rockefeller Square or something massive like that. 

I was disappointed that they criticized Kat on her color scheme.  It seemed very old world Christmas to me, fitting with the style of most of her ornaments.  I wonder if she told the judges that she was purposely doing a lot of green to "hide" the pickle.  Maybe it happened off screen?  I do agree that she should have taken the distance between the tree "branches" into consideration and made sure all of hers would hang properly.  (I kept thinking that if Deborah from Season 1 did this concept, she would have made a ton of green penises/dildos to "hide" the pickle.) 

I didn't like Nao's execution.  Fun concept, but I thought there wasn't a lot of finesse or precision in her letters.  It just didn't scream "damn, this had to come from one hella talented glass blower!"  I agree with Bobby on the color choice.  No, things don't have to be red and green, but it all looked like pulled carnival taffy.  I might have liked it better if they were all metallic or more vibrant colors, jewel tones, etc.  Just something a little bit Christmas-ier. 

I liked Alexander's concept and execution.  I loved the all clear theme, and really loved the crackled ornaments.  Strangely, his tree topper didn't do it for me, though.  But I thought his tree overall was on a higher level of execution than Nao's, and I think he should have stayed in the final.

 

[chaifan]

Episode 4 - Winter Wonderland Installation (Final)

OK, what's with Bobby and Katherine looking through pictures of the past creations?   Um, you know you have the real things right there in the studio.  Why are they looking at crappy photos?  (I really wonder if something happened to one of the creations, and this wasn't the original plan.)

Nao's amusement park was fun, and I really like how she conceptualized the roller coaster.  I don't understand what her original vision was for the ferris wheel, though.  If anyone knows of a picture/drawing of what she was originally going for, please provide a link.  Nao's installation was cute, but it did nothing for me from a "winter wonderland" standpoint.  I just don't think she fit the theme.

I loved how Kat was making and crushing glass and just having an awesome time doing it.  And yes, I thought it was hilarious that Bobby was enjoying the crushing sound as he was walking around, almost like some people like popping packing bubbles.  But Katherine just wasn't having it.  I loved the clear glass horseshoes.  I didn't get what she was doing during production, or even as she was laying them down, but then seeing that it represented the hoof prints in the snow.  Damn.  That was good.  The puppy butt was also really cute. 

To me, Kat was the clear winner, and I'm glad she got 1st place.  And I'm also glad that (to me, at least) it was a clear win, as I could see some people claiming that she got the pity vote because of her eyesight failing.  That is just so sad, and I hope she's still able to participate in the glass blowing and art world as her vision deteriorates.  OK, really I hope someone finds a cure or treatment or something, but failing that...

Wasn't thrilled with Bobby Berk as a host.  He wasn't horrible, but didn't add anything, either.  Katherine is a good judge, but her delivery of her scripted lines is just so forced and awkward.  If she's going to continue she really should get some acting lessons in. 

I'm sad we haven't seen anything about a full Season 3.  This is one show that could easily be done with Covid protocols in place.

 

[Mabinogia]

14 hours ago, chaifan said:

I didn't like Nao's execution.  Fun concept, but I thought there wasn't a lot of finesse or precision in her letters.  It just didn't scream "damn, this had to come from one hella talented glass blower!"  I agree with Bobby on the color choice.  No, things don't have to be red and green, but it all looked like pulled carnival taffy.  I might have liked it better if they were all metallic or more vibrant colors, jewel tones, etc.  Just something a little bit Christmas-ier. 

At my office the building does a bunch of theme trees. I think Nao's would have been a great kids tree. It looked very child like (not childish, like in a bad way, but geared towards something kids would enjoy). It was a cute idea but I agree that it didn't really show off great skill to me. 

Honestly, I wasn't "Blown Away" by any of the trees. Obviously, they are all super talented, I sure couldn't do any of that and it was interesting in how they each kind of showed off a different skill. I would say kat was showing off great attention to intricate detail (if you ignore the one detail of height lol) while Nao was showing her great whimsical creativity and Alexander showed extreme precision and perfection. 

[GaT]

I hate when Netflix lists special episodes of an existing show as a separate show, I almost missed this because I didn't see it listed. Instead of making it a separate show, they should show it as new episodes under the original They do this with the Great British Bake Off & it drives me crazy, there are 4 or 5 shows listed for that. That said, I'm glad to see this show back, even if it's only 4 episodes. I enjoyed it, & still don't know how Cat can do this when she's almost blind.

 

[TVbitch]

Happy Kat won but would have liked to see what Alexander could have done in the finale. I have to assume they didn't have enough time to do really great pieces, cuz to be honest, I was disappointed in a lot of the works. 

[AppleCore]

On 11/22/2021 at 9:24 AM, HurricaneVal said:

But what bugged me the most were the bumper interstitial still shots between scenes showing those cheap ass plastic Christmas ornament balls hanging from a tree branch that clearly showed they were cheap ass plastic Christmas ornament balls by featuring the seam fitting the two halves together.  I mean, whoever the set designer, director, cinematographer, or cameraperson couldn't look at that and go "Oh man, we should give that ornament a quarter turn so the seam doesn't show on that cheap ass Christmas ornament." 

This. So much this!!! For the love of Santa, spring for one glass ornament for the beauty shot!!!

Otherwise, I really enjoyed this run. I like to see talented people work on their projects without manufactured drama and plot twists thrown at them. I wish they had a little more time to complete their projects. The times seemed short, but they got a lot accomplished, so apparently it was enough. I am happy that Kat won. 

[Bruinsfan]

I really liked how supportive Kat and Nao were of each other. Really, everyone seemed to get along well, and there was no one to root against.

I agreed pretty well with all the winning selections this time around, but most of the other artists' work was good enough that I wouldn't have been outraged to see them win instead. Nao in particular struck me as a close second in the competitions she didn't win; the judges had some tough choices to make.