Halloween Wars - General Discussion

[40Love]

8 hours ago, Spunkygal said:

I just knew that Jewel would go apeshit when Elizabeth accidentally broke her unicycle but we didn’t see it if she did.

It was her fault it broke. Why  would she even put it on the set before the background had been painted. I knew it was a goner as soon as the Elizabeth started painting. Even with the bike they would have been in the bottom because their set was so empty compared to the other teams. Glad they were saved though. I like Elizabeth. She seems to be calm and steady with very little drama, which is probably what kept Jewell from losing her mind when the bike was broken. Elizabeth is too nice and non-combative to go ballistic on.

I would like the lady from the team that made the Frankenstein heart basket with the bow on top to tone the hell down. Everybody on the show is amazingly talented, special and a threat. You and your teammates are not the only ones. That's why you were all chosen to compete. When I heard her over-confidently describe that  heart basket my first thought was "wow that's kind of messy". Looks like the judges agreed. 

[mojoween]

Elizabeth knocked over the bike and Jewell broke it when she slammed it against the backdrop.

I admit that I fell asleep for a few minutes and didn’t rewind to see what I missed, so I'm lost how the winning team had time to do all of the amazing detail they did but Jewell’s team...didn’t.

Elizabeth’s clown was very well done but I couldn’t help but think that it looked a little like her.

[CherZ]

I like the leader lady but that Team should NOT have stayed. And who is Jewel sleeping with that they keep her around? Ugh - the clown was well done but the rest of it was so blank. Seriously. And she did pout and throw her (not so pretty) unicycle into the trash after it was, well, trashed.

That being said, serving crickets to the judges was a super-bad idea. Yuck.

Edited October 8, 2018 by CherZ

[Biosynth]

On ‎10‎/‎2‎/‎2018 at 6:38 PM, mlp said:

Thanks, Spunkygal.  I should have thought of that.  I did that and also looked at him on Google Images and he doesn't look familiar there at all.  I must have him confused with someone else.  

He's been on a lot of Verizon FIOS commercials.  The curly haired kid.  He made a lot of them and they were shown a lot too.

[notcreative enough]

Why would you put your delicate sugar on when someone is still walking on the piece to finish decorating. Wait until the last minute so nothing happens. It's not like it needed to attatched to anything.  And the girl crying about her broken flowers. Really calm down. She did flowers in both challenges wish she did something different. 

[Spunkygal]

11 minutes ago, notcreative enough said:

Why would you put your delicate sugar on when someone is still walking on the piece to finish decorating. Wait until the last minute so nothing happens. It's not like it needed to attatched to anything.  And the girl crying about her broken flowers. Really calm down. She did flowers in both challenges wish she did something different. 

The fake drama of past years continues and it usually revolves around some nitwit who put a sugar piece on early so that when they’re finishing, someone shatters it. My eyes almost roll out of my head and onto the HW set when that happens. 

Years ago, there was a holiday version of HW and it went away for a while. But I just heard that there will be a one show competition of Holiday Wars on November 25 and Jonathan will host. It will involve cake and sugar masters, so it is different from Holiday Baking Championship. Hard to get excited about a one show version but I’ll take it.

[Carolina Girl]

On 10/8/2018 at 9:10 AM, 40Love said:

I would like the lady from the team that made the Frankenstein heart basket with the bow on top to tone the hell down. Everybody on the show is amazingly talented, special and a threat. You and your teammates are not the only ones. That's why you were all chosen to compete.

I always like it when a team says "we're the ones to beat" after a single win as if they were playing king of the hill.  I've only seen one season - the Sugar Psychos of Season 6 - where there was a team that were consistent winners.  THEY were the ones to beat.   And no one did.

Edited October 9, 2018 by Carolina Girl
Got the information correct for the post

[Dr. Acula]

There may be individual talent spread thinly across the teams, but the end results being presented this season have generally been mediocre at best.  Some of them have been downright embarrassing.

And where's the creativity?  I thought flashlight mouse and franken-puppy were clever, though poorly executed, but otherwise the concepts have been completely unimaginative.  Not to mention the awful team names...

Edited October 10, 2018 by Dr. Acula

[seacliffsal]

Frankenstein was the name of the doctor, NOT the monster.  Sigh.  I'm tired of the repeat contenders.  Is there a lack of talent across the country or is there a lack of enthusiasm for participating in these types of competitions?

[40Love]

2 hours ago, seacliffsal said:

Sigh.  I'm tired of the repeat contenders.  Is there a lack of talent across the country or is there a lack of enthusiasm for participating in these types of competitions?

Right??!! Another new Halloween show debuted this week called "Halloween Cake Wars" (I think) Duff is the host. At least two of the contestants competed previously on the Halloween Baking Show (the one hosted by Carla, Zack and Lorraine). Pretty sure the guy was the first baker kicked off this season. Really? There's also at least one repeat contender on the Halloween Gingerbread competition! Come on!! There's got be other folks who want to be on the show.

[Spunkygal]

Four teams put their skills to the test to create displays that show what happens when a witch trades in her tired old broom for a brand new ride. Mick Garris of “Hocus Pocus” joins the judges.

Airs Sunday, October 14.

[Dr. Acula]

Does anyone know what time commitment is required to participate on one of these shows?  Is the whole season taped in a week?  2 weeks?  

Curious, because anyone who participates would have to leave their job/business for an extended period.  That might not be agreeable to some potential competitors, and result in repeat contestants...  the one willing to show up.

[Spunkygal]

16 hours ago, Dr. Acula said:

Does anyone know what time commitment is required to participate on one of these shows?  Is the whole season taped in a week?  2 weeks?  

Curious, because anyone who participates would have to leave their job/business for an extended period.  That might not be agreeable to some potential competitors, and result in repeat contestants...  the one willing to show up.

I am just guessing that it is filmed in a week. There’s only 5 episodes so no need to stretch it out longer than that. I wish Jeremy, who was the pumpkin carver on Jewel’s team in season 6, would return. He actually posted about his experience on the season 6 forum if anyone wants to go back and read it. But he didn’t have a good experience because of his teammates, so I can’t say I blame him. What if he had gotten stuck on her team again? The fur would fly then! We would have real carnage!

[Spunkygal]

I actually thought the team that did the “dealer-ship” should have won. Not just because of the gorgeous sugar work, but the witch, the shipwreck, the backdrop was really good. And didn’t Shinmin love their tasty treat? Also, I was pleasantly surprised that Jewel was more of a team player this time around. Since their pumpkin carver was the weakest, maybe NOW Jewel will see what a gem she had in Jeremy two seasons ago. Watched season 2 reruns today and those teams were amazing. I’ll see a flash of brilliance once in a while in recent seasons but nowhere close to the early seasons. 

[LexieLily]

And here we go with the complete meltdown and in-fighting of a Jewel-led team.

Jewel made a tasting treat where it was dipped in milk and the milk changed colors. How was that so novel and amazing that Shinmin kept raving about it?

[Spunkygal]

I would have been angry with Jewel’s pumpkin carver, too. Two years ago she picked on Jeremy for no season but this year, she and Elizabeth had good reason to be frustrated with this guy. He was slow and didn’t properly judge the size of the pumpkin for the piece. It could have been really great. 

[CherZ]

The motorcycle wasn't great and I am NOT a Jewel fan so I was happy to see the team go. I watched it on On Demand so I'm unsure if it was bleeped out when the show was on last night but a "shit" managed to escape their leader's lips during one of their frustrated moments. It made me laugh a bit.

I don't think the Zesty Zombies did a bad job! I'm wondering if they were picked on just because they won so much and the judges wanted to knock them down a peg or two. I thought the skate-boarding witch was pretty damn fun.

[mojoween]

I liked the carving of the winning witch, but hated the creature she was riding on.  Those two pieces didn’t mesh well.

It was beyond time for Jewel’s team to go. And her carver wasn’t very pleasant during the pre-show so no surprise that he was the stubborn weak link.

[BurntWaffle]

I thought the Dealer-"Ship" piece should have won. The level of detail and cohesiveness was some of the best I've seen on the show.

Although the Big Beastie ride was pretty cool, it had an unfinished look to it. Something felt disjointed about it.

I'm pulling for Zesty Zombies*, but their piece was kinda a mess. The witch looked really generic, especially compared to the other witches. I do like how they put a bandage around the witch's hand, in tribute to Shelby's injury.

 

* Full Disclosure: I'm slight-crushing on Shelby, even though I don't know where that girl's head is at times. *LOL*

Edited October 16, 2018 by BurntWaffle

[Spunkygal]

The remaining teams pull out all the stops to create stunning and scrumptious Halloween-themed displays that bend time and space to show their vision of Halloween time travel. Gaten Matarazzo of Stranger Things is special guest judge.

Airs Sunday, October 21.

[lh25]

I agree that the Dealer-ship piece was really gorgeous, esp. the sugar work.  But to me, it didn't really meet the challenge to show the witch's new ride.

[Spunkygal]

Monsters of Mayhem deserved to go home. That Viking theme was ridiculous, although the character on the right had a great face and the house wood grain was brilliant. I loved the King Arthur display —the ghost, the sword, Arthur’s face — were all impressive. That ghost really looked like it was floating. I can’t believe the chick on the space rocket team accidentally made the cookies with salt instead of sugar and never tasted it! Yuck! She’ll never make that mistake again. But their display was pretty good. I’m hoping for awesomely spooky creations next week for the finale. 

[crazycatlady58]

How do you do that? I know they are both white and granular  but the texture  and smell are very different . 

[mojoween]

And when you are presenting something for judging, don’t you taste it first?

I honestly have to say I didn’t really get the time travel theme and found it kind of confusing.  And how are s’mores relevant to the Viking era?

I hated that Chinese food box small scare so much.  They bitched about that one guy not using enough sugar but some pumpkin noodles were fine?

[mlp]

Overall, I thought the King Arthur display was best although it reminded me more of something along the lines of Banquo's ghost than Halloween.  The space travel one was OK but I didn't like the alien.  It looked like The Blob with a mask on.  The Viking one had some good parts like the logs and one of the faces but the concept required explanation, never a good thing in these competitions, and some of it looked sloppy.

[Spunkygal]

The final two teams face off in one last epic showdown; the team that can best illustrate a terrifying worldwide outbreak and the race for an antidote will be crowned the champions. Actress and horror culture icon LeeAnna Vamp serves as guest judge.

Airs Sunday, October 28.

[mojoween]

The trickster Viking in the front was just a carved head, there was no body, which must be why the arm fell to the ground.  And the carving looked very sophomoric compared to her full figure in the back.  Looking at it again, I can see why they would have lost on that.

[Eliza422]

15 hours ago, crazycatlady58 said:

How do you do that? I know they are both white and granular  but the texture  and smell are very different . 

I've seen this happen on a lot of baking competition shows - with all the hubbub and panic it just happens.

[CherZ]

I disliked the alien one - I know the judges oohed and ahhhed over the rocket but to me it just looked messy - and taste before you bake. Shelby's cute but more than a little flighty/ditzy. Also seeing a grown woman spit out her food and say "yuck" when she's the one that baked it was more than a little silly. I think they stayed because they did work up until that point but it was my least favorite out of the 3.

[Spunkygal]

I just hope the remaining two teams create a big scare piece that is creepy and haunting. There have been some amazing final pieces in the past and we need something that shows some spooky thought went into it.

[PrePreBabylonia]

On 2018-10-04 at 1:01 PM, JessDVD said:

Oh, and I forgot to mention, Kirk* was a welcome addition to the judging panel. He's aged well. *Sean Gunn's part in Gilmore Girls. I had no idea he was in GOTG.

I know, I was so excited when I saw him: there's Kirk! I only saw Guardians of the Galaxy once. I was wondering if he was in heavy makeup because I don't remember him being in it at all.

My favourite display was the mouse in the flashlights too. I do find Shinmin's opinion seems to hold the most weight but I would prefer to see them argue it out like they do on Project Runway. Even though Heidi was the host and executive producer, I saw her give in to the other judges when they were adamant about their beliefs. I'd like to see a little more balance in the judging.

[Destiny74]

I always eat my cookie dough, but I'm a lover of cookie dough.  I would've known early if my sugar was salt.

Do they beat it out of professionals to not taste raw dough?  Or lick the spatula or bowl when their done?  I don't know?  I just always do it by habit, then I know what the cookie or cake will likely taste like.  Not to mention if I need to add more vanilla, lemon, or whatever.

[Spunkygal]

23 minutes ago, Destiny74 said:

I always eat my cookie dough, but I'm a lover of cookie dough.  I would've known early if my sugar was salt.

Do they beat it out of professionals to not taste raw dough?  Or lick the spatula or bowl when their done?  I don't know?  I just always do it by habit, then I know what the cookie or cake will likely taste like.  Not to mention if I need to add more vanilla, lemon, or whatever.

On the Halloween Baking Championship they taste raw dough. If I were in a competition, you bet your life I’d taste the raw dough.

[notcreative enough]

I don't know. I feel like the salt thing was fake drama. The girl baker isn't that good of an actress. That cookie was barely in her mouth before she spit it out. And before they were announcing  the team's she didn't have a care in the world. She was all smiles. A normal person would be devastated. The team leader looked pissed. I think they already knew they were making it through and knew it was all pretend. 

[CherZ]

Quote

A normal person would be devastated.

You may have something here because seeing how sensitive the girl was before, she didn't seem to feel bad about the cookie incident.

[JessDVD]

That whole scene with the girl "noticing" the corn stalks were burning and the exchange after was the fakest fakery that was ever faked too. I mean, you could at least try to sound realistic.

[BurntWaffle]

I really hope none of the drama is staged. A cooking competition show should be interesting enough on its own without scripted drama bits.

As I have said before, I'm a Shelby fan, and she's kinda playing up to the vibe she gives off at times, maybe not "flighty", but careless when that clock is ticking down. When she has to literally paint their entire display on top of her other duties, then it's easier to see how the time crunch made her overlook the basics, like taste-testing and wearing the proper gloves.

I couldn't believe the Chinese Takeout won the Small Scare competition because, outside of the skull stamp, it was really blah and bland. I thought the fortune cookies looked bad too. Zesty Zombies Pizza creation deserved to win, with only the box lid really being the weak point of the display.

So, maybe Zesty Zombies would have had that extra helper, and maybe that would have helped them avoid the tasting element fiasco? Who knows.

I do think the King Arthur display was the best of the final displays, with only that Slip 'N Slide moat water being the weak point.

Did anyone catch how they made the ghost float? I feel silly asking, because it's probably something so obvious, but it's an awesome effect.

Maybe it was a real ghost!

[JessDVD]

8 hours ago, BurntWaffle said:

I really hope none of the drama is staged. A cooking competition show should be interesting enough on its own without scripted drama bits.

 

Obviously I have no actual proof or experience but I've been watching the Cake Wars line (Cake Wars, Christmas Wars, Halloween Wars) since they all began, and once they did the newer Cake Wars a few years ago, and then when Jonathan took over hosting HW, HW followed suit, almost every episode had what we called on the Cake Wars board, a "Big Catastrophe" and most of them looked staged or re-enacted. There was one where the woman was acting all scandalized that she broke all her sugar things, but you could see behind her as she was "lamenting", her piece covered with those exact sugar things. It was pretty obvious that that moment was either staged or re-enacted. Or things like "All my cake has fallen!" and you see like 3 crumbs of cake on the floor. Some of them were overblown, like "My piece of fondant isn't big enough! So I will roll out another, larger piece!". I have always found the cake decorating to be interesting enough on its own. If there's real drama (I still sigh in memory of that one whack on FNC who set her cake on fire on the Kerry Vincent birthday cake episode), then by all means, show it to us, but don't contrive or re-enact.

[BurntWaffle]

3 hours ago, JessDVD said:

Obviously I have no actual proof or experience but I've been watching the Cake Wars line (Cake Wars, Christmas Wars, Halloween Wars) since they all began, and once they did the newer Cake Wars a few years ago, and then when Jonathan took over hosting HW, HW followed suit, almost every episode had what we called on the Cake Wars board, a "Big Catastrophe" and most of them looked staged or re-enacted. There was one where the woman was acting all scandalized that she broke all her sugar things, but you could see behind her as she was "lamenting", her piece covered with those exact sugar things. It was pretty obvious that that moment was either staged or re-enacted. Or things like "All my cake has fallen!" and you see like 3 crumbs of cake on the floor. Some of them were overblown, like "My piece of fondant isn't big enough! So I will roll out another, larger piece!". I have always found the cake decorating to be interesting enough on its own. If there's real drama (I still sigh in memory of that one whack on FNC who set her cake on fire on the Kerry Vincent birthday cake episode), then by all means, show it to us, but don't contrive or re-enact.

Yes, just the crafting of the pieces alone would entertaining enough. Some of those tasting elements alone would be awesome to see completed in detail.

I can buy all of your examples as being plausible. The part of the conspiracy that I struggle with is with examples like the Shelby salt for sugar mix-up. I just don't see any way that someone would be in on a staged mistake that hurts their own reputation (and livelihood), which leads me to think that mistake honestly happened.

Edited October 25, 2018 by BurntWaffle

[Maverick]

Say what?  That demon baby looked like ass.  There's been some questionable judging on this show over the years (never as bad as whatever's going on over at that gingerbread show) but I don't get the praise, much less the win, for that small scare.  At all.  

[TimetoShine]

@Maverick tell me about it. I would never have guessed that win, especially after the judges critiques. 

I’m also surprised they won the whole thing but honestly I didn’t really like either of the final designs.

[Spunkygal]

44 minutes ago, Maverick said:

Say what?  That demon baby looked like ass.  There's been some questionable judging on this show over the years (never as bad as whatever's going on over at that gingerbread show) but I don't get the praise, much less the win, for that small scare.  At all.  

I agree. Zesty Zombies should have won small scare. That stamp book was genius. But I think the right team won the $50k. Candied Cadavers did an awesome job on their big piece. Orly’s sugar work was phenomenal and the mutated creature was great. However, neither piece was creepy enough for me. I think back to past finales and there were some really wonderfully warped ideas. So for this season, CC’s final piece was better executed. ZZ’s coloring was too muddled and it’s a shame they couldn’t get the one guy elevated enough to see his mask/face. I still long for the Bling Bat days.

[penbrat]

I didn't like either finale piece so I didn't care who won

[Enigma X]

I just simply overall preferred the team that lost (forgot the name of the team). I have nothing against the other team.

Edited October 29, 2018 by Enigma X

[19Bee63]

2 hours ago, penbrat said:

I didn't like either finale piece so I didn't care who won

I didn't really like either team, so I didn't care who won either. 

[dotdot]

I wish they would've come up with a better theme for the finale. An antidote for an outbreak just doesn't make for very spooky designs. I wish they would've chosen something a little scarier and along the lines of Halloween, like demons, vampires, ghosts, etc. Also, after watching some of the reruns of previous seasons, it just  seems like the talent/designs in those seasons were way better IMO. 

Edited October 30, 2018 by dotdot

[mlp]

This was easily the weakest season IMO.  The final two displays would have been also-rans in any other season.  I thought the one that won was miles better than the mess that came in second.  

I did think the losing team's Small Scare was better than the all red baby devil.  However, I wondered if it was an original design.  Shin Min said something about having seen or maybe done a book like that and I had the impression that she'd seen the idea before.  Could be totally wrong of course.

[Spunkygal]

2 hours ago, dotdot said:

I wish they would've come up with a better theme for the finale. An antidote for an outbreak just doesn't make for very spooky designs. I wish they would've chosen something a little scarier and along the lines of Halloween, like demons, vampires, ghosts, etc. Also, after watching some of the reruns of previous seasons, it just doesn't seem like the talent/designs in those seasons were way better IMO. 

I so agree. The theme was too open-ended. Even narrowing it down to, say, what goes on in the sewer on Halloween or what happens at the bat family reunion, something like that might lead to creepier characters. 

[CherZ]

I like the winning team but I would have been fine with the other team too so...meh.

Also Orly breaking one of the beakers looked fake fake fakity fake fake.

[Enigma X]

3 minutes ago, CherZ said:

I like the winning team but I would have been fine with the other team too so...meh.

Also Orly breaking one of the beakers looked fake fake fakity fake fake.

I felt much of the drama (bickering) this year was manufactured.