Bake Off: The Professionals - General Discussion

[RoxiP]

On 2/5/2023 at 10:31 AM, somethingwicked said:

Netflix lists it as Season 6. When the announcement was made, they referred to the "2021 winner", which is also the year listed on Netflix. The Wikipedia Season 6 details line up with this season. 

There was a woman named Marie Vittoria and a man (he was the featured name baker but his name escapes me), Julien and his partner Elise, two men "Gin and Tonic," a Romanian married couple that were very sweet - it was a decent show but not liking the hosts and would it be too much to ask to get at least one judge who speaks proper English as their firsts language?  My Texan ears barely understand an American accent but I can acclimate to the speech from across the pond...but throw in one judge from France speaking English and one woman who is not a native English speaker (sorry, not sure what her country of origin is and don't want to be offensive) and I am lost...LOL!  My bad, I know.

[PrincessPurrsALot]

I am watching this on Netflix.  Liam and Tom are not good hosts.  They ham it up so much.  The skits aren't funny, and Liam overreacts to everything.  Enough mugging for the camera.  The show should be about the contestants, not the hosts. 

This lacks some of the charm of the amateur series.  The judges are okay.  It seems the directors have asked them to overuse their hand movements in their talking heads.  They too seem to be asked to overdo their expressions.  When they are just chatting with the contestants, they are not bad. 

It would help if we got more info on what the contestants are doing while they are working on their show pieces.  Also, we don't get to see the judges discuss more detail on what they hope to see or what the pitfalls are.  Also, when they show the teams, they don't flash to a picture of what they presented.  I'll admit I am watching when tired, but I somewhat forget who made what in each challenge. 

[Cetacean]

I have struggled to finish this, it just does not hold my attention to the point where it is just background noise as I become distracted.  Hate, hate, hate the hosts, they are a total waste of air time.  They have some of the lamest material I have ever seen.  I can't even find a pair of bakers that I like well enough to root for.  And the judges - neither of them appealed to me either.

Give the the amateurs, hands down.

[TVbitch]

It Netflix puts up earlier seasons, they are better. The first couple seasons are the best. More serious with more impressive results. Then it slowly goes downhill with the hosts and with rushing the chefs to finish, probably to ensure some will showpieces will collapse. 

[PrincessPurrsALot]

I liked the later episodes better than the earlier ones of the first Netflix season.  They did not give enough time for the challenges which is annoying.  I also hate when judges get catch phrases.  

2 hours ago, Cetacean said:

I have struggled to finish this, it just does not hold my attention to the point where it is just background noise as I become distracted.  Hate, hate, hate the hosts, they are a total waste of air time.  They have some of the lamest material I have ever seen.  I can't even find a pair of bakers that I like well enough to root for.  And the judges - neither of them appealed to me either.

Give the the amateurs, hands down.

I found the later episodes a bit more engaging, but I too kept getting distracted.  It took much longer to get any sense of the bakers' personalities.  They are in teams based on professional relationships and they don't interact much with other teams.  

There was also a fair amount of inconsistency in judging.  In one challenge they would go on about bakers needing to try more challenging flavors, then they would praise a team that did sticky toffee pudding.  Often the more classic flavors were better received.  

In general I prefer shows focused on baking rather than show pieces.  They seem very wasteful.  So much time and effort goes into creating the structure that they bakes often felt like an afterthought.

[Athena]

12 hours ago, TVbitch said:

It Netflix puts up earlier seasons, they are better. The first couple seasons are the best. More serious with more impressive results. Then it slowly goes downhill with the hosts and with rushing the chefs to finish, probably to ensure some will showpieces will collapse. 

Agreed. I really liked the first two seasons and the contestants they featured. It was more respectful of their craft and process. After they did the retooling with the hosts and the rushing, I haven't been watching it as much.

I didn't mind watching the show pieces if they showcased the process and the methodology that is required from a trained pro. The show did that quite well in the early seasons and how team work was a big deal like it would be in a real world setting. It's suppose to challenge them. However, the rushing means you lose sense of everything.

10 hours ago, PrincessPurrsALot said:

I found the later episodes a bit more engaging, but I too kept getting distracted.  It took much longer to get any sense of the bakers' personalities.  They are in teams based on professional relationships and they don't interact much with other teams.  

This is a team challenge show so there was never a ton of inter-team interaction. The first couple seasons did a better job of showing the actual teams. While they don't interact with the other teams as much, they showed a lot more of the team internal dynamics. I still remember a couple of really great teams and personalities from their earlier seasons and being super impressed with them.

[PrincessPurrsALot]

3 hours ago, Athena said:

Agreed. I really liked the first two seasons and the contestants they featured. It was more respectful of their craft and process. After they did the retooling with the hosts and the rushing, I haven't been watching it as much.

I didn't mind watching the show pieces if they showcased the process and the methodology that is required from a trained pro. The show did that quite well in the early seasons and how team work was a big deal like it would be in a real world setting. It's suppose to challenge them. However, the rushing means you lose sense of everything.

This is a team challenge show so there was never a ton of inter-team interaction. The first couple seasons did a better job of showing the actual teams. While they don't interact with the other teams as much, they showed a lot more of the team internal dynamics. I still remember a couple of really great teams and personalities from their earlier seasons and being super impressed with them.

I'll watch the first two seasons if they become available.  It sounds like they were much better.  It makes sense that with a larger team you would get more of how they interact and personalities and skills would become more evident. With two  person teams, the division of responsibilities was often due to timing rather than skill level, although their were some folks with more experience in showpiece construction. 

[RealityCheck]

BAKE OFF: THE PROFESSIONALS replaces host Stacey Solomon with Ellie Taylor (Ted Lasso) after just one season.

[Spunkygal]

On 5/30/2023 at 3:14 PM, RealityCheck said:

BAKE OFF: THE PROFESSIONALS replaces host Stacey Solomon with Ellie Taylor (Ted Lasso) after just one season.

I’ve never heard of Ellie but she can’t be worse than who we’ve had recently. I was surprised to learn from the article that Tom Kerridge was a past presenter! I like him and will have to find those old episodes. 

[RealityCheck]

The new season of BAKE OFF: THE PROFESSIONALS premieres Tuesday July 4th at 8PM on Channel 4 UK.

Edited July 2, 2023 by RealityCheck

[Spunkygal]

Ok, Ellie is annoying. I don’t know why the producers of this show just HAVE to feature hosts who are as annoying as shit. And the wardrobe person should be shot for putting her in that ridiculous baby doll dress.

It’s too soon for me to remember the teams or who might be the best. My streaming service got stuck while buffering during judging of the final challenge so I don’t know what happened at the end. I’ll go back to it tomorrow and see if it will play the ending. 

[TVbitch]

I don't know exactly what qualifications or talent it supposedly requires, but I feel like I could walk in off the street and be more relevant and amusing than some of these presenters! These two actually make me miss Tom Allen!  

I've only watched the first epsiode. The teams only had to make 1 bake for both challenges?! Don't they usually have to make 2 for the first challenge and 2-3 different things for the show piece?! ..And most of them still didn't get it right! 

[Straycat80]

First time watching this version of Bake Off on Netflix from US. On the second episode so far. Unfortunately I’m not impressed. Why do the hosts have to act so annoying? I don’t care for the judges either, they are too critical, I know this is professionals but it is just a TV show. I can’t understand the accents sometimes either. But that’s on me. My bad.

The contestant’s don’t seem to be having fun either. They all looked stressed and that’s not fun to watch.

I can’t wait to watch the Bake off with home bakers and Paul and Prue. It’s not perfect but at least everyone is nicer and has fun IMO. 
 

[dleighg]

the red-haired host has a fun personality (I have no clue who she is), though I don't know why it looks like she has gray roots. She's way too young for that.

[Whimsy]

3 hours ago, dleighg said:

the red-haired host has a fun personality (I have no clue who she is), though I don't know why it looks like she has gray roots. She's way too young for that.

I think her natural hair color roots are growing out. It looks brown to me. 
 

Anyone else think, with all the teams getting sick in quick succession, that maybe Covid went through the teams?  Or, at least something highly contagious. The crew, or at least one crew member, are still wearing masks. 

I know these are professional bakers, and my daughter is a pastry chef for a high-end restaurant, so you’d think I’d like this show more than the home-bakers, but I just don’t. I think it has a lot to do with the judges. 

[dleighg]

32 minutes ago, Whimsy said:

I think it has a lot to do with the judges.

Charity certainly seems like a pill.

[Straycat80]

12 hours ago, dleighg said:

Charity certainly seems like a pill.

She’s so intense and her facial expressions and hand gestures are so exaggerated. She’s trying too hard. It’s weird. Same with the male judge. At least he seems more supportive of the bakers. 
I had to Google the red haired host, Stacey, he was on Ted Lasso, a show I watched but I don’t remember her. 

Edited because I finished watching: the winners were not a surprise. I knew that team would win. I felt bad for the baker who cut herself so bad on the last bake. I also thought the two French bakers got robbed for losing out Jojo and Ishan for the finale. 

Edited July 29, 2023 by Straycat80

[TVbitch]

I think the season on Netflix is the previous season, which was among the weakest. There are better seasons. Stacey only lasts one series. I kind of miss Tom as the host, cuz at least he was wittier. 

Cherish grew on me over the seasons. Maybe because I saw her on a really old season of Masterchef: The Professionals where she was head pastry chef at a 3 Michelin star restaurant and... she was exactly the same! She has some serious pastry chops. 

[Whimsy]

Jemima sounds EXACTLY like some British actress that I just can’t place, but it’s driving me crazy! 
 

ETA: I finally figured it out. I think she sounds almost identical to Amy Hoggart. 

[TVbitch]

Only two real contenders throughout this last season, but they are very talented. 

Liam seems totally annoyed that Ellie is there. It's like he has to the be the straight man now and she gets to be the wacky one. Just like when Liam arrived and Tom had to take a back seat. If only they realized that they are both equally, horribly not funny. 😁