S09.E08: Danish Week

[jcbrown]

On 10/18/2018 at 10:49 AM, halopub said:

I agree that her work is usually neatly composed but I'm not a huge fan of her general aesthetic, which to me is overly Etsyish kawaii with a heaping of preciousness. It can get a little one note with the cutesy turtles and foxes. That said, I surprisingly liked the decorations this week on her kagekone and the concept of the bee-shaped/nori eggs on the smørrebrød. They were a better balance of cuteness for me.

This. I have warmed to Kim-Joy a bit since the beginning of the season but I find her entire aesthetic off-putting and infantilizing. I know it's the style, it is just a style I apparently despise. But yes, she is pretty skilled.

[kittykat]

On 11/13/2018 at 12:32 AM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

And when you're this far into the competition (meaning almost at the finale), I would prefer to have the remaining finalists have ALL won star baker at least once, not because everyone deserves a trophy but because I really don't like when people slide into the top four or five by simply not being the worst every week. I want the last people standing to be the very best bakers who have been excelling, not just scraping by because there was always someone else who had a disastrous week. This is my general feeling about any competition though, not just GBBO.

This is exactly why in the last third or even half of cooking competitions I prefer cumulative judging.  First few weeks: fine eliminate the worst of the week.  GBBO isn't too bad when it comes to this.  Normally by final four everyone has been SB at least once.  But other shows like Top Chef is notorious for eliminating someone who has consistently performed well only to be axed for one horrible week while the perpetual "second-to-lasters" skate by.  I'm fine with keeping Rahul at this point over Manon.  She's been more inconsistent in the last few weeks and it was the first truly bad week he had.

[stillshimpy]

Yikes.  Welp, here's hoping Rahul never takes up poker playing.  He'd be flat broke in the first half-hour...or he'd clean up because he'd have the same expression with a winning hand as he does a losing one.  I take it back, he'd be a brilliant bluffer. 

Poor Manon, but it made sense, she had a really bad week.  I liked her a lot, she looks so much like my son's girlfriend, I pretty much had to cheer her on.  I'll miss her.  

I don't know, this season doesn't really have the right balance of personalities for me.  Or maybe it's the challenges, which have seemed to be getting a tad desperate for variety (mobiles/chandelier made from cookies...baked selfies...) and then I feel like the editors play up moments of emotion.  

Or maybe it is that it was really just not fun to watch people I like reduced to tears en masse.  Either way, great group, I don't care who wins, they're all good bakers.  I don't mind Kim-Joy's look.  I assume she's going for a Raggedy Ann type of vibe or as I saw someone put it for someone else Eccentric Toddler Grandma, where you put outfits together like a toddler would with lots of color, not really with an eye towards matching patterns or anything.   It wouldn't be my personal choice but I can see why she made it.  She's got real talent, I like her things even if many of them are works that would be purchased for the birthday party of a fairly sophisticated eleven-year-old, I really dig that for baked goods so it works for me.  

I don't know, this was sort of a bummer of an episode.  Everyone cried, a really nice, talented and gracious person was eliminated, there wasn't a lot to love.  Plus, the judging felt unnecessarily mean to me.  That's what I've always liked about the show in the past, that it wasn't unnecessarily unkind in criticism,  but I just found Paul to be kind of an ass in this one without anything to counterbalance him.  The bakers are still lovely, but the judging has taken a turn for the snide too often here, for me. 

Edited December 23, 2018 by stillshimpy