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I watched season one of the Halloween Baking Challenge and loved it so when Halloween ended this year I decided to give HBC a shot. I love the holidays and I enjoy baking so I felt this show would be great for getting me in the mood for Christmas.
I do like this show because of the creativity and the festive holiday set.
Here are the things I don't like-I know this is a challenge BUT it's hard to not feel bad for the contestants when they are asked to hang up their aprons. All of them are obviously very talented otherwise they wouldn't be there. Some of them have their own successful businesses so it's hard to watch them get critiqued on skills they already possess. Each baker has their own speciality so for some of the challenges they will be at slight disadvantages however that doesn't mean they aren't talented nor should it cast them in a negative light. I have a really hard time watching them get torn apart by the judges because they don't NEED that criticism. They are there to win money to help with their business or to open a business. They are already tops in their field. It would be like putting Mark Zuckerberg in a business challenge where the judges are Mark Cuban, Elon Musk & Lee Iacocca-it kind of doesn't make sense. Maybe Mark wouldn't nail every challenge outside of his field BUT he's a billionaire!! So really how does any critique help him when he's obviously already very successful and talented?
Also it seems like it's not completely unbiased when the baker is presenting their food. It seems like the judges like or dislike a contestant sometimes for whatever reason that has nothing to do with their baking ability. In order for this to truly be an unbiased show the contestants should not be seen by the judges. They should be shown to the audience obviously but in order for the judges to not be swayed by any sob stories or personalities - they should only be tasting the food and not interacting with the contestants. Sometimes two of the judges will love something but the third will have a problem with it - that can't be anything other than the judge simply having an issue with the contestant's personality. There's simply no way that cannot be entering into the equation so that would be one main thing I'd change. If it's a baking challenge then in order to strictly focus on that - the judges should not be exposed to the contestants.
Here's the other thing - if these contestants were baking in their own homes or businesses they would not have the ridiculous time limits placed on them that they do in this show. They would know how much time they need and prep and bake accordingly. With these challenges it seems unrealistic to impose a time limit because anyone would have trouble working within those time limits-even a professional. If the time limit weren't a factor it would be a different story. It's enough of a challenge to come up with a creative baked good based on whatever challenge they throw at them but then to be told they only have an hour is kind of setting them up for failure right out of the gate. There are some baked goods that take an hour just to bake (forget all the prep before that). So the time thing I don't get. I know they have to have time be a factor but not because it's a necessary issue when baking. The time thing is strictly for the show. There is no place anywhere where a baker would show up for the day and their whole business success depended on whether or not they could make a wedding cake in one hour. Some recipes take DAYS to make so the time thing becomes the issue in this show and not the baker's true abilities or skill. If these bakers had all the time and resources they needed all of them would pry be successful in each challenge. Time and again you hear that time and NOT skill was the reason a contestant failed at a challenge. They know how to bake and they know what they are doing so I don't see how they can be judged fairly if it all comes down to time and not lack of skill.
Also Nancy Fuller is really hard to look at. She is morbidly obese and has a very unattractive face. It's hard to watch her pass judgement on someone when all I want to do is scream at the tv screen "You're obese and unattractive! You have no business judging anyone!" You get the sense that she really enjoys her power due to those issues and goes too far with the superiority thing.
Duff seems like he'd be a very cool guy until you watch this show. He comes across as a jerk at times. I don't like him as much as I did before I started watching this show.
Lorraine seems fine overall but she too sometimes seems to be judging contestants more on their personalities rather than their skills.
I don't know how much longer I will stick with this show based on the issues I have with it so far but for now I plan on watching another season.
score 8/10
apryla-58795 12 November 2018
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw4453411/ |
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8-11-2020 11:51:03