Season 5 of the Great British Baking Show, the first with the new lineup of presenters, is now streaming on Netflix. I haven’t heard if or when PBS will get these, but in the U.S. we have yet to see Britain’s first and second seasons.
Second season of Bake Off with the new team started this week in the UK.
Bakers follow the previous stereotypes - there’s the pretty one, the gay one, the one who might also be gay, the older person, the professional northener, etc
My understanding is that PBS will no longer be airing it.
I still enjoyed it despite the new presenters feeling a bit forced. Contestants were lovely, as always, with some impressive work.
I think you’ll come to enjoy them. Personally, we prefer Noel & Sandi to Mel & Sue. Just funnier.
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According to Mary Berry, they get about 12,000 applicants for the 12 available spots, so GBBO has the luxury of casting their preferred collection of tropes without compromising too much on baking ability. I actually like this new season’s (UK S09) cast a lot – Briony, Terry and Kim-Joy, in particular.
Being an American, I have no clue what a “professional northerner” is.
Strong regional accent, use of outdated local dialect, tendency to preface things with “In the north, we…”
As in, “In the north, we make the best fish and chips in the UK”. I think that’s one of mine, tha’ knows
We were fans of Mary, Sue, and Mel (charmed to learn that Sue “mentored” Nicola Walker and took her bike); at the end of the day though, it’s the contestants who draw you in.
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I actually like it a lot - much more than I thought I would. I realize now that I wasn’t a fan of Mary Berry. She made me nervous. And I do like Noel and Sandi. They aren’t better than Mel and Sue - they just have a different style.
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I bingewatched over two days. Paul seemed cheerier than in other seasons. If I had been a contestant, I would have been more intimidated by Prue than by Mary. Though I love Sandi in QI, I found her interplay with Noel quite hokey and predictable, like a vaudeville act. In comparison, Mel and Sue came off as mostly unscripted, just two quirky friends bantering. And they seemed more supportive of the bakers than Sandi and Noel, despite Sandi’s tearing up, which showed that she genuinely liked them.
