Yeah we both know it's kinda hot trash, but I do appreciate how there's less "aggression" on the show. Yeah they've got to compete against each other, but so many other shows would really ramp up the tension and have contestants slagging each other off over pastries. In this aspect, the show seems more wholesome in their approach. Still, it's reality TV. Can only polish that turd so much. Blood feud has begun - we're up 3 matches to 0. 1 very close match, then 2 steamrolled matches as we got into the groove. Hackusations, shit talking, mini-feuds with players who keep killing each other. I missed the banter. Amazing what muscle memory can retain. Though I'm rusty enough that my aim will vary from nailing every shot for 10 minutes straight, to missing an entire clip on someone who is literally stationary. I can't go back to Destiny, it begun to feel like a second job and whatever story they were trying to tell, fell over a while back IMO. Still, best gunplay I've ever had in a game, BF V and Titanfall 2 coming in close 2nd and 3rd. I have also started a Cyberpunk run, I got the DLC so heading into that. Similar feelings though, just not quite invested. Ah the Shield, tis good! It's one of those "pro" ones, I got it in 2019 I think, and before then I was also using a Firestick. Agreed on it's wretchedness. The Shield hasn't let me down, but it's been for pretty basic use. I've got the usual streaming suspects, Netflix, YouTube, Plex etc. Lets me chuck a VPN in there, lets me cast to it. Everything runs through it. It does have an annoying, dedicated, Netflix button on the remote. I could probably unbind it somehow, but eh. It's almost worth it for the laugh we get when the cat steps on it and whatever we were watching is suddenly interrupted by the Netflix "DUH DUHN" start up sound.
I've mixed entire seasons of Hell's Kitchen and I've mixed entire seasons of Master Chef. What has always interested me is how collaborative an environment Master Chef is - the cast lives in the same hotel for the duration, and they have a little hang-out room where they look up recipes and stuff, and none of it is filmed. Behind the scenes there's a ridiculous amount of camaraderie that Fox deliberately excises. Compare and contrast with Hell's Kitchen - those guys live in the same dorm and they hate each other. Master Chef has to play down how much everyone is just there to have a good time and make friends while Hell's Kitchen has to play down the fact that their contestants are fragging each other. I feel like when you start with amateurs, who know they're amateurs, who have no interest in becoming professionals? You get a bunch of vacationers who are not going to let you ruin a good time. We had to reshoot a couple ceremonial beats on Master Chef once because none of the producers were clever enough to notice that all the contestants were wearing matching chef hats in solidarity with a contestant who had just been (kinda unfairly) eliminated. But I feel like when you start with the grasping influencer "professional" caste you get people who will stitch each other up for a pack of cigarettes. From that perspective, Bake-off can't help but be nice. They shoot that thing Friday-Saturday-Sunday and then the normies go back home and practice. They're constantly reminded of normalcy, they can commiserate with the outside world, they have time to reflect. The stuff that makes it crap is entirely enforced by the producers - "Bakers, you have half an hour to make macaroons!" "Welcome to an un-airconditioned tent in July, let's temper chocolate!" "Yes it's raining absolute buckets but for some fucking reason you are all going to make toffee today because we're British and have no fucking idea how to work with the weather." "That's right, we've failed to give you blast chillers for another season, have fun making the ice cream we insist be done in three hours." If the British weren't a bunch of cheap shits that show would be so much better. I am FPSing vicariously through you, warrior. Give 'em hell.
Tacking a reply on to say I read this Bake-Off/Reality show information, and your other linked discussion, to my partner - who is a dual citizen (NZ and UK passport, most of her family are in Cambridge). It went: -- Partner:... Hmm... Me: Hmm? Partner: Yeah all of that tracks. Plus, you should see the average Brit on a snowday. Crumpling under every individual flake. And why the fuck do they have to manufacture all this difficulty? I mean I know why but why? Baking shit like that should be an art, not something you barely limp over the line for. Give them all the resources, all the time, and let them loose on a project. You'd see some bangers. Ughh! You know how you used to joke you wanted to see a non-tested Olympics? All the athletes drugged to the gills and seeing who's really the fastest person alive? That, but in a baking context. No steroids. Well maybe some. No, no steroids. Time and resources, that's the steroids of Bake Off. Me: Another episode? Partner: Yes please. I do love seeing her demure personality flicker when she gets really wound up about something.