Dateline 7-15-2017

Yesterday ended up being a very low-key day at my sister's house where I had the house to my self during the first half of the day while everyone else was at the water park. When everyone returned the kids rushed upstairs stairs to play leaving me and my sister to our logic puzzle books and The Great British Bake Off which combined can almost put one in a meditative state which was the last thing I expected during this stay because I thought the kids would demand way more attention.

I've always been a passive fan of logic problems, excited whenever they came up in an exam or now when they come up in hiring tests but I don't often seek them out. My sister, on the other hand is obsessed, so much so that an order of twenty-one books came in which triggered that portion of the day.

As far as The Great British Bake Off goes, this is a show that I've heard of a while ago on one of the podcast that I listen to, then last week I watched it for the first time with a friend and have been sharing it with anyone who I think would be interested ever since and my sister turned out to be a perfect candidate.

I know reality shows should be a guilty pleasure or something I despise, especially as someone who had an interest in writing for film and television since it was a potential death of my desired career but I always felt there is room for multiple flavors and this one always gave me a break from mentally breaking down stories while I was working on scripts of my own.

Now, when I say that I reality shows, I'm not talking the ones that create the new fandangled "celebrities" that I've never heard of, or modern day freak show series that follow people purely for their low mental capacity, size or weight. No, I'm a fan of contest shows where people actually get to showcase their talents to the world while attempting to win several thousand bucks. 

Even if these shows are fictionalized through editing trick it still allows me to see other creative people at work, while checking out their processes to get to the end product which I find both interesting and at times would go as far to say that these shows are more inspiration than any fictitious tale... "At times."

The thing that I love about this The Great British Bake Off show is how different the overall tone is compared to an American show of the same type. First off, there is a much calmer vibe than the US tendency toward rush, Rush, RUSH. The contestant get the time needed to complete all their task instead of every single challenge ending with a buzzer beater.

This is my favorite of the differences because you actually get to see things done right, especially since they get a majority of their challenges in advance to make sure they know what they're doing making the entertaining aspect of the show the talent over the anxiety driven chaos with everyone rushing to get everything done.

The funniest aspect of the show when comparing it to American television is how they introduce each contestant. Where in America, they seem to give special attention to certain contestants almost to the point of being a spoiler where the people that last a while will be working then we cut away to establishing shots of the town which is followed by a mini Queen For A Day breakdown sharing all the miseries in the contestants life, creating a life or death need for victory instead of just focusing on the skill.

That's not the case with The Great British Bake Off where if you blink you might miss the profile of their out of show life. Even in these mini-est of profiles there's not even a hint of a sob story, it's just, this is this person and this is their wife and this is what they plan to cook. I really like this approach because I don't feel like I'm being manipulated into rooting for a character that I otherwise might have only kind of liked.

Then you get to the challenge where everyone just casually does their job. I'm more than halfway through the first season, and don't think I've ever seen anyone run. In fact, there are often shots of either people just sitting on the ground watching the oven to make sure their food doesn't burn, or occasionally you'll see someone sitting out for a spot of tea if they just need a little break. 

It's no wonder America is so dysfunctionally obsessed with the go, Go, GO way of life because even leisure time entertainment is unnecessarily intense which I actually thought I was escaping through watching these skill challenge shows instead of the scripted emotion steering shows that I now find myself actively trying to avoid, so it's nice to see that I might have a new outlet in watching more British television that may be just as bad for different reason but for now it's a nice change of pace.

Oh well, today is the last day of my mini-vacay so it's time to go finish up season one.

Talk to you tomorrow with a new home field update.

Sincerely,

The Wicker Breaker