As I have written about before, I am a big fan of the genre of TV shows I call ‘cozy competitions’, such as Sugar Rush, the original The Great British Bake Off (with Mel and Sue), and Crazy Delicious. I don’t like the ones that are designed to make the contestants look mean or hate each other. I liked the first three seasons of Blown Away, a Netflix original about glass blowers. The host, Nick Uhas, was one of the least-cringeworthy out there (I have had a contiunal issue with the shows that they hire comedians as the emcees and have them say very insipid and sometimes wince-inducing lines).
Netflix sent me the notice for the fourth season, and I frowned as I watched the intro to the first episode (which is also the trailer, apparently. I have included it below). The voice was not the same as before, but I recognized it. It turned out to be Hunter March, who was the host for Sugar Rush. Which might possibly be my favorite of the shows–but he did have a few really bad lines he had to say on the show. His teeth are so white. So. White. But he’s a handsome lad, and from some pics of him I saw on his FB when I Googled all this just now, he has abs for day.
The trailer had a vibe to it I didn’t like. One thing I liked about the show wsa that it was very technical, but also low-key. This trailer had that PUMP IT UP! feel to it that I did not appreciate. The word epic was uttered. I don’t want epic. I want the work to speak for itself. I liked the show because it was nerdy and geeked out about blowing glass. I know nothing about glass-blowing, but I could appreciate a good geek-out.
Plus, and this is something that I will always notie about the show I’m watching–the contestants were much more homogeneous than before. In prenvious seasons, there were Asian people, queer people, nonbinary people, and other visible minorities. In this season, there was one black guy. That was it. It felt like a deliberate choice, by the way. The decision to make it less diverse.
In the first few episodes, there was so much harping on how everything was going to be EXTREME!!!! This was the biggest season ever!!!!! And, yes, there was a heavy emphasis on size. The prize was the biggest ever, too, and every day, there was a really good prize given away to the first place winner (of the day).
I was disappointed that Hunter March was the new host for two reasons. One, I liked Nick and thought he did well on the show. Not to say that Hunter wouldn’t because as I said, he had hosted my favorite show in this genre. But that was the other reason I was disappointed–this probably meant no more Sugar Rush. I mean, there was no sign it was coming back, and it’s been three-and-a-half years, but I was holding out hope.