Tag: reality shows | A Banana Peeled

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More creation, less repeating

Posted on September 26, 2024 by Minna Hong • 0 Comments

In yesterday’s post, I was complaining about the gentle competition shows that have gotten worse and worse. The problem is that most of them feel like they need to stick to the way the Great British Bake Off did it in the first few seasons. Oh, sure, there are different names for the sections in each series, but it’s pretty much the same. Here’s the basic set-up.

Have a host or two who is/are cringingly awful/blandly bearable. Have two or three judges. One is the nice one. One is the critical one. One is the forgettable one.
Have eight to ten contestants from all walks of life.
If it’s a cooking competition, make sure it’s increasingly a niche category.
Have a theme per day. Make the individual competitions adhere to the theme.
(This is optional) Throw a wrench into one of the competitions, making the contestants scramble.
Have team competitions. These are my least favorite, honestly. Probably because I’m not a team player.
Really strained banter among the judges and host. I understand that they can’t just sit there in silence, but really, why can’t they? Let the contestants do their thing with minimal intrusion. That is what I would prefer.
Two or three different competitions. One that is shorter and one that is longer. The third can be a technical test. This is not in all of them.
Each competition gets judged. Sometimes, they get ranked. Sometimes, the top two or three (and/or the bottom two or three) are identified. This is where it can get creative. For Glow Up (I have included the trailer for the first season below), they have two red chairs. The two lowest competitors in each of the first two competitions have to sit in the red chairs and are the bottom two. That can change from the first to the second competition. Then, in the third round, the two in the red chairs go against each other in one ten-minute contest (like who can do the best smoky eye). This is done on twins so the models are as close to the same as possible.
Bring in a guest judge/give a prize for those who win a certain competition.
Rinse, lather, and repeat over eight to ten episodes (or however many there are). Then, semi-finals and finals.

Mushy in the middle

Posted on November 28, 2022 by Minna Hong • 0 Comments

I ilke reality shows that I call’ gentle competitions’. I’m more interested in cooperation than cutthroat competition. I watched Cutthroat Kitchen a few times, and I hated it. Not only did I hate the delibearte sabotage, but I got anxious from watching. Since I feel other people’s emotions, I don’t want to deliberately inflict myself with nasty ones, especially manufactored exaggerated ones.

That’s why I prefer the ones that are collaborative rather than competitive. Yes, ultimately, they are competing against each other, but that doesn’t mean they have to be mean. I used to twatch Chopped, but I started hating that it was so manufactured. The one twho said they were not there to make friends/came to win were nearly always out after the first competttion–second at latest. Anyone who was confident that they had done great were the next to go. In almost every foursome, there was usually one who was the heel. I think this is more an American thing, by the way. Britains are culturally more diffident and self-deprecating whereas Americans are more brash. It got to the point with Chopped where I could predict who was going to win with a roughly 85% success rate without knowing anything about cooking. Quite frankly, it got boring after a while.

This is part of the problem with these shows if they go on for a long time–they become samey. Yes, I know, that’s part of the comfort. Every episode is the same and there’s something positive about that. But, on the other hand, it can get boring if there is no innovation. This is a reason I leave groups and stop visiting websites–because there’s no evolution. When it reaches the point where I know who is going to say what in which situation, then I get bored. Granted, I am very good at reading people, but still.

It’s not their fault; truly, I know this. People don’t change on the regular. Or if they do, it’s slow and steady–not dramatic explosions. Of course people can have epiphanies and breathroughs, but that’s a rare occurrence.

Watching the fourth (and current, I think) season of Glow Up, I’m finding myself…not bored, exactly, but wanting more. The MUAs are brilliantly talent as usual, but the competitions are so safe. They talk about creativity and pushing boundaries, but they don’t do that in their own requests. And, because of the nature of these shows, there is a mush in the middle that is not palatable.