Bake Off: Crème de la Crème

This is a slightly different format than the other baking shows of the same name. Different judges and different hosts- one of which you may recognize as a contestant from the great British baking show/bake off, Liam.

The judges are actually professional chefs, but definitely not professional actors. For some reason their dialogue is scripted and their mannerisms and speech are over the top ridiculous, but not in a comical way- just cringe and robotic.

The hosts are a whole animal of their own. While I like Liam's personality when he's just being himself, him playing host is pretty bad to watch. The other host, Tom Allen is supposed to be an actor. He's worse than Liam (if possible) and honestly just unbearable to watch. I got a taste of him on Great British baking show holidays and thought "surely he can't be this awful, maybe some writer screwed him over?". I wish I'd been right. He is terrible and between the hosts and judges, this one is nearly unwatchable. If not for the excellent creations by the chefs, this would be trash. I can foresee it getting cancelled anyway.

The show is interesting enough despite the head judge whose accent is very thick. The hosts are irritating at first but they grow on you. The most irritating aspect of the whole show is the annoying Harry Potter-like music that plays every time they show what the contestants are making. Ugh! A little variety would have been nice. It gets annoying really quickly. Otherwise, the use of classic music is very nice.

As far as the competition goes, however, the creations are artistic, dramatic and sometimes spectacular. There is the usual drama of show pieces collapsing. The judges seem to be fair in their eliminations.

There is nothing if the great British show in this. This show is a pretentious downer with none of the positivity and fun and lighthearted goodness of the great British baking show. Paul and Prue are smart and friendly and supportive; They're fair and compassionate. The judges here come off as elitist, unconcerned for the contestants, and sometimes downright mean. There is no joy of cooking. There is no love of the art. Perhaps on its own it could me a middling competition show but it's attempts to tie itself to the great British baking show seem like a crass marketing ploy to give this less than average show a sense of respectability.

It's really too bad, Liam was charming on his season of the real show, but stacked against the bald doofus and the overanimated judges, he doesn't stand a chance.

The worst part of all of this is that after 2 episodes I don't know much at all about the chefs, because the 2 judges devour center stage. The woman is just loud, and the guy is fine till he likes something, then it's "boom *mic drop* boom BOOM" ridiculously.

Also, the male judge is French. Does he or the gal not know the difference between Macarons, a French delicacy, and Macaroons, an American invention?

I watched because I thought Paul & Prue would be working with other professionals. The chefs have the short end of the stick here, it's a waste of their time and talent. Skip it.

I love the original version of this show, however...I find Tom so annoying that I have to fast-forward, to avoid his stupid comments. Why does he have to make everything sexual? I'm not a prude, I'm a gay man and I find his innuendos ridiculous and childish, it's really distracting and it's obvious that he's annoying the chefs too.

I say... get rid of him and the show would appeal to more people.

The classical music is a little too much at times, I guess they don't have to pay royalties on it?

Overall, I enjoyed the show, the judges were entertaining, at times a little harsh, but fair!

I'm always puzzled why they don't seem to have air conditioning In these shows, the chocolate is always melting and the chefs/bakers are always saying 'it's too warm in here' I'd watch another series.