Sugar Rush

Netflix has got so much to love here. On one hand, the fact that the contestants are professional bakers means we get to see some legendary cakes - which is exactly what I want to see.

But on the other hand, the presenter - he's trying way too hard - and like all these overly Americanised shows, there's no character to any of it.

The judges are interesting enough; maybe with a few more episodes I'll get to like them, but this is a show about cakes and that's what you're getting.

Overall, I'll watch all 8 episodes and I'll savour every moment.

Netflix if you're watching, Sugar Rush is a decent enough show, it just needs a few tweaks

Show is fine, just your average baking competition but the host is terrible. He takes regular situations and makes them awkward with his weird commentary. Literally anyone else could do that job better.

Sugar Rush serves well as eye-candy. There's vibrant colors, talented bakers, and impressive designs. BUT - there's no personality to the show. The tone is very off-putting.

Competitive baking shows are hard to do right. You want them to be educational, as you want to educate the viewer about baking so they can be more engaged while watching, but you want it to be entertaining at the same time by building tension and drama. It's a hard mixture to get right.

Where this show falls short is when you compare it to the masterclass competitive baking show that is the Great British Baking Show (Great British Bake Off). GBBS focuses on the craft and process of baking, emphasizing technique and knowledge of baking more so than pure aesthetic. This lets the viewer craft profiles of the contestants as they learn more of what each baker's style is. In addition, GBBS has a calm, relaxing tone to the show while still maintaining its competitive traits.

Sugar Rush is essentially a toned-down version of Zumbo's Just Desserts (which is awful outside of Zumbo's creations) that has been slightly improved, but the core recipe that they're working with simply isn't going to work. Fancy cupcakes, points, buttons, and bright lights are nothing but fluff without engagement and emphasis on the process that gets them there.

If you enjoy competitive cooking shows, this covers that pretty well. There is a time limit, but it's intentionally VERY lenient and contestants almost always have time to do what they wanted.

Hunter March is the main host, and he's alright; funny at times, annoying at others. The two other main judges, Candace Nelson and Adriano Zumbo are really not contributing much. They could be replaced by cardboard cutouts and nobody would notice a difference. Guest judges have never wowed me, and are mostly just bakers no normal person would have heard of, or someone from a Netflix show nobody is watching anyway.

While the 3 rounds are explained as "surprises," it's clear the contestants know what they're doing ahead of time, bringing supplies that could certainly not just be things they brought in case, including obscure ingredients that suit the task, or elaborate equipment to stack a very specific final cake.

Some of the themes to episodes are downright cringey, like the "grammable food" epsiode. (Hate to break it to you guys, food isn't "grammable." Keep your food to yourself.)

The contestants are very dime-a-dozen, and sadly there's very little variation in what they do. There's 3 episodes in a row where EVERYONE does a 'geode' cake, which was obviously just the trend of the week at the time, and after the first one it's no longer a cool new thing, just people who aren't actually creative with their own ideas.

So in the end, I like seeing what they make and how they do it, I enjoy the competition, and I love seeing people's souls die when their food comes out bad. It's alright if you have nothing better to watch, but there's better out there.

Compared to some of the other cooking competitions Netflix has rolled out most recently (Nailed It comes to mind), this one is definitely above the rest. The borrowed time strategy adds a flair of uniqueness that keeps the relatively dated concept new. The host, on the other hand, comes off as that kind of middle manager that everyone's had at some point in their life, and is overly condescending to the contestants - it made the show difficult to watch whenever he came on. I think they were trying to have him motivate the contestants, but he clearly is not equipped to do that when his form of motivation is outright negative.