'The Great British Baking Show' Bares Its Reality Show Seams

'The Great British Baking Show' Bares Its Reality Show Seams

Header Image Source: Netflix

From an American perspective, The Great British Baking Show has enjoyed a unique place among its reality show brethren, a moral high ground obtained primarily from the noticeable lack of cutthroat antics. Even I’ve caught myself carefully distancing it when describing the series: “It’s a baking competition but it’s not, you know, like a reality show .” The label itself feels like something reserved only for shows that traffic in sensationalism, the Love Islands of the world. I have no interest in a new bombshell entering the villa, thank you very much. I’ve got a date with twelve bakers of varying degrees of wholesomeness.

Going into last week’s semifinal, I envisioned several scenarios that