'The Great British Baking Show' Is Officially Too Sketchy

Plus: James Bond, 'The Eternals,' and What's Making Us Happy!

View this email online by Linda Holmes Welcome! It was the week when Squid Game kept tearing up the internet. It was the week when Oscar predictions started appearing in more places. And it was the week when we learned there would be more Agatha -- and yes, you can start singing her song now. Let's get to it.  Opening Argument: The Great British Baking Show Is Officially Too Sketchy I haven't stopped watching The Great British Baking Show on Netflix since the original hosts, Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins, left. I still sit down with it at some point on the weekend, and I still enjoy it. But particularly since they went from the team of Noel Fielding and Sandi Toksvig to the team of Noel Fielding and Matt Lucas, I have come to care about it a lot less. And it's partly because I just ... don't need this much of the hosts.  This was particularly evident in the dreadful opening bit of the new season, which was Fielding and Lucas, plus judges Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith, performing a bad and way overlong parody of, for some reason, "Achy Breaky Heart," a song nobody has even bothered to make fun of in many years. More has followed, though nothing quite as painful as that.  Here's the weird thing: I always really liked Noel with Sandi, and I don't have anything particularly against Matt Lucas, even though he seems to have been the addition that threw the whole thing off for me. It's more that the balance is now out of whack, in that the hosts spend too much time trying to make it a comedy show instead of feeling invested in the contestants. I never have gotten the feeling Lucas likes or cares about the people who are competing in the way the other hosts have, and that's okay! He's a comedian! But there's a genuine warmth that's just not quite there for me. I don't know if it's a British thing, or a thing that was specific to the production of this show, but the early seasons really seemed to understand that everyone was there to serve the actual content, which was the baking. There was encouragement and a way that the whole project seemed to be rooting for the contestants that I don't get from it anymore. And you can't just blame Lucas: He didn't bring himself in, and he's not the one deciding that they're going to do these unnecessarily elaborate intros.  What I want from this show is what I have always wanted from it: likable people doing projects it's actually possible to imagine a skilled amateur pulling off. Much has been said about the evolution of the challenges themselves, as they've grown to include weird things like a "caged tart" or a bust made out of cake, the latter of which these people just weren't equipped to do. But the thing that's been eating away (heh) at my own enjoyment is less that, and more the growing sense that there are hosts here who want to have bigger moments, bigger bits to do.  Perhaps it's mostly an indication of just how delicate the balance really was, and how complicated what they were pulling off in those early seasons really was. The only man standing from the original era is Paul Hollywood, and Paul Hollywood has not changed all that much (especially since they backed off the strange fetishizing of the handshake). It's just that he used to be the only really attention-seeking figure on the show, the only one who seemed to want to pull it in around himself, and that works fine when there's only one person. But two big-energy comedy dudes -- it does not escape me that we've moved from two women to two men -- who like to be the center of the action has messed with the chemistry of the whole project.  I still watch. I even still enjoy it. But I love it a little bit less. Newsletter continues after sponsor message We Recommend: Two pieces from good friends of PCHH that I can recommend this week: Eric Deggans, NPR's TV critic, who has long been a Dave Chappelle fan, reckons with his new special. And Chris Klimek, who brings the kind of thoughtfulness to his consideration of huge franchises that they often aren't afforded, reflects on James Bond. You can keep your stories about group-chat drama: The most stunning and holy-moly-worthy thing I read this week was this piece in Vanity Fair, excerpted from the new book Never Silent by the great activist Peter Staley, about the making of Dallas Buyers Club. It is a humdinger. I'm not sure why there's a Twitter account now that's just clips of old Saturday Night Live hosts introducing bands, but it's a great little time capsule where you either think "Yes, that makes total sense that that was a cultural moment" or "Wait, Laura Leighton introduced Rancid?" And by the way, we are prepping the episode about Squid Game! It sometimes takes a little time to move the pieces into place, but it's coming. Also on the docket: Maid (Netflix), Impeachment: American Crime Story (FX) and Y: The Last Man (FX on Hulu), so if you're looking for things to check out, those are a few that we'll be getting to soon-ish! What We Did This Week: Marvel Studios Aisha revisited something she's talked about before: the trope of the Black Lady Therapist, and how it's evolved in a few recent TV shows.  Glen wrote about the MCU's first openly gay super-powered character from the upcoming The Eternals. I ranked all the songs in the Netflix version of Diana, The Musical, so you do not have to.  On Monday, Glen and Walter Chaw talked about Star Wars: Visions.  On Tuesday, we revisited one of our favorite episodes: talking Homecoming with Stephen, Kiana Fitzgerald, Sidney Madden and Brittany Luse.  On Wednesday, I chatted with Marc Rivers about Antoine Fuqua and Jake Gyllenhaal collaborating on the Netflix film The Guilty. On Thursday, Glen talked to LaTesha Harris about Venom: Let There Be Carnage, a movie I think you'll agree has a nice, tame title.  And on Friday, Glen talked to Chris Klimek, Jourdain Searles, and Daisy Rosario about the new Bond installment No Time To Die.  Glen and Jourdain also talked about James Bond on Morning Edition.  Stephen participated in NPR Music's roundup of the best music of September.  I recapped the season finale of Ted Lasso, which I enjoyed a lot, and looked back at how the season played out.  I also recapped another baffling episode of The Morning Show, this time with a musical number!  And if you like recaps, I should note that you can find all the Ted Lasso recaps and all the Morning Show recaps on their own pages!  What's Making Us Happy: Every week on the show, we talk about some other things out in the world that have been giving us joy lately. Here they are: What's making Daisy happy: Midnight Mass What's making Jourdain happy: Titane What's making Chris happy: The audiobook of Once upon a Time in Hollywood: A Novel What's making Glen happy: Dimension 20 Stream your local NPR station. Visit NPR.org to find your local station stream. What do you think of today's email? We'd love to hear your thoughts, questions and feedback: pchh@npr.org Enjoying this newsletter? Forward to a friend! They can sign up here. Looking for more great content? Check out all of our newsletter offerings — including Music, Books, Daily News and more! You received this message because you're subscribed to Pop Culture Happy Hour emails. This email was sent by National Public Radio, Inc., 1111 North Capitol Street NE, Washington, DC 20002 Unsubscribe  |  Privacy Policy