Topical Post - The Great British Bake Off

I am not usually one to write topical blogs, but I felt implored to add my opinion to all of the furore that has emerged concerning the outcome to this year’s season of The Great British Bake-Off. 

My opinion stems from the fact that there really shouldn’t be any controversy to begin with: the Great British Bake-Off is a harmless and inoffensive television show about baking. It makes for an enjoyable hour of television, but I think it’s ridiculous to get up in arms about whoever wins or loses. I understand that people like to view the programme as a piece of reality TV, but it really isn’t designed to create hate figures amongst its contestants. Each year the participants form a diverse range of hopefuls (of varying ages, ethnicities and social backgrounds) who all share a common interest in baking. It is a pleasant occupation for anyone to have, whether it be in a professional or recreational capacity. 

It is enjoyable to watch the show and playfully make fun of the contestants, whenever they make foolish decisions, or throw out a rather naff one liner. It is one of the things I enjoy about the show whenever I watch it. There is an excellent blog written by an author known as “Monk Seal” who delightfully pokes fun of the show and its contestants in a very witty manner, and it works because it is clearly written with a great deal of affection for the source material. 

However, due to the show’s continuing surge in popularity, it seems that the viewing audience feel the need to create drama where it isn’t needed. The show is a very well meaning programme, which is clearly enjoyed by all involved (even if they don’t win, or last very long) and it sets its contestants off on a positive pathway going forward, as the ending montage showed. 

Of course people may take a dislike to certain contestants (with this year’s biggest target being Ruby) for whatever reason; whether it be an aversion to their personality, or a by-product of the ingenious way in which the show is edited to over-emphasize character flaws; but people need to stop taking the politics of the show so seriously. It is, after all, a well-meaning television show, which is made to be enjoyed – rather like a cake. I am probably not the only person who has watched the show and done some baking of their own as a consequence – it’s a fun thing to do, and a constructive way to spend the time. 

Ultimately this is my opinion, but I hope that people can see the sense in it. At the end of the day it really doesn’t matter who wins the Bake Off, because all of the contestants learn a great deal from it, and take that knowledge with them for the rest of their lives. They are normal, everyday people, the sort of people we all encounter during our everyday lives, and they all seem to be dedicating their time to something positive. For that reason I don’t see why the Bake Off is (indirectly) creating hate-figures for the general public to attack with blind vitriol. It is a nice programme, which should simply be enjoyed and not taken too seriously.

Travis (Live)

Travis celebrated their first live performance in the UK for five years, in an emphatic style at the O2 Academy in Bristol this past Saturday night. The venue was filled to capacity and the anticipation had been built up very nicely – there was some excellent support provided by Thomas J Speight, definitely a name to look out for – before the band came out onto the stage. The set fittingly opened with ‘Mother’ (the opening track from their latest album “Where You Stand” and also the latest single) for which the stage was coated in darkness, save for a single spotlight illuminating Fran Healy during the early strains, before erupting into brilliant light as the main tune kicked in. Off the back of that opener the band immediately followed up with ‘Selfish Jean’ which really got the crowd involved. 

The set-list for the evening is comprised of a healthy mix of old favourites and new material (the only thing that was missing was a single track from “Ode To J. Smith”). There were some surprises in the set such as ‘Pipe Dreams’ (from “The Invisible Band”) but the majority of the set was comprised of the band’s biggest hits and singles – not that this was a bad thing! Fran openly admitted that he can’t hit high notes quite as easily as Dougie can; following a rendition of new track ‘Moving’, which he expressed in eloquent terms (“You could not fit a mustard-seed between the cheeks of my arse!”)

The energy of the show never really dropped, even during quieter songs. Fran told a story about the difficulties he had at home growing up with an abusive father, and recited Philip Larkin’s “This Be The Verse” before the band played ‘Re-Offender’, which was then followed by the slightly more light-hearted ‘Where You Stand’. Fran also talked about becoming a father, and how such a significant event changes everything; this section was punctuated with ‘My Eyes’ (which he wrote around the time of his son’s birth in 2007) and ‘Reminder’ (from the new album, seven years later).

After this came an array of the band’s most famous numbers: ‘Writing To Reach You’, ‘Side’, ‘Closer’ and ‘Sing’. I was enjoying the show so much I kept worrying that any of these tracks could have been the end of the set, but luckily they weren’t. Then towards the end of the main set-list they played a couple of slightly rarer numbers ‘Slide Show’ and ‘Blue Flashing Light’ before the set closed out with a performance of ‘Turn’, which even saw Dougie take over the lead vocals for the second verse.

The encore brought the band right back to their early days, and utilised several songs from their debut album “Good Feeling”, including the title track, ‘Tied To The 90s’ (on request from the audience) and ‘All I Wanna Do Is Rock’ which was the first song the band ever performed together, over seventeen years ago at The Horseshoe in Glasgow. Andy climbed up onto a stack of speakers for his guitar solo, and somehow cut himself above his eye whilst jumping down. The band all stood together around a single microphone to perform ‘Flowers In The Window’ and then they closed out the night with a performance of their biggest hit: ‘Why Does It Always Rain On Me?’ which saw the entire audience jumping up and down – apart from those up on the balcony, for fear that the structure wouldn’t take the strain!

It was a very good time to see the band perform live, not just because they have accumulated so many crowd pleasing tunes by this stage in their careers, but also because the time spent away from live shows has left the band eager to return. The band are clearly thrilled to be performing live once again, and towards the end of the night Fran thanked everyone for coming, and says that live gigs are what bring bands closest to their fans.

The Walking Dead - Season Four: Infected

After last week’s premiere episode ended with a cliff-hanger in which the teenage Patrick turned into a Walker despite not having been bitten, the threats continue to pile up throughout this week’s episode. I assumed that the threat of enhanced infection would be enough for the survivors to deal with, but that was not the only dilemma the group faced. The episode began with an unseen figure feeding live rats to the Walkers outside the prison fence, which put the strength of the fences under a lot of strain. The group has become infected, not just with the Walker-virus, but also from within, as somebody is sabotaging their safe refuge from the inside.

Before the opening credits rolled there was a genuinely tense scene in which Karen very nearly stumbled across the recently zombified-Patrick in the shower room, who then followed her back to cell block D, but being an established character she was able to escape death on this occasion (or so I thought ... more on that later). 

It didn’t take too long for the episode to get to the action, as a short scene in which Rick focussed on his duties as a farmer and not a Sheriff (hence the absence of his hat thus-far) was soon interrupted by a cries for help from the prison. The walkers were very quickly dealt with, but the damage had already been done, and already there are fewer nameless characters to shield behind when the next attack hits! Perhaps I am being a bit harsh, as I actually found that the actor who played Ryan – the father of the two girls, who got bitten during the attack – did a good job with what little screen-time he had, and his death certainly had an impact. Credit for that scene also has to go to Melissa McBride as Carol.

My theory that the infection is mutating may not actually be true, as a new Doctor character stated that such symptoms existed prior to the outbreak, but this doesn’t exactly make things any better, as everyone in the group could potentially be exposed to this illness. Anyone who showed signs of illness was quarantined off: this included Karen, just to let the audience know that this sickness is a serious deal. 

The problems for the group didn’t end there though, as a scene between Rick and Daryl was interrupted by even more screams for help. This time, the Walkers outside the prison fence have begun to build up in specific areas, and the fence is really starting to give. Despite the fact that a whole group were on hand to fend them off, it made little difference. There was a particularly gruesome shot as one of the Walker’s faces got smooshed against the chain link fence. This meant that Rick had to sacrifice his fledgling pig farm in order to divert the Walkers away from the fence. If the pigs were partly responsible for causing illness then they were probably going to have to go sooner or later anyway, but it was still sad to see the baby piglets being fed to the Walkers. This wasn’t a hugely effective plan either, as it only diverted the Walkers temporarily, and it wasn’t too long before there was a shot of the fence shaking once again.

Michonne received some further development this week, after a rare slip-up during a moment of action, she found herself nursing an injured ankle. During a couple of scenes with Beth and baby Judith, the indication seemed to be that Michonne may have once lost a baby of her own, as she broke into tears whilst holding Judith. Moments of emotion from Michonne have been very rare throughout her time on the show, and so when she gives something away it really stands out. This development was perhaps the most interesting for her character so far.

Following the death of her father, further development was given to newcomer Lizzie (and to a lesser extent her sister Mika). Last week she seemed set to bring a “Walkers are people too” argument to the table (which thankfully went nowhere), and this week she cried over the death of her favourite zombie. I’m not won over by her character yet (my early instincts point to her being the saboteur within the group) but since she has received this much attention so far, then she will likely have an important role to play.

Then, as if all that had happened wasn’t enough, the episode ended with Tyreese (brilliantly played by Chad L. Coleman) hoping to pay Karen a visit, but instead discovering the charred remains of his love-interest – and some other guy – out in the prison courtyard. Their assailant was not revealed, could it be the same saboteur from earlier, or is there more than one person in the group breaking things from within. I was legitimately surprised that Karen was killed off this soon, as the relationship between her and Ty was only just getting started. I guess it goes to show that the writers are getting bolder.

This episode was very impressive with how much it was able to fit in. This season has not wasted any time stacking the odds against the survivors, and moving the plot along at a fast pace (I didn’t expect Rick to give up the farm-life so early on). I’m already eager to see what happens next week.

The Walking Dead - Season Four: 30 Days Without An Accident

The fourth season of The Walking Dead has now officially begun, and sets events in motion with a few calm-before-the-storm scenes, in order to establish what has been taking place within the narrative since the third season ended. Rick Grimes’ group of survivors has now expanded to its largest ever size thanks to the acquisition of the majority of Woodbury’s community. They are still living at the prison, and have now begun farming (where the pigs and horses came from was never revealed) and growing their own crops in order to make life in the post-apocalyptic world a lot more sustainable. The episode does a decent job of establishing the new status quo, before shattering it (this is the start to a new season after all, and people want to see life-or-death struggles, not the 30 accident-free days). 

One of the first images that was revealed from this season – several months ago – showed Rick in a wooded area, with the blurry image of a female walker in the background. Or so it seemed! It turned out that it wasn’t a walker at all, but a severely emaciated woman who had been driven mad by her experiences in this world. In many ways I was relieved that this was the case, as I was worried for a split second that the series was going to introduce ‘smart-Walkers’ when she first spoke. She lead Rick to her husband Eddie (once again there was a glimmer of “oh no, don’t go down that road” when it looked as though she were talking to nobody) who had long since turned into a Walker, and was now supposedly little more than a head in a bag. She lunged at Rick with a knife, but he avoided the attack, and she ended up taking her own life so that she could be together with Eddie as a Walker. This storyline did pose a very interesting question, “can you come back from what you’ve done?” which has validity that will likely resonate throughout the entire series.

The big action scene for this episode occurred during a supply run gone badly wrong. A crashed helicopter had severely weakened the roof of the supermarket, and after a short scene in which newcomer Bob ‘(D’Angelo Barksdale)’ Stookey confronted his alcoholism, a collapsing shelf drew the unwanted attention of a group of Walkers who proceeded to tumble through the collapsing roof.

I made predictions that the Woodbury survivors would mainly serve as expendable characters, whose only real purpose is to get killed off so that we don’t have to lose anyone we really care about. So far that prediction has come true, as we were introduced to Zach who didn’t even make it to the end of the season premiere! To his credit he was at least given some character development, but it was hard to become too invested in him or his death (Beth and Daryl certainly didn’t – although the no crying policy might be rescinded later in the season if a more significant character is lost). If there is ever a scene in which a horde of Walkers attack, and there are no expendable characters around, it could be an indicator that some serious shit is about to go down!

Another new character who was introduced, only to meet his demise within the same episode was Patrick, a well-meaning teenager who looked a little bit like a very young Woody Allen. His death was less conventional, and sets off the ‘new threat’ of this season. Despite the fact that he was not attacked, or bitten, and appeared to be perfectly healthy, he suddenly found himself feeling unwell and later on he collapsed in the shower and died. The episode ended with his eyes opening with his reanimation. This new form of infection had been foreshadowed during the episode when Rick noticed a particular Walker with bleeding eyes. There was also the sudden illness and death of Violet the pig. At this stage there is room for speculation concerning this new threat; could the infection simply be evolving rapidly; is the food supply contaminated; or is there more to Patrick’s handshake with Daryl than there first appeared? Whatever the cause, next week’s episode is sure to get off to a more urgent start. The prison may be secure when it comes to keeping Walkers out, but not when someone turns inside its walls.

Breaking Bad - Season Finale: Felina

The penultimate episode of Breaking Bad’s final season – 'Granite State' – was a slow-moving affair, which really accentuated every facet of the story that was in need of resolution. The episode showed the complete dissolution of Walter White, as his solitary lifestyle broke his spirit and allowed for his body to deteriorate. After all the terrible things he had done, it was impossible not to feel sorry for Walt throughout the episode; the desperation in his voice when he pleaded for an extra couple of hours of company; the image of his wedding ring symbolically dropping from his finger; and most of all, the expression of total defeat on his face when his son told him that he hated him and wished he was dead. The man shown throughout ‘Granite State’ was most definitely Walter White, and no longer Heisenberg. 

The penultimate episode also left Jesse in a very bad state, also broken down by his circumstances: brutally beaten and unshaved. A desperate escape attempt only worsened his situation, as his ex-girlfriend Andrea was gunned down right in front of him. He no longer cared about his own life, but his captors knew exactly what would hurt him more.

A couple of glimpses of Walt’s last stand had already been offered throughout the season – purchasing an M60 Machine Gun, and retrieving the ricin from his former home – but this still meant that there was still a lot to be resolved, and all in the space of a single episode. ‘Felina’ delivered in a big way, addressing every storyline and giving each one enough time so that the resolutions always felt satisfying.

After seeing his former business partners on the television at the climax of last week’s episode, there was a very tense atmosphere surrounding exactly what Walt’s intentions were as he snuck into their house. It turned out that Walt had come up with an ingenious plan to make sure his son would get the money after all. And then just as I began thinking “if Walt dies, then what’s stopping Elliot and Gretchen from reneging on the agreement?” then Walt’s insurance policy kicked in: the threat of assassination.

As Walt returned to his car it became very clear that his associates were not master assassins, from the shambling manner with which they ran towards the car, and sure enough they were revealed to be Badger and Skinny Pete. As characters who tend to offer a more comedic (and less heavy) tone, they have been largely absent for most of the fifth season, so it was nice to see them make one last appearance.

Walt then appeared before Lydia and Todd as a desperate man, offering the formula for a new brand of crystal meth, which required no methylamine. After Walt left both Todd and Lydia revealed that they had no intentions of going along with his plan. It appeared that not all of Walt’s plans would follow through, but of course appearances (like Walt’s guise of a desperate man) can be deceiving. This scene will be fascinating to re-watch with the benefit of foresight, because there is a lot more going on than there first seems to be. 

Marie’s final appearance saw her on the phone to Skyler, informing her that Walt had been seen, and that the police would not let him get anywhere near her. Skyler listened to all of this with a look of detachment, before she hung up the phone and the camera zoomed in to reveal that Walt was in the room with her the whole time; a clever trick which was executed very well. In this scene Walt gave Skyler the co-ordinates that would lead to police to Hank and Gomez’s burial ground, and he dropped the pretence that he did everything for his family, stating simply “I did it for me. I liked it. I was good at it.”

Just before he said goodbye to Skyler, he got one last moment with baby Holly. Unfortunately he had no such moment with his son, from whom he had become far too alienated by this stage. He watched from a distance as Flynn (formerly known as Walt Jr.) walked into his new home, blissfully unaware of his father’s presence.

It was then time for Walt to make his last stand, driving into the hideout of Uncle Jack and the rest of his neo-Nazi cohorts. This scene was unbelievably tense to watch, as I had the constant feeling that something would go wrong. The deaths of Hank and Gomez in ‘Ozymandias’ proved that Vince Gilligan was not afraid to make painful decisions. I had a feeling that Walt’s rigged up M60 plan would not be allowed to come to fruition because it might seem a bit too dramatically convenient for the show. But once he had his hand on the car keys I felt a little more at ease, and knew that Walt would shield Jesse from the ensuing gunfire. 

When I saw that Todd had survived the gunfire, I thought his first instinct would be to shoot both Walt and Jesse, but fortunately he didn’t and Jesse was able to choke Todd to death with his chains. Then of course there was the death of Uncle Jack, who tried to barter for his own life with the same money Walt had offered in exchange for Hank’s. Just like before, it didn’t work. The bluntness of Uncle Jack’s death was very gratifying (much more so than the death of Michael Bowen’s previous villainous incarnation in “Lost”). 

Then finally it came down to Jesse and Walt, exactly the way it was always meant to. Walt did the right thing and placed his life in Jesse’s hands, offering him the gun and telling him to do it. Walt must have wanted this to happen (why else would he have told the truth about Jane’s death?) but Jesse refused to grant Walt’s wish, noticing that he was wounded and would likely die soon anyway. Jesse then drove away from his prison (in more than one sense of the word) at top speed, letting loose a yell of pure elation.

A phone call from Lydia to Todd’s cell-phone then came through, and Walt answered it, revealing what he had done with the ricin, and bidding Lydia an emotionless “goodbye”. This scene was almost comedic, proving for one final time just how smart Walt really was.

Walt then made his way into the meth lab, taking one last look at all the chemistry equipment. Then just as the police cars arrived on the scene he collapsed to the floor, leaving a bloody handprint on the lab equipment. Walt managed to do all that he set out to do, and then died before he could get caught by the police.

The episode was brilliantly paced, it tied up all the loose ends, it delivered retribution for Hank’s shocking death, and it brought as much redemption to Walter White as possible (he could never fully make amends for all the terrible things he had done) before the end. This is exactly what a series finale should be, and will likely set the benchmark for other great television dramas going forward.