TV Binge: Crazy Delicious (Season 1, 2020)

Crazy Delicious (Season 1, 2020)

Host: Jayde Adams

Judge: Heston Blumenthal, Carla Hall, Niklas Ekstedt

Carla Hall, Niklas Ekstedt and Heston Blumenthal will judge as three cooks will battle it out to create the best feast.The set will be entirely edible and will contain edible blossom, chocolate soil, and a drinkable babbling brook. – IMDB

Joining the Netflix competition series in June was Crazy Delicious, a British cooking competition hosted by Jayde Adams and judged by three “gods”, Carla Hall, Heston Blumenthal and Niklas Ekstedt. The structure of the competition works with 3 new contestants every episode. Each episode is separated into 3 challenges. The first challenge is called The Magic Ingredient where each contestant has to make that ingredient (mostly everyday things) into some hopefully crazy and delicious and highlights its flavors. The winner of the first challenge wins 10 minutes head start in the second challenge. The second challenge is The Reinvention where the contestants need to reinvent a popular food like burgers and pizza for example. The one of comes up last in after the first two challenges will be eliminated. The next two battle it out in the third challenge called The Final Feast where its themed like brunch. Being the final challenge, whoever wins this one (evaluating overall performance usually) will win for that episode/round.

The structure itself is pretty solid. Its a good set of parameters and usually the everyday things that we encounter are good because its so familiar and yet, its hard for most to think out of the box. Of course, the show proves that tons of people do think out of the box. The reinvention is probably the best part of episode as it still maintains the three contestants and usually has some rather wild meals prepared. The structure does work and keeps it very fun. Different from other cooking competition, this one is a new batch of contestants (just like the expert cooking version of the amateur baking show Nailed it, right?). The food and cooking is much more sophisticated and its about being creative and different so its rather interesting to see all these concepts and ideas come to life (or at least partially in some cases).

As much as we can talk about the rather charming host Jayde Adams, the judges are pretty good. They are well-rounded as the different places they are from form their different areas of expertise. They are fairly entertaining although I’m not quite sure why they had to call them “gods” and then do some lame lightning and thunder when they descended to give the final winner. Its a bit odd on both of those choices but I guess its for the entertainment value. However, aside from those elements, the truly enchanting part of this competition might be the edible garden that its set up in where the contestants can walk around the forage whatever they need. Its a unique way to approach looking for ingredients.

Overall, Crazy Delicious has a lot of elements that work in the realm of whats it trying to achieve. It has a common structure that works for its cooking competition format. The judges themselves are fairly good and have some rather dynamic moments. Jayde Adams is pretty fun to watch especially the silly segments in the opening when she introduces the show and takes a bite into the different props, setting the show up for a quirky adventure. Its definitely quirky from its variety of contestants and the different angles they take. But there’s this element of this Crazy Delicious that feels like its missing a spark somewhere, maybe its all a very common route to take and doesn’t have that unique twist that makes it stand out more than an edible garden that lowers the rewatchability of the show and even the bingeworthiness of the show (although its only 6 episodes, so its easy to get through).

Netflix A-Z: Attack the Block (2011)

We’re back for Round 2 of Netflix A-Z! Are you ready?

Some of you know that I’m part of The Random Chat Show and if you haven’t, well, I am.  You should go check it out over at That Moment In. I have two amazing co-hosts and while we didn’t go into an in-depth conversation about Star Wars: The Force Awakens, I did retain one recommendation for a film John Boyega did and that is Attack the Block. And you know what? That is exactly what I’m choosing for the A selection. I need a good movie to start this off and I trust Melissa’s (aka The Creative Fox Den) recommendations.  Especially since it has been on my list for a while and I had wanted to start it up a few times but never got around to it.

Let’s check it out! 🙂

Attack the Block (2011)

Director and writer: Joe Cornish

Cast: John Boyega, Jodie Whittaker, Alex Esmail, Leeon Jones, Franz Drameh, Luke Treadaway, Nick Frost

A teen gang in South London defend their block from an alien invasion.-IMDB

Its always hard to imagine a great recent alien movie nowadays.  You know, one that isn’t too serious but still packs in a lot of fun.  Attack the Block really does have it all.  Its fun and action-packed with great creature design and a nice motive behind the alien invasion.  The movie itself is packed with young actors and the only familiar faces you  might see is Nick Frost and Luke Treadaway.  We’ll take a look at the cast in just a bit.  Attack the Block is around one neighborhood or even just mostly one building.  It follows these young gangs who really aren’t all that dangerous.  They each have a snippet of their families and backgrounds and you can see their personality shine through with their own skills and abilities that makes this group well-rounded.  In between the pretty thrilling adventures packed with a mix of scares and British humor, it even manages to get us to think about the social situation going on.  Plus, the gang turns from a bunch of muggers into the hunted and before long you will start cheering for them, hoping that they’ll manage to get rid of this alien invasion or at least survive it.

I have to say that I went into Attack the Block completely unsure about where and how this was going to go. Just to say, there’s a ton to love about this movie. I’m not big on groups of kids acting tough but these guys and their friendship was put together really well. Each of them have a pretty fun personality that defines who they are and to make me connect and care about them during the movie that I was worried about their survival was a true feat.  John Boyega is definitely a talent here.  He pulls off the leader of the group and you can feel a bit of his character.  The movie never dwells too much on their backgrounds but I think that is okay for its length.  It focuses on the issue on hand and that is the alien invasion.  It is random and came out nowhere.  There are enough questions as they get chased down and the key one is why their little South London block was the main target and why they were the focus and the final big one: how do they stop these raging creatures? If the kids don’t make you feel enough thrills and the occasional laugh, Nick Frost and Luke Treadaway’s characters dialogues will give you the bit of humor to break some of the crazy tension that some scenes do build. Since I’m on that point, Luke Treadaway NEEDS to do more movies.  I really like him a lot! (Have you seen him in Tonight You’re Mine!)

One of the biggest positives of Attack the Block has to be the creatures.  This one proves that creatures don’t need to be complicated.  They go back to a very simple logic of why the creatures landed here.  Its a simple explanation of why they chose the block and its a simple solution (in concept and not so much execution for the characters). Who knew that a set of glowing teeth was all you needed to make a menacing alien, right? Fact is, that is all Attack the Block needed to make the convincing character.  The movement and features was like a few creatures that we know all  meshed together and they way they work turns out to be much more simple than even this group actually thought initially and yet, its super efficient in delivering the tension and the scares.

Overall, Attack the Block is really great. I honestly don’t have much criticism for it.  I like the story, the characters, the length, the balance between the scares, thrills and humor and especially the creature design.  It works really well for me and its exactly how I’d like to start Netflix A-Z for the beginning of the year. Attack the Block deserves a view and I highly recommend it.

Have you seen Attack the Block? Did you like it? 

Any idea what the B selection will be? Hint: Asian Horror

Unboxing: Nerd Block June 2015 [British Invasion]

Maybe this didn’t surprise you but it sure surprised me when I walked through the door and saw this month’s Nerd Block sitting on my counter. I knew that I didn’t order it so I went to investigate.

Apparently, I’m really stupid and didn’t realize that when you order one month, it becomes recurring charge so I ended up having a payment go through for June and not realized until I got the box.  Well, that’s also because I didn’t get a payment confirmation from Nerd Block either or delivery notice which is all feeling a little weird because then I can’t even back out or know that it was a mistake.  Still, its here and I just hope that it’ll be as fulfilling to make me not regret especially when I’ve been trying to cut expenses after vacation.

Still, British Invasion is a good theme so let’s check it out! 🙂

Nerd Block [June 2015 British Invasion]

 Mr. Bean Teddy

Mr. Bean is the staple of British humor or any humor.  Other than Stephen Chow for me in Hong Kong movies that made me laugh, I remember Mr. Bean being a constant in our house when I was younger.  My parents and I would sit around watching Mr. Bean whenever it was on TV. And his Teddy? That’s awesome! Just so awesome! 🙂

Doctor Who Titan Figure

Maybe I shouldn’t confess it because I’ll get a lot of crap about it.  But maybe I already did last year when I posted about Comic-con.  So…I’ve never seen any Doctor Who.  Its probably a bad thing and I should ASAP.  But, I haven’t yet.  But while that is a fact, this vinyl figure looks really awesome.  Who plays the 10th Doctor Who, BTW? Anyone can help me with that?

Monty Magnets

I can’t remember seeing the entire Monty Python and the Holy Grail movie.  At least I knew what it was, right? Who doesn’t need magnets, right? 😉

Whovian Art Print

Sorry for the weird background leaking into this picture, especially on the top.  I was watching a Let’s Play video on Youtube when I decided to do the unboxing and propping it up on the screen was the best way to reduce glare from the light.  As previously mentioned, I know nothing about Dr. Who but this poster/art print looks absolutely fantastic, don’t you think?

Mr. Bean Bendable

So okay, I love Mr. Bean and I do love toys, except I can’t quite figure out what to do with this.   But then, I guess this one could go in the display case if it stands up on its own…I’ll have to investigate it a little further.

Bored T-Shirt

The card says this is from Sherlock Holmes and that was my initial thought.  I just love the T-shirts.  This one looks awesome!!

Overall, British Invasion was pretty good.  It was very Doctor Who dominant and I’m not very familiar with it but the items for that was quite good.  Mr. Bean stuff is always great.  The T-shirt just wins it completely for me 🙂 Loving it!

Due to financial situation, I’ve made sure to stop Nerd Block for next month.  Arcade Block should be in the mail soon so more unboxing posts coming up soon 🙂 If you enjoy these posts, remember to drop by again!!

What did you think this month’s Nerd Block? Any item peak your interest?