What’s Up 2020: Week 14

Another week has passed by as we jump into week 14 of 2020! The rhythm of working from home and balancing out the to-do list for blog and home stuff is definitely setting itself into place. Everything here is finally more balanced now.

READING

• Blackthorn by Terry Tyler (Review)

Currently reading: Highland Cove

Back on track with reading (kind of) as I finally finish up Blackthorn! Its not a dreading way that I’m saying this because Blackthorn is a really good read. You can check out my review that I’ve linked above. Terry Tyler is a really good author, judging from the two books that I’ve read of hers so far and definitely an author I’d like to read more of as she has some fantastic world building skills.

Of course, its time to move on as I’m reading Highland Cove, a story along the paranormal horror genre. A genre that I honestly haven’t read in a while so it will be a nice change in pace.

PLAYING

Currently playing: Happy Color, Cookies Must Die, Bounce That Bird, Demon’s Tilt

As I try to find some time to stream (which should be coming up), I’ve been working on my next gaming post reviewing some of the games who made the finalists in the Google Play Indie Games Festival for this year. Its quite a feat and probably won’t be done until they announce the winner of the whole thing but you know, its an attempt. With that said, Cookies Must Die and Bounce That Bird are both free games on the list that I’m checking out at the same time.

WATCHING

• Pride and Prejudice (2005 rewatch, Review)
• Hell House LLC 3: Lake of Fire (2019)
• Justice League (2017)

It was a week of taking it easy on the reading as there was just a lot of TV that I wanted to watch and I had a few things that I needed to take care of. With that said, I tend to enjoy rewatching Pride and Prejudice every once in a while as its one of my favorite movies. Its probably the top movie of the week but then, I never choose rewatches to highlight so we’re going with Justice League, a movie that surprisingly was a decent watch since I have been pretty much indifferent to the DC Universe films except for Wonder Woman. This was a fun watch. As for Hell House LLC 3, I’m going to be doing a double feature on both the sequels so I’ll just review it there.

BINGING

• Nailed It! (Season 4, 2020)
• The Great Canadian Baking Show (Season 1, 2017)

Currently binging: Skate into Love, The Singer 2020, Youth Is You 2, The Great Canadian Baking Show (Season 2), J-Style Trip

TV has been a huge focus this week. I’ve been watching a lot of baking shows as you can see. Nailed It Season 4 arrived and well, I watched that over two days. Its still a lot of fun and I should be doing a little review on that since there’s not a whole lot to talk about except maybe a few little things. While I am watching through the 2 seasons of The Great Canadian Baking Show that landed on Netflix and since I have zero actual TV channels at home, I don’t even catch CBC shows so didn’t really know this existed before. Still, its a good show as I start tackling Season 2 already.

Most of everything else has already been in progress but Skate Into Love is wrapping up in the coming week and boy, that series is SO AWESOME! Luckily, when that one ends, there’s another one that I’ve been looking forward to coming out. The good stuff for Chinese dramas are popping up now and its starting to look forward to!

That’s it for this What’s Up!
What have you been reading/watching/playing/binging?

TV Binge: Nailed It! (Season 3, 2019)

You can find previous Nailed It reviews below:

Season 1
Season 2
Holidays
Mexico

Nailed It! (Season 3, 2019)

Host: Nicole Byers, Jacques Torres

Home bakers with a terrible track record take a crack at re- creating edible masterpieces for a $10,000 prize. It’s part reality contest, part hot mess. – IMDB

Nailed It has been doing really good. While the series itself really follows one simple formula and stays in the fairly small season batches of only about 6 episodes and a special here and there, it seems to work very well especially in small doses. This TV binge is going to be fairly short because there isn’t a whole lot of different to say about the show. That isn’t a criticism in any way because why fix what isn’t broken, right? To me, that applies very well in this situation.

For those following Nailed It, the mistakes that people make among the contestants do sometimes feel like they generally get repeated. However, the show still manages to offer tips in both cake decoration as well as the actually baking method and how to approach these intricate cakes. Let’s be fair that some of these cakes look like they probably take longer than the time allotted to them in these situations (but then what do I know, my baking is much less design and more simple practicality). However, it is the accidents and the silliness and in turn, the final results that make Nailed It so much fun to watch. It definitely feels like one of the few that focus on amateur baking. I had some criticisms about the season 2 breaking away from its formula and adding in other elements less baking and more fruit carving and such, however, season 3 finds itself back to its roots and I’m very happy to see it do that. While I think those other things have its potential to be fun to watch, just like its hinting at the DIY Nailed It idea, its a nice spinoff to do but just not as part of an amateur baking show.

However, the heart of Nailed It still lies in its hosts. Nicole Byers, especially in Season 3, has truly found her place in it. Her humor hits all the time at the right places. Her pairing with Jacques Torres is starting to really also find its rhythm as well. At the same time, over these few seasons, they have also made a true character out of Wes and giving more screen time and having more creative ways of making an appearance with the trophy and whatnot. Its all in the name of fun and entertainment and its only 6 episodes but packed with a lot of it.

Are you a fan of Nailed it?

What’s Up-Week 21: Back to the Cinema!

Welcome to Week 21 What’s Up where everything seems to be back on track. I even had time to head to the theatre. Its been a while that I haven’t just been trapped at work or being a hermit at home. Either way, let’s see what’s gone on in this week’s recap!

As usual, you can find me on Letterboxd to see all my ratings and what I’ve been watching as I update it after each viewing HERE.

READING

• Crossline by Russ Colchamiro (Review)

Currently reading: The Space Between Time

This week and the next is going to be a dash to the finish line as I get some blog tour commitments together. I don’t usually put things so close together but sometimes, you just have to try to work things out with books that seem intriguing in the sea of indie book releases and what’s available. The review for Crossline is already out so you can check it on the review link above. As for The Space Between Time, I only brushed the very beginning of the story so not sure on what I think just yet but if its anything like Charlie Laidlaw’s last book that I read (HERE), there should be some creative fun in the horizon.

PLAYING

Currently playing: The Witness

The husband and I are still playing The Witness. Some of those puzzles are quite mind-boggling to say the least so this game is more in small doses or whenever we feel like our brains need a break.

WATCHING

• Natural Selection (2015)
• John Wick – Chapter 3: Parabellum (2019) Review
• Godzilla (2014)

We missed John Wick in theatres for the first two so since we’ve known about Parabellum coming out, we’ve been planning go see it in theatres. No regrets on that level. Not going to say too much since I’ve already done the review and you can check it out in the link above. Due to some podcast plans, we will be going to see Godzilla: King of the Monsters so in anticipation for it, we went back to check out 2014’s Godzilla which also is my first Godzilla movie ever. Its a bit surprising to some however, I have mixed feelings about this one but it had mostly to do with the fact that being a Godzilla story, it definitely felt like Godzilla was not as present as expected.

BINGING

• Nailed It! (Season 3, 2019)
• Love, Death + Robots (2019)

Currently binging: Le Coup de Foudre, Produce Camp 2019, Love O2O (rewatch), Great Escape, Street Dance of China (Season 2), Beautiful Youth

While I am still watching a lot of TV series on Youtube, this week was all about catching up to the Netflix series. Of course, I had to get Nailed It Season 3 done because its just always so much fun and honestly, a very short series anyways. Then coming up soon will be a podcast related watch and that is Love Death + Robots. I’ve heard lots of good stuff about it so was pretty excited to check it out but because of recording, it was pushed up on the viewing list and boy, am I happy that I did but it was a blast. I’ll be doing a TV binge for it at some point (probably sooner than later).

Nothing too new in the currently binging list except that I’m rewatching Love O2O since I’m working on the TV binge for that right now (looking for quotes and trying to get some screenshots). The only two new addition here would be Street Dance of China which is in its season 2. I didn’t watch Season 1 but I did see some highlights from that. I won’t be going back to it since its mostly blocked in Canada except for highlight reels so since it really makes no difference, I’m just keeping up with the new season. At the same time, I’m watching Beautiful Youth which is a part of the Nine Percent boy group in their journey through New Zealand for 20 days on a budget.

That’s it for this What’s Up!
What have you been reading/watching/playing/binging?

Christmas 2018 & TV Binge: Nailed It! Holiday! (Mini-series, 2018)

You can see reviews for the main seasons here:

Season 1
Season 2

Nailed It! Holiday! (2018)

Host: Nicole Byer & Jacques Torres

There are shows that talk about refined baking competitions and such but there is also a great joy in watching amateurs bake because its a learning curve and everyone has to start somewhere. Nailed It! has taken that concept and really excelled with it. Sure, Season 2 had its odd moments where it forgot what it was trying to do but overall, it still brought a lot of joy and laughter to some of the odd baking things that came out of some of these episodes. With that said, I was excited to see that Nailed It Holiday is now a thing. It keeps the same format, very much like the first one which focuses its first round on Baker’s Choice and its making smaller baking things like cookies, cake pops and cupcakes while its second round is the money maker, literally, because you can win $10,000 with  making a cake creation. This time we also see a hint of what might be potential new extension or a new direction for the show in the 7th episode as it escapes the baking realm and jumps into the DIY crafts realm. I’ll talk about that a little later as a final wrap-up discussion point.

Nailed It! Holiday! definitely did do exactly that. Its hilarious and a ton of fun. It themes itself around the different holidays during this winter season from a good few Christmas to simply winter themes to Hanukkah and takes us straight to a countdown to New Year’s. I’m guessing if you do watch this one or two episodes a week, you might actually reach New Year’s Eve to watch the countdown. The creations themselves are super nice. Its still very much difficulty but its always the how the choice of candidates in the competition that brings a lot of fun because of just how ridiculous some times these things turn out to be. At the same time, they add on a different special button in each one episode themed also around the holidays from unwrapping presents or untangling lights which also makes it fair because if they finish it during the 3 minutes, they can get back to their baking right away. Its a nice twist to the freeze button in the second round.

Nailed It has always seemed to want to divert away from its baking competition formula. And doing the DIY crafts route is a good one for sure. It might eventually also run out of topics at some point but it has its potential also. The one episode we had was definitely just a taste or maybe a market test in their own right to see how well received it is. I thought it was a fairly fun episode. I like to do DIY crafts as well so this was right up my alley. Crafts have the potential to go horribly wrong and they can also be pretty entertaining to watch as well. I would be down to see if they do a season of this especially of Nicole Byer continues to host.

Talking about that, the reason that Nailed It works despite whatever content they have is in part all the good creative things they do and finding the right type of participants and having a good angle, like this Holiday theme mini series. But the biggest reason is Nicole Byer. She is just the heart and life of this show. While Jacques Torres is a fun match for her, the crafts episode proves that she really can have the same dynamic with another host as well. Its her personality that makes it so fun to watch. Nailed It Holiday is a really fun season and I hope that they continue with this show, whether it be in baking (which I probably would prefer as it works well) or even if they expand to crafts.

TV Binge: Nailed It (Season 2, 2018)

If you missed the first season recap, you can find it HERE.

Probably one of the fastest TV binges ever! While I have a ton of TV binges I have to work on, Nailed It is surprisingly easy to write about so during this taxing week, I decided to put a lot of reality TV binges in advance.

Nailed It (Season 2, 2018)

Hosts: Nicole Byer, Jacques Torres

Guest Judges: Jon Gabrus, Ron Ben-Israel, Johnny Hekker, Waylynn Lucas, Art Smith, Joshua John Russell, Antoni Porowski

Nailed It is a pretty lovely concept and it works overall as a reality TV show. If you want the nutshell version of how I liked the first season, I liked it enough for me to hop right onto it the first weekend after it launched and then probably finished it over 2 days. Its fairly short episodes and there is only 6 + 1 episodes so its not exactly impossible to do either. In some ways, the entertainment value is there. Nicole Byer is great at her job. I know some people think she is annoying to watch but I actually think in Season 2, her and Jacques Torres has found somewhat of a balance and chemistry to make it work. I like her bombastic personality and its that personality that makes it fun to watch. The same goes for the judges who make their way onto the show which all have something to offer and add a little light to everything.

However, sadly, I do feel that Nailed It in Season 2 has betrayed its concept a little. Even if you went to Wikipedia or IMDB, they call it an amateur bake-off reality TV series. However, it didn’t quite go that patch especially in the first round of challenges as we saw watermelon carving and then a football field reconstruction where the extend of making food was organizing, chopping and making guacamole. All very noble things to learn how to do and hard to put together but doesn’t quite fit into the formula that the show is trying to sell initially. Maybe its because I watched this for the amateur baker angle that it disappointed me. Technically, I mean, this all does fit into the idea because Nailed It is just about hot messes that happen, right? So, you could apply it to anything that can be recreated.

Fact is, I’d be lying if I said that Nailed It Season 2 wasn’t entertaining. It was pretty entertaining and I loved the Queer Eye crossover episode which was just too short. That episode actually got me to sit down and actually get started on that series, which I’ll be doing a TV Binge on very soon for both seasons because well, while this one I’ve only watched once since the end of June. I’ve already watched Queer Eye both seasons twice. I’m going on a tangent so lets bring it back to Nailed It! Entertaining still but not quite what I expected with the additional diversity of the projects. When I get to the new reality TV Baking competition series Sugar Rush soon also, we’ll talk about how this could go so many different themes instead of going into these odd non-baking challenges. I wouldn’t be so disappointed if it was baking savory snacks to be honest. Its just that baking thing that some challenges was missing and I felt like Nailed It lost its way just a little every once in a while.

But then, if Nicole Byer is back for Season 3 of Nailed It, I’d be down to watch some more.

TV Binge: Nailed It (Season 1, 2018)

Its a beautiful Sunday (or at least I hope it will be since the posts are written in advance…hooray to organization!) I should be baking this weekend since its my husband’s birthday weekend. Fun fact that our birthdays are literally a week apart. Either way, its time for fun stuff so whats more fun than talking about food. Boy..am I on a roll with food related series! Anyways, I didn’t realize Nailed It was so new until I was looking at the release date on Netflix.

Nailed It (Season 1, 2018)

Hosts: Nicole Byer & Jacques Torres

Guest judges: Sylvia Weinstock, Zac Young, Valerie Gordon, Dave Arnold, Yolanda Gampp, Jay Chandrasekhar

Nailed It is a competition show for amateur bakers who are trying hard to learn how to bake but failing hard. How the show works is that there are three bakers every episode. In the first round, they face-off for a themed baked goods usually the same item but different design and the bakers get to choose whichever they want or end up with if they are too slow. Whoever does the best ends up with a prize and get to wear the gold chef’s hat to flaunt that they are the one to beat in the second round. The second round is a one big cake that they need to replicate. As this is an amateur baking competition, they have a Panic button one lifeline to ask for help where one of the judges will go to help them, while the loser of the first round gets a second advantage of one of the buttons that mess with the other two competitors like Nicole Nags, Freezer Burn or Pardon My  French.  The best of this second round wins the competition and ten thousand dollars.

The first season of Nailed It only has 6 episodes so its quick watch. In some ways, its weirdly satisfying to watch amateur bakers at work. I believe that we learn a lot from our failures. So, there’s this weird connection of being a amateur baker that fails at aesthetics of a baked good all the time that I do understand their struggle and from those elements, I learn a little about the little details that make a difference. While this feels more or less as entertaining than say Zumbo’s Just Desserts (review), there is still a lot to be learned in the baking department because the head judges is Jacques Torres who is a pastry chef and a chocolatier, so he offers some nice advice. With that said, the other person joining him is host Nicole Byer who probably is the life of the show because she talks a lot and is somehow rather entertaining for the most part. Aside from them, each episode has a new guest judge, each knowledgeable in their own respects.

Overall, the season for Nailed It was so swift that there isn’t really much to talk about. Its for the crowd that likes having a good laugh at some of the baking failures and shenanigans that can happen to the amateur bakers who attempt some big projects. As entertaining as it all is, it surprising highlights a lot of the basic mistakes that some people don’t quick get when they first start baking and has a decent educational value as well. Plus, most of the guests are pretty knowledgeable and give some decent advice as well as Jacques Torres. Its a fun little show and I wouldn’t mind seeing a Season 2 as a fun little binge session. I definitely has a good few laughs at some of the turnouts. Honestly, that is all I ask for sometimes when I watch a show. Its not like I’m watching a food documentary series which is meant to be serious which I have a few of those TV binges coming up 😉 Plus, I appreciate that Netflix is appealing to its foodie viewers especially since I don’t have cable so I don’t get Food Network unless I travel and have hotel stays.

Have you seen Nailed It yet?