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?