TV Binge: Sugar Rush:Extra Sweet (Season 3, 2020) & Sugar High (2020)

Sugar Rush: Extra Sweet (Season 3, 2020)

Host: Hunter March
Judges: Candace Nelson & Adriano Zumbo
Guest Judges: Fortune Feimster, Naya Rivera, Justin Willman, Tyler Posey, Garcelle Beauvais, Ron Ben-Israel

A baking competition with 4 teams, 3 rounds, 2 cakes and 1 winner of $10,000. – IMDB

Season 3 of Sugar Rush is pretty much the same as the previous seasons. They run in the general same structure of having 4 teams and 3 rounds which leads to two rounds of elimination and 2 final teams battling it out in the final round and saving up time for their final rounds. Season 3 is titled Extra Sweet. This adds in the new element of ingredients requirement matching with the theme of the episode. For each rounds, there is a different shelf of certain items that have a minimum required of items to incorporate into the dessert to elevate the theme that that round whether its cupcake, confection or cake.

Its nice to see that Sugar Rush is changing up its formula a little. Sugar Rush has a decent concept and it runs at only six episodes a season, which makes it fairly binge-able as long as you are into this type of baking reality competition series. Its a serious and professional baking competition so its good in smaller doses (I usually watch an episode or two and stop). They find some fairly good guest judges. In this case, they had a few judges that was previously on Nailed It!, I believe and then also adds (sadly) the last reality show appearance for Naya Rivera. They all are rather fun and give some decent feedback for the most part about the desserts. The “Extra Sweet” addition to this season does add a little challenge and it usually can see how daring the teams are and their creativity.

Sugar Rush is at its third season. If baking reality competition series are your thing, this one is pretty good. I don’t think its quite as bingeable because its a lot more of a serious baking competition but I do enjoy the interaction of the judges, Candace Nelson and Adriano Zumbo as well as most of the guest judges here. They had some nice fancy baked creations that was quite fun to watch. The time element feels like the tension from the first few seasons has worn itself down where that’s no longer something that feels like its not doable. All the competitors just make it work 100% of the time and things that happen is more technical issues that they run out of time to fix. Its still fairly entertaining to watch overall.

Sugar High (2020)

Host: Hunter March
Judges: Jackie Sorkin, Rebecca DeAngelis, Stéphane Tréand

Contestants compete in two rounds of sugar sculpting challenges for a prize of $10,000. – IMDB

Sugar High is a one episode spin-off of Sugar Rush except with a focus on sugar sculptures and sugar confections. With that said, other than the host Hunter March remaining the same, the judges have all changed who are knowledgeable about this area of expertise.

Sugar High is separated into two rounds. The first round is about making confections to fit the criteria set out. Its meant to be a feast for the mouth and the eyes in many ways. The second round is about making these beautiful sculptures that also fit another set of criteria. In this case, it was the height, which is a challenge for desserts as we know from Sugar Rush challenges but with sugar sculptures, its even more fragile.

Its only one episode. I’m not sure whether this is just testing the waters to see how many people will be interested and the feedback or just a one off deal to add some variety to show off sugar work. I honestly think its like watching an art work come to life which is a nice change in pace. Sugar work is something that doesn’t seem to have that much emphasis but from this one episode, it seems like there’s quite a bit to discover and learn. Different way to work with sugar and the challenges that comes with working with something that sensitive to heat and craftsmanship. One episode isn’t enough to say much but I’d be down to at least watch a few more episodes of this.

TV Binge: Sugar Rush Christmas (Season 1, 2019)

You can also check out:

Sugar Rush (Season 1, 2018)
Sugar Rush (Season 2, 2019)

Sugar Rush Christmas (Season 1, 2019)

Host: Hunter March

Judge: Adriano Zumbo, Candace Nelson

Sugar Rush is finding its own slice of fun on Netflix and this year, they released their Christmas edition, Sugar Rush Christmas which uses the same system and concept as pretty much the changes they made in Season 2 (you can see what I mean from the review linked above) and implementing it to a Christmas scenario whether its Christmas spirit, Wintery themes like polar bears and North Pole or Santa Claus, etc. The themes inspire some of these bakers to make some great desserts.

Sugar Rush is the more professional baking side of baking competition and it has its own viewers because there is a really nice element of strategy and how some of these teams play for more time in their final round. The time element is what makes this fun and definitely inspires to open up a lot of creative baking themes as well. The variety leaves room to see where different bakers will do their own versions of desserts and this season’s competitors are rather fun, bringing in variety with a few bringing something new like gluten-free teams, etc.

At the same time, the charm of the show is in its host and guest judges. Hunter March adds a lot to these shows which are normally more serious in nature with bringing in some bad jokes or just simply bringing up the energy. Perhaps its scripted or its not, because unlike Nailed It, they never do seem to have that as a joke so I can only imagine that he does his part improvised and it all lands very naturally and adds a lot of fun. The guests this time also adds some fun as well, even if most of them are fairly unknown to myself because I either don’t watch their Netflix shows or whatever else. They aren’t all comedians or actors but still almost all offer good criticism.

Sugar Rush Christmas is for the audience that is there for more serious baking and creativity with a slight hint of fun on a time-based challenge. Most of the time, the time element really comes into play as something that can get a little tense about in the final challenge and not so much for all the other two challenges in the beginning for Cupcakes and Confections respectively, except for maybe one time in this season. For myself, its fun because I enjoy baking and learning new ideas for baked goods and designs especially for the holidays. With 6 episodes in this season, its very easy to binge if you enjoy this sort of entertainment, if not, its still fun to watch one episode at a time. It does have a lot of Christmas spirit and adds some nice holiday fun.

That’s it for this TV binge! I am curious on what other people feel about Sugar Rush?
Have you seen it? Is it something you like to watch?

TV Binge: Sugar Rush (Season 2, 2019)

Check out the 1st Season of Sugar Rush review HERE.

Sugar Rush (Season 2, 2019)

Host: Hunter March
Judges: Candace Nelson & Adriano Zumbo

A baking competition with 4 teams, 3 rounds, 2 cakes and 1 winner of $10,000. – IMDB

Season 2 of Sugar Rush is here. With a quick 50 mins episode length and 6 episodes for the whole season, Sugar Rush is the perfect type of TV binge. It can be done in a day if you don’t have any other things planned or to do . Just like the previous season and the very on point synopsis on IMDB for the show, this is a professional baking competition which starts with 4 teams who compete in elimination format in 3 rounds to become the final winner of $10,000. Who makes the decision is between the two judges and the guest judge who may or may not be baking saavy but they are eating saavy (meaning they know how to eat and that’s really what is important here since baked goods isn’t only for expert tasting but for normal people too). Some examples of guests this season are Nick and Vanessa Lachey as well as Jacques Torres.

For those who haven’t seen Season 1, here’s a quick little rundown of how the competition is structured. There are 3 rounds to the competition. The first 2 rounds is cupcakes and confections respectively to be completed within 3 hours. Whatever time you save from those three hours adds on to the final cake round which also has 3 hours. The topics for each round is announced as you complete the previous round after the judges taste. The only trick here is that elimination of one team happens after each round as well. What changes in season 2 is two elements. The first is more relevant to the competition structure and that is all round 3 keep going. When Round 2 finishes, the final round topic is given as well as 3 additional hours. In that sense, the clock never stops making it embrace that time element much better and gives less down time where the other team doesn’t stand around waiting for their time to start like in Season 1. The second element is that the judges now all stay in the room while the competition is going on and does commentating which is great compared to the first season where they would leave and come back at the tail end. These little things keeps the process of the competition more engaging.

Other than one or two odd guest choices, Sugar Rush really does a good job in keeping up with the hype of the first season and polishing the structure and concept behind it which works better this time around. It had 2 less episodes from the previous season so its a quick one to binge through. The themes here also are pretty fun from starting with current popular baking trends to more thematic ones like science and love, they choose guests that match their theme while also having focus on both technique and visual appeal. Hopefully, Sugar Rush gets a Season 3 because I’d be down for it.

 

What’s Up 2019 – Week 31: Going Back to Normal Routine

Another week has gone by! The last remaining bits of Fantasia finally ended and well, I’m still recuperating from it hence why some of the reviews are being worked on backwards now. There’s really only one more reviews and two Fantasia shorts compilation pieces to work on. Either way, we’re not here to only talk about movies but that part of my life is done for now so things are slowly getting back to normal, which means we’re back to a lot of TV? Yay! And reading is also back. A few reviews to get out on all fronts in the coming days and weeks, whichever and whenever my brain decides it wants to write daily again. For now, its going to be a tad sporadic.

With that said, lets check it out (before I ramble about everything before we get there)…

READING

Currently reading: Within

Within should be done by next week as I’m back to the reading on the bus. Currently about almost half way through. Its a pretty good one and has a decent shift in scenarios between chapters and such. It’ll be interesting to see how it all wraps up.

PLAYING

• Bonza

Gaming on the go lately and its been very much the same games over and over again between Bonza mostly and Rullo. Word and math puzzle games seem to be the way to go for me when I’m bored or need a change in pace from writing and everything else.

Gaming is going to get back on track as soon as I get back into the gaming bits which I probably will go back to some Linelight that I started in July and return soon with another Mobile Games Roundup.

WATCHING

• Aquaslash (review)
•  The Fable (review)
• One Smile is Very Alluring
• Fast and Furious Presents: Hobbs and Shaw (LAMBCAST #491)

Technically speaking, I’d have use Hobbs and Shaw as the highlight and it is because I went to go see it so that I could be on the show for Lambcast as a guest. Its my first time and just coming out of festival season, I was a bit rusty on the whole podcasting thing. Either way, I linked it above because the whole crew is super fun and was incredibly great to record with.

However, as for my highlight, I’d like to once again give it to Aquaslash, for which I think might take a while to get to a big screen seeing as its still in post-production editing however, the experience of watching something in the process of being complete and then seeing the whole majority of cast and crew at this unique world premiere for Fantasia was a pretty awesome experience plus, the concept is there.

Movies might slow down a little since I still have a few reviews to write from Fantasia and then some double features from before the festival started.

BINGING

• Sugar Rush (Season 2)
• Queer Eye (Season 4)
• Go Go Squid (2019)
• Orange is the New Black (Season 7)

Currently binging: We Grew Up (2019), Love Signal 2, The Coming One 3, Dream Space 2, River Flows To You

Film Festival ending means TV watching especially since a ton of the Netflix Originals decided to release in July so I ended up burning through Sugar Rush, Queer Eye and Orange is the New Black’s final season. Its not too crazy to think about considering the first two is only 8 episodes per season which is easy to get through. Aside from that, Go Go Squid also wrapped up and it was such a complete experience that I can’t wait to rewatch and write up the TV binge for that. Lots of TV binges in the works to be honest for a ton of series.

Currently binging is mostly things in progress except for River Flows To You which I got back to since everything else has pretty much ended. Its really good but a bit more on the emotional type of series. I started a new reality show called We Grew Up which is on one hand super cute but perhaps also one that might feel a bit odd to watch about kid siblings.

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

TV Binge: Sugar Rush (Season 1, 2018)

Sugar Rush (Season 1, 2018)

Host: Hunter March
Judges: Candace Nelson & Adriano Zumbo

A baking competition with 4 teams, 3 rounds, 2 cakes and 1 winner of $10,000. – IMDB

Netflix seems to be having all those cooking shows covered with it having focus on chef’s via Chef’s Table (review), food culture documentary with Ugly Delicious, then amateur baking competition with Nailed It! (review) and professional cooking global competition with The Final Table (review) and during the summer, it covered some professional baking competition with Sugar Rush.

This show is all about time being the biggest factor where the first two rounds done in a quick way will save up time to add to the final round for the cake round. The setup goes as such where 4 teams of two start the competition. The judges give the first two rounds theme and requirements at the beginning over a 3 hour cooking time. The first is a cupcake, the second is a confection. When all four teams have completed the cupcake, the judges deliberate on who gets eliminated while the teams make the confections. After the confection round, the judges share who gets eliminated and the final two teams hear the theme of their cake round as well as how much total time they have. The team with more time starts first whereas the second team watches and waits for their cue to start.

Looking at the structure of Sugar Rush, it sure seems like a brutal feeling for the teams especially in the first two rounds. Mostly because sometimes a team can be fast and be almost even done their confection but then be eliminated. Its quite sad to see but then the teams all do show a great deal of creativity and skills and that is best showed off in a restrained time frame. It is about finding a balance and weighing the risks with each creation. For that, the structure is solid and possibly one of the competitions that I don’t have many issues in that regards as it feels engaging to watch especially with time as the element which, bar a few baking technical issues, the teams fate was related to their own ambitiousness and how much time they had left.

If we look at the judges and the host along with its guests throughout the eight episodes in the first season, they have quite a few known names. Probably not related to baking directly but more “everyday” people instead of the judges who are experts in their own fields whether in baking or cupcakes or confections or sweets in general. Of course, “everyday” because who would call Betsy Johnson an everyday person, right? Just a quick example. However, it adds this normalcy to the show making it focusing not only on the taste but also the creativity behind the projects feeling like there is this well-rounded look at each baking creation. Candace Nelson and Adriano Zumbo also complement each other well enough. At the same time, I personally thought Hunter March did a great job at being an energetic and dynamic host for the show. I went away remembering the unique way he emphasized “ten thousand dollars” so that was really fun.

Overall, Sugar Rush is a fun baking competition. There are some great pieces made here. These are professional bakers with most of them having their own business or working in the industry one way or another. The judges are experts in their fields whereas the guests are also quite good with their critiques and comments and had a good mix of being part of the industry and some more celebrity and different fields. Its a nice balance of each human element. In terms of structure, it truly embraces the time element being its biggest factor and keeps that in mind. Time also adds this nerve wracking element to any competition as its always present but this one also gives a bit of control to how much time is saved in the hands of its competitors which is a nice twist.

Definitely looking forward to a second season of Sugar Rush and hoping it happens although I don’t recall seeing any news as of yet. If you do know whether its happening that I missed, do tell me in the comments. 🙂