The Great British Bake-Off is the coronavirus-free viewing experience we all need right now
- The cast and crew of the show isolated for the entire seven-week production, which meant they could do away with face masks and could even – gasp – hug
- The reality television show’s gentle charms have perhaps never been more evident than now, at the tail end of a year that’s seen a pandemic shock the world
In the US, the West Coast is on fire. A reality-star president is nudging the country closer to a constitutional crisis on a near-daily basis. Schools are closed and millions remain out of work thanks to an unchecked pandemic. And the things people normally do to escape – movies, concerts, long dinners with friends in establishments with four walls and a roof – are unavailable.
But, hey, at least we have The Great British Bake-Off – or, as it’s known in the US, The Great British Baking Show.
Landing like a teeny, tiny cherry atop the giant s*** sundae of 2020, the world’s most soothing competition series returned to Netflix last week.
GBBO has always offered a pastel-hued respite from the typically cynical world of reality television, an unscripted sanctuary where no one is ever thrown under a bus and seemingly everyone in the ensemble has, in fact, come to make friends.