Sheer Perfection
With the 2016 U.S. presidential election still an agonizing ten thousand years away, it’s time for Americans with blistered souls to look across the pond for comfort, which we will surely find tonight in the open arms of Sue Perkins, Mel Giedroyc, and my beloved goddess Mary Berry. Yes, my dear friends: The Great British Bake Off is back for series seven. (I am allowed to talk about this in the Pop Culture Fix because Sue Perkins is a lesbian, let me live!) Obviously if you are in the UK, you will watch it at 8pm on BBC One. If you are not in the UK, here are some helpful viewing tips.
Just a reminder that the last minute of series six was the greatest sixty seconds in the history of television.
Look, I’m serious: Watch this show. Even if it’s just on US Netflix, where you can find series five right this second.
Teevee
+ Jill Soloway is tag-teaming with Amazon again. This time, she’s working on a musical comedy. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the show will “follow a woman’s search for love and self-discovery in Los Angeles.”
+ You care about this trailer, trust me. (Yeah, that’s Alia Shawkat and Aubrey Plaza as Hamilton and Burr.)
+ Parenthetically, Lin-Manuel Miranda is gonna make a live-action Little Mermaid for Disney.
+ In this, the year of the Bisexual Revolution, esteemed bisexual Anna Paquin will star in a new Netflix series adapted from Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace.
+ Scream will be back with a Halloween special in October.
+ Jill Pantozzi and Donna Dickens discuss the Arrow-verse’s commitment to LGBT representation on the latest episode of She Said/She Said.
+ Tara’s going to be alive, after all, on this season of The Walking Dead. (I guess?)
+ Sarah Paulson just can’t get enough Ryan Murphy.
Movies
+ Cynthia Nixon as bisexual babe Emily Dickinson, coming to the Toronto International Film Festival in September.
+ Ellen Page and Kate Mara’s romantic drama, Mercy, has found its director and it is Tali Shalom Ezer. Her first feature film, Princess, is one of the most unnerving things I’ve ever seen, and I was really hoping for more of a rom-com, but okay!
Queer Humans, Out and About
+ Megan Rapinoe wasn’t super psyched about Hope Solo’s post-Olympics comments.
+ Sharon Van Etten released a song for the victims of Orlando’s Pulse nightclub shootings. The proceeds from song will go to a charity that aims to stop the NRA from influencing common sense gun safety legislation in the United States.
+ This is a very interesting read: Sarah Paulson sits down to talk with real live Marcia Clark.
If you have wee children with whom you would like to be able to watch television that does not involve Wild Kratts, Daniel Tiger, or the Octonauts (all excellent shows) GBBO is here to answer your prayers.
We watched the series 6 finale last night and my five year old said to my wife “Mommy, I want to be a baker when I grow up” and then cheered and clapped for the winner. Other side effects include having them turn over items I have baked, scraping them with a fork, and saying “good bake, Mama. No soggy bottom.”
This show is the best thing ever on television.
I’m still in Chicago and am gonna miss the premiere of GBBO!!! I look forward to the country finally coming together to focus on something wholesome again though. I’m done talking about Nigel Farage.
I JUST WATCHED BAKE OFF. I am now just starting the incredibly named food/culture documentary that follows Nadiya as she visits Bangladesh, The Chronicles of Nadiya.
Can we all just take a second to appreciate that pun? A true genius was obviously at work that day.
Ohmigosh, that person is a genius. I don’t even want to watch it because it’ll ruin the image in my head of Nadia going through a wardrobe, going on a chariot ride with Mary Berry, trying her Turkish delight and saying “Too sweet. All I’m getting is sugar, the Rose doesn’t come through”
I am so obsessed with this show. I love Nadiya, I love Mel and Sue, I love the tent, I love the dramatic music, I love the artistic cake design drawings…it’s the best thing on the telly by far.
I also second the promotion of the ‘Chronicles of Nadiya’ documentary – I haven’t finished it but it’s super emotional and cute and informative and entertaining so far.
Wait! I forgot to say that it’s totally legit that you write about it because as well as Sue being a lesbian, there was also a queer female winner a couple of seasons ago – Ruby Tandoh.
And last season there was an adorable gay junior doctor and my friends see him out in the gay village pretty much every week.
Tamal was amazing! Me and my sister were just talking about how we hope he goes on an extra slice or something this year cause we miss him.
VAL
I GASPED OUT LOUD WHEN I READ GBBO IS BACK. I was literally searching for a release date like 2 weeks ago and found nothing! How could I have been so out of the loop?!
Ok so as they were doing the first introductions of each person I decided to make a guess about who would make it through to the later rounds and who would be eliminated in the first episodes.
Benjamina was my favorite right off the bat. I think Selasi is a solid contender and I see him going far, and I like Rav but I think he might be one of the early bakers to be eliminated. Jane reminded me of Nancy at first so now I see her making it through, and even though Louise didn’t do stellar this episode I have a feeling about her going far.
Does anyone else have GBBO predictions?? Can we have weekly in-depth discussions on the episodes???
Definitely agree with you about Benjamina and Selasi. Rav looks like he’s going be the baker that uses increasingly obscure ingredients and goes out around week 6. Also think Andrew could do well,just because the engineer/builder/architect types tend to stay in for a while.
Here are my predictions:
Rav will turn out to be gay
Candice will have great lipstick every week
Val will be adorable every week
Kate will bring something from her garden every week
Benjamina will cry every week (DON’T CRY BENJAMINA)
Selasi is so beautiful I can forgive him for being a banker (I hope him and Paul get together) – he was robbed of star baker. ROBBED.
There were a couple of beautiful moments where Paul and Selasi sort of gazed into each others eyes last night.
Damn, pretty much every comment is about GBBO
I’m siding with Rapinoe 100% on this one, Hope Solo has no class
Although…
“Well, it’s interesting that Solo is one of five women’s national team players who filed a federal complaint against the USSF for wage discrimination back in March. She has been arguably the most vocal in leading the fight for equal pay and the federation hasn’t taken kindly to the campaign. It seems that it’s at least possible that the federation is trying to silence one of the movement’s leaders and send a message to others players that dissenters will be eliminated at the first opportunity.”
It doesn’t matter how I’m feeling, GBBO will always put a smile on my face. Last night’s episode was as delicious as a Mary Berry Victoria sponge.
I’m going for Selasi to win, he’s far too cool a cucumber to get flustered by the small matter of forgetting to add an ingredient.
I do feel, though, that Mel and Sue will be kicking themselves that they didn’t get to utter the best innuendo of the night: “I like the flavour of a Cox.”
As much as I love talking about GBBO can I just confirm that I did in fact read the words “Ellen Page”, “Kate Mara” and “romantic drama” all in relation to one another?
In a drama about capital punishment! If I was prone to conspiracy theories, I would think Hollywood had hacked into my dreams
I am living for AS GBBO content.
#1 feeling from last night’s ep: how the fuck do all these people not know which way up a jaffa cake goes?!
Right?! Surely everyone knows what a Jaffa Cake looks like?
Oh my god yes? The proper shape of a Jaffa cake should be an instinctive knowledge for anyone who has been in Britain for, like, a week.
I can’t believe that in all this discussion of the GBBO no one has yet mentioned the dildo joke that Sue made in the first 30 seconds?? I was like WOW YES this is Britain’s most-watched TV show and I love it.
When Sue made her sex toy innuendo my eyebrows raised more than Mary’s at the mention of gin and tonic drizzle cake, honestly
Also, I want someone to comfort me when I cry like Sue comforted Benjamina.
(and that someone is Sue.)
(or maybe Benjamina.)