MovieChat Forums > The Great British Bake Off (2014) Discussion > The judges(especially Mary) hate young p...

The judges(especially Mary) hate young people

posted 9 years ago by lexi_jay
10 replies | jump to latest

I'm exaggerating for effect but i do notice that they never seem to recognize their younger contestants when it comes to star bakers. Full disclosure this is my second season but one thing I noticed between last seasons Martha and this seasons Flora is that no matter how consistent they are on any given week and no matter how well they do in the technical challenge they rarely if ever are in contention for star baker and it irks me. I've noticed that someone who bombed one or both of the first two bakes will be in contention for star baker if they did well on their technical challenge but the teens who excel across the board rarely get recognition. Once in a blue moon Paul will throw their names out there but Mary never ever does.

It's ageism. I get the feeling like they think that the youngsters have their whole lives ahead of them and many more possibilities to be recognized while this may be the last hoorah for the old fogies.

Has anyone else noticed this? For those of you that have watched all seasons, were there earlier seasons in which the teenage contestants received high praise?

[–] Cooly44 9 years ago

I only watched last season in full and parts of other seasons so I can't say if there's a bias against young bakers...however, I do agree that they never gave Martha her due. She produced some spectacular baking and she lasted longer than some of those who did win star baker.

[–] nutsberryfarm 9 years ago

fair points. some of the youngsters lack a certain gravitas in their baking.

🌴🌴🌴🌴🌴🌴🌴🌴🌴

[–] maryrosenkranz 9 years ago

Having only watched the last one that was on in the US(S5). Just from what I thought, when someone did something outside of their comfort zone(the judges)-they would have an attitude of "that's not going to work". Even though the judges are experts, it all just falls down to their opinions(unless something goes wrong in the chemistry dept of course). I cannot remember that exact episodes, but there were some flavor profiles that the judges did not care for. They are of course flavor combos that are common here in the U.S.
They are not perfect-just perfectionists.

[–] lexi_jay 9 years ago

No, you are missing my point entirely. What I was saying is that a young contestant will do a great job on all 3 bakes and still never be in contention for star baker not even when they place first or second in the technical bake whereas one of the older contestants will have royally screwed up one of the it three bakes yet Mary or Paul throws their hat in the ring for star baker. It doesn't make sense. I understand about the judges preferring particular flavor profiles and all that but I'm going based off of their own critiques.

For 3 weeks in a row Flora did a great job(she did falter on bread week) and she placed in the top 3 first week for technical bake and top 2 the following 2 weeks and did great on all of her other bakes yet only one of those weeks Pail gave her a half hearted consideration during deliberations while Mary was silent and all 3 of those weeks they went on to consider contestants who had faltered in at least one of their bakes. Were Flora older she would have been star baker. Her age counts against her.

[–] maryrosenkranz 9 years ago

Okay...like I said I've only watched the last one that was actually aired on PBS(season 5). And with that one I did not see any "ageism" only contention when it came to what they chose to bake.

[–] willcwhite 9 years ago

I think if you watch the rest of the seasons you'll find that this assertion is not borne out by fact. James Morton, John Whaite, Ruby, Frances, etc. all did quite well.

I suppose it partially depends on what you define as 'young'. Certainly Martha was the youngest contestant, and admittedly, she never did win star baker.

[–] 9 years ago

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[–] dagr317 9 years ago

Completely agree about Ruby. I liked her at the beginning but her attitude got old really fast. She was always so negative about herself (in the final episode where we get to meet the people in their lives, her mother said she'd been that way her whole life), she cried way too often, she apologized to the judges before they even had a chance to comment or taste what she'd made, and she hung her head down so low you couldn't even see her face. The judges repeatedly told her to knock it off but she just kept it up. I also couldn't understand why they propped her up so much and gave her so much latitude when other bakers would get legitimate (and sometimes overly harsh) critiques but it seemed like they felt the need to baby Ruby so as not to damage her psyche even further, however their job is to judge the baked goods and not to be amateur psychologists.

If Ruby behaves like that during a baking competition that she voluntarily entered, how can she manage in the real world when it comes to applying for a job and dealing with people? With the bake-off, there was no prize (money, their own show, etc.) at stake and most of the bakers have said they entered because it looks like fun and they want to test themselves. I've heard that there are 10,000 or more applicants for each season of the show and Ruby made the cut but she was so full of self-doubt that I was really hoping she'd get eliminated because she was dragging down the whole atmosphere of the show (at least for me). I wish her all the best in her future and hope she can start to see a little glimmer of something good in the world and in herself.

[–] 9 years ago

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[–] liscarkat (19427) 4 years ago

Someone young always ends up in the final three. All of the winners have been relatively young, except Nancy Birtwhistle (Series 5). I just finished watching Series 11 which was won by Peter Sawkins, who was twenty years old.