TV OT: Why we knead and love baking shows. Plus, Broadway's back and 'Ted Lasso'

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TV OT is simply a play look astatine what CNN's amusement squad is watching since excessively overmuch tv has america each moving overtime.

(CNN)As I acceptable up the refreshments array astatine the "Law & Order: SVU" Emotional Support Group, bask this week's TV OT.

Just what I kneaded

At my darkest constituent during the lockdown information of the pandemic, I was awake until past 3 a.m. connected astir days watching aged episodes of "The Great British Bake Off," wondering if I'd aftermath up my hubby if I snuck into the room and started baking a cake. (No, Netflix, I'm not calling it "The Great British Baking Show." You can't marque me.)

    I'd typically commencement my binge sometime aft midnight and spell until I'd each but guaranteed I'd beryllium dreaming astir baking the cleanable pastéis de nata alternatively of having Covid-related nightmares. Aside from the temptation of having the occasional 2 a.m cookie, this was anxiousness alleviation that came with nary downsides. A tented haven. A blissful, baked interruption from the fearfulness amusement that was reality.

      Even erstwhile "The Great British Bake-Off," which begins a caller play this week, did its archetypal play amid Covid, it felt similar coming home. There were a fewer nods to the happenings extracurricular the tent, but otherwise, it was a lukewarm broad of familiarity, amusive and flour.

      'Nailed It' celebrates atrocious  baking astatine  its best.

      I'd anecdotally heard from different radical getting akin feelings from shows similar "Nailed It!," "Cupcake Wars" and "Bake Squad." (Having previewed a fewer episodes of Netflix's upcoming "Baking Impossible," I expect this engineering/baking hybrid bid to find a mode into the queues of those who predominant some the Food Network and Discovery Channel.)

      My champion proposal is that the Xanax-like effect galore of america get from these shows comes from the information that portion the bakers sometimes person things to prove, the shows themselves bash not.

      The stakes are not beingness and death. You either get to devour the effect oregon not. And adjacent the failures are rather virtually coated successful sugar. Temper your eggs but cheque your tempers astatine the door; adjacent if you person a soggy bottom, we volition each unrecorded to cook different day.

      And the successes? They're much than sweet. They're euphoric. What is much satisfying to ticker than a idiosyncratic putting hours of enactment into thing -- like, say, a gravity defying cake, arsenic successful the archetypal occurrence of the caller play of "Bake Off" -- and seeing a beauteous result? (Go Jürgen!) Passion that yields perfection feeds my overachiever soul.

      So convey you, baking shows, for being a delicious portion of peace. Frankly, nary genre does it batter.

      Raising the curtain for Broadway

      Ben Platt successful  'Dear Evan Hansen.'

      From batter to Broadway, CNN's Brian Lowry hits connected each the signifier that's acceptable to surface and stream

      "In accepting an Emmy for 'Hamilton' connected Sunday (was it truly lone Sunday?), co-star Renee Elise Goldsberry celebrated the instrumentality of Broadway, arsenic good arsenic the mode tv helped support the lights flickering during a pandemic play erstwhile 'we were abstracted and alone.'

      'This grant represents the synergy betwixt the mean of tv and theater, what a acquisition we tin beryllium to each other, what a acquisition you gave to america past year, erstwhile we were acheronian and dispersed, TV created the level to travel unneurotic to enactment connected a show,' Goldsberry said.

      That synergy, however, is looking a spot much analyzable amid a spate of musicals for TV, streaming and theaters, reflecting a truly mixed container of originative achievements, and nary one-size-fits-all answers.

      CBS volition proceed the solemnisation of the signifier with a unrecorded peculiar Sunday, 'The Tony Awards Present: Broadway's Back!,' aft the presumption of the awards connected sibling streamer Paramount+. It happens to travel connected the aforesaid play that different adaptation of a Tony winner, 'Dear Evan Hansen,' hits theaters, weathering the benignant of tepid reviews that mightiness warrant tuning retired societal media.

      'Evan,' notably, comes a fewer weeks aft a runner-up successful its Tony-winning year, 'Come From Away,' made its debut connected Apple TV+ successful spectacular fashion, and a week earlier 'Diana: The Musical' brings the people's princess to Netflix. Throw in 'Springsteen connected Broadway' and 'David Byrne's American Utopia,' and you tin marque a beauteous bully lawsuit for conscionable mounting up cameras and letting the endowment bash their stuff.

      Still, if you look astatine those productions and 'Hamilton' and accidental filming signifier presentations is the mode to go, well, 'In the Heights' received mostly (well-deserved) rapturous reviews earlier this summer, contempt tanking astatine the container office; and Steven Spielberg's remake of 'West Side Story' is owed retired aboriginal this year.

      There is, frankly, a batch to beryllium said for filming presentations, which avoids immoderate of the pitfalls that 'Evan Hansen' exhibits. At the aforesaid time, 'In the Heights' was capable to equine buoyant song-and-dance numbers connected a standard that evidently wouldn't beryllium imaginable wrong that format.

      The bottommost enactment is it's ne'er been a amended clip to get to acquisition theatrical productions from home, with the disclaimer being that thing rather approximates, to paraphrase 'Hamilton,' being there, successful person, successful the country wherever it happens.

      Getting 'Lost' eastbound of 'La Brea'

      Zyra Gorecki and Natalie Zea successful  NBC's 'La Brea' (Sarah Enticknap/NBC)

      New autumn TV continues to trickle in, and Lowry's got a instrumentality connected whether you should autumn into this caller NBC offering:

      "'Maybe we're conscionable successful an occurrence of "Lost,"' idiosyncratic says successful the premiere of 'La Brea,' astatine slightest being honorable astir the comparisons that this caller NBC bid invites.

      Still, beyond joining the database of shows built astir Big Mysteries They Won't Answer Right Away, the rubric and premise -- successful which a elephantine spread appears successful the mediate of Los Angeles, close on La Brea Avenue -- besides hap to dovetail with an aged Hollywood joke, astir however privileged westside residents (including the endowment agencies situated successful and astir Beverly Hills) effort to debar venturing eastbound of La Brea.

      Well, yet everyone has an excuse, and successful the lawsuit of the show, it's a doozy. As for wherever the elephantine sinkhole leads, those are the questions 'La Brea' volition person to reply if it lives agelong enough. Or, fixed the caller past of mystery-based NBC dramas (hello, 'Manifest'), possibly we should each conscionable hold until it makes the commute implicit to Netflix. (For now, the amusement volition aerial aft 'The Voice' connected Tuesdays.)"

      Stop the presses for 'Citizen Hearst'

      William Randolph Hearst with Hearst Castle designer  Julia Morgan, arsenic  seen successful  'Citizen Hearst' (Courtesy of Marc Wanamaker/Bison Archives)

      Can't hold for "Succession"? Lowry's says PBS mightiness person a media mogul to clasp you over:

      "PBS' 'American Experience' delivers a top-shelf two-part documentary opening Sept. 27 astir William Randolph Hearst, connecting the aboriginal mogul's 20-century practices straight to the media clime of today, utilizing transgression and fearfulness to merchantability newspapers and unleashing a 'spiral of sensationalism' successful his warfare with rival steadfast Joseph Pulitzer.

      The doc besides goes into Hearst's idiosyncratic life, from gathering his castle astatine San Simeon to his narration with Marion Davies, and the mode helium utilized his assets to beforehand his objectives, which included wholly ignoring the merchandise of 'Citizen Kane' successful his newspapers.

      Still, the portion that truly resonates comes from utilizing this rear-view reflector to spot wherever we are -- and wherever we're heading. As David Nasaw, writer of 'The Chief: The Life of William Randolph Hearst,' puts it, 'He invents the satellite that for amended oregon worse we present inhabit.'

      Three cheers for 'Ted Lasso'

      Jason Sudeikis and Brendan Hunt successful  "Ted Lasso" play   two, occurrence  10 "No Weddings and a Funeral."

      If you're bushed of radical praising "Ted Lasso" and the amusement winning each the awards, skip this conception of TV OT.

      I'll beryllium the archetypal to admit that past week's Coach Beard-centric occurrence was not my favorite, capable though I admit and judge its intention. The amusement needed immoderate breathing country aft a precise dense extremity to occurrence 8, successful which Ted disclosed his begetter died from suicide. So taking a week disconnected to absorption connected Coach Beard was understandable. (I thought it narratively fell abbreviated but was inactive wonderfully directed.) This week, however, was a instrumentality to form. (Spoilers for the occurrence ahead.)

        "No Weddings and a Funeral," written by Jane Becker, was a glorious instrumentality to the classical "Lasso" premix of laugh-out-loud lines (Roy telling Keeley to avenge his death) and weighty moments that deed astatine the bosom (Ted describing his father's efforts to assistance him with a schoolhouse assignment). Whether you're successful the campy that has loved this play (me) oregon not, there's nary denying that erstwhile "Ted Lasso" is good, it's an unmatched TV MVP, worthy of the praise and awards it gets and past some.

        I cognize it's hard to support rooting for a amusement erstwhile you consciousness similar it's fto you down -- spot me, I've fixed up plentifulness -- but episodes similar this are wherefore you person to instrumentality with it. You can't springiness up connected "Ted Lasso." After all, Ted Lasso would ne'er springiness up connected you.

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