This week:
- TV’s nicest show is here to save us.
- Remembering Dame Maggie Smith.
- Shedding so many tears of Hoda.
- You need to watch this Will Ferrell documentary.
- Yes, another Kelly Clarkson cover.
No Soggy Bottoms This Week!
I have a tried-and-true morning routine. It’s less been “honed” over the years than it’s been thrust on me by the universe, to the point that it’s now a daily reflex.
Each morning, I am violently jolted out of a restful, biologically necessary slumber to the grating cacophony of synthetic clangs from a geriatric iPhone that only charges now with one specific charger, if it is positioned at one specific angle, and not so much as breathed on.
Accordingly, I suffer a mini cardiac episode from the loud shock of it all. Once that settles, a loud yawn morphs into an involuntary groan: “F—.” In an attempt to reach the iPhone and silence the alarm, one, if not all, of a glass of water, bottle of Tums, and book that I’ve been pretending to read for six-and-a-half months are knocked off the nightstand. May all your days start with such peace and promise.
But not on this most recent Friday morning.
As a soft, single ray of sunshine beamed through the space between my curtains onto my face, like a warm spotlight operated by the angels, my eyes fluttered open like a Disney princess as I woke naturally. Moved by some spiritual instinct, I delicately got out of bed and glided to my couch with the easy grace of a ballerina.
Before I knew it, my television was on, Netflix was open, and the premiere of the new season of The Great British Baking Show was playing.
Alison and John.
Netflix
Sometimes you don’t know you’re in the darkness before it’s dawn. You don’t know you’re living through a nightmare until it’s over. You don’t know how much you just need a weekly hour of watching a bunch of humble British people making loaves of bread in order to stave off crippling depression and dread until new episodes of The Great British Baking Show are available.
Sure, we all get our jolts of joy and surges of serotonin from myriad things, in pop culture or otherwise. But there’s something about pure, genuine niceness that really hits the spot, like a perfectly light genoise sponge.
The power of GBBS’ niceness is such that I couldn’t even be cynical—me!—when the premiere opened with a Barbie-themed comedy sketch. “Psh, timely!” I would scoff on any other day. But not on this blessed morning. Not only did I giggle when Paul Hollywood showed up as Ken, I laughed out loud when Prue Leith made her appearance as Weird Barbie.