'The Great British Baking Show' is back and, we are happy to report, much better

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The Great British Baking Show has had a long and bumpy ride, but it's finally righted the ship by focusing on the fundamentals. Mark Bourdillon/Love Productions/Channel 4 hide caption

The Great British Baking Show has had a long and bumpy ride, but it's finally righted the ship by focusing on the fundamentals.

I think last season of The Great British Baking Show was the first one I didn't gobble up (no pun intended) the minute the episodes dropped. I had grown weary of the hosting team of Noel Fielding and Matt Lucas, frustrated with overly complicated bakes that were almost impossible to execute well, and dismayed at repeated and increasingly obnoxious takes on "ethnic" food weeks that didn't even seem to represent good-faith efforts to get things right.

What a relief to be looking forward to episodes arriving on Netflix on Friday mornings again.

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The show has had a long and bumpy ride; I am not alone in believing that the best and purest version will always be the first one, the public television one, with Mary Berry alongside Paul Hollywood, and with Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins hosting. But the era that followed, with Prue Leith taking Mary's place and Noel Fielding hosting with Sandi Toksvig, had its charms, too. Then Sandi left, and she was replaced by Matt Lucas, who was much too close to being another Noel, a look-at-me presence who seemed less interested in the contestants than in doing bits and being the center of attention. You can do bits on this show — that's why they hire comedians! — but you have to care about the contestants first. Things got wonky.

Judges Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith (top) and presenters Alison Hammond and Noel Fielding. Mark Bourdillon/Love Productions/Channel 4 hide caption

Lucas is gone now, replaced by Alison Hammond, a boisterous but generous companion to Fielding who has helped the show restore its balance. She's silly but not distracting. She and Noel don't interrupt the flow to do shtick the way he did with Lucas. Production has knocked off the convoluted challenges and gone back to ones the bakers can do well. This week's showstopper, for instance, is a cake inside any sort of chocolate box you want to make. Is making a chocolate box fancy? Sure! Is it impossible, or does it result in nothing but a series of failures? No. And, yes, they've made the wise decision to stop the "national weeks" that were increasingly embarrassing for everyone involved.

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