Netflix's The Big Flower Fight fails to capture the charm that made The Great British Bake Off a success

Slate

"To take my salt cellar off the table and use with abandon, The Great British Bake Off is a good reduction: It makes less taste like more," says Willa Paskin of the Netflix reality show that dropped on Monday. "The show has been so successful, so unusual in both its perma-virality and the gentle reason for its perma-virality—it’s so soothing!—that it’s no surprise that Netflix would keep trying to copy it. A floral competition even seems like an inspired follow-up. In terms of familiarity, domesticity, and coziness, flowers aren’t all that far from flour, and they are much better looking. Made for Netflix by a production company that’s part of the British TV network ITV, BFF films in the U.K., has two jokey British hosts with limited expertise in flowers and a similar illustration style, and takes place entirely in one location, this one a geodesic dome, that, like the baking tent, is often shown from above, nestled into the British countryside. But as anyone who has watched GBBO (or even cooked anything) knows, small tweaks can change the outcome of a recipe. The problem with BFF’s slavish yet limited copycatting of GBBO is right there in its title. The Big Flower Fight, like The Great British Bake Off, starts with an article and a sizable adjective, before it veers off course into faux-dramatic territory. A 'fight' gestures at heightened stakes that are really humdrum. (On a reality show, what’s more common than a fight?) No one on BFF is tossing tables, but there is a dull kind of friction."

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• The Big Flower Fight doesn't do justice to the art of flower arrangement: "The viewer doesn't have to be obsessed with glass blowing or weapon forging to appreciate the care and skill that goes into creating each episode's project," says Melanie McFarland. "Culinary aptitude or skill with sewing machine aren't required prerequisites to enjoying their cousins on Bravo or Food Network either. All we need is a means of appreciating the artistic process and contestant originality. Ultimately this is where Flower Fight wilts and short shifts its participants, who are creative and unique and in a few cases quite charming; a father-son duo is especially heartwarming, as is a couple of visual artists who are so stylistically synced that the fact that they've never worked with floral sculpting doesn't matter."
• The Big Flower Fight is the latest entry in Netflix’s attempt to wow the world with mediocre versions of popular reality TV shows
• Netflix offers emotional comfort food with The Big Flower Fight
• The Big Flower Fight feels like a reality show on drugs