46 replies to this topic

[GrrlPower]

This is the description from Food Network:

Each week on Sugar Dome, three teams of cake designers, sugar artists and top specialty craftspeople battle it out in a series of themed challenges to create the ultimate sugared showpiece worthy of $15,000

Sugar Dome is a less gory version of Halloween Wars - they just replaced the pumpkin carver with an animatronics person. Kind of a cool idea, and I'm done with waiting for October to see awesomely creative displays. The Cake Wars of Food Network Challenge creates big cake that can't get much bigger, so the next logical step is to combine technology with cake/sugar. I also like that they added a storytelling element. The stories were lame - but they tried, which is more than Cake Wars usually does.

I think the first episode had good work only because of Bronwen. We shall see if this show can keep up that quality. Countdown to Karen Portaleo in 3...2...1...

Edited by GrrlPower, Nov 27, 2012 @ 10:07 PM.

[orchidgal]

I watched the first episode, despite the corny ads for the show. Loved team 3B's work and thought that they were the clear winners. Didn't understand why the judges were doing cartwheels over the runner-ups' work, except for the element of suspense, as it was clear that neither of the other teams could touch the winners' creation in either artistry or complexity.

[Ginandtonic]

I am truly sick of seeing Bronwen Webber on every Food Network competition show, isn't there anybody else they can get? And she was talking about how $15,000 was a lot of money, don't they split it three ways for $5,000 each? She was talking like she gets it all.

[GrrlPower]

I am truly sick of seeing Bronwen Webber on every Food Network competition show

Bronwen was definitely annoying me with her "if your not used to dealing with chocolate, then you don't know..." in her THs about the animatronics guy. I guess it never dawned on her that it was her ignorance about how physics laws on leverage work that made the chocolate covered dragon a problem. So conceited.

Speaking of her THs...had about 90% of all talking heads on this episode. It got ridiculous when the sugar artist on her team was in charge of making the candy, yet Bronwen got the TH to describe the team's candy. Seriously? That wasn't her dessert, yet she felt the need to talk about it to the camera.

I feel bad for the Latino who put all that work into an awesome dragon with detailed scales, only to have a lazy sugar artist that didn't do anything but create dirt (that the Latina cake artist had to then go and paint) and an animatronics guy who only did 1/3rd of what the animatronics guy on Bronwen's team did. It's sad that her greatness was brought down by crappy teammates.

[Rammchick]

So how does this show work? It seems impossible to me that the teams didn't know the theme before they started, because how else would the animatronics person know what to bring along? Are they told to prepare something for a couple of themes, possibly, and then one of them is chosen on the day?

[gunnerlove]

I guess I'm just over it all. I watched to get the feel of the show, but when they started splitting the screen into three or four shots, the wheels fell off for me. Call me weird, but I don't care if cakes move, blow fire and smoke or even recite the abc's. I want to see beautiful decorating on nice cakes.I wouldn't even mind a sugar artist working with a cake artist every week. I just hate all that raz mataz crap.

And I thought the host stunk to high heaven.

[ByTheWay]

An informative article about the show. Warning: it contains some spoilers on themes for future episodes.

[orchidgal]

Well, watched the Dr. Seuss challenge last evening. So far there seems to be a theme here of having two good teams and one team that is not that great, to put it nicely. In fact, as soon as one team was introduced, I knew immediately that they would not be the winners, and sure enough, they came in last.

The twists are just cruel, though. Bringing in the Rube Goldberg device with just an hour to go in the competition? That's mean. One would hope that the teams do know that these twists are coming and have some idea of what to prepare for before they step into the "Sugar Dome of Doom."

[Willowsmom]

And the host is trying to be like the Sweet Genius.

[mlp]

And the host is trying to be like the Sweet Genius.

Yes, but he can't pull off being campy like Ron Ben-Israel can.

This show is like a merger of Sweet Genius, Cupcake Wars and Halloween Wars. I'm enjoying it even though I can't stand the moderator and would much rather have Justin Willman. One of the good things about Halloween Wars is that the producers don't interject a lot of artificial drama. There's enough pressure and stress inherent in that kind of competition to make the action exciting. I think Sugar Dome could be a successful year 'round show if they'd stop the unnecessary amping up of drama.

I always enjoy Richard Ruskell and was glad his team won. Their final piece looked much more polished than the one that came in second.

[Ginandtonic]

The twists are just cruel, though. Bringing in the Rube Goldberg device with just an hour to go in the competition? That's mean. One would hope that the teams do know that these twists are coming and have some idea of what to prepare for before they step into the "Sugar Dome of Doom."

I didn't understand how they could just throw a "make a machine" challenge in the middle of the competition, last show each team had an animatronics specialist on it, this time there was an illustrator instead. If each team consists of a baker, a sugar expect, & an illustrator, how do they know that they would have been able to make a machine?

[Puds38]

I am truly sick of seeing Bronwen Webber on every Food Network competition show, isn't there anybody else they can get?

THIS! I get the merger of Sweet Genius, Cupcake Wars and Halloween Wars. There is only so may big cakes that one can make, but if they had to revamp the show, why not use all new challengers? Surely someone besides Bronwen can make a really big cake. Not sure if I will stick with this, too much and trying too hard.

[Rammchick]

I always enjoy Richard Ruskell and was glad his team won. Their final piece looked much more polished than the one that came in second.

Unfortunately I can't agree. I used to like him until his obnoxious attitude on the Last Cake Standing series a few years back. It wasn't his doing that placed him back in the competition, but he was so damned smug about it that I lost any good feeling I'd ever had for him.

[SureThing]

My girlfriend and I watched the first episode and we loved it.

Our one issue is the number of late-race challenges and twists that were thrown at the contestants. The teams obviously had a lot on their tables already, and to continually have to squeeze in some new feature seemed ridiculous. I'd rather see a number of finished, polished projects than a series of incomplete, what-could-have-been pieces. It made it so that the disparity between the works hardly constituted a "competition".

[rasalas]

The twists are just cruel, though. Bringing in the Rube Goldberg device with just an hour to go in the competition? That's mean. One would hope that the teams do know that these twists are coming and have some idea of what to prepare for before they step into the "Sugar Dome of Doom."

I would bet anything that the clock stops for a short time -- say, 10-15 minutes -- to give the contestants time to plan out the surprise and get the help and tools they need to carry out their plan, and then resumes. So for the Rube Goldberg twist, production assistants might show them what tools and supplies are available and what they could do with them, and then the teams plan something accordingly.

That's just my guess, but it would have to be something along those lines to get any workable device, especially with an hour to go. The show wants drama, but it also doesn't want failure from every team. Editing makes it seem as if it was all done frantically on the clock.

Same for the treat. I wouldn't be surprised if there were, say, a 15-minute grace period for them to create it.

[BittyMonkey]

This show is like a merger of Sweet Genius, Cupcake Wars and Halloween Wars. I'm enjoying it even though I can't stand the moderator and would much rather have Justin Willman.

Haha! While I get Justin's campiness, I actually like the host of this show better. It's supposed to have a Mad Max over the top campiness to it, rather than silliness. Justin is just silly.

[mlp]

Haha! While I get Justin's campiness, I actually like the host of this show better. It's supposed to have a Mad Max over the top campiness to it, rather than silliness. Justin is just silly.

I had the same opinion for a long time until it sunk in that that's his role on Cupcake Wars and he does it very well. Eventually, I went to his website and watched some of his video clips. He's very personable and a good magician. Seeing him in his own element changed my mind and made me a fan.

[misterbfd]

We watch quite a few of these types of competition shows, and to be quite honest with you, we're getting pretty tired of the mock surprised reactions from the contestants when the theme of the competition is revealed.

A: "This week your theme is... DR. SEUSS!"

(cut to shocked competitor faces}

B: "OMG! Dr. Seuss!"
C: "No WAY, MAN!"
D: "Are you kidding me? I LOVE DR. SEUSS!"

They act like they had NO IDEA what the theme was going to be before they showed up for the competition. Yet moments later they break out pre-built armatures in the shape of the Cat in the Hat.

Please.

Everyone on these shows already know what the theme is going to be before they show up. Hell, even the "mystery ingredient" on "Iron Chef" isn't a mystery to the competing chefs.

[GrrlPower]

Okay. The computer voice co-host lady can go away now. She is really starting to grate on my nerves.

I wish they would stop with the "twists" and do a mini-challenge before the main showpiece like in Halloween Wars. I would get more artistry and less of the dramatic turning down of the lights and faked exasperation from contestants.

[orchidgal]

I wish they would stop with the "twists" and do a mini-challenge before the main showpiece like in Halloween Wars. I would get more artistry and less of the dramatic turning down of the lights and faked exasperation from contestants.

I like the way you think, GrrlPower. This week's teams each have a pyrotechnics expert on the team and yet they are *gasp* shocked! when it is announced that they have to add pyrotechnics to the display. What did they think the pyrotechnics expert was supposed to do? Knit some booties?

I don't know if it was the this week's theme of Rock and Roll that was the problem, or if they just had three lousy teams, but the challenge ended up being "judges, please pick the entry that sucks the least."

[Willowsmom]

Three lousy teams. And that's why I think I'm done. I love the sugar challenges but this is pitiful.

[orchidgal]

I think I will give this one more chance, unless something more interesting comes up; like say, a paint drying contest.

[rasalas]

This week's teams each have a pyrotechnics expert on the team and yet they are *gasp* shocked! when it is announced that they have to add pyrotechnics to the display. What did they think the pyrotechnics expert was supposed to do? Knit some booties?

The twist wasn't that they had to add pyrotechnics to the display. The twist was that they had to add pyrotechnics to a specific part of the display -- the musical instruments -- that they hadn't planned previously late in the competition. (One team had to take apart some cake to accommodate the equipment.) This twist was beyond the pyrotechnics they had already planned and were working on.

[Ginandtonic]

Wow, this show kind of sucks. The guest judges who make no sense, the unending added twists that don't allow any of the teams to do any kind of good work, the sometimes strange third team member (a sand artist? really?)just make this show too hard to like.

[BittyMonkey]

Lady judge, when Chuck Lidell(a guy who gets hit in the head regularly) has to explain the concept of a sugar showpiece to you, it's time to pack it in.

I think this show could be good but maybe it just needs to find itself. I didn't like Sweet Genius the first season either.

[Gulielma]

I watched this yesterday. Stupid twists, stupid talking heads reacting to the stupid twists. And stupid decorative crap, with one "treat" to actually taste. How many of these shows does FN need?

[Rammchick]

Why did Chuck Lidell have to be subtitled? I understood him perfectly, and found that rude and condescending.

[tinalou09]

I hate these new competition shows Sugar Dome and Sweet Genius. All FoodTV did was take all the concepts used for yrs on Challenge and break them up into unoriginal over the top individual shows to rip the max out of the concept. I would rather watch Kegan and Kerry as judges then these stiffs anyday. Eliminate all these BS shows and just bring back The Best...The Original... Challenge

[Kali12]

It's hard enough without the stupid twist. What's the point?

As for how hard it is to create a new Oz character...hmm. You already have your design and plan. What kind of animal or person would look cool added to it? You are making a sculpture, not writing a story.

I mean, the Emerald City and the poppy field could be such an amazing and beautiful visual...and then you want a silly-looking talking tortoise standing up on the road? Does "talking cartoon tortoise" sound like a cool visual to anyone? Then again, I'm a big fan of the Oz books so...so much potential from an art point of view. But this whole "Sugar Dome" concept is way too complicated to me to be a real showcase for these peoples' talents.

[Ginandtonic]

What is the point of having a costume designer on the team? Are they just randomly picking occupations? Is one week going to be a dentist & the next a grocery clerk? This is just stupid.