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Blown Away
2019 · TV series · 24 min episodes · 4 seasons
Ten master artists turn up the heat in glassblowing sculpture challenges for the chance to win $60,000 in prizes and the title of champion.
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4 comments on Hacker News
The issue is their content is actually a very poor point in differentiation. I watch a larger amount of TV than I'd care to admit, and honestly Netflix is awful for content.
- Disney has Star Wars, Marvel, Pixar, and a long tail of childhood classic films. - HBO has Warner Brothers, DC, Cartoon Network (including a nostalgia back catalog), the best TV shows made in the 00s, and a long tail of adult films. - Netflix's largest successes in the last two years are Tiger King, Squid Game, The Witcher, and a long tail of shows cancelled after Season 1 and short-run miniseries.
At this point, Netflix is a last-resort source of entertainment for me, even after (ad-riddled) YouTube. I mostly only use it to watch their weird reality shows (Blown Away, Sugar Rush) and check out shows friends recommend. I suspect even Paramount+ has a larger selection of TV shows I'd like to watch compared to Netflix.
One show that does creative competition right is the glass-blowing competition "Blown Away" on Netflix. Interesting characters, fascinating and demanding medium, good affirmative vibe while allowing for honest criticism. My daughter rewatches the episode from both existing seasons frequently and enjoys the personalities.
Agreed, I had been watching old episodes of Forged in Fire[1] while on the rowing machine (and I have taken a couple of blacksmithing classes, so I had some sense of what the challenges were), but Blown Away was disappointing as it emphasizes the 'art' aspect much more than the 'craft' angle, so pieces are made with lots of techniques, in lots of forms (and little real explanation), so comparing them can't really be done in terms of function, and the aesthetic critiques didn't do much for me. Looks fun, though.
1: https://www.history.com/shows/forged-in-fire
For a fun dive into "competitive glass-blowing" take a look at Blown Away, two seasons on Netflix. One of my daughter's favorites.
It's a good look at artists, technicians, creativity, and personalities.
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt9908860/