‘The Great British Baking Show’ Season 10’s Semi-Final Boxes

The Great British Baking Show keeps things traditional this season with a return to Pâtisserie for the semi-final. This has been the standard semi-final challenge nearly every year since Season 2 (which has never aired in the U.S.). Season 4 and 6 (PBS Seasons 2 and 3) are the only ones that didn’t stick to this strict line-up. Season 6 aired a week early; Season 4 replaced it with “French Pastries,” a “same church different pew” move.

This season, the challenges have gone a bit off the wall, as if the show is running out of ideas. (This also happened last season, but the Netflix binge format made American audiences feel it less.) So it’s comforting to see the production is willing to keep the same competition format, even if it makes the contestants do terrible things in the name of creativity.

(Such as making pie dough structural and then wondering why everyone’s pies were dry as dust. Hello? You demanded the dough be structural! What on Earth did you think would happen?!)