The Leaves Also Fall in 'The Great British Baking Show' Season 15's "Autumn"

The last couple of theme weeks on The Great British Baking Show initially caught my attention because they followed a similar pattern to the previous year, not just because it felt deliberate, but because Season 14 marked the series "changing up" the themes used previously due to the calamity that was Mexican Week. It continues to be true that viewers do not yet have enough data to be confident in saying the production is formalizing the entire theme calendar or that it plans to follow the same pattern every season going forward. But it sure looks like it.

The formalization of the "Cake-Biscuit-Bread" trio that opens every season was already semi-permanent when the series moved from the BBC to Channel 4 after Season 7 (The Candice Season). One of Channel 4's earliest moves was to formalize those first three installments to the point where you could practically set your watch to them. Since picking themes for the middle part of the show has proven perilous, organizing them into a repeating pattern is a form of putting up bumper walls and plausible excuses. ("We always do Colloid Ingredients in Week 4! We've never had a problem before!," etc.)

If I had to name Week 6's new assignment, I'd go with "Wild Card" Week. (I can hear Alex Trebek reprimanding me, "The category is "Potpourri.") Last year, it was "Botanicals," a throwback to an earlier era. This season, the series gives us the accidentally hilariously timed theme "Autumn."