TV Reviews: Grey's Anatomy, Great British Bake-Off, Richard Osman's House of Games

Grey's Anatomy

I was introduced to Grey's Anatomy back in the days of Season 1, when visiting a friend who watched it, and enjoyed it enough to keep watching. Somewhere between enjoyment and habit kept me going through 12 seasons or so, until life got in the way, other things took over, and I got left behind. Now, though, Teen has started watching it, and we've been watching seasons 12 and 13 together. This is definitely the programme we love to hate. Every single doctor in the hospital should have been fired multiple times for their regular breaches of patient confidentiality, safe medical practice, and gross unprofessionalism. And yet somehow, we keep coming back for more!

There isn't a single 'good' character - I suppose it's one of the better things about the writing - everyone has their flaws and no-one is perfect. But it's utterly frustrating when someone who's been acting like a reasonable adult for the past few years suddenly does something stupid, which yet again is covered up, brushed off, or totally ignored. I can't even begin to list individual actions, but the constant relationships between senior staff and those under their authority is a huge problem for me. Somehow everyone seems to love Meredith Grey, despite her utter selfishness and conviction that the world absolutely does revolve all around her. Karev and Maggie appear to be the only people who notice that she's not a good friend to them - but they repeatedly forgive her, only to be surprised and disappointed the next time she lets them down.

I honestly don't know why I find the show so enjoyable - maybe it's the security of knowing that hospitals here are not run like that, so the fact that it's an utter trainwreck doesn't matter so much as it's not based in my reality. Whatever it is, it's drawn me back in, and I'm going to be keeping on going!

The Great British Bake-Off

In a totally different vein (hah!), the Great British Bake-Off is back, and as always, I'm there! While the early days were definitely the best, with Mel and Sue, Mary Berry, and above all, the relateableness of the bakers valiently doing their best with ambitious (although generally realistic) challenges, I'm still hooked. Prue is a worthy replacement for Mary Berry, bringing that posh, WI I've-been-baking-since-I-was-in-my-cradle vibe, but since the move to Channel 4, there haven't been any presenters who can hold a candle to Mel and Sue, either with the chemistry between them, the way they relate to the bakers, or their humour.

However, we don't watch Bake-Off for the presenters, we watch it for the bakers as they do battle with bread, batter, and beignets (or something!). The current selection look promising - so far the right ones have left each week, and there's been an interesting range of bakes and outcomes. The showstopper in week 2 (biscuit illusions) demonstrated that apparently not everyone had the same understanding of an 'illusion bake', as some were definitely less plausible and convincing than others.

So far this season the technical challenges have been more reasonable than many in the past - I hope this continues. There's little fun in watching a tent full of people trying to make something with no instructions, and no idea what they're trying to produce. And frankly, that doesn't really seem to be a great test of skill. Far better to have them try to make an exceptional chocolate cake, or custard cream, or something comprehensible. (Weren't those custard cream stampers excellent??)

So far, I'm enjoying the new series better than the early weeks of the last few seasons. We've had cake week and biscuit week, so of course next week is bread week - who will rise to the challenge, and who will prove to be a flop?

Richard Osman's House of Games

As someone who has always enjoyed a good quiz show, this one is far and away my favourite. Not so much the celebrities taking part (I so wish they did a non-celebrity version!), but the range of topics and the variety of question styles which absolutely appeal to me. Never have I felt that I am so utterly the target demographic as when I watch this!

Osman is an excellent presenter - comfortingly knowledgable, but not smug or patronising with it. He seems to have a knack for putting the contestants at their ease, and bringing out the best in them. And of course his background in creating TV quiz shows means he is entirely at home within the genre.

From the 'noone will have a clue, just take a wild guess' rounds such as Distinctly Average (how many Royal Mail postboxes do you think there are in the UK?), to others with more challenging answers (to be given backwards, or in alphabetical order), the entire quiz brings a new light-heartedness to quizzing. I was going to say my personal favourites are the ones where the answers are filled in a letter at a time starting from Z, or are in a simple caesar cypher, but I'm not entirely sure that's true. I also love Broken Karaoke, where a song has to be identified only by the initial letters of each word appearing in the correct rhythm; or the pair of clues with rhyming or spoonerism answers; 'And the Question is...' where contestants have to try and identify the correct question for the given answer; the emoji round where they have to try and decipher an answer presented purely in emojis... And of course Answer Smash! Oh how we love Answer Smash!

My older daughter and I love watching this together and vying to be quickest to answer, and can get quite competitive with each other - and my husband has commented on how quiet it was when he watched it while I was on holiday! For me, this is just about the perfect quiz show - fun, pitched at about my level, and always, always enjoyable. Strongly recommended.