'The Great British Baking Show' Season 16 Premiere Brings a New Twist to the Tent

The Great British Baking Show is back for a record 16th season! The series returned to Channel 4 at the top of September, and has rolled right over to Netflix for the weekend, bringing the joys of the tent back to fans a few weeks earlier than usual. Outside the tent, the world is on fire, and world leaders all seem hell bent on making the situation worse. (What in heaven’s name is Starmer doing, y’all?) But inside the tent, it’s all flour and sugar, and a world where eggs arrive by the dozens and milk by the gallon and no one worries how much it costs.

Of course, there’s one terrible creature inside the tent with the bakers, a thing the show acknowledges in its “Jurassic Bake” opening. This is the second time in two years that the first opener of the season is a parody of a popular film, though unlike last year’s Barbie parody, this one is not a full year late. It also has the surprisingly delightful sight of Prue Leith dressed as the late great Richard Attenborough, beard and all, and it does not escape notice that she and Alison Hammond have 90% of the dialogue as well. (That does mean Noel Fielding’s attempt at a Jeff Goldblum impression is not nearly as funny or cutting as it should be.) However, the true hilarity is the TyrannoPaulus Rex, a CGI-enhanced, inflated dinosaur costume wearing baggy jeans and sporting Game of Thrones White Walker eyes and tiny arms that cannot manage a Hollywood Handshake.

With Paul Hollywood out of the way, let’s meet our dozen bakers for Season 16, which currently includes a man with a mullet, a boy who needs a black sheep to bleat out his swearing, and a token Ukrainian, who is going to be our constant reminder of which of the two major current wars the U.K. public can agree on and which one it can’t.