Full Bloom

I absolutely LOVED this show, don't get me wrong. The skill of these florists and their work is inspiring. However, the way the competition is set up, some of the eliminations are predictable and in other ways, I feel they tried to compensate for that predictability by eliminating contestants that by no means should have gone home. So, by the time they got to the finale, there were contestants that I was baffled at the way in which they were able to fly under the radar even though they didn't quite have the skill set to stand up to earlier eliminated contestants. Again, these are just my opinions coming from a reviewer that could never put together a bouquet regardless. Additionally, I loved that even though this was a competition it wasn't toxic, you could tell the competitors were inspired by each other, and HBO didn't create drama for the sake of drama. I could watch another 5-10 seasons of this. So, I just hope the creators adjust how they do eliminations and maybe end the team challenges earlier on as to let the competitors' solo work speak for itself.

Wow, Seasons 1 and 2 could not be more different. All the issues I had with Season 1 were

(1) bad structure of competition. One of the contestants placed first several times, but she was eliminated because her teams didn't do well in the group competition. This is dumb. It means they penalized her basically for being successful individually. And naturally she was very upset being eliminated. Rightly so and not fun to watch or fair.

(2) the judges asked really awkward questions about how contestants feel that are pretty obvious. Like someone will be crying and they judge will be like "how does that make you feel?" and it's pretty obvious how they feel. It's like they were doing things just for TV drama. Like why ask a contestant "who do you think should be cut from the show"? Unless you want a cut-throat show, that's just unnecessary. The contestants clearly like each other. So there's no need to put them on the hot seat. No one wants to say "Take me, kick Adam off" and kind of unfair to expect them to do that.

(3) I like when contestants show emotions, but sometimes it got a bit stale. Perhaps this is partly the judges' fault. Would have felt more natural if it had been more human instead of cold. I personally blame the directors. The contestants were overall very compelling. There had to be a way to keep that, but make the show feel more entertaining. More natural empathy would be better instead of like an interview.

But WOW season 2 did a 180. They fixed all those things. So rare. Rarely do shows admit they screwed up and fix the issues, but they did just that.

Season 2 is amazing and I loved it.

Contestants still super compelling, but now it's competitive in a good and fair way. They also stopped asking for contestant advice on who to send home.

I'd say

Season 1 = 4/10 Season 2 = 9/10.

It's just so frustrating to watch because the contestants are amazing, however, the judges seem thirsty for drama and cut some of the most talented people early. The talent is amazing but the judges seem out of touch with reality and over the top. HBO could do way better.

I really wanted to like this show as I love most competition reality shows. Especially those about artists. The more niche, the better. This is as niche as it gets, but I was intrigued. I loved the artists and what they created. Sadly, the judging is absolutely absurd. In every single episode they actually cut the most talented one and keep the one who should have gone home in the first weeks. It's so stupid I don't even know what they were thinking. It is not worth watching. Unless you like to see the arrangements that win get worse and worse over the weeks becsuse they cut the best ones early. This has so much potential. But, they really need to fix their judges.

I have never watched a competition show that gets rid of the most talented people faster. Just be in the middle and you last forever, top three and your on the chopping block. I stopped watching not because the show is not cool but I could not watch another top contestant be eliminated. I seriously hate these judges!