‘The Big Flower Fight’ Review (Netflix)
Featuring: Natasia Demetriou, Vic Reeves, Kristen Griffith-Vanderyacht
I really support the wide range of reality competition television shows that showcases different areas of creativity such as glass blowing, baking and specifically for this review, flower arranging! Shows like The Big Flower Fight can only benefit these forgotten art forms and raises awareness of them which is great to see while at the same time making the shows themselves super unique.
The first thing I noticed about The Big Flower Fight was that it is clearly pitched to a very mature and sophisticated audience, as these incredible flower arrangements are synonymous with the high society. This is not a problem as people who are unfamiliar with this lifestyle can easily watch and enjoy the show… but there is a level of “poshness” to all of it! The most confusing part of this is that the show seems to try and balance a level of professionalism with a fun/jovial feel, which in itself is very confusing. The two presenters of this show, Vic Reeves and Natassia Demetriou, played on this ideas with the gags and puns (that are often associated with Mel and Sue from Bake-Off) which alongside the poshness of the art form was very conflicting. Despite all this, the one constant judge in this series Kristen Griffith-Vanderyacht was an incredible inclusion. He really fitted in well with the upmarket nature of flower arranging but also helped peak the audiences passion. He is clearly extremely passionate about this art form while also showing a high level of knowledge/experience in this field which for me makes for the perfect judge on a show like this.
On top all of this, the challenges in The Big Flower Fight are so wonderfully over the top that no one would be able to attempt these challenges. On shows such as The Great British Bake-Off, part of the fun is saying “Oooh that looks nice I can’t wait to see if I can try and make it” but this is not possible with this show. This idea is only exaggerated in one of the early episodes – where one of the first challenges sees the judge offers a tutorial of how this challenge can be done, which in my opinion was totally unnecessary.
Overall The Big Flower Fight shines a light on a forgotten art form which is fantastic to watch but also fantastic for those who practice flower arranging – it showcases the skills and talents of all the competitors and shows many wonderful pieces of art ,which will have viewers in awe but also provides many emotional and heartwarming moments (one particular moment in which a young male talks about his struggle with mental health was particularly poignant.) However, it is slightly inaccessible by nature and to be honest, The Big Flower Fight a show you can binge-watch easily. I do think the creative team need to think about the nature of the show and try to stick more closely to this if another season is produced. I believe the name itself doesn’t really represent what the show is about which is misleading. I really do hope another season is produced as there were many moments of television gold but this were overshadowed by other lesser aspects of the show!
***½ 3.5/5
The Big Flower Fight is available on Netflix now.
