Blown Away: Season Two

January 23, 2021 7:15 AM - Season 2 (Full Season)

The hot shop is open! A new batch of glass-blowing artists from around the world battle the heat, the clock and each other in 10 dynamic challenges.

Trailer via YouTube

Blown Away Is a Cozy Blanket Made of Hot, Molten Glass Review at Vulture

This should probably be obvious considering that this is a glassblowing show that calls itself Blown Away, but every episode is rife with extremely corny puns. “Is this gallery lit?” asks host Nick Uhas right before he and the judges begin to assess pieces that are supposed to conjure flames. “I just hope it isn’t a dumpster fire,” adds guest judge Deborah Czeresko, season one’s champion. Dad jokes are celebrated on this show almost as much as glass artistry is.

‘Blown Away’ on Netflix: How to Follow the Season 2 Cast on Instagram from Decider

So, who are the master crafters and iconic artisans in Season 2’s hot shop? And, most importantly, where you can you see more of their mind blowing talent? Below you’ll find a rundown of all 10 of Season 2’s glassblowers as well as links to each one of their Instagram pages.

posted by Glinn (20 comments total)

They sent the wrong person home for the cartoon challenge, dammit! I am on episode five. I love Cat and Nao! Eliot is hands down amazing.
posted by Glinn at 7:16 AM on January 23, 2021 [5 favorites]

I was excited to watch the new season until I started doing so and remembered how much of what people say in the episodes is bullshit (about their skills, their desire to win, their artistic vision, etc.). I'm watching with someone, so having the sound and closed-captioning off isn't an option, but I bet that would be a more enjoyable experience.

[vaguely spoilery for episode three]


Dear Blown Away producers:

It's okay to send a participant home if they are openly contemptuous of the brief.
posted by Spathe Cadet at 8:08 AM on January 23, 2021 [10 favorites]

I just finished season 1. I'm excited for season 2.
posted by kathrynm at 9:52 AM on January 23, 2021 [1 favorite]

I have watched to the final three. Yes, ugh, openly contemptuous indeed. Sure he has skills but are the challenges about meeting the challenge or not!?

SPOILER ALERT



He should totally TOTALLY have gone home in the centerpiece challenge (after he should have gone home in the cartoon character challenge) but at least they didn't send anyone else home either. You could not tell that was a hand in there.

Also, wow I was gutted to hear about Cat's degenerative disease. But I am also thrilled she is doing so great against people with a lot more experience.
posted by Glinn at 11:29 AM on January 23, 2021 [3 favorites]

The producer's influence was strong in the cartoon and centerpiece challenges. I binged season 2 and liked it OK. It's nicer and more engaging than most US-based reality competition shows but it can't let go of some of the tropes entirely (like keeping in the asshole) and that holds it back.

I think the winner had more skill overall but did worse in the finale than the runner-up.
posted by Anonymous at 11:37 AM on January 23, 2021

It's okay to send a participant home if they are openly contemptuous of the brief.

and is also contemptuous of the other participants. It's really a sour note in an otherwise delightful show. That guy must be so annoying and arrogant as a teacher.

And yea, Cat's eye disease is truly heartbreaking - did she say what it is, is there any treatment possible? I liked her a lot.
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 1:42 PM on January 23, 2021 [2 favorites]

Contemptuous? That's an understatement. While I liked the winner's display and did those things look realistic, I was drawn the the runner up's. It really did speak to me. Though that's probably due to life experience.

The teddy bear on the first episode was scary.
posted by kathrynm at 11:00 AM on January 24, 2021 [2 favorites]

The runner up was my second favourite (my favourite was sent home early on), but I liked the winner's final arrangement slightly more. I disliked everything in the semi final.

That said, I agree that Chris was a giant asshole and should have been sent home during the cartoon challenge (sadly, he really is very skilled); the way the judges who knew him responded it seemed like this was not just editing to make a villain, though obviously he actually called everyone else mediocre.

I have this secret suspicion that Deborah voted him out half because he is such a jerk.

Apparently the second place person is also getting a residency at the corning museum of glass, post pandemic. So that is lovely
posted by jeather at 6:09 PM on January 24, 2021 [6 favorites]

I'm happy to hear that jeather. The work was really creative.

The semi final was.... weird? I thought that literal interpretation was a little to obvious. The other two did such similar things, that were likewise obvious. I agree with the judges decision on who went home.
posted by kathrynm at 6:33 PM on January 24, 2021

I enjoyed this series as much as the first. Yeah, Chris was a complete asshole, and it's surprising that the criticism levelled against other contestants who made a piece they already had in mind and then tried to get it to fit the brief wasn't levelled against him, particularly when he totally ignored the brief. I'm glad there wasn't a team challenge in this series. He'd have been impossible to work with and would probably have sabotaged his team-mate.

I was happy with the final two, and didn't mind which of them won. Both are extremely talented.
posted by essexjan at 10:24 AM on January 25, 2021 [1 favorite]

Was anybody else kind of expecting Chris to announce, in the clothing challenge, that he'd made socks because socks were incredibly special to his grandfather, who had recently died?
posted by Spathe Cadet at 10:35 AM on January 25, 2021 [12 favorites]

Chris was such a piece of shit that I jumped off the couch in jubilation when he was eliminated. Yes, he’s very skilled but jebus h christ on a bike who says stuff like that? On camera? For a tv show?
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 2:20 AM on January 26, 2021 [2 favorites]

I am so mad at this show. They sent the black guy home two seconds in. I always think "Oh god, there's a black contestant. Well, this time they won't send them home clownishly early for no reason because by now they'll have noticed that every contest show does this horrible thing and the obvious bias of the judges is cringe-inducing." Then they sent the black guy home. And Mister Privileged White Guy kept getting breaks over and over and over and over and over when he should've been thrown out. The exact episode where they threw out the black guy was the one where the prof should've lost, in fact. And the final episode broke me in half it was so fucking unfair. Just because he cleverly used the display stands to fill the space his cartoony easyeasyeasy if technically pristine bullshit overwhelmed her complicated heartwrenching gorgeous but not as immediately appealing thing and he fucking won. Of course he did of course he won of course he had to fucking win because they so obviously said to themselves, "Well, improbably the right, interesting person won in season 1 despite her so overwhelmingly obviously not being the exact wrong most boring imaginable person, so we'd better ensure that the wrong person wins this time. It is only fair." Her vacuum cleaner did his cartoon thing better than any one of his cartoon things he did. He was a nice guy with a nice accent whose product was utterly unchallenging. So he won.
posted by Don Pepino at 12:21 PM on January 31, 2021 [2 favorites]

The exact episode where they threw out the black guy was the one where the prof should've lost, in fact.

So much this. Professor Asshole didn't meet the brief.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 2:35 PM on January 31, 2021 [5 favorites]

They also seemed to misunderstand the nature of a dystopia because the rat walking the cockroach was a very clear story, it doesn't need to be grimdark. Jason was my favourite, and there was no reason to send him home at that stage.
posted by jeather at 6:24 PM on January 31, 2021 [1 favorite]

Finally caught up with this, as after Jason got booted, I stopped watching for several weeks. And I'm glad to see y'all agree about Chris getting a pass multiple times. I also celebrated loudly when he finally got eliminated.

Very glad to hear that Cat is getting a residency as well. Well deserved.
posted by ursus_comiter at 10:19 PM on February 23, 2021

I really enjoyed most of this season.

Agreed that Jason getting eliminated so early was not deserved and made the show look bad.

I have mixed feelings about Chris. Obviously, he's super arrogant but he did some crazy stuff in the hot shop and put on a good show, so I can see why he was a good contestant to keep from a reality show drama perspective. And I was genuinely moved by his piece about his mom.

I felt really bad for Andi that her aesthetic just did not seem to be appreciated by the judges. I really liked a lot of her work.

I ended up caring so much about Cat. Really just so impressed by her. I wish she'd won, even though Elliott was probably better technically. His whale tales were beautiful and his hat was super impressive though.
posted by carolr at 8:42 PM on March 6, 2021 [2 favorites]

Cat's cartoon vacuum cleaner was the greatest entry and I'm sad she's not recreating them for her online store (or at least not yet). I have two cats and a dog so I can't ever have nice, fragile things, but for that I would make an exception.

(Totally agree about Jason leaving too soon. His work is stunning, some of this is so different than what he did in the show.)

One thing that I wish they pulled from other shows is a "Where are they now" montage at the end—one of my favorite things from The Great Pottery Throw Down. Which you should totally watch if you haven't seen it, it's sooooo good.)
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 2:02 PM on May 2, 2021

I'm coming to this very late and watching the seasons in reverse order. Very strange to watch Chris as an evaluator in s1 after watching this season first. It does make me think that this was a lot of playing for the camera here on his part.
posted by rewil at 6:31 PM on December 7, 2021

I'm watching this now too and had to come in here after the cartoon character episode, because what the hell.

Very strange to watch Chris as an evaluator in s1 after watching this season first.

I was intrigued by this and took another look at s1e01. It turns out there are two distinct glass-expert Chris Taylors! One who's the director of the Pilchuck School in Seattle, and one who teaches at RISD. (And one who tries to say nice things on TV, and one who works so very hard to say asshole things on TV that I have to wonder if he's trying to do some kind of ill-judged performance art. Like a commentary on how these shows keep encouraging people to talk obnoxiously about how incredibly great and competitive they are and how they're going to win. If so - too realistic, is all I can say. I hope his students don't watch this, but of course they will, and I can only think that some of them will be discouraged by it.)
posted by trig at 1:26 PM on December 19, 2021 [1 favorite]