9. Blown Away: Christmas

The holiday magic

Netflix says ► “‘Tis the season for five returning artists to fill the hot shop with festive designs”

why I recommend it ► a quick and delightful all-star season of a great competition

where to watch ►

• subscription: Netflix

Why you should watch

My favorite moment in every episode of Blown Away comes about two-thirds of the way through each episode: As soft music plays, we see the empty hot shop, the gallery at the far end, its contents obscured.

The gallery lights come on, and the glass walls at its front become transparent and then slide away, revealing incredible glass art that the contestants have somehow created in just hours with rods of solid glass, an assistant, and 2,100-degree furnaces.

It’s an especially lovely image on Blown Away: Christmas, as the camera pans across a workshop full of holiday decor, and the doors open to show holiday- and winter-themed glass art.

For this shortened, four-episode season, five alumni from the first two seasons have returned: Cat Burns, Andi Kovel, Alexander Rosenberg, Edgar Valentine, and Nao Yamamoto. It’s a mini-all-star season, and it works perfectly.

The challenges are all holiday-themed, from creating gifts to creating a full tree’s worth of ornaments in just hours.

The set of Blown Away is perfect for a holiday season: an icy, snowy warehouse, smoke coming from the chimney, transitioning into a warm interior with snow drifting past the windows. (The hot shop is constructed in a warehouse in Hamilton, Ontario, known as The Cotton Factory.)

The show’s crew has done a spectacular job transforming the interior: Christmas trees and faux birch trees wrapped in twinkling lights border the space; flat, glass stockings are hung by a fireplace; and other decorations abound, complementing the brick walls and wood beams overhead. I’d like to live there, and not even because of the glory holes.

All of this is out of the way of the artists, so it’s just backdrop, but it adds even more metaphoric warmth to the interior—and to the art that we’re watching talented people create in front of us.

✨ 13 Days of Holiday Reality TV ✨

1. Ultimate Thanksgiving Challenge

2. Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat

3. Finding Mr. Christmas

4. Baking It

5. Lidia Celebrates America

6. Thanksgiving Grubdown and Macy's Thanksgiving Cake Spectacular

7. Wrapped and The Ultimate Gift Wrapping Challenge

8. Small Town Security

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