thats one of the most offputting things about the show for me. i was trying to figure out why i had such a love/hate with it, i like watching the builds, i've no assumptons on the skill levels of those computing being the best woodworkers. but every year at this time i watch masterchef the professionals and love it, and i was looking at why, and this is one glaring difference, in masterchef, the judges are absolute masters in their field and when they jduge, you know its coming from a position of experience and expertise.
the two judges in this have no expertise, it's obvious they are being fed lines to say, especially the attempts to make the female judge comment on joinery at every opportunity when its obvious she has no idea what she is saying (and not bashing her, one look at her instagram shows she doesn;t do joinery in any of her work).
so no woodworker on the judges, an artist and a "design academic". no wonder that whenever any of the contestants doesn't get a bit of their design done it immediately becomes the most vital piece of the design, if you don't know what you are judging you'll take the easy pickings.
so i think its the overall format that is broken, you have a whole show that is focused on the actual build, but then 2 judges that can and do only judge on the artistic impact. one of those elements need to change to make the show align, either make it about the build or about the artistic merits of the end piece, but in its current format it doesn't work
