If you haven't yet had the joy of watching Netflix's delightful glass blowing competition series Blown Away, allow me to convince you it's worth your time.
The fourth season of this hot show arrived on the streamer a few weeks ago, once again providing plenty of action, thrills and jaw-dropping work.
It's not often a craft-based competition show is filled with action - Project Runway, Glow Up and The Great Pottery Throw Down aren't known for their proximity to injury - but Blown Away is always just a moment away from second degree burns or maiming via glass shards.
There are few shows where competitors will toil away for hours and hours in stifling hot conditions only to have their piece of work shatter to the ground in front of them before it's presented.
And it might also be the only family-friendly show where the terms 'glory hole' and 'best in blow' are bandied about.
Are you curious yet?
Blown Away kicked off back in 2019, bringing the highly specialised and truly impressive art of glass blowing to the big stage.
Filmed in Canada, though they like to say 'North America' instead, the series gives their group of usually egotistical glass blowers a brief to meet for each challenge, and around five hours to complete a work of art made completely out of glass.
The glass blowers will be judged on things like execution, use of various techniques and, of course, their concept and story.
This latest season saw the competitors tasked with using a child's drawing as inspiration for a piece, making an oversized piece inspired by candy and crafting the perfect goblet in the Venetian style. Earlier seasons saw household items reimagined as glass pop art, the motion of the human body etched in glass, original cartoon characters made of glass and manifestations of the seven deadly sins.
Then, of course, there's the glass blowers themselves.
It takes a special kind of person to master the skills required to be a glass blower. The heat is never ending, there's always a risk of serious burns and collaboration with helpers is a must.
Every season there's two or three artists who think they are the absolute bee's knees, and everyone else should just pack up and leave because they're going to win by a mile. More often than not, these people don't even make it to the final.
A lot of personalities on the show could be accurately described as 'extra', especially this season's Karen Willenbrik-Johnsen, and then there's the folks who think their superior technique will get them by, even if their concepts are absolutely lacking in imagination.
But regardless of the contestants, every season manages to produce incredible pieces of art that you'll remember long after the series is over.
I've watched each season once and still vividly remember the little egg with chicken feet popping out from season one, or the the perfectly replicated foot stepping on gum, or the bottle of spilt milk.
With episodes lengths running between 20 and 30 minutes, and only 10 episodes per season (and a shorter Christmas special season which brought back past contestants), this series is easy to fly through.
It's a true hidden gem of the Netflix catalogue which doesn't get the accolades it deserves.
It was recently viewed by the Aussie Goggleboxers, who seemed to have a lot of fun with the double entendres created by glass blowing terms.
