In late 2020, I wrote about a show — new-ish at the time — I thought might supply a bit of the pandemic balm we needed. Ted Lasso has since become firmly ensconced in the popular culture, but our need for programs that soothe our ragged psyches has not abated.

Enter The Great Pottery Throw Down, which is, in my humble opinion, even better than its unscripted cousin, The Great British Baking Show.

No shade to the pastry colossus, which for a decade has been a delightful escape from reality and into various cream-filled treats. But its enormous success has reinforced some of its least winning tendencies (at the very least, it needs a host shakeup, and that’s all I’m going to say about that). If you’d prefer a more closely related and delightful cousin, I continue to tell anyone who will listen that The Great Canadian Baking Show is even more delicious than its UK progenitor (and has fewer cultural blind spots).

But now it’s time to grapple with the fact that, while all these shows have their merits, The Great Pottery Throw Down is probably the best of the three.

To acknowledge the obvious, the pottery show has a built-in advantage. Competitors in food-based TV contests have to win over judges with tastes and textures the audience can’t experience, while the Pottery Throw Down can show us what its dozen amateur potters have made, with an entertaining and illuminating summary of how they made it. Some versions of kiln firing involve wrapping clay creations in steel wool and banana peels and then placing them in fiery boxes of wood shavings — picture a festive campfire, but instead of marshmallows, handmade statues are roasting. It looks fun!

But there are even more reasons the Throw Down, which drops its fifth season on HBO Max Thursday, has won my heart. Each edition takes place in an adorably old-timey former factory in Stoke-on-Trent in the U.K., and the show is produced by the same company that makes every iteration of the Baking Show. Thus it has all the energy and confident polish of those series, and the contestants are usually pretty good — or very good — at what they do.

The Throw Down provides a slight variation on the Baking Show’s format: There’s one big challenge, and while those pieces are being tended to by the kind and precise kiln tech Rose, the potters take on a smaller mini-challenge, which are sometimes assessed by expert guest judges. The last third of each episode is devoted to putting final touches on the week’s big assignment, and then each piece is judged.

I got screeners for the entire season late last week, and the mature part of my brain knew I should have rationed episodes so they’d last. Mature brain lost: I gobbled up all 10 installments in a weekend and loved every second of it (fellow Throw Down heads: This may be the best season yet!). As if the homey, cheerily decorated studio environment and the inherently soothing qualities of spinning pottery wheels weren’t enough, there’s even a Ted Lasso connection: None other than Sassy herself (Ellie Taylor) is a host for the season (and there’s more to that story — in a good way — but I won’t spoil it for you).

If you’re new to the series, you could just jump in with season five — linear time no longer exists, right? — but at some point, you should watch the earlier seasons, which arrived on HBO Max in 2020. The vibes are just the best (and on many fronts, especially this season, the matter-of-fact inclusivity is heartening). The Throw Down is a competition, theoretically, but the potters help each other and often admire each other’s work. As deadlines approach and clay-splattered hands go into overdrive, the studio is filled with nervous energy, but all that suspenseful editing is offset by a sense of unforced, low-key camaraderie.

This season the judges are, once again, Keith Brymer Jones and Rich Miller, both of whom offer assessments that are intelligent and rigorous. This is not one of those unscripted shows where the judges are there to build their own brands or perform for the cameras. Keith and Rich are virtuoso potters who know what they’re talking about, and when they demonstrate techniques on the wheel, they make whatever they’re doing look easy. (It’s not!)

Even when Keith and Rich are not enthused about a potter’s piece, they generally find something in it to validate, and the potters’ work often visibly improves over the course of a season. The judges’ encouragement — and their excitement about good work — builds up potters’ confidence and skills, and people you didn’t think would last two episodes often stick around and blossom. The surprise and gratitude on their faces is reflected in the judges’ beaming visages. And then there are the tears.

Maybe someday I’ll write about how a number of recent shows — everything from The Witcher to Peacemaker to yes, Ted Lasso — have used a variety of genres, tones and strategies to ruthlessly yet compassionately critique the enormous costs of toxic masculinity. The Throw Down is, in its modest way, part of this necessary trend. Keith is, to some degree, known as the man who cries on television. But what matters to me is not just that he cries — it’s when and why.

Keith will cry any time he’s proud of a potter, and I love that he is unashamed about welling up. It happens a lot, and I don’t want to make too big a deal of these displays of emotion. We should, as a culture, encourage everyone to be in touch with their feelings. I just love that Keith, a big, enthusiastic bear of a man, is unselfconscious about being moved by life, by pottery, and by a person’s progress in their craft. He owns who he is.

That open, affectionate mood is infectious; in the new season, there are several moments in which potters share the life events and emotions behind certain artistic choices; in those scenes, there doesn’t appear to be a dry eye in the studio. Look, I’ll take quality catharsis where I can get it, and through this show, I’ve gotten it from people who enjoy making teapots and garden gnomes.

Within appropriate limits, the judges don’t hold back when a piece has issues or just doesn’t work. But the studio is a welcoming place where craft and hard work are honored, and there is no particular need to repress who you are or what you enjoy. Watching Keith and Rich and a potter (and everyone around them) smile wryly at a clay experiment gone wrong, or seeing them all experience a moment of meaningful connection — it just feels good. The Great Pottery Throw Down — [Ted Lasso voice] — I appreciate you!

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