Episode Guide
A fast-food restaurant fakeout is happening in Aisle 5. The imposter is wearing fake clothes and pretending to be a fashion model. They’re trying to get people to buy their fake products, but they’re not doing well. The imposter has won all the prizes in the garage, but they’re not sure what to do with the money.
Netflix is a streaming service with over 200 million households worldwide. It offers a variety of shows, some of which are hits and some of which are not. Reality TV shows are also becoming more popular on Netflix, as they are cheap to produce and can generate big numbers. Is It Cake is one such show, and it was recently released on the streaming platform. ..
The premise of Is It Cake is simple: contestants are given a set of ingredients and asked to create a cake using as few ingredients as possible. The first contestant to finish their cake is the winner. There are a few problems with this format, the biggest of which is that it’s incredibly boring. Sure, it can be fun to watch someone try and come up with creative recipes using only a limited number of ingredients, but in reality most cakes end up looking pretty similar. This makes it difficult for viewers to get invested in the competition, and makes it hard to root for any particular contestant. Another issue with Is It Cake is that it’s incredibly difficult to win. Even if you manage to come up with an amazing cake using only a few ingredients, chances are your opponent will be able to do the same using more complicated recipes. This makes the competition feel unfair, and discourages contestants from trying their best. All things considered, I don’t think Is It Cake is worth watching. It’s not particularly entertaining or challenging, and doesn’t offer much in terms of value for viewers money. ..
The competition itself is a unique and exciting way to learn about cake art and see who can create the most realistic cakes. The nine amazing cake artists from around the world compete against one another to create hyper-realistic cakes that look like everyday items. Their goal is to make these look so realistic that they trick the 3 judges each episode and walk away with a cool sum on money.
Each episode begins with a guessing game, with bakers made to choose from 6 different items on a “cake wall”. One of those is a fake and actually made of cake, while the others are the real deal. With a good distance between the contestants and this cake wall, these bakers essentially guess their way into picking the right one by sheer luck (unless they have binoculars that we can’t see) before then baking their way into the final round. The winner from this then plays one final game to obtain an additional sum of money from two bags of money. One is a cake (which grants the money) and the other is a bag of money (which… doesn’t get you the money?)
The premise of the show is wacky, but the biggest problem is that there is no logic or thought behind it. Contestants are not allowed to get up close and personal with food items on the cake wall, which seems like a missed opportunity. Why not just put them in glass boxes and allow contestants to use their baking knowledge to figure it out? Instead, they are quite far away and even when contestants do win, judges they show their food to are a mixed bag of actors and comedians - with a couple of food critics thrown in. ..
Netflix’s final episode is egregious in that it selects three actors with no qualifications in baking or culinary skills to win the cake contest. Given the winner is chosen based on how well their cakes look and taste, you would think Netflix would have at least grabbed a couple of chefs from one of their other shows.
Netflix’s “Is It Cake?” series is loud, with a lot of shouting and screaming right the way through. The silly quips and jokes don’t always land, and sometimes feel cringey. There’s also a fair amount of shameless plugging for other Netflix Originals right the way through. Some of the judges are, predictably, from other Netflix shows while the name-dropping for various Originals just feels annoying after a while. ..
Netflix is betting big on this show, and there’s a good chance it will be one of their biggest successes. There are a lot of reasons Selling Sunset does so well, and Is It Cake doesn’t have the same level of success, but the potential for this one is definitely there. If word gets out that Netflix is interested in this show, it could be one of their biggest hits.
Netflix’s attempt at a cake-eating game is off to a rocky start. The first taste is strong but the subsequent courses are not as balanced as they could be.
