Four separate times within each episode of Is It Cake, Too?—which is, you guessed it, the sequel season to one of Netflix’s most outstanding achievements in the art of mind-numbingly drivelous television, Is It Cake?—I had to have a heart-to-heart with myself. “Oh, beautiful and gorgeous self, you are so talented and clever,” this introspection began, as most do. “Why are you letting a man from SNL scream at you?”
This vital piece of soul-searching arrived each time Mikey Day, the host of the Is It Cake? Cinematic Universe, would pose the puzzling query from the show’s title. Together, the poor scoundrels and I roped into this competition, either as contestants or judges, would have to stare God directly in the face and spit at His creations by answering that simple question: Is the lifelike object sitting before us a cake? It may be, it may not be, but who can possibly think when there’s a 43-year-old man screaming at full volume, against a piece of Mission: Impossible ripoff music, “Lock in your answers. Lock them in. Lock them in! Lock! Them! In!”
All of that insufferable shrieking is the only thing standing between human intuition and what is, typically, a very obvious cake. The naked eye never lies, so Day’s screaming is meant to rile up the judges and contestants and throw their instincts out of whack. Sometimes the yelling works, sometimes it doesn’t, but it’s always infuriating and loud beyond necessity. Yet, it’s simply only one of the cornucopia of monotonous perplexities that make up Is It Cake, Too?, which stands out in its second season as Netflix’s most astonishingly dense original reality show to date, a holdover from a time we’ve all moved past.
The premise of Is It Cake, Too? is both very simple and needlessly complicated. Ten world-class bakers from around the country gather at what I’m assuming is some studio backlot in Burbank, to compete for the chance at winning up to $100,000 by creating pastry-fied dupes of real-life objects. That’s the simple part, and the part that would be decently fun to watch with your brain on ice after a long day. To become more than the meme that inspired an entire television show, Is It Cake, Too? also introduces a set of ridiculous side challenges and tedious tasks that do little more than extend each episode’s runtime to the point of exhaustion.
In each episode, the bakers must choose a real object to mimic with their confections, from a set of themed items. Think gym gear, college dorm room objects, camping supplies—those kinds of things. The bakers have 10 hours on set to complete their replicas to the best of their abilities, and the finished products are then placed side by side with the real-life decoy objects for a panel of judges (mostly smaller stars from other Netflix originals) to guess which is real and which is cake. If a baker’s cake is called out as such (for being food), they’ll be up for elimination, while winners who fool the judges might get to move on to a bonus round.
The show makes it look as if Netflix has trapped these miserable culinary artists in a studio for 20 hours a day, forcing them to guess what is and is not cake until they reach the point of sheer delirium. If that weren’t enough, every time anyone has to make that guess, Day starts up his hooting and hollering, pestering everyone to lock in their answers on a fake keypad like they’re in the situation room. This is not Oppenheimer, for chrissakes, you’re overcomplicating it!
The judges stand about 50 feet away from the cakes and decoy objects. Of course, it’s going to be more difficult to guess what is and is not cake when you’re not allowed to get up close to examine it! The “Cake or Fake” meme became a viral sensation because the videos got us mere inches away from the realistic creations, making it all the more surprising when they turned out to be pastries. Is It Cake, Too? strips us from the fun of getting close enough to really guess. It’s like if your eye doctor made you read a chart from all the way across the room without your corrective lenses on, and then called you a foolish little imbecile if you read a “M B S L” as “M A S S.”
For all of the confounding elements that comprise Is It Cake, Too?, there’s one component that is a real joy to watch: the bakers. These 10 contestants have such a passion for what they do, and watching them create these intricate culinary masterpieces is breathtaking. It may seem like a skill that anyone could learn, but these people have spent countless hours perfecting their craft. Seeing someone try to get the perfect shade of red to match a boxing glove, or craft the individual ridges on a soft-shell crab’s legs to approximate the real thing that’s still squirming before them, is downright electrifying.
The bakers are competing for a chance to win some money, sure. But what they’re more clearly signing up for is the opportunity to show off their skills on a major platform. The most that a contestant can win in one episode is $10,000 anyway, and that’s a pretty paltry amount of coin compared to what it takes to create these cakes
It’s a shame that Is It Cake, Too? doesn’t understand that. The show is so focused on the prizes that it doesn’t spend enough time championing the pastry artists. Instead, the series rolls out big set pieces and an unpleasantly verbose host, hoping to distract us from questioning why the hell we’re watching a show that simply should not exist. If every meme that took the internet by storm during the worst grips of the 2020 pandemic got a reality show, society would crumble. What’s next, Supermarket Sweep, but for the remaining four-pack of single-ply toilet paper left at the store? Seeing who can reach the highest decibel level by clanging pots out of a window?
I want to say that we’re better than this, but I’m not so sure. We already have Floor is Lava, after all. Netflix has proven that there’s an audience for everything. To the five people who never moved on from swiping through TikTok, looking for realistic cakes to gawk at, congratulations: you now have a new season of what is basically a 30 Rock parody show to indulge in. I hope it delights you. But please, won’t you join us outside again? We can eat cakes with friends now, not just guess whether or not they’re edible.
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