“Is it cake?” , the Netflix reality series that divides critics, rises in the Top 10

Predictably, shortly after its premiere, the second season of Bridgerton became the most popular series on Netflix, with almost 252 million hours of views. The romance between Anthony and Kate, which turns his engagement with her sister Edwina into a triangle, dragged back into the Top 10 season, that of the unforgettable romance between the Duke of Hastings and Daphne, in second place. The third is not another period drama.

Rather, it's the opposite: Is it cake? (Is it Cake?) is a very unique reality show born from a viral video from 2020. Developed in eight episodes, it presents a group of confectionery experts who compete to make a work unrecognizable as a cake: in the shape of an old sewing machine, sports shoes, duckling for the children's bath, bowling ball, hamburger, women's bag, chessboard...

In just 2 weeks since its premiere on March 18, Is it Cake? — which, according to its comedy tone, is hosted by Mikey Day, part of the stable cast of Saturday Night Live — has achieved 26.5 million viewing hours. And he has resurrected the memes of two years ago, expanded with new tweets and controversies about the judges' decisions on the show.

In the United States, criticism was divided. For some, the reality show remained a hybrid between the viral video and the cataract of reactions that broke out (it should be remembered that it was in June 2020, when much of the world was in confinement due to the COVID-19 pandemic) and the classic competition television format, without honoring either of them. For others it was simply a failed idea to monetize a network phenomenon, full of hidden advertisements about other Netflix shows. Many did not understand how someone like Day, whose career is on the rise, accepted this job. In an interview with the actor, The Hollywood Reporter observed that “obviously, it is not a sophisticated program”.

Others celebrated the humor and candor that Day brought to a program that must condense in a very short time the work that has taken pastry chefs eight hours; even his ignorance of cooking — “he cuts cakes like a psychopath,” they observed — provides an entertainment factor in line with the question that gives the show's title. The Guardian came to define it as “the purest and most brainless fun ever created” and Esquire as “a tsunami of joy.”

It is no surprise that the public vote for Decider has split between 42.9% in favor of watching it and 32.9% in favor of skipping it, with the rest in doubt.

The premise of Is It Cake? presents a group of confectioners who compete, at the rate of three for each round, to make cakes that look like something else. A panel of judges will see each of these cakes next to other similar objects: one shaped like a women's purse, for example, next to four real women's bags. In each round you can win $10,000.

Confectioners must also differentiate between objects and cakes: there is a wall of cakes — which they can only see from a distance, since they know the techniques — with five objects and a cake that looks like them. The one who manages to identify the edible goes to an additional game: he is shown a bag with money and a cake shaped like a bag with money. The one who identifies the pastry dollars wins.

Prizes are accumulated and in the final round, the eighth episode, participants compete for $50,000. Among them were April Julian, from Toronto (Canada); Sam Cade, from New York; Hemu Basu, from Texas; Andrew Fuller, from Iowa, and Jonny Manganello, from California. The judges were generally a combination of chefs, food critics, musicians, actors and influencers, such as tiktoker Brittany Broski, singer Rebecca Black and comedian Heidi Gardner (also an SNL staff).

The original inspiration for Is it Cake? was an Instagram video by Red Rose Cake & Tuba Geçil, later spread on Twitter by Tasty (Buzzfeed): a compilation of some cakes by a Turkish pastry chef that started with a Croc shoe pierced by a knife to reveal that it was a cake, followed by cakes shaped like a roll of toilet paper, an aloe plant, a soap and many other undercover groceries.

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