We reviewed Is It Cake several times in the past, but it’s new Valentine’s Day special is very unique, although only one episode. With that in mind, we wanted to talk to you about our thoughts, so we jumped at the chance to add it to our list of Conner’s Critiques.
As always, we break down our reviews by Story, Acting, and Overall, but there will be some deviation because this is a reality TV/Game Show.
Story 7/10
Well, there really is no story written for the series, we’re going to talk about the new dynamics of the game show for this special. Regularly in the show it’s one competitor against another, with two or three people facing off against each other. After the contestants, guess what items on the stage are or are not cake, so you can decide whether or not they will be joining the competitors for this episode. In this game it’s a little bit different because it is specifically three couples. There are no additional episodes, they all compete in the episode as a whole.
With this in mind, the show still wanted to have the guessing “if it’s cake” aspect regularly throughout the episode. With that in mind, they decided to allow the audience to guess whether it is cake or not, presenting a couple options multiple times throughout the episode and giving a small countdown clock for viewers at home to guess. There is no interactivity in regards to this like Netflix’s Bandersnatch episode, just a presented option and countdown with a reveal by Mikey Day.
As the theme of the episode is romance and love, the contestants, instead of choosing from options available, get to pick their own item to design. This is specifically so they can choose an item that connects directly to their personal love stories. Giving the contestants carte blanche to pick the perfect item, or shoot themselves in the foot.
At the end of the episode, while there’s only one couple left, the two must still decide if items are cake or not. They use the multiple item stage format and then force the contestants to choose their guesses blind from each other, similar to the conclusion of family feud.
Acting 5/10
Mikey Day spends the entirety of the show once again hamming it up being over the top and engaging with the audience, especially with his new audience based cake challenges.
As for the contestants, the dynamic of the couples working together is incredibly sweet. All of the pairs are incredibly skilled in the act of cake making, with most partners having one really skilled member, and the rest at least being a skilled assistant/helper.
The nice thing about the series special, is that while there was a lot of stress, and the multiple couples experienced stress directly while working on their projects, the partners kept their cool with each other and never once picked on each other or got into a fight. If they did, Netflix smartly made sure to edit it out.
Overall 7/10
The special was a cute addition to their lineup of existing episodes. The one-off episode was an interesting concept and the couples format really works well in the game show motif.
Conner’s Final Thoughts
If you are a fan of the series, then I highly recommend adding this to your watch list!
Facebook Comments