'Tis the season for seasonal specials! And while Netflix has been having all kinds of successes this year, it looks set to leverage its best sci-fi yet next year – with the launch of The Electric State. But it's still 2024 and, as we approach the festive period, I can forget about sci-fi for a minute and go all-in on guilty pleasures.
Because my favourite show – and by 'favourite' I mean of the somewhat silly gameshow genre specifically – has returned for a four-part seasonal special. Is It Cake? Holiday brings previous show champions back for a festive champion-of-champions bake-off – and it'll no doubt be jaw-dropping viewing.
For those who haven't watched Is It Cake? before: the show pitches professional bakers against one another, their goal to recreate inanimate objects in cake form. A panel of judges have to pick the cake out from the fake, then a taste test decides which caught-out baker is eliminated.
It's all very light and fluffy stuff – like their sponge bakes, hopefully – and a distant step away from Netflix's other sci-fi gameshow-drama, Squid Game, which is also returning this month for its much-anticipated second season (unfestively airing on Boxing Day, 26 December). But I'll get my cake fix before the sci-fi comes back en masse!
Is It Cake? Holiday is very much a family show. It's nicely interactive – you can get the kids guessing along – and the bakes that these pros create are often jaw-dropping. It's far sillier than The Great British Bake Off, largely down to Mikey Day's zany presenting. And with only four episodes you hardly need to be deeply invested.
Available to stream right now, as are the previous seasons proper of the show, Is It Cake? Holiday is a guilty pleasure on Netflix that I can get behind. Given the mass of Netflix no.1 movies lately have all been Christmas flicks, a bit of light-hearted release from this gameshow is much needed to close out the year – and yet another reason why Netflix remains one of the best streaming services.
