Streaming Review: Things are not always as they seem

Is it Cake

Netflix, 2022

I love a good baking show. Baking is either magic or science, maybe both? And for me, it is usually disastrous.

This show challenges bakers to first identify baked goods from the actual items they are made to look like in the Find the Cake round. Three winners move on to choose one of the items to replicate in their own hyper-realistically decorated cake.

Each of the three bakers presents their creation hidden within a display of their mimicked items. The bakers use a variety of tricks that make sugar look like cellophane, fondant as wood.

The host Mikey Day from Saturday Night Live is funny and silly, perfect for a baking show that does not take itself too seriously.

This, like my other favorite baking show, Nailed It, is the television version of a social media trend during the pandemic. The former show takes amateur challenged bakers and challenges them to recreate adorable baked goods. Cartoon cake pops, circus tent sponge, and volcano cakes surrounded by cookie dinosaurs baked by kindergartner-skilled contestants range from frightening to hysterical.

The new show relies on some pretty competent bakers who also turn out to be personable and witty. They bring creativity backed by experience and skill as they create a cake that looks like steak, stacked red plastic cups, power tools, and vegetables.

They are also oddly supportive of each other, which is saying something since contestants can win up to $10,000 an episode with a $50,000 grand prize at the end.

Anyone who takes the challenge to create a hyper-realistic cake is welcome to share photos with The Times.

What About Pam

NBC.com, Peacock, and Hulu, 2022

This six-episode true-crime series chronicles the activities of murderer Pam Hupp as she plans and murders her friend, sets up the innocent husband of the victim, and enjoys the limelight as the star witness.

Renee Zellweger plays the role of Pam, slurping soda from a giant plastic cup. Surrounded by a convincing fat suit, a ton of makeup, and bad hair, she transforms into the Missourian murderer.

Zellweger makes acting despicable fun. She switches facial expressions effortlessly as she goes from doting friend to calculating murderer to zealous witness. After the first episode, I had to look up photos of the real Pam Hupp. Zellwegger nailed the look.

Nightline did an episode on Hupp in 2016. The unmistakable Keith Morrison also narrates the series in a nice touch.

In the four episodes aired to date, Hupp proves she is capable of anything. And though I can look up the real-life case, I don't want to spoil the ride.