If The Great British Bake Off had terrible contestants and even worse hosts, it would be called Zumbo’s Just Desserts. However, the Australian show (which is available on Netflix) has one redeeming quality. In the second challenge of each episode, the bottom two contestants attempt one of titular chef Adriano Zumbo’s crazy desserts. In the first episode, the contestants’ attempts at a mirror-glazed, multi-layered egg confection come out looking like what I affectionately call, “garbage boulders”. The other episodes are just as disastrous. Though Just Desserts is mostly bad, it taps into a certain strain of schadenfreude missing from something like Bake Off. Enter Netflix’s Nailed It!, which dropped its second season last week.
Hosted by comedienne Nicole Byer, judged by chocolatier Jacques Torres and a different dessert expert or comedian, each episode challenges three home bakers to take on two Pinterest-inspired recipes to win $10,000. Not to accuse the show of stacking the deck, but it’s unclear how the contestants are chosen or if they are even given enough time to complete the tasks. On most shows, that would be unforgivable, but Nailed It! is a comedy first and a cooking show second.
That said, the show’s second season isn’t quite as funny as its first. In the first challenge of the season, contestants make multi-colored pancakes shaped like other food and it’s almost disappointing when they all do pretty well. Season two’s bakers are much better than the first’s and while it’s impressive to see these people actually succeed, it’s also not as fun. Still, while the season may have less disasters overall, the low moments are some of the show’s worst/best. In the second episode, the contestants attempt a five-tiered unicorn cake and only one manages to make more than one tier.
With all these disasters, Nailed It! could easily become mean-spirited, but Byer keeps the tone light and fun. In the fifth episode, when a contestant becomes visibly upset after her cake falls apart, Byer stops joking and the other judges quickly take on the same earnest, comforting tone. Her constant energy might not be everyone’s cup of tea (the contestants can actually choose to unleash her on each other as a form of sabotage), but Torres and the guest judges clearly adore her and she keeps everything from getting too serious.
That approach goes for the show’s production as well. There’s a deliberate shoddiness to what happens that mirrors the disconnect between the original recipes and what the contestants manage to make. The show’s only running storyline is that the trophy is never sitting on the judges’s table when the winner is about to be announced and even as it clearly becomes something that’s planned, Byer keeps it from becoming tedious.
That shoddiness mostly disappears, though, in the what might be the season’s best episode (or at least the one that will attract the most new viewers): the Queer Eye crossover. In the mini-episode, the Fab Five make cupcakes with miniature versions of themselves on top. Whether the guys really are Nailed It! fans or are just doing some required cross-promotion, it’s fun to see them in a different context.
They perform about how you’d expect with Jonathan Van Ness’s abrupt IDGAF attitude in the middle of the challenge being the surprising–if hilarious–exception. The only thing that keeps the mini-episode from being great is that it fails to prove to the audience that Antoni Porowski can actually cook when he becomes the third judge instead of a competitor. Yeah, maybe it would have rigged the competition, but it would have been a fun way to acknowledge the perception that the only thing Antoni can expertly prepare is an avocado—especially now that the show has introduced savory challenges.
Though Nailed It! is technically a baking competition, season two has some challenges that barely fit the bill. Perhaps the strangest is the game-day snack challenge. The contestants are tasked with making guacamole, preparing and plating things to dip in it and–in one case–properly identifying what un-cut jicama looks like. The only baking they do is wrap some ready-made crescent roll dough around some hot dogs and throw them in the oven. In a different episode, a watermelon carving challenge involves no baking at all. Pinterest fails have never been exclusive to baking and while it’s a clever shift if the show wants to last, it’s also a bit concerning that it’s running out of projects after a dozen episodes.
Despite its many assets, perhaps the best thing about Nailed It! is how easily digestible it is. Baking shows are having a bit of a moment and it’s at the perfect nexus of Great British Bake-Off’s emphasis on skill and Zumbo’s Just Desserts’s sadism. However, perhaps unlike those shows, Nailed It!‘s downfall is built into its premise. Right now, the show happens in a vacuum, with both seasons filmed all at once and well in advance of their air dates so the contestants who come later can’t learn from the mistakes of those who came before. But Netflix will run out of pre-recorded episodes eventually and it’s hard to imagine the next crop of bakers will be so prone to ignore the recipe or forget to butter their cake pans. So, tune in now, before Nailed It! becomes just another baking show.
Rating: 8/10
