Two siblings are left to pick up the pieces of their broken family when their mother dies in Black Cake. What starts off as a simple will-reading turns out to be an unravelling of the many secrets and lives that one woman hid from her family. How have these secrets shaped the siblings’ lives? And can they pick up the pieces and build a better future for themselves?
Black Cake Episodes 1-7
Heather Jeng Bladt (writer), Zetna Fuentes (director), Natalia Leite (director), Marissa Jo Cerar (writer), Yasmin Almanaseer (writer), Ihuoma Ofordire (writer), Kara Smith (writer), Mario Van Peebles (director), Hayley Tyler (writer), Tara Nicole Weyr (director), Charmaine Wilkerson (author)
Mia Isaac, Ashley Thomas, Adrienne Warren, Chipo Chung, Lashay Anderson, Simon Wan, Ahmed Alhaj, Sonita Henry, Rebecca Naomi Jones (cast)
November 1, 2023
Love brings the light that will guide you out of your darkest moments.
Black Cake premieres November 1 on Disney+ Canada. pic.twitter.com/QeLEjOMHue
— Disney+ Canada 🇨🇦 (@DisneyPlusCA) October 2, 2023
I heard a lot of talk about Black Cake this year, so when I got the opportunity to review screeners for the show, I gladly took it. Based on Charmaine Wilkerson’s novel, Black Cake is set in two time periods—in the past, the story follows Coventina “Covey” (Mia Isaac), a teenager who escapes a terrible fate in her hometown of Jamaica, and another terrible fate in the UK. The present follows the Bennett family and the unraveling of the secret life that matriarch Eleanor (Chipo Chung) lived and hid.
Both time periods are introduced in the pilot episode, which acts almost entirely as a self-contained story. Covey’s peaceful life in Jamaica is interrupted by the murder of a man. But viewers don’t immediately know how her story is connected to the Bennetts. In the present, surfer Eleanor Bennett dies after a battle with cancer. Her dutiful son, scientist Byron (Ashley Thomas), takes care of her and arranges the funeral, all while waiting for his sister, Benedetta “Benny” (Adrienne Warren) to return. Benny has been estranged from the family for eight years, and even missed her father’s funeral a few years ago.
But instead of learning what their mother has left them in her will, Byron and Benny are informed that Eleanor left them recordings revealing truths about her life she had never shared with them. Through the recordings, Byron and Benny learn Covey’s story. As Eleanor details Covey’s experiences with murder, betrayal, assault, fear, love, and motherhood, she leaves her children in shock and reassessing their lives and choices. But who did Eleanor leave these tapes for? For her children? To absolve herself? That’s what Black Cake attempts to explore for the majority of the season.
I was hooked by the pilot episode—the murder mystery, the diverse cast, the horrible mistakes characters made that put others in jeopardy. Until the final line of the opener, the plot of the Black Cake pilot worked as a complete story in itself. But the cliffhanger? It had me clicking through to the next episode immediately.
The use of two timeframes, Covey’s past in the 50s and 60s and the Bennett siblings’ present in the 21st century, helped extend the mystery elements. There were some surprising twists that wouldn’t have had the same impact had Black Cake opted for a linear storyline. Some of the plot elements are fascinating—I was particularly invested in the queer characters and how they had to navigate their world, whether they were in the past or the present. The concept of inherited secrets and the lifelong impact that it can have on generations after was probably the biggest reason to keep me going while watching Black Cake. Essentially, the show posits that one person’s mistakes can derail entire lives, across continents. I really loved the diversity of locations. Shot in Jamaica, Italy, and the UK, Black Cake takes the viewer into the beauty and bleakness that Covey experiences in her wildly unpredictable life. I love that the show makes the effort to go to these locations—it makes a difference to the world of the show when the actors are in real places, whether it’s picturesque Jamaica or claustrophobic London.
I do feel that Black Cake overused some stereotypes for its Black characters. I can’t say how many of them are from the book, because I haven’t read it but the show never takes opportunities to do defy expectations. Covey has everything and the kitchen sink thrown at her, which often feels like forcing the audience to watch gratuitous violence aimed at a young Black woman (haven’t we seen enough of that?). Queer suffering impacts all the queer characters in the show (Benny is the worst impacted), when in 2023 we still haven’t reached a balance with stories about queer joy. I struggled with Byron’s sudden turn from stoic to violent just because he’s had a bad day. The ‘Angry Black Man’ trope is harmful beyond the screens. And there’s an inexplicable pivot away from abortion towards embracing motherhood at all costs that really doesn’t make sense in the current US climate. I wish they’d removed the line about it altogether to make it seem like abortion wasn’t an option in the 60s for the character.
These stereotypes do such a disservice to the female characters. There’s some type of victimization thrown at almost every female character in Black Cake. Just because a show is female-led doesn’t mean that sexual assault and intimate partner violence have to bookend all the female characters’ existences. It felt unrelenting in this show, especially because Black Cake refused to stop and enjoy the happier moments — there’s a love story buried in this story that was aching to be seen but alas, violence took precedence.
There are a few scenes with Byron’s girlfriend, Lynette (Rebecca Naomi Jones), that I wish the show had explored more closely. The way she handles Byron’s ego is intriguing and felt real. But she doesn’t get any development. I haven’t seen the finale yet (the screener for it wasn’t shared) but there’s a line thrown in by Lynette, one of the few women to escape on-screen violence, that suggests there’s more to her life than we’ve seen, but it never goes anywhere. I understand she’s the girlfriend, but can we learn something more about her? We get to know more about Benny’s horrid ex than we do Lynette.
There’s a character introduced halfway through the season (who I can’t reveal as it would be a major spoiler) who has so much more nuance than the entire Bennett family. According to press notes, this character has a similar background to Black Cake showrunner, Marissa Jo Cerar, which might explain the complexity of this character’s experience. Perhaps it’s the acting or the direction, but I could understand where this character was coming from as well as her decisions so much better than I did a lot of the Bennett family. I wish the Bennetts had been allowed joy and growth instead of the unrelenting violence that made them feel one-dimensional at times.
But more frustrating than the stereotypes is how much coincidence plays a part in Black Cake. Eleanor finds a person she’s been searching for for years just when she needs her children to meet this person. Eleanor’s new identity is completely based on a series of convenient events. Covey finds herself in just the right church to solve her woes—even though there was no mention of religion in Covey’s life up until that moment. So many coincidences in the span of a few episodes would have made Thomas Hardy proud but I can only suspend my disbelief for so long.
Despite the flatness of some of the storylines, the performances in Black Cake are strong. Mia Isaac, who plays Covey, the young protagonist of the show, is incredible, belying experience beyond her years. Warren as Benny is electric, captivating the screen whenever she’s on, able to deftly portray powerful and vulnerable from scene to scene. Thomas does a good job being the stoic Byron, but if given more range, could capture more emotions.
In all honesty, I liked most of Black Cake but the penultimate episode was a letdown — it was such a by-the-numbers plot about motherhood. Scenes happen but the emotions we see characters express don’t make sense. To some viewers, the events in this episode will be shocking and insightful, which is good because entertainment can teach people so much, but a lot of this episode is told to the viewer instead of shown.
For me, the greatest disappointment was how quickly the murder mystery that was introduced in the pilot was sidelined, only to be picked up again as an important thread at the very end of the season. The family melodrama, aka the clichés about dysfunctional families, took over Black Cake and it did become burdensome to watch. I understand a young Covey making incorrect choices and getting swept up by her actions but what about the adult Bennetts? Some of their actions make no sense at all.
I’m still going to watch the finale of Black Cake because I do want resolution but it’s going to have to do a lot of work to assuage my frustrations with the plot so far.
