Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Piñata Masters!’ On Netflix, A Mexican Competition Series Where Professional Artisans Have Their Work Smashed To Bits At The End

While most Americans have typically only smashed piñatas at kids’ parties (or, *shudder*, gender reveals), in Mexico, piñatas are used for all types of occasions, but especially around Christmas, and they have become something of an art form. On Netflix’s new competition series Piñata Masters!, seven teams of artists, carpenters, and designers compete to create gorgeous, treat-filled sculptures that are unlike any piñata you’ve probably ever seen. And of course, the judges are kids who get to destroy them at the end.

PIÑATA MASTERS!: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A montage of impressive piñatas flips by as host Daniel Sosa introduces the premise of the show. He explains, “Everything is possible with these wonders of paper.”

The Gist: Seven pairs of artisans, consisting of paper artists, sculptors, and carpenters, are tasked with making a themed piñata using specific materials in every episode of the Mexican competition series Piñata Masters! (The first episode’s challenge: Create a piñata inspired by your favorite food, and some of the piñata’s decoration must feature organic materials.) As they race against the clock to sketch and build their designs, they’re given access to a storage room filled with all the structural and ornamental supplies they’ll need to finish their creations, but there’s a catch – the garage door to the supply room closes little by little during the challenge, and when it finally closes all the way, the competitors are stuck with whatever materials they have. Oh, and in the middle of every challenge, Daniel pulls out a “Surprise Stick,” which holds a new rule that changes the game up and forces the contestants to reconsider how they’re building their piñata.

When all is said and glued, these artists must impress four judges with their skill, originality, and artistry – in case you didn’t catch it earlier, the judges are four kids between the ages of 7 and 11, who test the creations by destroying them at the end of each episode, at which point, one of the teams will be eliminated.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The show is reminiscent of many fast-paced creative competitions that have come before. As the competitors raced to the large supply room for their fabric, paper, and cardboard, it felt so much like those Project Runway contestants racing through Mood Fabrics, but it also has the homey, crafty vibe of NBC’s Making It.

Our Take: If you’re thinking that piñatas are just cardboard animals with some colorful crepe paper glued to the outside and filled with Tootsie Rolls, Piñata Masters! will change your idea of what piñatas can look like. These are skilled crafters and, despite the time constraints and clever editing, they all manage to push themselves and create impressive, successful structures. Some of the artists on the show struggle to work with certain materials that are unfamiliar to them, and that’s why they’re allowed to ask for advice from the show’s resident piñata master, Belén Sánchez, who offers reassurance when she approaches them to help.

In one instance, a contestant seems frustrated with herself for never having used corn husks as an art material before. Unlike so many other shows where you’re expected to be an expert even when being thrown curve balls (like, how does every contestant on Bake Off still crush it in technicals when they’ve never heard of or seen vertical tarts? I’m still mad about that.), Belén gently reminds the struggling artist, “We can’t have experience in everything, Talía.” Thank you, Belén, for giving me my new life motto.

Piñata Masters! is a familiar formula we’ve all seen before, but the theme is specifically child-friendly: what’s more fun for a kid than to see really cool artists make an impressive sculpture, and then it gets blown up? (The explosions are shown from multiple angles, sometimes in reverse, and they’re a big part of the show.) It’s not groundbreaking TV, but it’s fun to watch.

Sex and Skin: None.

Parting Shot: It’s revealed that the winners of the first episode, the Yellow Team, will get an advantage for the next challenge, a 30-minute head-start. They ready themselves at their work table as they open a card that outlines what their challenge is.

Sleeper Star: The kid judges add a really fun element to the show because they’re pretty brutal in their detail-oriented critiques of the final products. They’re genuinely excited as they watch the teams come up with their concepts, but they clearly know what they want out of these piñatas, and they suffer no fools. (“I didn’t expect the kids to be so discerning,” one contestant named Remy says after the kids complain that the giant blender he and his partner created out of paper looked “old.”)

This is obviously a show to be enjoyed by young and old, but having young judges test out (a.k.a blow up) the goods definitely adds appeal for kids watching at home.

Most Pilot-y Line: “Vamos a explotar las piñatas.”
Translation: “We are going to blow up the piñatas.” Bring it!

Our Call: STREAM IT! Piñata Masters! is definitely a fun, family-friendly show that offers a new spin on creative competition series. While I feel like seven episodes is a couple of episodes too many if we’re trying to hold childrens’ attention, the kid judges’ witty commentary and the surprise twists thrown into every challenge combat what might otherwise feel like a repetitive formula. One caveat: It’s entirely in Spanish with English subtitles, so young viewers who aren’t able to read might struggle to keep up with what’s happening.

Liz Kocan is a pop culture writer living in Massachusetts. Her biggest claim to fame is the time she won on the game show Chain Reaction.