Beast Games

I've never watched any of Mr Beast's YouTube shows but I was tengentially aware of him and what he does from various news stories over the years. I'll admit, the commercials did pique my interest so I decided to watch.

I thought the setup and structure of the games were very interesting. It's clear they gave the games & rules a lot of thought and then decided how they could 'crank up' the visuals, intensity, or price of the games. So from a game-perspective, I give it a high score (they clearly had a lot of money to spend on the show).

What shocked me most (but shouldn't have) is how utterly unintelligent, shallow, and incredibly immature 99% of the contestants are. There's really no reason for people to be crying (!) when they have to make a decision about something! It's the people, contestants, that ruin this show. I'm very worried for the future of this country based on the immaturity of these people. It doesn't make for a 'good show', it just make me glad I don't know, or work for, any of these people.

I've gotten addicted to South Korean reality shows following the original "Squid Game" and MAN, do they make ours look stupid. Every one is either a test of raw talent, physicality, or intelligence and almost every contestant is unique and compelling.

In these American knock-offs (the dreadful American version of Squid Game and now "Beast" games) it's hundreds of the dumbest most useless people they could find, apparently. Is this commentary on our country or just a failure of the casting folks?

Seriously, a "score at least a 100 IQ" to get in would have made this infinitely more watchable. As it stands it's an endless parade of neck and face tattoos and a sea of people with little to no reasoning capabilities, and all of the "games" are mostly just another reskinned version of the prisoner's dilemma or just plain dumb luck.

Come on America, we can do better than this.

5/10 because I have to justify how I've watched all four of them so far and will probably watch the rest. Lol.

Enjoy watching the eliminations and challenges, despite the apparent necessity for lots of screaming and praying and hilarious declarations of love to fellow competitors. Could have well done without the mawkish virtue signalling and heartrending sob stories throughout - every competitor more tragic than the last - to the accompaniment of sad string sections and musically induced pathos! May go down well in some places, and there was hardly a dry eye in my house either, but for a different reason - we found it totally nauseating. Please just stick to the game, the Korean versions, though less money, are far more entertaining.

If your thing is to get a constant headache from listening to childish screaming hosts, overly exaggerating every single event, then this show is for you. Do Americans not know how to speak at normal levels? If you're easily amused, this is for you. This is a extremely bad version of the much better quality Korean shows. I couldn't even watch one full episode. And, as if the hosts aren't bad enough, the obnoxious contenders are just as bad and completely fake. It's as if somebody's daddy had a spare few million and gave it to his boy to play with as he wanted, without any skills whatsoever. Really painful show to watch. And you'll end up with a headache.

I gave this a shot. I am familiar with Mr. Beast's content and kind of know what to expect. And well, it is essentially a big Mr Beast video with the same flaws and strengths as his usual content, but both sides are exaggerated. The production of the show is insane, sets are great, the show looks awesome and of course the prizes and such are exciting. This is what earns the stars I'm giving it. Clearly lots of talented people worked on this show and there's no denying its scale and production value.

However, what takes stars is more extensive. The vast majority of the games are very much luck based or trust based. The show rewards the person who is either most greedy, most selfish and has the least regard for others. That person gets a large sum of money, while good people get left in the dust with their dreams crushed and they can't do anything about it. Imagine spending several days on this show and competing, only to get eliminated because some greedy a-hole on your team decided to take a bribe. Even worse, the greedy ones can even stay in the game but eliminate everyone else. It's not entertainment, it hurts to watch and I don't understand how a human with any empathy can stand this show. It promotes wrong values of greed and selfishness.

The title of my review is that it's a reflection of modern times. More and more people struggle to afford basic needs like rent and food and so many people are willing to do anything for a little bit of money, regardless of how much it hurts others. And instead of addressing that, we are making a game show out of it. People's sad life stories and hopes and dreams that get crushed by a game of chance is entertaining right? Yea not for me.

Respect to the workers of the show for putting this together but in terms of actual substance I would give this a negative score if I could. This is the worst thing to promote in society right now.