Just because it’s got a Doctor Who in it doesn’t mean we should be all Doctor Who fan about it

By | May 16, 2025

We’re halfway through the series (original Show Discussion post here) and doubtless you have discovered by now that “The” Genius Game has not been the hit we were hoping for, and that is a shame as I think production have broadly got the format right and the mistakes its made I think are understandable. I think even with ITV’s fairly generous “sod it, give it another go” standards of late a recommission for this might be challenging. But, to be fair, ITV should be applauded for having the guts to say yes to this – really not an easy and obvious commission – in the first place, and I would hope in time people come to appreciate it.

I don’t blame anyone for playing up having David Tennant on board at all – if you’re going to have talent involved having one of the biggest names in TV across the last twenty years would certainly be seen as a draw. I don’t think anyone was expecting the idea that the way he was used – effectively playing the same role as a anonymous man covered in bandages in the original – was going to end up being a detraction. He only has to do a day of filming and rake in the money, but the public wanted him to interact with the players which would have been far too expensive for two weeks of filming I’d have thought. In the end you *could* have just had had someone anonymous doing the briefings, or you could have got someone far cheaper act as a wise-cracking authority in the studio, but this is something I think you could only know in retrospect. The Dealers carry authority but they lack the charm of their Korean counterparts.

I think by and large the games have leant a bit too hard into the alliances and betrayal aspect of the show in an attempt to appease The Traitors fans and this feels a bit of a shame. The game selection has been pretty good by and large, but I think its forgotten a little bit about the puzzle aspect of the format, how a lot of the bits that leave people open mouthed watching the original were people finding ingenious solutions and that’s been lacking a bit. Did Codebreakers require an Undercover Agent element, especially with the knowledge that in playtesting they never won? In that case you’re just giving someone a random chance of going to the Death Match by picking a card – it’s no wonder it ended up playing out as it did, as a viewer it was quite annoying not seeing the puzzle being solved, probably with people lying about the hints and someone eventually having a breakthrough, episode three of series one is too early for the sort of “ignore the game” meta to play out. I thought Lights Out on episode four (that’s just gone) was a good original game, a bit of memory, a bit of tactics, a bit of negotiation, a bit of lying, chunky props, it was quite fun. Death Match selection I’m broadly positive on although I don’t think I’d have used Gyul Hap/Same or Different for episode one, give viewers a chance to get attuned to the sort of mental agility required to understand it first, and Tactical Rock Paper Scissors was always a bit crap (basically a reversioning of, I want to say, Winning Streak from the original?), there are far better social deathmatches where the underdog still has a chance even if they don’t have the approval of their peers.

I think the casting might have been a bit off. There’s an elephant in the room in that one member is quite loud and direct (and I should add has been and is perfectly nice and informative off camera) and nine people who are a bit more… reserved (and one who could have probably have been a bit of a character and has come across well on podcasts since, but got kicked out early). I like many of them but I wonder if the edit is making them all seem a bit… serious. Genius Game is drama drama drama, The Genius is drama drama laughs and I don’t think that laughs should be understated, if anything a British reality audience loves a funny offhand comment, bit of silliness or downtime chat and I think more should have been included. The benefits of this are twofold, it breaks up the game a bit, and it allows us more of a glimpse of people’s relationships with each other which help explain choices down the line. I daresay Celebrity Genius Game with people more used to being on camera would find these moments a bit easier to include, and why shouldn’t it? The original Genius was largely a celebrity show anyway.

It’s a shame the theme and editing have been a bit conservative – you’ve come this far you might as well go for it, the theme tune could have been any ITV daytime post 4pm quiz from the last decade, the background music largely irrelevant, compare and contrast to the original where the music was a big part of the show’s identity. It was a nice surprise hearing the Extreme Ways strings (#mobymoment) strike up this week, a strange choice to wait until episode four for it, looks like a recent edit – I always remember it ending every episode as a “checkmate” moment – sometimes as a surprise – rather than when someone does anything particularly genius-like per se as people are suggesting but maybe I’m misremembering. I think their use of flashbacks is fine, I think they’ve missed out on some good potential flashforward moments – spoilers as intrigue! – Ben’s Zombie Game “…but this will only work if we all stick together!” *30 minutes later* “Bex! Don’t talk to them Bex!” “I WILL TREAT THIS AS TREACHERY OF THE HIGHEST ORDER!” *30 minutes earlier* felt like an open goal.

Four episodes in I do like it and think it is good but I’ve had to caveat with a lot of “buuuuuutt….”s. I’ll be pleased if the second half finds an audience and I daresay it’s getting juicier but if not, look, it stings a bit more because we really believe in the format but everyone will have forgotten about it by week three of Destination X, probably, and it’s just another glorious failure – a beautiful defeat if you like – in the great pantheon of gameshow flops.

And I also daresay that if you’re even vaguely interested in this sort of thing you ought to be watching The Devil’s Plan on Netflix, the second series of which is currently going out, and is a huge amount of fun – it’s basically The Genius II, the legally distinct sequel made by largely the same people as the original, but a bit more “reality” and heavy on the side mysteries around the complex its set in and resulting intrigue. I’m afraid there are rules dumps, some of them lengthy, and the occasional duff game, but it has engaging characters, brilliant reveals, banger of a soundtrack and some really great strategy.

Destination X Preview

By | May 10, 2025

NBC broadcast a 20-minute preview for Destination X last week and recently ungeoblocked the Youtube version. This might be worth having a look at as it’s a similar UK/US production model to The Traitors, so even if not exactly the same it’s likely that many of the challenges and locations overlap. What we’re hoping does not overlap though is the volume of the music, apparently set to drown out most of the talking.

I don’t love (Bestemming) Destination X, or at least I’m not as enamoured with it as apparently many channels were with it, where it’s been anything from a complete flop to a decided non-hit. There will have been about 18 months between the first series coming out and this being made so there will have been opportunities to improve on it somewhat – this preview is certainly a more energetic show than the original and *seems* to be playing down the “is this hint real or not?” idea the show seemed to sell itself with (only to play itself down a bit after the initial episode) – although the Sound of Music allusions at the end is so on the nose it’s clearly a fake hint, so we’ll see. Are Americans going to care enough to watch a show that’s basically a European geography quiz? That’s basically the question.

We can’t work out when the BBC is going to play our version, there feel like few windows available where it won’t clash with other, bigger things in the space. I accept that Rob Brydon is a different and interesting choice that ought to pique interest though, whether there’s enough in our version of the format for him to work with remains to be seen.

Show Discussion: Silence is Golden

By | May 5, 2025

Mondays, 9pm,
U&Dave

The latest format from the mind of Richard Bacon sees Dermot O’ Leary challenge an audience of 75 try and win £250,000 collectively by staying silent as teams of comedy and unusual variety acts (led by Katherine Ryan, Seann Walsh and current Taskmaster contestant Fatiha El-Ghorri) encourage them to laugh or otherwise make noise. “Titter ye not,” as Frankie Howerd used to say. Noise makes the money go down, and if the comics can get it down to zero then money goes to charity.

It’s about this time of year Dave tries to find The Next Taskmaster, Battle In The Box was quite unsuccessful last year, it’s not coming back. This is rather brilliantly or unfortunately timed, either it will ride the success of Last One Laughing which was a proper terrestrial-sized hit for Amazon, or (fairly or unfairly) it will come across as a bit of a rip-off, the likely ceiling being about 10% of the Amazon show isn’t going to help it, Dave doesn’t feel like it has quite the cut through it used to have. Still, we will judge it on its own merits.

Watched it? Let us know what you think.

Some French Summer intrigue

By | May 3, 2025

They showed the second 35th anniversary special of Fort Boyard on France 2 on Thursday night, this is the one with Jean-Pierre Castaldi in it. They begin filming the new series very soon, but there was a bombshell press release on Friday where M6 revealed they’ve poached Olivier Minne who is set to become a new face of the channel from the Autumn. This was apparently top secret and came as a surprise to everybody, although reports are suggesting he’d not been happy at France Televisions for a while. However, whilst they could have put him on gardening leave, basically they haven’t had enough time to find replacements for filming Fort Boyard and his popular daily quiz Tout le Monde a Son Mot a Dire (it’s basically French Alphabetical/Alphabet Game) for the next few months so it looks like he’s going to be allowed a proper send-off for his 23rd series in charge of the Fort.

The question is, assuming it continues next year, who replaces him? Willy Rovelli is properly funny as auxillary host, but perhaps he’s made too good a job at it and it would be weird with him at the helm. Mr France Televisions Entertainment Cyril Feraud is probably the favourite – he already plays a character part time and has had a long association with the Fort as he first started working in TV as a runner there. But he already basically hosts everything already both shiny floor and La Carte aux Tresors so will he have the time? Another potential issue going forward is Yann Le Gac who plays Pere Fouras is getting almost as old as the character he’s portrayed for over 30 years, and it’s weird when someone else plays PF – surely he’ll want to hang up the mask at some point.

This might not be the end of Minne at the Fort as he also hosts the domestic Belgian version.

5 going ALL-IN on Sally Lindsay

By | May 1, 2025

Fresh from Sally Lindsay’s 70s Quiz Night, it looks like five are turning Sally Lindsay’s Quiz Night into a franchise, there’s an 80s Quiz Night and a Christmas Quiz Night incoming but that’s not the end for our ertswhile Tenable stand-in host! She’s also a team captain on the new and improved Celebrity Puzzling with Carol Vorderman and new host Jeremy Vine. Hopefully don’t do counting igloo bricks this time, eh?

Hopefully she will be doing a poker-based quiz called All-In With Sally Lindsay on Five next, although that’s copyright me now so pay up.

Show Discussion: Genius Game

By | April 28, 2025

Wednesday and Thursdays, 9pm,
ITV1

Blimey. It was August 2013 when we started banging on about Korean show The Genius, and it’s fair to suggest that we thought that first series was a bit of a mixed bag, but the hits *really* hit, and across its four seasons it really learned what worked and what didn’t (check out our commentaries in the Specials Board), and by the end we were declaring it “probably the best show in the world being made today”. So it’s thrilling that after a bit of a Dutch misfire, we’ve got our own version that’s hopefully learned some lessons, made by people who seemingly really love the original. Let’s be clear here, it probably isn’t commissioned without the success of The Traitors. But let’s also be clear here, this pre-dates The Traitors by the best part of a decade, and actually isn’t *that* much like it.

Genius Game sees a group of people playing as individuals but invariably having to strike and break coalitions across games of strategy and intelligences both social and logical. Winning games means earning Tokens of Life (i.e. immunity) which you normally get a couple of to give to someone else except the person who finishes bottom in each game who is automatically up for elimination, and who must challenge a player of their choosing to a Death Match to survive. Doing well in games also earns Garnets – the show’s currency. These represent power and can be traded with other people for favours or traded with the house for game advantages – but at the end of the series all the Garnets in play are converted into cash, £1,000 each, that the ultimate winner will receive.

The original Korean show is, undoubtably, extremely cool. It featured an incredible soundtrack (from electronic band Idiotape) as well as found music – the strings of Extreme Ways by Moby used excellently and famously to signify a “checkmate” moment. At its best its edited like a brilliant heist movie, flashbacks and flashforwards, plans coming together, plans falling apart, “how the fuck did that just happen?” moments, moments of interpersonal comedy and drama, moments of people finding out how to hack the game that leaves everyone open-mouthed – it’s cool, sexy people playing games hard.

The question is how much of that will have translated to our version – it remains an unusual format for a channel that doesn’t usually do unusual formats so this is a big swing. On the plus side they’re really going for it, pushing it largely, giving it a 75-minute slot to allow everything to breathe, a lovely set, David Tennant to draw people in – you absolutely cannot say they haven’t put the effort in (which makes putting it up against Race Across the World and Taskmaster a bit baffling – this is going to need word of mouth quickly). But have they managed to make it cool and sexy? Have they got the reveals right? That’s a question we can’t answer for now.

If you’ve watched it let us know what you think in the comments, however for episodic discussion check out #geniuschat in our Discord.