This came up on the Discord – do you remember the 2013 US show Whodunnit? where a secret “murdrerer” in the group goes round killing off other players in elaborate and gruesome ways and the other players have to figure out how they did it in order to stay alive? It was a show not without its faults (one of the big ones being you’re meant to work out who the murderer who was not committing any actual murders was) but the set-ups were quite fun. Well now it’s back in fan-made form, and they’ve even got Gildart Jackon to come back as legally distinct butler Gilbert. Different to the original is that the killer amongst them can tamper with the evidence which sounds like the sort of change that could make a meaningful difference. This, from Dice Reality (who has previous form with a fanmade version of Survivor) has a certain “somebody went back to 1996 and made a reality show” charm – not quite enough cameras, no microphones, background music that’s slightly too high, but it also has ambition and a clear love for the original. Presumably episodes coming out weekly.
Better Luck Than Chuck
This came up on my Youtube feed last night completely unexpectedly – I’ve no idea who’s behind it (well I do – the names are in the credits) and chat on the Discord sounds like it’s a passion project, but I wouldn’t be doing my “job” properly if I didn’t give it a push. It’s a horror trivia game show – format is a pretty simple categories-and-buzzers affair although the endgame goes surprisingly Finders Keepers, but it’s also really slick and well produced and hosted, tapping into campy 60s comedy horror odd couple witch and zombie set-up. Special guests from the horror movie world ask questions. Doesn’t outstay its welcome. A nice surprise! Episodes released weekly.
The Community 2: The Invisible Hand
Here’s something likely to be of interest to my sorts of readers, I think, a new Korean reality show that started a few weeks ago on KOCOWA+ just as I let my sub run out after Bloody Game finished, but that I might resub and binge when the whole thing has gone out – I’ve seen the first two episodes and I don’t want to overuse the word ‘interesting’, but it’s really interesting (unfortunately it’s also come out at time where there’s loads of other things competing for my time). It is also, I suspect, quite complex for an average Western viewer – there are lots of different moving parts, the first two episodes are around 1h 40m, the third one seems to be 3h.
The first series of The Community worked slightly differently, the group of politically diverse people have to make decisions for the common good but if you can state another contestant’s persuasions correctly you can eliminate them, and this new version whilst being a different game seems to have become popular enough that KOCOWA has bought and translated the first series off the back of it, I understand. This one certainly begins as a economics 101 lesson which aims to test Adam Smith’s Invisible Hand theory, will you get as balanced society that succeeds if everyone works in their own self interest? I’ll hide the rules from the first two episodes behind a cut. Because there’s a lot.
Continue readingShow Discussion: Wonka’s The Golden Ticket
From Wednesday 23rd September,
Netflix
On paper this is a pretty perfect idea for an eliminatory reality competition seeing as the original Roald Dahl book is basically sort of structured a little bit like one anyway (Agatha Christie basically invented the eliminatory reality TV gameshow with And Then There Were None in 1939 – there’s no Cowell without Christie! Put that on a T-shirt). This one sees 12 golden ticket winners and their partners enter the chocolate factory where through tests of skill, cunning, morality and so on one of them will win, quote, “a lifetime’s supply of money” which has been left deliberately vague so could range from anything up to Squid Games Challenge millions in generational wealth to £10 a month for the rest of your life.
The set looks great, the idea appealing, but the voiceover likely to attract some attention – it’s an AI recreation of Gene Wilder as Wonka with his family’s blessing. Gene WAIlder, if you will. At the very least this will be an interesting test case on whether the public in general are on board with this sort of thing or not. It certainly feels like a choice, but if this flops it will be difficult to definitively know if that was the reason or not.
Let us know what you think in the comments!
Show Discussion: The Wargame
Monday-Thursday, 9pm,
Sky One and NOW TV
Not sure precisely how much in our purview this is but seeing as it’s basically like a new version of Crisis Command: Can You Run the Country? we’d be remiss not to at least give it a mention as the sort of thing you might find of interest as a thought experiment.
The big difference this time is the people involved have, in fact, variously ran the country – the effective Prime Minister here is Michael Gove and the cross-party selection includes Nicola Sturgeon, Penny Mordaunt, Harriet Harman, Baroness Warsi and others. This claims to be a simulation of COBRA in the event of Russia attacking UK soil, based on a Sky News podcast of the same name. This was recorded months ago, but there’s a live show after Thursday’s final episode.
Probably not a great deal in the way of fun and laughs, but doubtless an interesting series if it appeals to you. If you watch it, let us know what you think in the comments.
Show Discussion: Wisdom of the Crowd
Saturdays, 9:15pm
BBC1
John Bishop puts Francis Galton’s wisdom of crowds theory to the test as an individual attempts to answer estimated guess questions better than an increasing number of crowdmembers – 200 in the studio, in order to win a large cash prize.
We have a rough idea of what to expect as we had a mole at a test recording, and also the show has gone out in Germany where it flopped (Die Weisheit Der Vielen) and it’s sold to Spain although I don’t think it’s gone out yet (Los 200: Uno contra la masa). Our understanding – contestants answer several questions and have to beat increasing numbers of the crowd for increasing amounts of money. If they don’t win, the money rolls forward to the endgame where a single contestant will win it all or it will get split amongst the 200.
The 200 in theory stay all series although again if our understanding is right people can get replaced by being furthest away on a question, or the best player all episode can turn on the crowd and go for the jackpot.
It’s made by Magnum Media, the people behind The 1% Club, the executive press quotes seemed to suggest you’ll love this if you love quiz shows with large crowds like that is the appeal of The 1% Club. This does seem to be basically a format for John Bishop to do some crowd work, and there’s nothing like watching John Bishop in action to really appreciate the talent and craft. Of Michael McIntyre.
Anyway, let us know what you think in the comments!