Sometimes we discover things by chance, frankly we’d probably have no idea this existed before stumbling on a Twitter conversation, but one of the great things about running this Bar is that I can signal boost something worthwhile.
And so we come to New World on Netflix, a new Korean variety/reality show. In it, six celebs are transported to a beautiful island of their dreams, everyone gets an abode tailored to what they said they wanted. The island has various landmarks and points of interest – the feeling is actually a bit Zelda-esque.
On Day 1 the contestants meet at the Bistro, which can apparently cook anything in the world, and then told what is happening – basically over the next six days they’ll take part in various adventures around the island, the object being to earn virtual currency, Nyang. Luxury costs, so they’ll need to earn Nyang to get the most of their stay on the island, but anything they’ve got at the end of the stay can be converted into real life cash money. Their phones can also send each other money and message each other.
And so the fun begins. An AI called Holo appears and sends them off on their first adventure. To celebrate the new arrivals, ten “events” have been set up around the island. It transpires that each of these events yields a box for a ‘winner’ – a 100% chance at 10m Nyang, or a 50% chance at 100m Nyang – they stick their phone on one of the two stands and it will tell them if they’ve won or not. They get two hours to find all the boxes, punctuated by performances from a Korean idol band, before returning to the Bistro to see how they done.
One more twist is that the final box is a “Joker” box which is flying around on a drone and will drop at a set location at a certain time. This box offers a guaranteed 100m Nyang, but if it’s used there will be a secret vote and someone will lose 200m. Cue lots of private messaging and dirty looks around the dinner table.
If that was it, that’d be enough fun for most shows, but there’s an excellent twist which I’ll hide under a cut so you can avoid being spoiled. If you take anything away from this post, take away that it’s worth a watch – it’s a bit The Genius (you may in fact recognise one of the contestants), A bit Fantasy Island, a bit Lost.
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