I’ve watched the opening salvo of five eps, it’s so frustrating. Ari Shapiro and his eyebrows are fun, the challenge design is definitely a step up from S1, the structure is a bit better so that there’s two missions between tests (even if one of them tends to be quite small scale). The prizemoney is a bit all over the place, you’d expect the big missions to be worth more than the small scale ones just because That’s How Telly Works but it doesn’t always work out like that.

But it’s absolutely ruined by the pot drains, THREE in five episodes, the players are losing more money than The Mole is in trying to get personal advantages and it’s just crap television. What am I watching it for?

We thought the first series was basically an artless version of The Mole, the format done in typical US route one capacity. This series actually has ideas that are commendable, and then ruins it all with really cheap ways – not even clever, funny ways, to make the pot cheap.

That’s right, I’ve spent £35 so you don’t have to, it’s the new Microids Fort Boyard game out today featuring as many as “some” new events but the big deal are the “perks of Sir Fouras” – not a recognised knight of the realm as far as I know, which emulates the show’s big twist from the last few years, a modifier that affects the adventure – ancient games, not seeing the clock, poisoned gifts… like on TV, some work better than others (the one I’m showing off, Poisoned Gifts, feels a bit… janky? Broken? See for yourselves). Whatsmore some of the events don’t have their music, they just have the theme tune playing over it – rubbish! For balance, what I would suggest is that the new events feel a bit more involved than many previously. PS5 version played.

The new series of Fort Boyard, the 35th! begins on Saturday night on France 2 at 8:10pm UK with the unlocking of the Forbidden Cells, this year’s gimmick. The last few years France TV have turned their geoblocking off for the Fort, but if they don’t you’ll need a VPN to watch. The show will be discussed on the Discord in #fortboyardchat.

It’s great news for adventure fans, but before that worth pointing out that Deal or No Deal starts filming its second extended series from today, you can grab tickets for future recordings from Applausestore.

This Thursday sees the release of Fortress Challenge: Fort Boyard on Steam and the major consoles, we will have a video review ASAP, this year’s offering is “ten new events” and Sir Fouras (not a recognised knight) will be playing his aspect cards to modify events.

This is leading up to the new series of Fort Boyard starting on France 2 on Saturday night just after 8pm UK (officially 8:10 but you know what French schedulers are like). The last few years France2 have been taking their geoblock off between 8-11 so it may still be possible to watch without a VPN, auto-translated subs might be more useful than ever as it feels like a lot of lore happening this year – the subtitle for the season is “The Forbidden Cells”, lots of new characters, looks like a few new events but also lots of one-off games, the Passes might vocalise a bit more, it’ll either be really good or “a bit 2002”. Needless to say we’ll be chatting about it in #fortboyardchat in the Discord.

And! This Friday not just one but TWO seasons of The Mole starting, the first the US one on Netflix which will likely be as artless as the first but hey! is in English, the second a sort of surprise civilian series of Wie is De Mol? set in Oman exclusively streaming on NPO Start (kind of Dutch iPlayer). I understand that unofficial English subs will be coming for this eventually but possibly not immediately, we’ll be talking about these on #netflixmolememorialthread and #molchat on the Discord respectively.

The new show from the Jet Lag guys on Nebula, The Getaway, features six Social Media Personalities transporting $10,000 from A to B, seemingly performing challenges along the way. The twist? They’re all secret saboteurs.

It’s a funny idea, but I would say there’s normally an entertainment limit in watching people consistently doing things badly, even The Mole has a bit of give. I’m intrigued to see how it all plays out, anyway.

Actually it was out a few days ago. No review from me unfortunately as I can’t do VR, it’s currently £24.99 on the Metaquest Store (Meta Store?), there’s a delay in the version coming to Steam but it’s coming soon.

Don’t worry though, we’ll have a video review of Fortress Challenge: Fort Boyard out June 27th (two days before series 35 premieres on France 2).

Edit: It’s out on Steam now.

Next week’s Korean Netflix Fun is Agents of Mystery which drops June 18th, where a team of Korean celebrities “are tasked with getting to the bottom of unsolvable cases occurring in mysterious locations,” which basically means messing about completing challenges in really neat looking sets with some sort of throughline connecting them all. From the trailer it feels like a tighter version of early Netflix hit Busted, and it looks like it might be really fun. Also it’s being directed by Jung Jong-yeon of The Genius and Devil’s Plan fame, although this is probably a bit closer to his Great Escape series.