I want to talk about The Influencer on Netflix. Because it is good.

The Influencer is a seven-episode long Korean survival variety reality show where 77 social media influencers compete for W300m (about £200,000). If you’ve watched many of these before you know the drill – a disembodied voice sets tasks on an incredible set, those who don’t make the cut after each round is eliminated, there’s usually a graphic with lots of faces on a board which go dark, we’ve all watched Squid Game and Physical 100. This one requires social media skill. I thought this would be quite dull but each of the rounds so far has been really interesting, there are proper gamey-game elements, there has been much more strategy than I had anticipated. Also, on occasion it’s absolutely brutal.

The first ep is a bit longer than the others because the first 20 minutes is introducing most of the contestants – you won’t need to remember them all, most of them will be going after round one and the editing does a good job of representing the main characters anyway. Each contestant wears an electronic collar revealing how many followers they have on their main social media account, ranging from 10s of thousands to almost 30m. The 300m Won is then split up proportionally between the contestants, replacing the figure on their collar. This is each contestant’s “worth” in the game. Having a high worth comes with advantages and breaks ties, but also means you might get targeted – the survivors inherit the value of anyone who gets knocked out.

Round one is dead simple – two hours, and everyone has 15 likes and 15 dislikes to give to other contestants. Each collar also has a NFC chip which unlocks a introductory video each contestant has made. Everyone begins fishing for compliments, like swapping and the like, but they also start disliking the high value players in the belief that this will eliminate them – only 30 people will survive this round. Players phones go off whenever they get a like or a dislike but they aren’t told who from. An hour in the stage is set up so people can show off their talents, immediately earning dislikes from anyone who dares to do so. However one contestant, who can’t seem to get any likes, wonders if everyone’s got the game wrong and it isn’t about solely getting likes but getting noticed, so dislikes are actually a good thing to get. A few other people spot this tactic, but is it enough? Lots of interesting things to say about the nature of ego, self-belief, acceptance, rejection.

Round two will reduce 30 contestants to 15 and involves setting up a live stream lasting 60 minutes in the first instance and up to 50 minutes on top of that – the interest here is the short form whizzes have lots of followers but are unused to holding people’s attention for that long. Everyone gets their own streaming pod and they can do what they want. They also have the option of inviting a guest for 30 minutes, although the tactic of when to deploy them is on them. During the initial 60 minutes, a viewer count is taken every ten minutes, the numbers are averaged, the top five go straight through to round three, the bottom five are eliminated. Part two is a sprint, every five minutes a count is taken, the person with the highest viewer count ends their stream and survives, the lowest viewer count is immediately eliminated. Really interesting game, seeing what techniques people can use to get and keep their numbers up, how far they’re willing to go, the nature of parasocial relationships and so on. My one criticism is more than any other round, how you do in this one is going to be largely determined by how big your following already was going into it

Round three starts off absolutely brutally. It’s played in teams of two and to determine who those teams are, starting with the person with the lowest “worth”, they will stand in a cube and get auctioned off to the other players. The amount someone wants to pay to work with someone else is transferred to that person. It is quite possible to get no bids. The other twist to this game is that with 15 people one person will not partner up and that person is immediately eliminated so there’s a strategy element.

The round proper is built around taking photos. Seven different environmental sets have been built for pairs to create photos in. Teams must initially create the best photo they can in 60 minutes. HOWEVER, you can submit a photo sooner, and doing so lets you choose where it will be placed on a 3×3 grid. This grid will then be shown to 100 random people having their eyes tracked for seven seconds. Whichever photo commands the least attention will eliminate that team, with their money being split and added to the team whose photo attracted the most attention. Creativity potential vs placement strategy is really interesting! This will be played three times leaving eight people but unfortunately this is where the first tranche of episodes ends, the remaining three will go out on Tuesday.

It’s extremely stylish and has a number of intriguing characters and I’m fascinated to see what the final two rounds involve. Definitely worth a look.