Jimmy Beast's Beast Games
Hey, it's time to review BEAST GAMES on Prime!
Because I assume most Mr Beast fans will not read text anymore. I'm going to try and stoop to their level…
PLEASE CONSUME MR BEAST, BUY HIS CHOCOLATE, BUY HIS LUNCHABLES, BUY HIS TOYS, YOU LOVE JIMMY, JIMMY LOVES YOU, CONSUME!!!!
First off, let's get some JOURNALISTIC INTEGRITY OUT OF THE WAY - Mr Beast gifted me an e-bike, I still haven't used it yet, but thanks for the charity Jimmy.
I heard you also are doing a giveaway…
Now, I'm a little busy at the moment. And I'm not really in the YouTube space at the moment, but I hope this helps…
I love to help in any way I can, Jimmy, I'll take my $10,000 in one of those briefcases.
Anyway, one more piece of business.
JIMMY, YOU DON'T HAVE THE BIGGEST GAME SHOW.
1,000 contestants, while a huge amount, is about the same amount as Ultra Quiz in the 1980s. In modern day, there was a show called Red or Black on ITV, that's not even including HQ nearly a decade ago where tens of thousands of people were on their phones doing a battle royale quiz!
However, in terms of a Reality Competition, you are still very huge.
The $5,000,000 that's a guarantee is also bigger than Squid Games and their $4.56 Million and deal or no deal island that suggested $11,000,000 (but again that's through luck)
There are also prizes thrown all around the game which is also impressive, that wasn't really mentioned in previous ads.
But now let's go through the show….
There are a thousand contestants and through different games of social, physical and mental, they get eliminated until one is left standing.
Where Squid Game: The Challenge had a TV Show to borrow games from. This show borrows from MrBeast’s own challenges, and also Squid Games, he still hasn't figured out Squid Games.
REMEMBER: the guy who got famous for counting to 100,000? And then gave $10,000 to a homeless person? Well, now there are homeless people in a sea of 1,000 people who also need money, and they get to fall through a trap door for comedic results!
Jimmy, while keeping the charity thing for brand image, has gotten insanely crueler in the competitions for the money. What used to be getting his friends in North Carolina to fill a red circle with GameStop stuff has now become “what if a train was a prisoners dilemma?”
That's not to say the show is terrible. The show is, essentially a six part extended Mr Beast competition video.
In the first part (which is on YouTube) you are introduced to the 1,000 contestants with 1,000 cameras and suits.
This would instantly be budget breaking on any game show production in the world, but here, it's a walk in the park.
And the first mini game is introduced. While some game shows give away $1,000,000 he gives it away at the beginning. Anybody that quits will split the million.
As people get screamed at to push the elimination button, the 10 minute timer ticks away.
While the rule of reality production dictates “you need this to be real time 10 minutes or longer to build stakes and lower cost per minute”
Jimmy’s split the money challenge was in half the time. People left happy and then the real game started.
Each group was in a row of 80. And one person must self-sacrifice and eliminate themselves to save the row. If they didn't want to leave for $20,000 or so, why would they leave voluntarily and give up that chance at Five Million?
That's where the show shines very well, the drama and cameras are very flashy but keep the pacing very speedy. I didn't have to pause the video at all.
However, this is also the biggest fault of the show as well, as the show really expects you to know who Jimmy is and his friends… and they are…. Nolan? Chandler? I…think Kris got edited out because focus groups didn't want Trans representation, the Logan Paul guy that's not Logan and The Camera Guy!
They don't really offer much in this other than sideline reporting, they are forgettable at best and obnoxious at worst.
PROTIP: Jimmy, Squid Game was actually a story about how capitalism brings the worst in people, and was seen as a warning, about the cruelty it could be in the real world. The Cookie Cutter game was used as an example because Korean children get taught early on about reward through games. This childish thing was given larger scale stakes for comic appeal, but also how something like “life or death” is still the same.
It's not just a Battle Royale game like Fortnite or Player Unknown Battlegrounds, in fact, there is a Japanese film that also illustrates this point as well, for your High School demographic.
In fact, there is a whole young adult category of dystopian “games” like Hunger Games that could easily be paralleled to this.
And instead of pointing at the cruelty, or how fucked up this reality is, the show comes across as “Torment Nexus” from “Don't Build The Torment Nexus” (credit: Alex Blechman)
Contestants that you see for a few minutes, you don't really know their names or their story and don't care early on that they are gone. It's forgettable. The secret to a great reality show is actually casting a small batch of people, getting to know them, and rooting for everybody. That's actually how a show like Wheel of Fortune, with 3 contestants, an episode can stay on the air for several decades.
Everything needs a purpose, and there were no reasons for it.
Why 1,000? Because we want it big.
Why $5,000,000? Because we want to be the most.
You want the biggest largest most expensive, get those records. However, in doing so, you sacrifice story.
(The Quality over Quantity)
That being said, the challenges presented are REALLY well designed, where Squid Game decided “we need an even advantage” so let's get rid of tug of war and physical games, Beast Games has decided to do a tug of Monster Trucks and an endurance game on a tower. People can get eliminated because one person fucked them over, and it was out of their hands.
This makes for terrible television.
Imagine, framework of an eliminated contestant on this show.
You applied.
You got your passport and flew to Vegas
You didn't take the temptation
You survived the self sacrifice challenge
You did the block tower.
And then, oops, because one person took a bribe, you're out.
I'm not saying “this isn't fair” but what I am saying is production oversights are still presented even on the main TV episodes, and that's not including conditions of the staffers and contestants in the early episodes, hospitalizations, etc.
There are reasons these things don't happen. Yes, budgets are a main cause, but also, film and TV has tried to scale back on production crew members for these seemingly lower end jobs, like safety, and food delivery.
That's what makes this such a complicated watch.
Because the show, in all the display, the visuals, the challenges, the drama and stakes, Jimmy's ability to hook viewers to next episodes, they are WAYYYY BETTER (like a hundred times better) than every reality show. Survivor would milk an advantage for 40 minutes, and this show it's just brought up for 20 seconds and never again, let's go go go go go go!
It is, by all accounts, an enjoyable show, and I will be watching every episode.
However, I also feel disgusted the entire time, you have to look at the 999 eliminated contestants and how they felt taking part, you have to feel about the Production Crew that are there pretty much unsure about blocking, and competitions where there are clearly a lack of safety.
And of course, the embellishment of a good chunk of the video - Jimmy and the Boys are walking around a trap doors that were 2 feet off the ground.
And then in extended cuts they made the towers look like never-ending voids like I'm playing Hang Em High in Halo.
So when they drop, oh let's make it sound like they fell 100 feet and then splat ha ha!
In reality, it's like maybe 6 feet? Just out of safety reasons. But, I still remember when people thought contestants died on “whodunnit” so, let's wait and see if viewers are dumb and think that actually happened.
NOBODY DIED ON THIS SHOW, JUST A FEW CREW MEMBERS GOT HOSPITALIZED THAT'S ALL
Anyway, it's a very speedy, exciting show that captured my attention, but the core mechanics of a reality show are still way off as well as purposes of certain parts.
While it all looks high budget, the edges still look amateur. And not in the “YouTube” way, in the “you can easily prevent this if this happened”.
I honestly hope they had more than one on-set psychologist. Because a young college student who wants their student debt cleared and their parents taken care of, being told they just lost their chance at $5,000,000 because of a game of tag, will probably fuck anybody up.
I do recommend people watch it, it is currently the best game show besides “Pop Culture Jeopardy” (TV, MOVIE, MUSIC, CELEBRITY, WORD PLAY, HIGH CULTURE IN POP CULTURE)
I don't know if I want a season two however, unless they fix a few things here and there, however. Every challenge was unique enough, and I loved the variety.
It felt like a 99 to Beat but with over the top challenges and if they do it again, I hope they fix it so maybe there are more challenges or more low budget offerings in addition to the pirate ship cannonball game.
And I feel they can do a lot better with maybe 10 episodes, 100 challenges. And fix the “cheapness around the edges” and the obvious “squid game but not” points.
Don't make it Fortnite, don't make squid games, what is “Mr Beast” what is that brand? What makes it stand out? What would be more charitable? What would bring good stakes and story to the game? What can you make 850 people do that will be easy enough to capture. That the audience could play along to?
Make it different, please! You have all the money in the world. You don't need me telling you you can do better.
4.0/5
Also, Kids don't really have a concept of money so it's really difficult to explain to them why a twenty year old is crying on the new MrBeast Game Show because somebody bailed out with $100,000 and they did absolutely nothing wrong.
A good chunk of this show is people crying over losing out on money, and you feel bad, none of it feels entertaining or good. Your friends aren't therapists. It makes me hate game shows, even though it's my favorite genre.
