Reality TV Roundup – March 2023

March Reality TV Roundup had a little update. I never thought about including documentaries into the round-up and thought it would be a great addition seeing as it adds a little more seriousness as well. Plus, I do watch a good few documentaries nowadays that I don’t particularly want to do a full review so this is a perfect outlet.

NEXT IN FASHION (SEASON 2)

Hosts: Tan France, Gigi Hadid

As I wait for the next season of Queer Eye to pop up, I’m basically waiting for anything with the Fab Five. Tan France is truly a fantastic human being and so much fun to watch. The first season of Next in Fashion was a ton of fun. Probably due to the pandemic, things are a lot more centralized to USA and less international like the first season was. Is It a good or bad thing? Probably depends on what you plan to get out of it.

For those unfamiliar with Next In Fashion, its a fashion competition to find the designer who is most “next in fashion”. A bunch of carefully chosen up and coming designers have to go through a variety of themed challenges with different special judges to decide who is the winner of the challenge and the worst that has to leave. The structure of the competition is definitely a familiar one and it works pretty well.

Hosted by Tan France and Gigi Hadid this time around, switched up from Alexa Chung in the first season, its still a lot of fun that gets injected into the show with the duo’s dynamic. Gigi Hadid being a renowned model delivers a lot of her knowledge in regards to fashion and has a fun edge. While I’m not a connoisseur of fashion or models, Gigi Hadid did such a great job as the guest narrator for two episodes on Never Have I Ever that it made me see her in a new light which sees that fun side translated over here. It matches the energy for Tan France which has really grown over the years in comparison to the first season of Queer Eye. He has a unique and broad view and knowledge of fashion that makes him so suitable as the host and judge.

Looking at the designers chosen in season two, as mentioned before, its mostly focused in the USA which isn’t a problem to be fair. The first season was more international and the style was much more avant-garde. This time, despite the designers being based in US, there’s a lot more diversity in the level of design from skill sets to creativity and it ranges from casual wear to more creative and colorful unique pieces. While its a competition, in the end, shows like these is such a wonderful platform to show off these different designers which are trying to change the world with their clothes empowering different types of people with their designs.

Overall, Next In Fashion Season 2 is a fun competition show if you can appreciate fashion. This season is much more approachable than the first one since there are more “casual” styles rather than funky stuff that normal people probably wouldn’t wear everyday.

MH370: The Plane That Disappeared (2023)

March 8th, 2014, Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared from radar. 239 people went missing, a global investigation into this greatest mystery Despite reports, countless theories, and searches for evidence, nothing. What Are We Missing? – IMDB

Other than knowing about the actual event happening in broad details, I’ve never really followed the whole MH370 disappearance in a lot of depth. Its why the documentary for MH370 seemed like an interesting topic of choice. There is no actual resolve for the disappearance but spread over these few episodes, this Netflix documentary limited series dives into not only the facts but also a lot of theories because what else could you have other than theories when the truth will probably never be found and the plane wasn’t ever retrieved except for the alleged pieces washed ashore.

For the first part of the documentary when it was just laying out the facts and what happened, the documentary held up rather well. Even the beginning investigative bits and light theories about possibilities based on the facts were still relatively interesting to watch since it gave something to think about.

Where the documentary falls apart and becomes slightly frustrating to watch is the few farfetched theories that start being pitched which eventually does get minorly debunked based on the details. To be fair, this whole situation’s takeaway is that the lack of information gives space for a “he said she said” situation where its all about who can deliver a convincing enough story for you to believe where one side believes that its a huge plot between one country or another.

MH370: The Plane That Disappeared started off rather strong with an interesting topic at hand but eventually truly unravels when their interviewees start using their research to expand too far from where its supposed to be.

Cheat (Season 1, 2023)

Host: Danny Dyer & Ellie Taylor

Equal parts brains and blagging, this quiz show expects and encourages contestants to cheat their way to a cash prize. The one rule? Don’t get caught.- IMDB

Recent Netflix British quiz show Cheat hosted by Danny Dyer and Ellie Taylor is very similar to past Netflix quiz show called Bullshit. While the details aren’t the same, the concept is very similar where the game is not completely about how smart you are but rather its about spotting who is cheating the most. The good part of this show is that it doesn’t reward cheating so even if its a valid option and encourages it to keep the game entertaining but the end result of the pot doesn’t reward it completely.

Game shows like this are rather entertaining on two folds. If you are like me, I watch this for the trivia element. Yes, I’m a nerd and I like to know that I at least know some general knowledge. On the other hand, the entertaining element comes from the contestants and how quippy they are especially when exchanging banter amongst themselves or the hosts which becomes all the more fun when the audience actually sees how much they cheated and the contestants don’t.

While Danny Dyer and Ellie Taylor’s comedian work isn’t known to myself, they work well as the game hosts. Ellie Taylor does a great job with reading the questions and guiding the actual game portion whereas Danny Dyer is more of the person who comments and interacts with the contestants, dropping random jokes here and there to keep the mood light. They are fairly entertaining overall.

Cheat is a pretty simple concept for a game show and because of that, the entertainment element is there for sure. Its always a toss-up for people to win because of cheating which sometimes ends up a bit based on luck and might not always seem to end up sending the pot to someone worthy. Its always my biggest issues with these shows but these shows aren’t exactly about how much you know, just how well you can pretend to know something.

Reality TV Roundup – February 2023

The Mole ( Season 1, 2022)

Host: Alex Wagner

It follows twelve players as they work together in challenges to add money to a pot that only one of them will win. – IMDB

While I haven’t seen the original The Mole, Netflix picking up this show is a completely new thing for me. The Mole feels like familiar games that have found popularity like Werewolf (not sure if that’s the actual name) or Among Us. Deception is a wonderful game especially when the audience gets to watch all the angles and try to figure out who is the mole along with the players. Of course, the showrunners are doing the deception here since the editing is what creates even more intrigue a lot of times. I went into The Mole thinking it would be another guilty pleasure sort of watch, it actually turned out to be more than that.

What makes The Mole stand out from the other shows is that it has team missions. Everyone wants to cast doubt on themselves or someone depending on their strategy so it all comes down to who is trying to mess up the game the most. The team missions go through a lot of different places and settings from the beginning at the jungle to prison break to bank heist. The scenarios make big changes and the variety along with each of the players’ know-how is factored in. At the same time, the show also throws certain curveballs to give certain players a chance to make certain decisions that will affect the pot to reveal whether its a positive or negative choice. It all makes the elimination at the end of day feel more intriguing. However, the intrigue does set a lot more near the end since its fairly predictable who will be eliminated in the beginning episodes.

The Mole has some compelling settings but with many shows like this, the players are a mixed bag with a variety of personalities and different strategies. Nothing is quite exciting than seeing how one player can mess up the plan for everyone out of selfishness for example. Human nature to the test is just such a fun thing to watch. However, as fun as all this is, the host Alex Wagner is really great. She’s the consistent compelling element that makes The Mole very enjoyable. I’m not sure how Netflix does it but they’ve been getting some great hosts for these money-winning shows with Nicole Byers, Michelle Buteau and now Alex Wagner.

28 Days Haunted (Season 1, 2022)

Three teams spend 28 days in some of the most haunted locations in the United States for an experiment based on the theories of paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren. – IMDB

I’m not really a Mythbusters and ghost hunting watching sort of person. Chinese believe in ghosts too much to want to watch this whole question about whether ghosts exist so this is a completely random selection from the husband. On top of that, I never watched The Conjuring and haven’t really dove into what Ed and Lorraine Warren has solved on this front so I’m going to take their word that this experiment is based on their theories. Its an interesting one for sure especially when trapping mediums and paranormal teams in three different haunted locations.

What makes this reality show good mostly is the locations they choose and having the different team and their dynamic really come through. Some of them is the location that shines through, some is the team itself that makes it more intriguing. For the most part, the biggest question here is whether you do believe these things are actually happening or whether its all staged.

At the end of the day, 28 Days Haunted is an intriguing show. For most of it, it feels creepy and intriguing. Sure, the whole idea of mediums and such is a little odd since they all have different approaches. It is kind of a 101 course on ghost hunting and the technology and techniques behind it. While the season did feel rather convincing, what broke it and felt staged was the last shot and it broke the whole concept.

Physical:100 (Season 1, 2023)

One hundred contestants in top physical shape compete in a series of grueling challenges to claim the honor – and cash reward – as the last one standing. – IMDB

Being big fans of Ultimate Beastmaster (review) and very sad that its never been renewed for more seasons, Physical:100 is a good placeholder. Its not quite the same but it does achieve other things. Yes, there is negative news regarding a participant who hasn’t been specified the last I saw but it doesn’t take away that this show does break a lot of preconceived image of Asian bodies because these participants both male and female are seriously ripped, big, well-built. Plus, it highlights a lot of their athletes from national to Olympics level.

With shows like this, its always the structure of the competition and the challenges that makes or breaks the show. Physical:100 uses 5 challenge plus a pre-challenge to eliminate its contestants to a final 5. With that said, the elimination goes pretty fast. Looking at the challenges, it definitely has a preference over strength and endurance as a whole. Some challenges favor one over the other which also gives the smaller built players a little more leeway to play with strategy.

In terms of challenges, there are quite a variety starting from an endurance strength hanging from a structure raised to the ceiling as a pre-challenge and follows with 1 on 1 matches to recuperate a ball within a time limit to eventually team challenges which prove to be more fun to watch from moving sand to the best challenge of the show which involves pulling a wooden ship to an sloped destination.

While some of the challenges feels a little skewed to a certain build, Physical:100 is a pretty fun show to watch if you like this sort of thing. It can get a little confusing to match a face to the name but as the numbers go down, there’s no doubt that there are a few frontrunners that take more spotlight than the rest.

Perfect Match (Season 1, 2023)

Host: Nick Lachey

Couples who prove their compatibility gain the power to make or break other matches in this strategic and seductive dating competition. – IMDB

The newest social matchmaking reality show by Netflix is Perfect Match which seems like a bankable idea as it takes all a bunch of normal single people turned famous through their various reality shows and puts them all in one location to find their perfect match. Of course, maybe its just another way for Nick Lachey to have more work seeing as he now hosts three of these matchmaking shows making him the person that is the most familiar with the majority of these people. Being an avid viewer of The Circle (review) and Too Hot to Handle (and catching The Mole before watching this show), I also was rather familiar with the majority of these people as well. Still, its not the depth of these shows that are make them popular, lets just be honest there. If you weren’t into those reality shows to begin with, this probably offers nothing at all.

Perfect Match delivers exactly what you’d expect from this group despite whichever show they might be coming from. There’s a lot of switching partners and a lot of dramatic reactions and arguments over the silliest things. Its really hard to be completely invested into the show at times because its obvious what this whole thing is trying to do and much like the other matchmaking shows, the chances of success do feel very low so the only bit to enjoy is the conflicts and arguments which reveal some unimpressive character traits. Still, as I said before, we’re not here for the depth of the show and its just some mindless entertainment.

There’s really not a whole lot to say about Perfect Match. Its not a particularly great show but really just feels like a show that Netflix thought up to bank on these people that they’ve made famous by putting them together in a Panama resort. They don’t even earn anything other than a trip for the winning couple. Judging from some other resources online, it doesn’t even seem like any of the couples ended up together making this an even more meaningless show.

TV Binge: Blown Away: Christmas (Season 1, 2021)

Blown Away: Christmas (Season 1, 2021)

Host: Bobby Berk & Katherine Gray

Five fan-favorite glass blowers return to the hot shop to compete in a series of Christmas-themed challenges; the winner will receive a $10,000 cash prize, plus an additional $10,000 will be donated to his or her charity of choice. – IMDB

Let’s just put it out there right now that I never watched any of the Blown Away seasons before this one (at the point where I’m writing this post, but probably will later). I also know nothing about glass blowing. The extent of my knowledge is the one time I went to Seattle and saw it being done at the Chihuly Garden and Glass. With that said, I am really happy with the variety of competition shows that Netflix produces since it shows off a lot of the different arts out there and giving it a platform for others to know more about the artists just quietly working on their craft in their corner.

Blown Away: Christmas is four episodes long and brings back five of the fan-favorites from the past 2 seasons as they compete in different Christmas-themed challenges. The variety is pretty good as well as the whole narrative. The episodes run fairly short as well at about 20-ish minutes. Its very swift to say the least as they run through some of their processes on what they are making and introducing some of the techniques that they are using as they dive into their different meanings towards Christmas whether its memorable presents to the big finale creating their own version of winter wonderland. The artists are all very diverse in their artistic style which always adds to these types of shows. Plus, all the artists are all really interesting people as they share their own traditions.

The show itself is hosted by Bobby Berk who admits right away that he knows nothing about glass blowing but from the Queer Eye show he is very familiar with home decor so his expertise comes into play for the artistic elements of the piece. Plus, he adds in the little pun-y jokes in his narration as well as a fun personality as he hosts with resident judge, Katherine Gray, who is there to offer her expertise in glass-blowing and knows these artists from the previous seasons. The dynamic between the two is pretty good.

Overall, Blown Away: Christmas is pretty fun. Its a great introduction to the show itself and has left me wanting to check out the normal seasons, like the previous 2 seasons. The pieces are truly beautiful and very creative. The whole show is pretty feel good to watch even if it is a competition.

TV Binge: Sugar Rush Christmas (Season 2, 2020)

Sugar Rush Christmas (Season 2, 2020)

Host: Hunter March
Judges: Adriano Zumbo, Candace Nelson
Guests: Adam Rippon, Chris Bosh, Valerie Gordon, Sasha Pieterse, Jordin Sparks, Abigail Breslin

Four sets of bakers compete in Christmas themed baking challenges. First round is cupcakes, second round confections, and final round cakes. After each challenge one group is eliminated and the winner of the final challenge gets $10,000. – IMDB

The second season of Sugar Rush Christmas is structured like the first season. At this point, Sugar Rush has pretty much set their structure in a well-polished way. The focus on time shows a lot of its effect when the different teams make decisions on how to balance between execution of their creative designs in the different stage and how detailed it needs to be to see how much time they save. Sometimes, it fails and sometimes it succeeds which usually makes the first part more interesting to watch then the third round of cakes.

Talking about the different rounds, the themes for each episode is similar to the first season. Christmas and holidays are fairly slim pickings playing around with Christmas trees, winter wonderlands, Santa Claus, etc. What did change a little was that certain episodes had some interesting challenges. One of the best ones had to be the White Elephant one which has the different teams picking a secret ingredient that had to be added to their confection. Some of those secret ingredients ended up having some interesting results. As for the cake challenge, one of the fun ones had to be the secret Santa challenge that had them hiding Santa in their cake designs. Aside from that, they sweetened the deal by having the winning team of first and second round also get a little prize and not only have the $10,000 prize for the final winner.

Sugar Rush Christmas is still hosted by Hunter March and judged by Candace Nelson and Adriano Zumbo which definitely have a great dynamic after so many seasons of working together. They all are very fun to watch. The guests this season definitely are people that I enjoy especially Abigail Breslin, Jordin Sparks and Sasha Pieterse. One of the fun ones are Jordin Sparks since it has singing bits and she has an upbeat personality while Sasha Pieterse shows off another side from what I’ve seen from Pretty Little Liars and is very professional in her judging.

Sugar Rush Christmas’s second season isn’t exactly making a lot of big differences but it already had established a good structure so its not needed for a lot of change. It fulfils the need of some fun and entertainment while watching a reality baking competition series. It brings a lot of holiday spirit. Every bit as enjoyable as previous seasons!

Check out the Sugar Rush Christmas Season 1 Review here.

TV Binge: Too Hot to Handle (Season 1, 2020)

Too Hot To Handle (Season 1, 2020)

On the shores of paradise, gorgeous singles meet and mingle. But there’s a twist. To win a $100,000 grand prize, they’ll have to give up sex. – IMDB

Netflix has been working on overtime at creating their own exclusive series to cover all forms of reality dating series and social distancing like The Circle and Love is Blind. Its all fairly guilty pleasure watches. What makes Too Hot To Handle from the two mentioned above is that those two have some social experiment elements to it, whereas this one is strictly guilty pleasure and right from the get-go in the first episode when the contestants are announced, its already positive that these people involved are all fairly shallow and full of themselves (there’s a difference between self-confidence and being full of themselves).

When you pick a series that focuses on watching a bunch of contestants in their bathing suits half naked 90% of the time living together who have to give up sex and any rule breaking is results in different amounts of reducing their total jackpot of $100,000, its hard to think that it is going to have a lot of substance. On top of that, the show has a unnamed narrator which made some pretty funny sarcastic comments, which I did enjoy, and all the contestants were observed by an cone-shaped air freshener-looking AI called Lana that would notify them of rule-breaking, how much money was left as well as liaison between organizing dates and other announcements. I’m not going to lie that I hesitated to start this one up but in the state of the world that this show is arriving at, I was down for some mindless entertainment that didn’t require a ton of my attention.

Let’s break it down. Too Hot To Handle is full of contestants that honestly aren’t very likable. I mean, in their introductions, they pretty much all share the same values of thinking they are total bombshells and studs. I say, “thinking” because well, beauty is to the eye of the beholder and I’m no longer in the phase of life where looks can cover up some very annoying traits (which some of these contestants do have). But, when you start up a show like Too Hot To Handle, you have to expect a few things and know exactly what to expect and be okay with that. One of those things is cringe-y moments and rather stupid commentaries and boy, are those plentiful in here especially in the first few episodes as we get to know these contestants a little more and they are in their first interactions.

That’s not to say that the show doesn’t aim to reform these contestants a little by giving them little workshops. They are punished for not embracing the rules and engaging in personal development. All these things results in monetary punishment most of the time with some exceptions. The workshops focus on sorting out their issues whether its in ladies-only or men-only workshop to embrace their own issues and empowerment while also having workshops together on relationship like trust and communication, etc. Its fairly generic stuff that happens as it introduces some exercises with fancy names. Its part of the show that tries to add some substance and give these contestants a little more depth and growth than when they first started. Aside from that, like many of these types of show, they throw in some plot twists to give it some exciting elements and adds in rewards instead of only punishments.

Overall, Too Hot to Handle is exactly what it advertises to be. You already know whether you will enjoy this one or not before you start this up. If you hate reality shows like this, then stay far away. If you like the pure guilty pleasure of this type of show and you might even call this trashy (but I don’t want to be mean), then you will like it for exactly what you expect to get.  For myself, it fit the time and I kind of didn’t mind it too much once I got past the first few episodes and got used to the contestants a little more. As for my anticipation of a second season, I’m don’t really have a preference whether there is one but I’d probably watch it anyways if it happens. Once in a while, guilty pleasure can be good, right?

Christmas 2018 & TV Binge: Nailed It! Holiday! (Mini-series, 2018)

You can see reviews for the main seasons here:

Season 1
Season 2

Nailed It! Holiday! (2018)

Host: Nicole Byer & Jacques Torres

There are shows that talk about refined baking competitions and such but there is also a great joy in watching amateurs bake because its a learning curve and everyone has to start somewhere. Nailed It! has taken that concept and really excelled with it. Sure, Season 2 had its odd moments where it forgot what it was trying to do but overall, it still brought a lot of joy and laughter to some of the odd baking things that came out of some of these episodes. With that said, I was excited to see that Nailed It Holiday is now a thing. It keeps the same format, very much like the first one which focuses its first round on Baker’s Choice and its making smaller baking things like cookies, cake pops and cupcakes while its second round is the money maker, literally, because you can win $10,000 with  making a cake creation. This time we also see a hint of what might be potential new extension or a new direction for the show in the 7th episode as it escapes the baking realm and jumps into the DIY crafts realm. I’ll talk about that a little later as a final wrap-up discussion point.

Nailed It! Holiday! definitely did do exactly that. Its hilarious and a ton of fun. It themes itself around the different holidays during this winter season from a good few Christmas to simply winter themes to Hanukkah and takes us straight to a countdown to New Year’s. I’m guessing if you do watch this one or two episodes a week, you might actually reach New Year’s Eve to watch the countdown. The creations themselves are super nice. Its still very much difficulty but its always the how the choice of candidates in the competition that brings a lot of fun because of just how ridiculous some times these things turn out to be. At the same time, they add on a different special button in each one episode themed also around the holidays from unwrapping presents or untangling lights which also makes it fair because if they finish it during the 3 minutes, they can get back to their baking right away. Its a nice twist to the freeze button in the second round.

Nailed It has always seemed to want to divert away from its baking competition formula. And doing the DIY crafts route is a good one for sure. It might eventually also run out of topics at some point but it has its potential also. The one episode we had was definitely just a taste or maybe a market test in their own right to see how well received it is. I thought it was a fairly fun episode. I like to do DIY crafts as well so this was right up my alley. Crafts have the potential to go horribly wrong and they can also be pretty entertaining to watch as well. I would be down to see if they do a season of this especially of Nicole Byer continues to host.

Talking about that, the reason that Nailed It works despite whatever content they have is in part all the good creative things they do and finding the right type of participants and having a good angle, like this Holiday theme mini series. But the biggest reason is Nicole Byer. She is just the heart and life of this show. While Jacques Torres is a fun match for her, the crafts episode proves that she really can have the same dynamic with another host as well. Its her personality that makes it so fun to watch. Nailed It Holiday is a really fun season and I hope that they continue with this show, whether it be in baking (which I probably would prefer as it works well) or even if they expand to crafts.

TV Binge: The Final Table (Season 1, 2018)

The Final Table (Season 1, 2018)

Host: Andrew Knowlton

Global competitions should be the hook for Netflix in all kinds of competition simply because they have the opportunity and the resource to make them. It is why I was so excited to stary watching The Final Table. Well, and because I’m a foodie and love watching food related shows (which reminds me that I need to get back to Chef’s Table). The Final Table is just the debut season so there are some imperfections in execution overall but the concept itself is a good one. If there is enough popularity, it would be interesting to see how they can make certain changes to make it more polished to watch. Since I probably won’t find another place to write this, I think the host Andrew Knowlton does a great job and is a good fit for the show because he has the knowledge for it and the charisma to carry the show.

Just for a little basics, The Final Table starts off with teams of two cooks paired up by the chefs own choosing. They are all professional chefs in their own specialities and their different origins and backgrounds. Each episode is themed around one country. The first round consists of a national dish from said country set by the three ambassador judges, which usually includes two celebrities/public figures and one known critic from the specific country. The bottom three teams (until they reach the ending episodes) go into a final dish round where a legendary chef from the specified country will choose an ingredient known in that country to be the star of their next dish and the team considered the less refined for whatever reason will depart the competition. In the last finale, the Top 2 teams break up into individual competition again and the 4 competitors go head to head for the two rounds for the big finale.

Right away, the pros of this one is the country by country theme per episode. It helps people learn about other countries and their dishes and cultures as well as shows off some of their known celebrities. It seems like a pretty win win situation. At the same time, a few (if not more) of the chefs were on Chef’s Table so already associated with the show or known before so makes it more fun to watch in that regard. Some of the national dish choices are pretty surprising so its always nice for the unexpected and mystery element. That part of the structure works well and is well put together. Themed like that gives it a chance to hit a lot of other countries even after they get through all the countries associated with Netflix.

If we look at teams of two, that works pretty well also. It gives them a chance to learn from each other and encourages team work and adds the drama element. At the same time, it gives the chefs a chance to make a more elaborate dish and be strong in certain segments because of each of their different knowledge lending a hand to creating their version of the traditional dish or their knowledge of the ingredient and how to use it in their interpretation as well. If we look at the ambassadors and critics, I don’t have a lot of knowledge of a lot of foreign movies and such so obviously, I knew the USA celebrities the most and then some of them looked familiar and I knew some of the chefs because of Chef’s Table. I think that is part of the fun also as long as the judges themselves have knowledge in food and give constructive criticism.

So far, I’ve said a lot of pros of the show and it is a pretty good structure in its heart. However, I have this issue with how it changes from the teams to the individuals. Personally, if the final challenge was just the last team standing, that might be a little more reasonable. Or commit to it completely and do a half point of top 5 where we get to see the abilities of the individual chef for a few rounds to make it more engaging. At this point, its like a sudden drop to finish the show in a set amount of episodes where they drop a few teams in one shot to force a top 2 which gets siphoned into the finale which just automatically has three chefs removed. That part of the structure needs some work to see what sort of transition works better. If its too little episodes for the amount of teams, then cut 2 teams or something to make it work out. Whatever it is, that needs some work to not feel like the change comes and leaves too abruptly.

Overall, its a good idea and things work for the most part. There probably will be more polish to this if it gains its popularity. I certainly wouldn’t mind seeing another season of The Final Table.

Ultimate Beastermaster: Survival of the Fittest (Season 3, 2018)

Ultimate Beastmaster: Survival of the Fittest
(Season 3, 2018)

Countries: USA, South Korea, Great Britain, France, Germany, Mexico, Brazil, Australia

Hosts:

USA: Tiki Barber, CM Punk
South Korea: Seo Kyung Suk, Park Kyeong Rim
Great Britain: Kate Abdo, Stu Bennett
France: Gilles Marini, Sandy Heribert
Germany: Micky Beisenherz, Jeannine Michaelsen
Mexico: Luis Ernesto Franco, Ines Sainz
Brazil: Rafinha Bastos, Anderson Silva
Australia: Dannii Minogue, Nick Cummins

Season 3 of The Ultimate Beastmaster is definitely a survival of the fittest. After last year, it seems they’ve spent those extra months to revamp the Beast. The show itself which felt more like the Ninja Warrior game show style is definitely feeling much more like a legitimate competition with a slight revamp in point system, modified obstacles and a new structure to the competition itself. There are more countries, less athletes, more possibilities to gain extra points based on speed and the show adds in a semifinals portion. For mega fans like myself who can’t help to binge the entire show over the weekend of the launch, its a lot to process whether all those changes made the show more competition or did it create an imbalance to the athletes in each round making it to the semifinals and then to the finals. However, I have to say, by the time I reached the finals, I was sold through and through on this new set-up for Ultimate Beastmaster.

Season 3 doesn’t show any signs of slowing down and that makes it so exciting because it gives this Netflix reality show not only an international twist but also has the perk of having the countries involved be hosted with their own languages. It is something I’ve appreciated from the first season and highlights some fantastic athletes. This season’s athletes are simply incredible. A lot of them that made it through really showed resilience, perseverance, motivation and even packed in some incredibly inspiring stories from different backgrounds. I might never train to conquer the Beast, it feels a little late but it did give me such an appreciation of the obstacles and respect for these fantastic athletes.

If you are like me, well, lets take a look at some of the changes more in depth and how I feel its improved Ultimate Beastmaster as a whole both from the entertainment value like the hosts and countries as well as the competition set-up itself. Note that there will be no spoilers. I won’t tell you who wins the season, who makes it to whichever part or mention particularly any athletes. The joy is letting their abilities and successes surprise you when you go watch it for yourself.

Contestants & Hosts

This year’s new addition is Australia and Great Britain for starters. They bring in their own rivalries along with some of the other countries also falling into their own competitions especially propelled by the hosts as they fight in their booths in past year. To be honest, the hosts themselves bring in some screen time and they are full of life. One of the features of Ultimate Beastmaster is that each country gets their show hosted by that country or the language the hosts are speaking. For me in Canada, well, we always get the US version of things which is not a bad thing. This year, Tiki Barber makes a return and CM Punk replaces last season’s co-host. I don’t know who he is but hearing Tiki Barber have the chance of calling him “Punk” all the line legitimately because its his name makes it kind of entertaining at times. There is a fair screen time for other hosts too.

In terms of contestants, this year’s is all about who they are. I like the fact that they decreased the amount of contestants making it one per country but adding 2 extra countries (I believe) to have 8 countries instead of 6 with 2 contestants to make it even more diverse and of course, the decreased amount lets us see more lengthy versions of their Beastmaster run in each level while also seeing more of their back story. In the previous seasons, it would favor over the country we were watching but in sportsmanship like manner, which makes this more of an actual competition, it gives the feeling of equal emphasis and that adds so much to the competition. Honestly, I have my more favorite contestants because we learn more about them and watch them through the levels so everyone gets to cheer for everyone or someone when we reach the semifinals or even the finals. It got me more involved. Sometimes the drama is a little heavy handed but I think in some cases, Ultimate Beastmaster also doubles as motivation that working out is a positive thing and inspiring as different outlets for different people in different country having different reasons that pushed to the sports and fitness that they choose to excel in.

Point System & Tournament Structure

In the past, from what I remember at least, the point system was accumulative over the 3 rounds and the lowest contestants like 2 or 4 or something would get eliminated. I did wonder on how I felt for the first few episodes when I saw that each round resets the points to zero and makes it structured around their successes in that round so that the contestants all get a clean slate for the next part and not have a head start on their points giving them an advantage to move on to the next round. At the same time, point thrusters are present as usual while they added something called mega point thrusters which count down and encourage the contestants to be faster to get there and maximize their points. Its good because while caution is important, the same amount of points is differentiated by their time in who comes out first. Mega thrusters also give the contestants a way to who is willing to make those risks to get ahead and sometimes, especially with one contestant this season, it cost them a lot.

What makes this more like a tournament is that every episode yields the top two to go into the semi-finals. And semi-finals are after each set of 3 episodes bringing in 6 contestants to do pretty much an endurance run of the entire obstacles as far as they can with on restart from a checkpoint. This is what makes it more like a tournament. The top few will go to the finals which now isn’t a race to the top but how far or how fast they can get to the top with any points as possible.

Obstacle Course

Finally, its impossible to not end this without talking about the obstacle courses. If you follow it like myself, you will see that some of the obstacles especially the particularly challenging ones are still around. It is nice to see that while this course is very favoring towards those with upper body strength, some of the courses are changed a little more to be a little easier but making some other parts also more challenging. Its these changes that give it a nice twist and refreshing to watch. Sometimes the little changes are all you need to round out the experience.

Overall, I’m a big fan of Ultimate Beastmaster. I love the new structure and the whole tournament style works really well. The new system and less countries and having more time to see the contestants and the obstacles in general all contribute to a better experience. Its an awesome change.  I’m hoping that it gets renewed again.

TV Binge: Queer Eye (Season 1, 2018)

Nailed it Season 2 (TV Binge HERE) gave me the push I needed to start up Queer Eye on Netflix. I never saw the original on TV so I’ve only ever heard of what it is and never really knew. However, the mini special episode on Nailed It was so fun that I knew that I had to check it out.

Queer Eye (Season 1, 2018)

Hosts: Bobby Berk, Karamo Brown, Jonathan Van Ness, Antoni Porowski, Tan France

A new Fab Five set out to Atlanta to help the city’s straight men refine their wardrobes, grooming, diet, cultural pursuits, and home décor. – IMDB

Queer Eye starts off with the opening segment with the Fab 5 talking about being a part of this team and what they say is exactly the perfect way to start it off with two key quotes:

“The original show was fighting for tolerance. Our fight is for acceptance.” – Tan

“My goal is to figure out how we’re similar as opposed to how different we are.” – Antoni

Queer Eye does a great job at delivering on their goals of acceptance and highlighting what makes LGBT similar. Other than when I was a child and found it odd, I’ve always been open-minded about the LGBT community so I don’t quite understand what the difference is other than the fact that they like a different gender. However, the show itself delivers more than that. For one, there’s the Fab 5. Second, we need to take a look at these makeover stories and how impactful and meaningful they are and finally, the message it wants to deliver as a whole and the overall enjoyment of the series.

Like I said before, I’ve never watched the original so I have no comparison (not that I think it needs to be compared). This Fab 5 is comprised of Antoni Porowski, Tan France, Bobby Berk, Karamo Brown and Jonathan Van Ness. As a group, they take care of food & wine, fashion, design, culture and grooming respectively. As a group, they blend so well together on screen from how they admire each other’s work and how to approach their game plan of the overall makeover. There are some great moments as a group throughout the season because they each have their expertise. With that said, each of the Fab 5’s expertise brings a lot to the table. They each know what they are doing and it really makes the viewers feel that the knowledge they bring is educating the public. They never go extreme and stuff anything down anyone’s throats but they feel so genuine to watch because of their dedication to the cause. I’ve watched and rewatched the show a lot of times and their reactions and expressions always bring me so much joy and whatever emotions. They are all so unique in their personality that it blends so well to make it an entertaining watch.

As we look at the makeover stories here, the first season was our introduction to what the Fab 5 wanted to achieve and determine what they were capable of. In that sense, the first episode set the tone perfectly with an older gentlemen who was open-minded but also fell into some misconceptions in how gay men were identified. For example when he asks who wears the pants in the relationship. However, be it the age difference or the lack of confidence of their first makeover person, it all works well to show what the Fab 5 is all about even if you’ve never seen the original. They educate not only in their own domains and its not only a physical transformation but also a mental transformation as they try to help build confidence or help them see a better version of themselves that someone will want to be. Be it this first episode called “You Can’t Fix Ugly” or the other episodes in the season, you can see the different backgrounds and the different perspectives as the Fab 5 remain open-minded and honest about the feelings and views as they also learn about the people they are dealing with to not only transform the person of the week but also take away from that experience. Its a really fantastic thing to see communication especially in the current state of the world and all the news we hear about the bad stuff going on. Season 1 followed along very strong in the candidates that were chosen in the following episodes. There were local heroes like a fireman trying to get ready to raise enough money for a fireman program, a man coming out to his family, other one dealing with opening up himself to the people in his life, a father of six trying to make it all happen in the everyday chaos then of course one of the best of the season, was the police officer. Its a lot of variety and that makes it fresh and new to watch as well as educational to see the different views people have on the different topics in the society. There’s a lot of heartstrings to be tugged here and a few times, I was looking for my box of Kleenex (and I mean, in some cases, every rewatch gets me all over again).

Suffice to say that I’m a huge fan of the show. Queer Eye delivers on so many levels. The show itself and the Fab 5 have a great personality that works so well in the realm of what they are doing. In many ways, a lot of what they are saying and teaching is relatable because its not just a physical transformation. At the same time, it works well to showcase the initial statement of how its about acceptance of everyone no matter the differences but rather to see the similarities that everyone has. I think the message is a great one and because of these heartfelt stories and the makeover, its entertaining and educational and that makes for some great positive reality TV and something I totally recommend for everyone.

TV Binge: The Big Family Cooking Showdown (Season 1, 2017)

I love watching cooking shows. However, I don’t have actual TV so the only chance is when I visit someone else’s house and it happens to be playing. It does make it a very incomplete experience. Of course, there is the free streaming from one of the national TV channels which holds the episode for a week which is hard to remember sometimes to catch it every once in a while. When The Big Family Cooking Showdown appeared on Netflix, I went right ahead and started watching it. The premise behind it is pretty fun.

Let’s check it out!

The Big Family Cooking Showdown (Season 1, 2017)

Hosts: Zoe Ball & Nadiya Hussain

Judges: Rosemary Shrager & Giorgio Locatelli

Competitive food show celebrating the families who make ordinary food extraordinary, presented by Zoe Ball and Nadiya Hussain. – IMDB

The Big Family Cooking Showdown has a decent setup. It shows off families going head to head against each other for the title of the best family chefs. They pick their own teams of three to work together and create these dishes. In the first few episodes, it is two teams and whoever wins will head into the semi-finals. They have three rounds for this cooking event which isn’t live and loses the cooking on the spot as the rounds to get them into the semi-final has been given to them in advance so that they can prepare carefully. It leaves a touch of spontaneity there even if we don’t know what they are doing. Suffice to say, it does show the viewers which team has better time management than others and how they deal in stress as things usually don’t work out the way they would in your own kitchen. The first part when two teams go against each other is in three parts with three challenges: the 10 pound challenge, Home Visits Challenge and Impress Your Neighbors Challenge. The semi-finals have the remaining teams groups in 3 teams against each other for three rounds also:  What’s in the Fridge, Perfect Puddings and Nation’s Favorite With a Twist. And then the final features a continuous making of a three course meal.

The setup of the competition is pretty nice. The families are slightly diverse with their cultures and heritage adding a nice touch to each of these plates. The teams work out really well against each other. The first part has a nice bit of giving them time to prepare in advance and it really is up to them to have structured a plan with the time constraints and factoring in any stress or changes. At the same time, it also poses that question of losing that spontaneity that teams put on the spot would have. However, the challenges in the first rounds are pretty neat as they focus on family issues starting off with how much food can you make with a constrained budget. The Home Visit gives us a nice snippet of seeing the family in their own environment which helps minimize the accidents that could happen while the final round is impress your neighbors so its making the foods that go above and beyond but dishes that they are proud of in a three course meal. The structure here works because of these themes being more family-oriented. The spontaneity factor is fixed in the semi-final when their first and second challenge are unknown. The first tests their ability to be flexible with what is available to them and the second being how good they can work together and follow instructions while delegating the tasks that each member is better at. While the show does have a lot of pre-preparation, the segments do feel very well-done to make sure that it highlights the team and gives them time to improve on their menus and skills.

The hosts of the show are Zoe Ball and Nadiya Hussain. They are quite enthusiastic and often joke about their love for eating but their lack of knowledge on actual cooking which brings out their friendliness to be there. Where they lack the knowledge, they can build with their balance to the show’s charisma as they communicate with the families and introduce the rules of each part. The judges for this show are Giorgio Locatelli and Rosemary Schrager, who I’ve never heard of before. However, they obviously do have their knowledge of food and cooking which is undeniable. One thing that does fall apart is their criticism is slightly lacking in some parts where it becomes a little repetitive in the way they compliment or dislike certain foods. It is here that the show nearing the end seems to fall a little flat.

Overall, The Big Family Cooking Showdown is pretty enjoyable because the families’ diversity in their cooking and dishes mixed into their creativity. The hosts are very enjoyable to watch although the judges are qualified but lack the charisma in their criticism to make it seem more engaging.