Beast Games, Worth the Watch?

By Noah Stein

“Beast Games” is Mr Beast’s new hit game show currently on Prime, where 1,000 people compete for 5 million dollars, and other prizes such as a Lamborghini, and a private island. Episodes drop once a week, and the season is currently nearing its end. Each episode feels very unique, and incredibly unpredictable.

My favorite part of the show was the editing. There was never a part of the show that didn’t keep me interested and engaged. It’s extremely impressive that they took thousands of hours of footage, and made it into a story.  The twists are incredible. Every shot looks amazing, and you can feel the passion from everyone. There is constantly a lot going on. One thing I really like about the rollout of the show is that the episodes come out once a week. It adds a level of suspense to the show, and causes the audience to come back each episode. 

My critique is that with 500 contestants being eliminated in just the first episode, it’s challenging to be connected to the characters, and with so many people getting eliminated, the ones you do like tend to get out quickly. I think they should have shown us the people who made it to the end more, and fleshing out more people. Some parts are great and there is a lot of suspense and it feels extremely real, but a lot of the time you don’t really care about the people getting out. Sometimes bigger doesn’t mean better.

I didn’t begin to connect to the characters until the seventh episode. It is difficult to root for someone when you know that they are likely going to lose. My favorite episodes are the island ones because there are significantly less contestants. 

Overall, Mr Beast does an excellent job in making something entertaining, but sometimes for reality shows like this, just throwing money at people like his youtube videos just doesn’t cut it. Every episode is similar, and although it does feel grand, it doesn’t fulfill the main point of reality television; the people themselves. For a Mr Beast video it’s about the prize, but in reality, TV isn’t. It’s about how the contestants interact with each other, and you just don’t get it here. However, it’s a good show, and definitely worth a try.