I recently shared an update about the new launch of two Korean-style mind game shows- The Devil’s Plan season 2 and The Genius UK. The Devil’s Plan recently wrapped up, and The Genius is nearing its finale, so let me answer the big question for you- how are they?
The Devil’s Plan
The Devil’s Plan season 2 made some monumental changes compared to season 1. The two biggest changes – more secrets to the game facility, and a new dynamic with the upper half of players and lower half of players (by in-game currency count) dividing into a living area and prison area, with the prison team battling it out every episode to stay in the game.
The new secrets were delightful. Each living area had its own elaborate mystery with a high risk, high reward challenge waiting for the boldest players. Neither challenge lived up to the intensity of the biggest secret from season 1, but season 2 made up for it with volume, giving us plenty of great cliffhangers to hook us episode to episode.
The prison setup was a mixed bag this season. Playing games head to head to determine who would go home each episode was a step up compared to season 1’s almost incidental approach at player elimination. Having half the players in prison gave prison players a LOT more to do socially, rather than essentially sitting out of the game. But the arrangement wasn’t perfect- once a player fell to the prison, it was maybe too hard to change fortunes and go back to the living space, starting out with less sleep, less food, and less in-game currency.
The finale felt a little disappointing compared to season 1. The winner was deserving of winning the season overall, but the runner up played better in the finale and lost only due to a few horrible mental lapses at the exact wrong times. It happens, but it’s not as exciting as watching two titans collide at full strength.
All in all, I felt the changes from season 1 to season 2 were positive and the cast was strong. It was also fun to see a lot of English spoken on a Korean game show, as players spoke English to accommodate an American actor who joined the cast.
The Genius UK
Six episodes down, and the show is getting better and better. The show really seems to have found its footing, and I hope this is enough to get it picked up for a season 2.
The early episodes had some frustrating missteps. Some of these are normal growing pains for a new show- a few of the early games were almost entirely circumvented by alternative strategies that discouraged proactive gameplay and made for worse TV.
The early missteps culminated at the end of episode four with the most frustrating elimination I’ve seen in any competition show, capped off by a misguided use of Moby’s Extreme Ways. The Korean version of the show uses this song to underscore something unexpected or a great play. Here, it was bafflingly used in a situation where the elimination match players had zero agency in the game’s outcome.
Episodes five and six turned things around. Players made proactive strategies and brought their best game theory to the table. Some strategies worked, some didn’t, and some players were luckier than others – it was a great cocktail of the kinds of outcomes you can expect to see in competitive mind games.
The next episode will pare down the players from five players to two, which will likely bring some intense drama to the table. I can’t wait.
Overall, it’s a great time to be an enthusiast for elaborate mental competition shows. There’s a lot to love about the current output from Korea as well as the broader global expansion for this type of game. I hope the spark catches and we continue to see more and more content like this moving forward.
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