Currently watching: The Genius

I saw this show mentioned in the comments section on a Seoulbeats article. Someone compared it to Liar Game and I, delighted that someone had made a real-life (I say “real-life,” I mean “unscripted”) version of that drama, searched around until I'd found somewhere to download it.

In this show, thirteen contestants play a different game each week and are slowly whittled away one by one. Each game is structured to allow for plenty of secrets and surprises as alliances are formed and broken. Stylistically, it stays close to the Liar Game formula of a mysterious masked man in charge, and some techno music underlining the tenser moments, but otherwise it's generally easier on the eye.

Currently, it's showing the second series, which is where I started. This turned out to be a mistake since it began by introducing the players and, since it was the second series, there were some returning players. This immediately gave away the end of series one, which is a shame because I enjoyed this episode so much that I decided to watch the first series.

I spent most of Thursday and Friday just watching one after another, getting caught up in all the gossip and back-stabbing. People build up trust or become suspicious, and there was even the hint of a love-line for a few episodes, before the game cruelly separated them. It's like a soap opera based on game theory.