We Never Stop (2023)

More people should watch this ! especially Physical 100 fans

This is the first time I'm writing a review and I never thought it's be for a Chinese variety show !

I watched Physical 100 last week and needed something as thrilling to watch after it. Luckily, I stumbled upon "We Never Stop" and I have to say that in my opinion this show executed the concept way better than its Korean counterpart. It just feels more polished and complete. I was shocked to find an empty MDL page after watching it. You should definitely consider checking it out it's 100% worth it !! I really couldn't get enough of it. (It's available for free on YouTube and IQIYI but I recommend watching it on IQIYI, the episodes are all in order but some don't have the numbers so it can be confusing but you just need to skip the BTS videos inbetween each episode.)

The concept is the same : 100 contestants go through extreme challenges with both individual and team games until there's only 1 left. It feels a bit more variety show-ey as there are MC hosts and referees while Physical 100 has that survival game vibe. There are still a lot of intense moments and it gets better with each episode. I was on the edge of my chair during the finale it was so suspenseful.

What I especially love about We Never Stop is that they showed every contestant's personality and motivations really well. I was fully invested in them and found myself rooting for several of them at some point, even the weaker ones because they were really outdoing themselves in every game. Whether it's outside or during the games, we see all of them having bonding moments/hilarious banters (I laughed out loud many times watching this lol). Following along their journey as teammates and then ultimately as opponents, you can feel genuine friendships and sportmanship. There were contestants of all sorts of backgrounds : athletes, martial artists, UFC fighters, bodybuilders, influencers, actors, crossfitters, military, firefighters... and the women were really strong I felt admirative of them.

The game arenas were massive, and I LOVED the team games because they involved lots of tactics and strategy which is fair to everyone as the teams could win with a better strategy. Even some individual games required some smart-thinking. You can definitely sense the inspiration from Physical 100 but they're still very different and overall I feel like We Never Stop did better in ensuring the players safety and designing games that are more fair. There were often multiple game choices involving different strengths such as agility, core strength, speed, endurance... so that they could pick what they thought they'd be better at.

There are still some things that I think could be improved and that I found unfair (the revival system & the 2nd time they formed teams as well as making some rules clearer) but I give it a solid 9/10 ! Hopefully more people will watch it 💪

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