This review may contain spoilers
Entertaining watch, but dropped in quality compared to the first season
I became enthralled with Physical 100 ever since I watched it the first time and I even introduced my boyfriend to it lol.I was really looking forward to the second season, but I must admit I was left disappointed.
Why?
1. Episodes became longer but with fillers of "ooh" and "aah" every thirty seconds.
2. The game were unimaginative. Some were rehashed from season 1, while others mostly focused on two things - sand and bags. And carrying them. While the maze and the minecart were "different" quests - they felt the same. Both had the same general idea. The final game consisted of three games - one of which was a consolation quest for losers in game one and the second one was - yep, you guessed it - related to bags and coal this time. Episode 8 was particularly hard to get through - watching them carry a metal cask full of sand for one hour and knowing who will lose before they even step foot on the game field wasn't really what I expected if you compare it to Season 1 and the mythological games they did, which were far more imaginative and allowed players to prove prowess in their respective fields.
3. Women will never, in any way, shape or form, have a chance in this format. While I understand they knew that when they applied, it's still not very pleasant to watch men treat champions and Olympic medalists as burdens and avoid them for group quests.
4. In the first season, we got a glimpse of contestants between quests. While they were lounging, we heard their talks, they did small contests, bonded. This time around, that was cut and the "reality" part of this reality TV show was really forced.
I expected more from a show that garnered so much hype (and funds). It was an entertaining watch, but left much to be desired.
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Why I (Probably) Won't Watch Season 3
I was very disappointed with this season - The same issues from season 1 are in this one, possibly even worse than before.Physical 100 claims to go beyond race, age, and gender. But there’s little to no chance a woman can win.
Why? Because the producers only recruit a handful of women for the show compared to the outstanding majority being men. Also, almost all challenges are exclusively reliant on upper body strength, or at least heavily favor it.
This also makes winning impossible for anyone who doesn't have most of their strength in their upper body, regardless of gender. Only a few types of athletes and physical professionals have a shot at victory. It makes the show not only biased but also just plain boring and predictable.
Another major flaw is that the winner is heavily determined by luck - Even one of the participants admitted it in the final episode! The contestants’ fates of moving on to the next round rely on the order of challenges. Many challenges aren't even determined by sheer strength but by your team. A strong person is easily eliminated from things out of their control: leader strategy, who chooses them for their team, opponents stealing, etc.
Finally, revisiting the "beyond race" statement - I get that Physical 100 (so far) is mainly for Korean physical professionals, but claiming that this is a show that goes beyond race is laughable. This season had 3 out of 100 people who aren't full Korean. I just wish they wouldn't lie.
A lot of the show's issues could be solved with JUST THIS: relevant body strength. It's much more impressive to see a petite gal upholding 40% of her body weight instead of a muscular guy picking up a bit more than another muscular guy. Instead of giving the same-weighted object for every person to push, make it weigh proportional to their body mass. This would show participants' true strength. Team challenges would also make more sense as just bonus rounds for rewards or slight advantages.
The final aspect to fix would be no immediate eliminations. I think it'd be much more engaging to have challenges setup as a sort of leaderboard to see individual rankings for each challenge and overall. This would solve the whole "luck" problem.
This was a long rant, but to wrap things up, it seems like Physical 100 may have versions for other countries in the future. I'm hoping that they make major improvements for any and all new seasons. If that does happen, I'll definitely watch them; this show's concept is really interesting compared to exaggerated or scripted types of physical challenge shows.
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Buffed body's, strength, sweat!
Just loved it! Strength, sweat, and great body's. In my opinion it's about how far you're willing to go; are you able to go on when your body is on the verge of giving up. Will you mindset make you give up or does it help you to go on. is it a challenge against others or are you going up against yourself?If you just want to watch the raw strength of the participants, season 2 will give you that more, as season one will give more insight on the participants as well as the tasks they are given.
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This season also had a lot more faces that I remember after watching in comparison to season 1. This is due to the fleshing out a bit more of some cast as well as more attractive cast members than that of season 1. The nicknames given to the cast as well made it easier to recall who is who in the beginning stages of the season.
I enjoyed the competitions and the winner was deserved however not the best athlete in my personal opinion. This show is addicting to watch over and over again due to it's nature in being motivating and adrenaline boosting. The only flaws I can really afford this series is that I wish it was longer so the viewer could fully see each characters matches and choose their favorite right from the start however due to the attention span of the youth nowadays, it is easy to assume why the series had to be as short as it is.
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Less good than season 1, felt a bit monotonous at some point
I found this season 2 of the Physical 100 show that put in competition 100 candidates in top physical shapes less exciting than its 1 season. It might be linked to the fact that the novelty effect from the first season is not there anymore and there are some aspects relating to the mechanics of the show that are repetitive. Some of the challenges get monotonous and lack variety.The production value though is very good: the set up of the challenge, the industrial set in which the contestants are evolving led to a lot of impactful images. The way the camera film the physical exploits is also very good. I wish we get to know better the participants in between the challenges. It felt lacking in terms of interactions. Other than a few famous faces from the South Korean grand public that the production seemed to advantage in terms of screen time, there are very few participants that made a lasting impression on me.
I would recommend this to people that enjoyed the first season. It is less good in my opinion and I hope they will improve for season 3 on the elements that were a bit lacking.
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Stop the inclusivity
This series is about the strongest 100. Not the inclusive 100. Just like season 1 we have a variety of males and females. And just as usual the females are way weaker and less agile than the males. If you want to win the show its best to only pick males in team games, which everyone should do in team games. The teams that had a few females in them just got obliterated. The games where females have to go solo against males they get obliterated. Its boring and predictable. It doesnt matter what activity there is. They will lose easily. Do not add female contestors to such shows. Thank you.Was this review helpful to you?
