They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but when it comes to the Squid Game-inspired Beast Games, it seems Jimmy "MrBeast" Donaldson is no Hwang Dong-hyuk. MrBeast might own the most-subscribed channel on YouTube and be popular among many, but for Beast Games, maybe he should've kept the idea to his channel. We've already seen Donaldson pull off his own take on Squid Game with his November 2021 "$456,000 Squid Game in Real Life!" video, but with it being his most popular video and boasting 686 million views, he couldn't help but take the idea further.
Despite Vice criticizing the original video and saying that MrBeast "badly misunderstood the anti-capitalist message of Squid Game," it's been spun out into a full 10-episode series for Amazon Prime Video.
Beast Games was hit with controversy before its first episode even aired, with anger that Donaldson and Amazon dropped a cool $14,000,000 to build a whole city, leaked documents showing off the conditions participants were supposedly subjected to, and five plaintiffs even filing a suit against Amazon and MrBeast's production company. If that wasn't enough to contend with, it's been dogged with negative press and reviews since its December 19 release - reflected in a pretty abysmal Rotten Tomatoes score.
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We know the idea of review aggregator sites like RT can't be taken as gospel, but they tend to stand as a pretty reliable overview of what the masses are thinking. At the time of writing, Beast Games' critic score is a paltry 17%. This is in wild comparison to its audience score sitting at 72%, which is about as big a divide as you can get.
The Guardian referred to it as "one of the most undignified spectacles ever shown on TV," while IGN said, "MrBeast may be big on YouTube, but his Prime Video show Beast Games is a bust."
It's not just journalists slamming the reality series, and although its audience RT score might be pretty high, many on X are less impressed.
One uncomfortable viewer wrote: "I just watched Beast Games episode 1 & I literally feel sick to my stomach.
“There is something so evil about packaging this sadistic working class torture porn as entertainment."
Another raged: "Beast Games may be the creepiest reality show ever made, where financially desperate contestants experience mental breakdowns when their dreams of riches are dashed.
“Squid Game was a dystopian nightmare, and MrBeast seems genuinely shocked when he straight out recreated it."
A third concluded: "I turned on Beast Games b/c I hate myself and JESUS is there any better encapsulation of human misery in America? it's just 42 minutes of psychological torture administered by five smirking white dudes in hoodie suits who are basically using poor people as their action figures."
Still, there are its fans, as someone else chimed in: "Living in a weird world where Mr.Beast games is actually more entertaining than the actual S2 of Squid Game."
Another cheered: "Beast Games is OFFICIALLY the best game show in existence."
With Beast Games having the largest-ever TV cash prize of $5,000,000 and a production budget reported to be around $100,000,000, MrBeast has been splashing the cash. No matter what you think of Beast Games, he could be recouping some serious dollars as it’s proved popular enough to become Amazon Prime's most-watched show in over 50 countries.