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[Tregard]

The Genius (Or "Genius Game", depending on who you talk to) is a South Korean TV show which is based off of the "Liar Game" series of Manga. It is by far the smartest reality show ever, followed only by "The Mole".

Each show consists of 2 rounds: A Main Match, and a Death Match. The Main Match consists of the players working together to try and outwit the other contestants to avoid becoming a "death match candidate", with the winners gaining immunity. The death match candidate then chooses somebody to face in the death match, with the loser being eliminated from the competition.

Main Matches range very broadly, with previous matches including:

- A Horse Race in which the outcome is pre-determined, with each player knowing pieces of information about the outcome
- A Zombie Game in which certain players attempt to infect everyone else
- A game in which 2 teams of 3 each have to place coloured pebbles into a jar in secret. The winner is the person who put the least pebbles into the jar with the most pebbles.

The Death Matches are similarly varied, with games such as Indian Poker (High card, but you only see your opponents card), attempting to memorise a grid of 20 pictures, and Laser Chess.

The show is subtitled by a wonderful wonderful person called Bumbdidlyumptious, who has subtitled every episode flawlessly and continues to do so. The show is currently on Season 3, "The Genius: Black Garnet", but I do suggest you watch the first 2 seasons beforehand, as they are fantastic.

The very first episode can be found here, it shows off the cleverness of the show well I think. The main game is essentially about trying to win points by playing high-card against all the other contestants, but the game goes a lot deeper than it seems!

The Genius seems like the sort of thing that would appeal to a lot of people who enjoy games as it's very "game-ified", every aspect is about trying to break the game rules and bend them to work to your favour. Plus there are some Starcraft players in it.

Fighting!

 

[Peru]

Just started watching this. Clever stuff. Focusing simply on the game and not some reality show setting makes the thing more intense, everyone in open scheming mode all the time.

 

[Cirruss]

I love the Liar Game manga, I'm definitely going to watch this.

 

[Xanathus]

Is this really a reality show? All of the contestants look like actors.
edit: oh they're all celebrities... yeah this is so set up

 

[mclem]

Huge fan of this. Although I don't think it ever quite hits the highs of the first series.

Is this really a reality show? All of the contestants look like actors.
edit: oh they're all celebrities... yeah this is so set up

Fairly sure it's not. There was an incident in the third series where a game had a trick to it that no-one spotted, and the edit was true to that - we only found out about the trick in a little behind-the-scenes clip released after the event. Had it been scripted, that would in some way have been used in the show, I would imagine.

 

[Cirruss]

Just finished watching the first episode of season 1, I thought it was really well done.

My only minor gripe with it was that it didn't show Minheo and Jinho's (can't remember their names exactly) last card play immediately instead choosing to show it in a flashback instead, which seemed like drama for drama's sake since all the other members were there to see it anyway, it felt weird having the audience be excluded. It doesn't really matter though since you find out what happened immediately anyway and I guess if it wouldn't have been quite as jarring if it were live with a commercial break in between.

Other than that minor gripe, I loved how well edited the rest of it was and how it managed to keep the storyline focused instead of a jumbled mess with so many people.

 

[miodloe3]

I love this show.

The editing is really well done and it's so damn stylish. The way they match every event to the awesome soundtrack makes for a lot of memorable moments (especially that one series defining moment in season 1). I also really love the theme song.

A lot of the cast in all three seasons have been really likable and there are always a few outstanding ones that manage to completely break the games in entertaining ways. I think that the fact the contestants aren't holed up together for days at a time helps to get rid of a lot of the artificial drama that's in most reality shows and keeps the alliances fluid and interesting. People could be enemies one week and work together the next. There's barely any bitterness.

The games aren't always great and a few of them make it very obvious that the show isn't scripted due to the way they fail so spectacularly (most of them are great though and they keep improving), but the highs in this show are plentiful and absolutely fantastic. It's also cool how each season has had a different overarching storyline and there's always plenty of comedy despite the competitive nature of the show.

 

[miodloe3]

Season 4 has been disgustingly good so far.

Spoiler

Go Titty God.

 

[Swamped]

I adore Liar Game and I love Korean reality TV...so how come I'm not watching this?!?! Sounds amazing, hope it's on Dramafever.

 

[EdibleKnife]

Thanks for this! I'll jump on it

 

[RepairmanJack]

Odd bump, but I just became aware of this mostly because of Rob Has a Podcast(that covers reality shows/Survivor) and I'm currently binge watching the first season.

This show is pretty amazing. I have oddly gotten attached to a couple of the cast members, which is weird with so little of the show involving anything other than the game and the fact that I usually like these types of shows for the gameplay and never really for the people.

It was a great thing to stumble upon during a time where I've skipped out on Big Brother.

 

[Mister Zimbu]

Odd bump, but I just became aware of this mostly because of Rob Has a Podcast(that covers reality shows/Survivor) and I'm currently binge watching the first season.

This show is pretty amazing. I have oddly gotten attached to a couple of the cast members, which is weird with so little of the show involving anything other than the game and the fact that I usually like these types of shows for the gameplay and never really for the people.

It was a great thing to stumble upon during a time where I've skipped out on Big Brother.

Stumbled on a thread on SA about the show a couple years back, been hooked ever since.

Glad to hear it's getting more attention outside Korea. It really is one of the- if not the absolute best- game shows ever.

If you're a fan of Survivor, Big Brother, etc., you need to watch this show. There's more strategy, scheming, backstabbing, and general insanity in a single episode of The Genius than entire seasons of the other shows.

 

[Darkkn]

Yeah, this is god-tier game show. Every season has been worth watching and the ongoing(last?) season is very good so far. Imaginative games, players forming groups and backstabbing each other, players figuring out and exploiting rules of the game to their benefit. So good.

 

[Tregard]

The Season 4 finale was translated today, great end to a great series, it was good seeing new games played as it meant the contestants weren't able to practice a great deal.

I'm really hoping they are not ending the show, I feel like season 4 being the "Grand Final" simply meant the next season will have all new players and no returning ones.

 

[RepairmanJack]

Stumbled on a thread on SA about the show a couple years back, been hooked ever since.

Glad to hear it's getting more attention outside Korea. It really is one of the- if not the absolute best- game shows ever.

If you're a fan of Survivor, Big Brother, etc., you need to watch this show. There's more strategy, scheming, backstabbing, and general insanity in a single episode of The Genius than entire seasons of the other shows.

The only issue is that sometimes people are too honor bound or something along those lines it seems. Like with Gura in season one. He was a clear standout to head towards him and I was confused why no one took him to the elimination game, then later I find out is was more of a respect/honor/celebrity aspect than strategic. Stuff like that is kind of a bummer but I guess it also adds another layer to the game.

I also feel like the whole going home for two weeks in between matches has some effect from week to week. It seems like people will be targeted seemingly random from episode to episode.

 

[MisterFalcon]

The only issue is that sometimes people are too honor bound or something along those lines it seems. Like with Gura in season one. He was a clear standout to head towards him and I was confused why no one took him to the elimination game, then later I find out is was more of a respect/honor/celebrity aspect than strategic. Stuff like that is kind of a bummer but I guess it also adds another layer to the game.

In season 1 Sunggyu the teen pop idol did some brilliant Machiavellian betrayals which won him a few rounds but gave him the nickname 'Icon of Betrayal' on social media which was somewhat bad for his career. I do think they have changed the selection of players to be closer together in age and status, after season 1 I only can remember Junghyun the former Congressman who was milking his image of a doddering old man out of his depth.

"Don't choose me for the deathmatch, my kids will see it !"
Of course he's way smarter then he acts and goes on to the top 3.

One thing that was dissapointing was how the female guests were mostly passive in the social game while the charismatic entertainers like Sangmin or Dongmin were making everything happen. It's a Korean culture thing I guess, except for Kyungran everyone was merely choosing who to follow. And of course Dealer Lady who is the real star of the show.

 

[Akahige]

Does sound interesting, I'll check it out.

 

[arumisan]

I remember watching the first season with my sister -

Spoiler

on that note, she's currently watching the final ep of the recent season right now

. It is indeed quite interesting and reminded me of Liar Game when I was watching it. In fact I wouldn't mind playing a game (visual novel???) like that.

 

[ashmountains]

Great show. I've only seen the first season so far, but it's one of the most interesting reality tv shows I've ever watched (and probably one of the least scripted as well).

 

[Raide]

Started watching the first episode. Pretty good stuff. Don't really know who these people are but I already find myself rooting for a few.

 

[Grizzlyjin]

I might have to check this out, I love the Liar Game manga.

 

[RepairmanJack]

In season 1 Sunggyu the teen pop idol did some brilliant Machiavellian betrayals which won him a few rounds but gave him the nickname 'Icon of Betrayal' on social media which was somewhat bad for his career. I do think they have changed the selection of players to be closer together in age and status, after season 1 I only can remember Junghyun the former Congressman who was milking his image of a doddering old man out of his depth.

"Don't choose me for the deathmatch, my kids will see it !"
Of course he's way smarter then he acts and goes on to the top 3.

One thing that was dissapointing was how the female guests were mostly passive in the social game while the charismatic entertainers like Sangmin or Dongmin were making everything happen. It's a Korean culture thing I guess, except for Kyungran everyone was merely choosing who to follow. And of course Dealer Lady who is the real star of the show.

Which is kind of funny that Kyungran and Sungyu end up being my favorites of the whole cast. I'm hoping them two, Sangmin and Junhi are the final 4. I'm at final 6 right now and Yornam and Eunji just don't belong on the same level as the rest.

 

[Tregard]

Started watching the first episode. Pretty good stuff. Don't really know who these people are but I already find myself rooting for a few.

It's odd, coming for a perspective where I no nothing about the culture (to the point I can't even tell you who is a celebrity and who is an applicant), I do find myself developing favourites quite quickly, Sangmin is one of my favourite gameshow contestants of all time.

 

[RepairmanJack]

The final 3 had a pretty amazing main match and death match. Hope the rest of the games end up being this good.

Spoiler

Kyungran

got absolutely robbed by two of the questions. Sure one of them wasn't specific enough, technically, but come on. The birth date one seems like a cultural thing, otherwise it was downright stupid.

 

[Earthstrike]

This is amazing. Enjoying this a lot. If only north american tv could have gameshows with deep psychology like this.

 

[miodloe3]

The final 3 had a pretty amazing main match and death match. Hope the rest of the games end up being this good.

Spoiler

Kyungran

got absolutely robbed by two of the questions. Sure one of them wasn't specific enough, technically, but come on. The birth date one seems like a cultural thing, otherwise it was downright stupid.

You're in for a treat. The games generally get better with each season especially the death matches.

 

[Tregard]

This is amazing. Enjoying this a lot. If only north american tv could have gameshows with deep psychology like this.

I think someone bought the right to sell the format in the US? They definitely have in the UK, which excites me.

Just hope if it ever does make it to an English speaking country, they don't mess it up too much :/

 

[RepairmanJack]

I think I have a crush on Kyungran...

Damn Jinho! Kyungran was just way too timid in that Hap game. She just never wanted to say Gyul which ended up screwing her. I think Jinho would have won the third game anyways, he seemed to be pretty adept at memorization earlier in the season.

 

[Tregard]

I think I have a crush on Kyungran...

Damn Jinho! Kyungran was just way too timid in that Hap game. She just never wanted to say Gyul which ended up screwing her. I think Jinho would have won the third game anyways, he seemed to be pretty adept at memorization earlier in the season.

Kyungrans real weakness is how timid she is, it was almost as if she didn't feel like she deserved to be in the final! Fantastic player, but Jinho is too good.

 

[RepairmanJack]

Kyungrans real weakness is how timid she is, it was almost as if she didn't feel like she deserved to be in the final! Fantastic player, but Jinho is too good.

I felt like she was easily the least timid of the girls up until this point, but I agree I don't think she thought she should have been there. She almost seemed sad to not see Singman and Jinho facing off in the final.

Knowing season 4 is an all stars I'm really hoping to see Minsoo, Gura, Kyungran, Singman, Suggyu, and maybe Eunji back. I'd say Jinho too, but I don't know if I'd want to see a winner back in this type of game or not. I'll have to wait until I see another season or two.

 

[Tregard]

I felt like she was easily the least timid of the girls up until this point, but I agree I don't think she thought she should have been there. She almost seemed sad to not see Singman and Jinho facing off in the final.

Knowing season 4 is an all stars I'm really hoping to see Minsoo, Gura, Kyungran, Singman, Suggyu, and maybe Eunji back. I'd say Jinho too, but I don't know if I'd want to see a winner back in this type of game or not. I'll have to wait until I see another season or two.

I would suggest you get watching Season 2 quickly

They seem very lax about returning players

 

[Cerity]

I've spent the last week watching s1 and some of s2 thanks to this thread and the show being mentioned in a few other places now.

S1 was good, I honestly thought the finals would be between

Spoiler

Sungyu and Jinho

. Both showed the best game sense but I guess one of the good things about The Genius is that it isn't purely based on game sense, there's that huge element of alliances, trust and luck.

Which leads me to S2, I don't really like the atmosphere of it,

Spoiler

Sangmin

managed to make

Spoiler

Jinho

out as the biggest threat while smoothing himself over. It leads to a few episodes of the majority trying to take/exclude

Spoiler

Jinho

and allies he'd made out. A lot of the betrayals in it have left a bitter taste too,

Spoiler

Eunkyul

was fair - he'd come into that round with intentions to take a specific player out and was taken out because of it. But

Spoiler

Jiwon

siding with

Spoiler

Yooyoung

after

Spoiler

Dohee

putting his trust in him like that was pretty sad, he should have told him straight like the other older guys did in the past. Currently I think

Spoiler

Jyunhung & Jiwon

should have been eliminated in the early rounds.

Spoiler

Jiwon

is pretty similar to

Spoiler

Sangmin

with how he plays but with none of the panache.

Spoiler

Sangmin

actually has some game sense to boot, he knows what information he needs to keep close and when to fool people. People just seem to trust

Spoiler

Jiwon

out of respect or something. It's pretty clear that

Spoiler

Sangmin

is going to win with his massive lead he's managed to build alongside the token of immunity. Hongchul is a riot at least, his mood setting and variability really adds a lot to the show.

 

[Zalasta]

Thanks for suggesting this, my only problem with season 1 at the moment is the game choice for death match. I feel that the other people should not get to influence who gets eliminated so that it's a true 1 vs 1 match. It is kind of a let down since the main match games are so well crafted, the death match paled in comparison. I hope this will change in the later seasons.

 

[MisterFalcon]

Thanks for suggesting this, my only problem with season 1 at the moment is the game choice for death match. I feel that the other people should not get to influence who gets eliminated so that it's a true 1 vs 1 match. It is kind of a let down since the main match games are so well crafted, the death match paled in comparison. I hope this will change in the later seasons.

Some of the season 1 deathmatches are outright votes of who to drop by the rest of the players, this gets fixed in the later seasons to where 9 out of 10 deathmatches are pure 1v1 games.
Too many are still decided by luck though.

 

[Tregard]

I've spent the last week watching s1 and some of s2 thanks to this thread and the show being mentioned in a few other places now.

S1 was good, I honestly thought the finals would be between

Spoiler

Sungyu and Jinho

. Both showed the best game sense but I guess one of the good things about The Genius is that it isn't purely based on game sense, there's that huge element of alliances, trust and luck.

Which leads me to S2, I don't really like the atmosphere of it,

Spoiler

Sangmin

managed to make

Spoiler

Jinho

out as the biggest threat while smoothing himself over. It leads to a few episodes of the majority trying to take/exclude

Spoiler

Jinho

and allies he'd made out. A lot of the betrayals in it have left a bitter taste too,

Spoiler

Eunkyul

was fair - he'd come into that round with intentions to take a specific player out and was taken out because of it. But

Spoiler

Jiwon

siding with

Spoiler

Yooyoung

after

Spoiler

Dohee

putting his trust in him like that was pretty sad, he should have told him straight like the other older guys did in the past. Currently I think

Spoiler

Jyunhung & Jiwon

should have been eliminated in the early rounds.

Spoiler

Jiwon

is pretty similar to

Spoiler

Sangmin

with how he plays but with none of the panache.

Spoiler

Sangmin

actually has some game sense to boot, he knows what information he needs to keep close and when to fool people. People just seem to trust

Spoiler

Jiwon

out of respect or something. It's pretty clear that

Spoiler

Sangmin

is going to win with his massive lead he's managed to build alongside the token of immunity. Hongchul is a riot at least, his mood setting and variability really adds a lot to the show.

Season 2 is a bit of an outlier, honestly. It has a lot of games which are more easily broken than the other series, and often are. I think it probably helps that I really love some of the season 2 cast (most notably Sangmin and Hongchul).

 

[Zalasta]

Some of the season 1 deathmatches are outright votes of who to drop by the rest of the players, this gets fixed in the later seasons to where 9 out of 10 deathmatches are pure 1v1 games.
Too many are still decided by luck though.

That's good to know. Another flaw of the death match game is that some uses garnets. Even though in most instances other people contribute to make it even between the two players, but the game itself should be on a leveled playing field where the show provides no advantage for one over the other. With this guarantee, people can target those with higher garnet total rather than risking a penalty for having less.

Anyway, in these type of situation they should always be aware of the rich get richer effect and allow catch up mechanism in garnets. Luckily this hasn't been much of a problem so far.

 

[Cerity]

Season 2 is a bit of an outlier, honestly. It has a lot of games which are more easily broken than the other series, and often are. I think it probably helps that I really love some of the season 2 cast (most notably Sangmin and Hongchul).

I really wish they'd shown some more of Sangmin's antics in S2, this BTS has me dying just thinking about it. But S2 pretty much went how I expected it to, the people capable of a good couple last episodes were eliminated too early and they more or less gave

Spoiler

Sangmin

complete control.

That's good to know. Another flaw of the death match game is that some uses garnets. Even though in most instances other people contribute to make it even between the two players, but the game itself should be on a leveled playing field where the show provides no advantage for one over the other. With this guarantee, people can target those with higher garnet total rather than risking a penalty for having less.

Anyway, in these type of situation they should always be aware of the rich get richer effect and allow catch up mechanism in garnets. Luckily this hasn't been much of a problem so far.

The garnets are meant to be a measure of who is winning and in these situations gives them a lot of power, but a lot of the time the players are simply focused on surviving instead of getting the upper hand with garnets during the main match. Everyone chipping in to even the field during death is nice and all but really devalues the idea and value of them IMO. They kind of rectify it in S3 - you can't give or trade garnets after the main match has ended but I suspect with the way they're announcing Death Matches now there has to be a way to figure it out during the main match and plan accordingly.

 

[Zalasta]

Just saw Season 2 Episode 2's death match. To be able to influence who wins and who loses AND to profit off of the result? Ridiculous, what a stupid game mechanic. Of course one would be sacrificed, there is no contest. Kind of lost respect for the show.

 

[Zekes!]

I'm glad I stumbled on to this thread. I've almost finished watching season 1. I don't watch much TV and don't usually like reality tv shows, but this has me hooked.

 

[BowieZ]

Just saw Season 2 Episode 2's death match. To be able to influence who wins and who loses AND to profit off of the result? Ridiculous, what a stupid game mechanic. Of course one would be sacrificed, there is no contest. Kind of lost respect for the show.

Yeah, but which one should be sacrificed? It's basically no different than voting someone out of the tribe. The profiting is simply a way to get more garnets into the early game.

 

[ProfessorLobo]

That first episode was kind of hokey but I might give it another shot. What was happening was too hard to follow without enough information. Can there not be a tie in the death match? Why did Minseo throw 3 games in a row to Sungyuu? I wouldn't be surprised if this was a little put on. The concept is good though.

Which season is the best?

 

[Cerity]

Thanks to a day off I've also burned through the rest of S3, the

Spoiler

Dongmin and Hyunmin

alliance was simply too strong.

Spoiler

Yoohyun

was good enough to trip it up at points but the others weren't enough. A better season than S2 at least, Dongmin's antics with the dealer are great.

Starting S4, I don't get why they brought

Spoiler

back Yohwan and easpecially Kyunghoon.

Spoiler

Yohwan

brought nothing to S2 and while

Spoiler

Kyunghoon

is supposedly unpredictable, he's probably the most predictable there. Are things going his way? yes, then find a way (betray) to make it even better. If not, throw a fit and try to mess up the game. I'm glad most of the others are there though, I didn't think

Spoiler

Yoonsun

managed to get into any games that really played to any of her strengths. Alongside

Spoiler

Kyungrun

they've finally got people who can rein in

Spoiler

Dongmin and Sangmin

lol.

 

[Bboy AJ]

OP, thanks for sharing.

 

[Cerity]

That first episode was kind of hokey but I might give it another shot. What was happening was too hard to follow without enough information. Can there not be a tie in the death match? Why did Minseo throw 3 games in a row to Sungyuu? I wouldn't be surprised if this was a little put on. The concept is good though.

Which season is the best?

IIRC the plan was to keep everyone alive or something but sunggyu was actually on two teams and betrayed one side to take the win. Im pretty sure they explained what happened pretty clearly towards the end of the episode.

Spoiler

From what I remember Gura's plan was to make sunggyu the winner from the start while foiling one of the other teams. Minseo lost to sunggyu thinking she was doing it to keep him alive for that round when she unknowingly secured him the win

when they tie in the death match there's usually an extra round or something.

S1 is my favourite so far, it was a new game and the players didn't know how serious they should take it. After a bit they found their groove and made it really enjoyable. The following seasons... Well the players had at least watched the game on TV before and the atmosphere right off the bat is pretty cut-throat.

 

[LProtag]

A reality show based on Liar Game? I love Liar game, so this sounds super interesting.

 

[FinKL]

I love watching Running Man myself, so this should be fun to watch, thanks!

 

[Zalasta]

Yeah, but which one should be sacrificed? It's basically no different than voting someone out of the tribe. The profiting is simply a way to get more garnets into the early game.

That is the inherent problem with how some death match games are played out. In a show like this which is about skill and game playing, reducing it to a popularity contest like Survivor or Big Brother is a shame. By being able to profit off of someone's elimination further exacerbate the issue, because it then becomes a majority rules, it's not a true 1 vs 1 contest on who stays and who goes. The actual death match is just a sham then when they all decide to back the same person and give him the info to win. What's the point in playing the game itself when the outcome has been determined for you?

Season 2 has been a disappointment so far.

 

[SmokeMaxX]

That is the inherent problem with how some death match games are played out. In a show like this which is about skill and game playing, reducing it to a popularity contest like Survivor or Big Brother is a shame. By being able to profit off of someone's elimination further exacerbate the issue, because it then becomes a majority rules, it's not a true 1 vs 1 contest on who stays and who goes. The actual death match is just a sham then when they all decide to back the same person and give him the info to win. What's the point in playing the game itself?

Season 2 has been a disappointment so far.

Part of being a "genius" is having good social skills. The ability to make alliances is part of the game. That's why blatant backstabbing is dangerous. I don't have a problem with that part of the show. It's much better than Indian Poker since at least getting people to support or not support you is low variance and dependent upon actual skill. There's a bit of skill in Indian Poker too, but much higher variance where you can easily lose even while being the better player.

 

[Zalasta]

Part of being a "genius" is having good social skills. The ability to make alliances is part of the game. That's why blatant backstabbing is dangerous. I don't have a problem with that part of the show. It's much better than Indian Poker since at least getting people to support or not support you is low variance and dependent upon actual skill. There's a bit of skill in Indian Poker too, but much higher variance where you can easily lose even while being the better player.

Well, I disagree because the conceit of the show (at least how it presents itself) is about game playing, that is why every single match is based on a game, it is not about a bunch of people locked in a house or stuck on an island. Social interaction is very much part of the game mechanics for the main match, however, when you are pitting one person against another based on a game, it should be solely determined on the two participant's skill and understanding of that game, regardless of the luck involved.

 

[Rafa=FedKilla]

I liked the first episode, the theme song, Guura and the posh Korean women enough. But if the elimination matches are going to be more like the first one which was a complete sham then this isn't for me....