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| Posters for Tving's "The Time Hotel," left, and Wavve's "Bloody Game" / Courtesy of Tving and Wavve |
By Lee Gyu-lee
Major streaming services are rolling out shows with psychologically intense themes to win over viewers with original reality show-style content.
The homegrown streaming platform, Wavve, debuted the second season of its hit survival show, "Bloody Game," on April 28.
The reality show pits 14 participants from different backgrounds, from a TV personality to a member of Mensa, a well-known high IQ society, and a top poker player, against one another. The participants are taken to a remote area in Bali, Indonesia, to play a series of games that require both intelligence and physical strength to win a 300 million won ($223,780) prize. On top of winning the games, they must play politics within the group to avoid elimination and become the sole survivor for the prize.
The show's producer noted that the new season is an upgraded, all-star version of the previous season.
"We kept the interesting, twisting elements like bunker … and upgraded styles of games. From the casting phase, we thought 'What is it like to bring the best in each field to play games together?' So we wanted to make sure we give the right platform (for the participants)," Hyun Jung-wan, the program's producer, said during a press conference for the show last month.
The show releases two episodes every Friday.
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| A still from the reality show "Bloody Game" / Courtesy of Tving and Wavve |
Tving showcased its latest original unscripted show, "The Time Hotel," last month, starring singer John Park, comedian Hwang Je-sung and TV personality Shin Ji-yeon from "Single's Inferno."
The winner-takes-all game show brings 10 participants to a hotel where they can use time as a currency. While they can enjoy anything at the hotel using their time, the participants must check out when they run out of time. To become the final guest to win a 300 million won prize, the participants play psychological games, form alliances, plot conspiracies and betray each other in their quest to win the prize money.
The show's producer, Nam Kyung-mo, noted it has distinguished itself from similar genre shows with the hotel theme.
"The viewers don't like to see the cast members in a comfortable environment. So I wanted them to suffer. Putting them in extreme situations and environments felt too easy, so we thought it would be more unique to create a fancy hotel and make them struggle in it," he said.
The show releases two episodes every Wednesday.
Producer Jung Jong-yeon, who is known for creating similar hit shows like "The Genius" and "Great Escape," is gearing up for his latest survival show with Netflix.
The upcoming show, "The Devil's Plan," set to release in the latter half of this year, will invite contestants to live together for a week and compete to be the smartest player and win the ultimate prize.
The producer hinted that although this show will have a similar format as the previous dramatic survival games, it will be the epitome of such genre shows.
"It's all about mind-game survival and will be similar to my previous shows, but I drew on all my know-how to create the best format I possibly can," he said. "The show will also spotlight heated politics between the contestants in between the various games."
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