A Question of Genius

Come on, admit it, did you watch Genius Game? Well, I will admit that I watched it on catch up. This was partly because I was watching the tried and tested Race Around the World at the same time it was broadcast and partly because I must have been out when the phone call came sounding me out if I’d be interested in it.

And interested in it I was. Note the use of the past tense. Back in 2023 I commented on how unusual it seemed that Channel 5 would host a relatively intellectual game show like Puzzling. Sadly it hasn’t returned since that first series. Well, Primetime Wednesday night on ITV1 seems a pretty unlikely slot as well.

Research since watching the first episode shows me that this is a UK version of a hit show from South Korea. Ah. Now, if I said fill in the blank - hit show from South Korea , Blank Game – then I think most of us would fill in the blank with the word Squid. Well, this is really nothing like Squid Game, which is probably just as well. I’m not up for all that gore and violence, I get enough of that at home. I wasn’t aware of the South Korean original until after I watched the first ITV show on catch up, so I don’t know how the UK version compares with it. So let’s stick just to the UK show.

When I wrote my review of Chess Masters: The Endgame a few days ago, I made the point that I didn’t really understand who the show was made for. What’s more, I don’t think that the production team had a very clear idea of their audience either. Well, I’ve watched two episodes of “Genius Game” and I find myself asking the question – who is supposed to get what out of watching this?

So, let’s try to unravel this. It’s called “The Genius Game”. Well, we’ve had quiz game shows before that have been based on the idea of finding out who has the highest intelligence rather than who knows the most. They varied in quality but none of them ever quite proved to be the full package. After all, we most of us think we know what intelligence is, but how do you measure it? In fact, which types of intelligence do you actually measure? (Yes, I know that I took the Mensa IQ tests a few years ago, but that was a) because I wanted to play in Brain of Mensa – and b) sheer curiosity as to whether I’d get in or not. But it doesn’t alter the fact that the one thing that you can say that IQ tests are really good for is testing how well you can answer the questions in IQ tests.) As for the concept of genius, though. Well, let’s accept that Genius Game is a snappier title than -Honestly these people are really smart Game. -

 So presumably the contestants are all people with demonstrably super-high ’intelligence’. Alright, I’ve no reason to question that. So what’s the point? Why, to be the last person standing at the end of the series. OK, got it. So what happens if you are the last person left? Well, erm, you know I’m not really sure. They may have mentioned what the prize is, but my attention must have been flagging if they did. Why would my attention have been flagging? Because, and I’m sorry to upset anyone who enjoyed the show and this is just my personal opinion, but I did not find it terribly interesting.

The game mechanics, if I understood correctly are:- in each show there is a main game. This will be one where the geniuses/ genii (I dream of genii?) have to form alliances and manipulate others to win a task. The overall winner(s) of the main task are exempt from the ‘death match’ (elimination task). The overall loser of the main task is one of the contestants of the death match, and they choose their opponent from the other non-winners. Then the two go head to head in a game testing intelligence, skill and strategy. Winner stays on, loser goes home.

In essence, then, what we have is a curious hybrid – and we know how often curious hybrids work on TV, don’t we? On the one hand it’s a puzzle based show – not totally unlike the Mental games of the Crystal Maze. On the other hand it’s a game of manipulation, mistrust and betrayal, and it seems that it’s rather obviously trying to cash in on the Traitors zeitgeist. Now, I loved The Crystal Maze and I loved the Traitors. Sorry, but I don’t like Genius Game very much so far.

You’d like me to tell you why not? Oh, try and stop me! Producers – as a puzzle game I have to ask – where’s the play at home factor? D’oh! Just as Chess Masters never really gave us enough time to work anything out for ourselves, the games we saw had very little play at home potential. Even the death matches were intercut with scenes of the other contestants giving the answers as they watched.

As for the Traitors, well I can easily tell you why this just cannot be as popular. I’m not saying that contestants in the Traitors are not very intelligent – I would have nothing on which to base that statement. But we’re not having it shoved down our throats that every contestant who appears on the Traitors is supersmart. We are on Genius Game. It’s in the title of the show. And I am not saying that anyone on Genius Game is not supersmart. But, and I am not condoning this, it does seem to be the case that in the UK, we don’t really like smart people. We don’t like cleverdicks, knowitalls and smartarses. To be extremely intelligent and yet pretty much universally liked or even loved you have to have the wit and charm of Sir Stephen Fry, and national treasures of his calibre don’t grow on trees. In his book “Brain Men” Marcus Berkman pointed out that it was the UK who gave the charming phrase ‘too clever by half’ to the world. So, I may be wrong, but I doubt that the GBP (Great British Public) will give two shiny hoots about who double crosses and manipulates whom in this game.

The strange thing about it all is David Tennant’s involvement. I think he once presented Have I Got News For You, but it really doesn’t seem his sort of thing at all. You only see him on a video screen anyway, and he doesn’t get to interact much with the players. Look, if I was in his position and they offered me oodles to do it I wouldn’t have turned them down, so I don’t blame him. It’s difficult to see what else he might have got from it.

If you like the sound of the show, but haven’t watched it yet, you need to do so before he series ends, because somehow I doubt it’ll be back once its over.