Elliott’s overall rating: 3 out of 5 stars

In the 1993 film Jurassic Park, if you look past all the moments of characters gazing in awe at the brand new discovery of being able to regenerate dinosaurs from the ground up, you begin to realize something. As the film progresses, the horror of what’s been done sets in, and this is no better illustrated than in a line spoken halfway through the film.

About an hour in, Jeff Golblum’s character, someone who’s been very publicly against the entire idea of a Jurassic Park, says something to John Hammond, the creator of the park, that will make the viewer rethink the entirety of the film leading up to this point: “..You were so preoccupied with whether or not you could, they never stopped to think if you should.” This quote makes the audience realize that the park isn’t revolutionary, it’s dystopian.

This brings us to MrBeast, who is not only the most subscribed person on YouTube, but also the most recognizable. MrBeast practically invented a new type of content, fast-paced, and perfectly engineered a format to keep the viewer hooked on the screen from start to finish, therefore ensuring that the product will most definitely make back any money spent on it. MrBeast isn’t an entertainer, he’s a business. 

With each upload, MrBeast was almost forced to up the stakes more and more every video. Why buy a $1 million house when you can have a $1 billion yacht? Eventually, what MrBeast was doing felt unsuitable for YouTube; he had gotten too big for the platform. That brings us to now, where MrBeast has begun rolling out his newest project, an Amazon Prime series titled Beast Games.

If the title isn’t a dead giveaway, the series is a very loose take on the massively popular Netflix show that’s also coincidentally begun releasing new episodes, Squid Game. With Squid Game being a satire about the very concept of a game show, it comes across weird that Beast Games is that very thing. In fact, a lot of things come across as weird throughout this whole series.

First, there are 1,000 contestants on the show. That is a lot of people to keep track of, and seems pointless in terms of getting to know these contestants on a deeper level. This decision comes across as a spectacle for the sake of spectacle, rather than actually having a meaning behind it. This is exactly why 500 out of the 1,000 contestants are eliminated within the first 10 minutes of episode 1. It’s pointless. Before you can even take it in, half of the participants are gone, immediately setting up expectations that can’t be delivered on.

MrBeast’s hyperactive editing style and breakneck pace can be a bit hard to take in at the beginning, but eventually I got into the flow of it and was beginning to feel the excitement of each contestant as they faced increasingly crazy and high-stakes challenges. However, that’s only really half of the appeal of the series.

Many of the challenges follow a very consistent format. All of the contestants are split into small groups of friends, ranging from very close friends and family, to complete and total strangers. This will then go one of two ways. The groups have to either choose a member to eliminate, or MrBeast will dangle large sums of money in front of their faces until one contestant cracks and takes the money, eliminating themselves and the rest of their team with them. 

Naturally, this causes many contestants to become very emotional. If someone you put your trust in cracks under pressure, eliminating your chances to win a giant cash prize, you’ll get angry, or sad, or some sort of mix of both. However, MrBeast doesn’t care about this. He only wants those sweet shots of those tears flowing. None of the actual emotions are channeled through these shots. It’s still a pure spectacle. MrBeast is using footage of some people’s major low points as B-roll for the show.

None of the competitors get any screen time, which makes any eliminations feel unimportant. There are scenes where the show is building up suspense about which contestant will end up getting eliminated, but I genuinely cannot bring myself to care about any of these people. The thing that’s great about most of MrBeast’s YouTube videos is that they usually only focus around a handful of people, making it easy to get to know everyone, and specifically why they act the way they do, especially in challenges. In Beast Games, we never even get to learn any of these people’s names, let alone any of their motives. Even contestants who seem important in one episode will get eliminated in the next without a moment’s notice.

Overall I’d say, on a surface level, I enjoyed Beast Games. Not a moment passed when I couldn’t feel my brain being stimulated, but that was it. I didn’t come out of every episode thinking about what would happen next in the series. Truthfully, I forgot everything that happened within a couple hours. I can only hope that as more and more people are eliminated, and the cast whittles down, we can begin to know each contestant outside of just their number. If that doesn’t happen, we’ve just got a standard reality show, breaking down under the weight of 1,000 people.

Elliott Stewart is a Heights-based youth movie critic who hopes to direct movies himself when he grows up. In the meantime, he watches, analyzes, and critiques movie classics as well as current cinema releases. Elliot’s parents occasionally allow him to watch and critique R-rated films under their supervision. Find out more about Elliott here.