From Tuesday 15th November,
Netflix
We used to be big fans of Run For Money back in the day, and even though it’s still a going concern on Fuji TV (and has been for almost 20 years) where it runs periodically with a new ep coming New Year, here’s an international spin-off on Netflix, where it’s gained a superfluous “the” because nobody at Netflix understands television, but it’s made by the same people and appears to be the same game and we’re still extremely annoyed nobody’s done an episode set at Alton Towers yet.
Basically: go out on the run, stay on the run as long as possible clocking up cash as you go. If you get caught by a Hunter you’re eliminated and win no money. You can wimp out and “surrender” at a phone box and take whatever money you’ve accumulated, or you can go all the way for the big money. Along the way to stop them from just hiding out they’ll be obliged to go on missions where they’ll have decisions to make, usually some sort of element where they can up the prizemoney by risking more Hunters on the field, a decision that does not have to be unanimous, a task where *not* completing it will reveal their location, tasks to earn advantages to save them from Hunters that sort of thing.
It’s great fun, although I’ve not watched it for the best part of a decade so I don’t know what sort of modern twists we’ll be looking at. What I do know is that the runtime seems to be the best part of three hours, so you probably won’t be watching it all in one sitting.
This has actually been split into four episodes and isn’t one massive three plus hour long thing, which is probably fair enough.
5m yen is just over £30k, if you were wondering.
Despite the trailer suggesting all sorts of wacky shenanigans, this is basically your classic, no-nonsense Run For Money (with admittedly, some very expensive props). Aside from the ‘The’, the episode breaks, and one of the players doing an ad-lib about Netflix, you wouldn’t know the difference. The challenges, editing, narration, are all unchanged. Fans of Documental will recognise one of the players.
I’ve no idea how it’s going to go down globally, but I’m really enjoying it.
Aww, this was really fun, the absolute HEROISM on show throughout and especially in the last half hour. Really happy to be reacquainted.
Now THIS is how you do a revival! I cannot wait to see if Netflix will adapt other shows from around the world (another Fort Boyard UK revival perhaps?)
That was excellent stuff as a first time viewer of it – hope there will be more.
Yeah fingers crossed. The ending suggests there’s more planned, but if it’s anything like the original it may be months before it happens.