Here’s some unexpected fun for the weekend, and thanks to Nico W on the Discord to alerting us to it – it’s Dutch Big Money Celebrity Sardines on Amazon Prime and it’s Very Much The Sort Of Thing We Like. Nine Dutch celebs travel around various Dutch landmarks on a bus playing Sardines for €18,000. One person is picked at random on an extremely whizzy wheel (immediately one of the all time great gameshow props, I reckon) to go and hide somewhere on the location, the other contestants get 90 minutes to find them, and if they do find them they have to hang out in the same space until the clock runs out. If *everybody* finds the Hider, the Hider is eliminated. If not everybody finds the Hider then the Hider picks someone who didn’t find them to eliminate. There are added complications – there’s a currency called Triangles which can be spent to increase your chance of becoming the Hider or to buy various advantages, at various points during the Hunt special rooms open up offering risky rewards via mini-challenges and decisions. Hunters earn Triangles by finding the Hider, but they earn more the fewer people find them. Sometimes the Hiders haven’t thought about the implications of the space they’ve chosen to hide.
It’s decently entertaining and at around 45 minutes an episode (six episodes as far as I know) doesn’t outstay its welcome – it’s sort of a bit like Bother’s Bar favourite Run For Money except without the running or indeed much money but the location scouts have done a good job of finding decently sized buildings which are interesting and have lots of potential hiding spots. Stylish graphics. English subs are available. My one criticism is then “next time” bits give away a bit more than you’d really like.
Just watched the first episode. I am hooked. I really thought this would be quite boring but it’s a very fun watch they have added a lot to it to bulk out the format. I don’t want to spoil the surprises that crop up but there is much more than just basic hide and seek.
It’s a nice blend of the frantic action of something like The Amazing Race and the deception of The Traitors.
Oh and yes there is English subtitles
I think there’s an element of diminishing returns with this, especially when there’s fewer players to bounce off, but largely this has been a lot of fun, and I quite enjoyed the way the final worked.