TThe new Amazon game show Beast Games comes with a lot of baggage. At the age of 26, MrBeast has more YouTube subscribers than any other person alive. He is the third most followed person on TikTok. He has put his name to restaurants, chocolate, toys, clothing and Nerf guns. His fame among young people is truly incredible. In short, he needs television much less than television needs him.

However, since the show went into production, the wheels have fallen off a bit. In September, five Beast Games participants filed a 54-page class action lawsuit against MrBeast’s production company and Amazon, alleging widespread abuse, inadequate compensation and “severe emotional distress, including suffering, anxiety, terror, horror, nervousness, anxiety , (…)” accused. ) concern, shock, humiliation and/or shame”. So Beast Games arrived yesterday with one hell of a surprise.

The thing about it, though, is that if a show is popular, it can withstand scandal. For example, everyone forgot about the Strictly Come Dancing bullying allegations the moment the dancing started. More relevantly, contestants on last year’s reality show Squid Game: The Challenge claimed they were treated so badly that they contracted hypothermia. But all the controversies faded away when the show first aired because it got good reviews and did decent numbers. So the big question really is: Is Beast Games good enough to make people forget about the lawsuit?

The answer to that probably depends on how much you like MrBeast. If you do, and you like the ostentatious displays of wealth he regularly puts on for his YouTube channel, then that’s catnip. Beast Games is basically YouTube on steroids. Thousands of people vie for $5 million in a series of awesome stunts ranging from pulling monster trucks to answering quiz questions. On the other hand, if you’re new to MrBeast, you might be wondering why anyone made a TV show about a screaming, weasel-looking man who seems grimly determined to rip off Squid Game.

Make no mistake, this show couldn’t exist without Squid Game. The parallels can be seen right on the screen, almost to the point of outright copyright infringement. Beast Games is a reality competition in which a large number of numerical participants live together in a small space and compete in various ridiculous challenges to win a huge sum of money, which sits in a large pile in the middle of the room. The only difference between Beast Games and Squid Game is that Squid Game was a dystopian satire about rich people wringing entertainment from the suffering of the needy. However, when MrBeast saw it, one has to assume he didn’t understand the satire.

Beast Games has a cruel ruthlessness that is truly unpalatable. Overwhelmingly, the majority of challenges involve self-sacrifice, where groups of contestants are told that they cannot advance to the next round unless one of them voluntarily gives up their chance at the prize and leaves the show. The ugliness of these challenges is overwhelming. There’s endless pleading and crying and full-blown adult tantrums, all for a jackpot they’re statistically unlikely to win. Hand on heart, I can’t remember seeing a more disgraceful spectacle.

Worse, the contestants all seem to make a virtue of the kind of plaintive, snot-nosed sob stories that characterized The X Factor’s worst moments all those years ago. One participant after another exhausts themselves by inventing hysterical cases for themselves. They need the money because they want to help homeless children. They need it to escape poverty. A man tries to control inappropriate emotions from his desire to earn passive income for the rest of his life from his $5 million. That’s enough to make you wish the grand prize was a dose of basic human perspective.

But that doesn’t make good television, and instead we’re left with the unpleasant sight of 1,000 attention seekers embarrassing themselves not just for the whims of one YouTuber, but for the whims of a YouTuber who likes to shout things like, “Everyone has their price!” “, as if he were a joker from the discount own brand.

True, there’s something strangely fascinating about Beast Games, but it’s just as compelling as the search for a strikebreaker. It exists solely to show us the worst of the human condition in the most abhorrent way possible. In other words, it probably wasn’t worth getting sued for.