Series · Prime Video · 2024

Beast Games

Humiliation with a scoreboard. The prize does not make it a virtue.

The skill on display is not building, judging, or keeping faith. It is wanting a number badly enough to do the next thing the format requires, while a crowd watches you want it. That is an old vice with a larger set.

Do not put it on for children as if ambition and this were the same word.

The eight

Industry
4/10
The production is enormous. The contestants' work is obedience.
Household
2/10
Alliances instead of households. People are eliminated in front of their people.
Piety
1/10
The host is the providence.
Courage
3/10
Nerve, spent on a televised dare.
Republic
2/10
A crowd trained to cheer a cut.
Temperance
1/10
Greed is the announced motive, and the show is proud of the announcement.
Truth
4/10
It does not pretend to be about anything but the money.
Stewardship
1/10
Nothing is built. Someone leaves with a sum and a clip.

Live historicallyIf the house wants a contest, make it a game in the room, with a prize you would not be ashamed to explain.

Series · Prime Video · 2006

Dexter

A vigilante the show wants you to miss. Do not.

The pitch is that a monster can be pointed at worse monsters and therefore be your monster. That pitch is old, and it flatters the viewer who would like a shortcut past judge and jury. The sister who believes in the job is the conscience. The show keeps her in the dark so the audience can feel clever.

You do not need this one. The argument is simple enough to refuse without sitting through the seasons.

The eight

Industry
5/10
He is good at the day job. The night job is murder with a rubric.
Household
3/10
A sister, a girlfriend, a child. He endangers all three and calls it love.
Piety
1/10
The code is a father's training in killing. It is not a law.
Courage
2/10
Nerve spent on being the secret executioner.
Republic
1/10
The courts exist so he can sneer at them.
Temperance
1/10
The appetite is the kill. The code is the costume.
Truth
4/10
It tells you what he is. Then it asks you to hope he gets away.
Stewardship
1/10
A son is raised beside the lie.

Live historicallyDo not start it. If it is started, stop before you are hoping he isn't caught.