Master Key (2017)

Psychological warfare, camaraderie/friendship and an absolute hilarious, yet wholesome display of unique content.

As someone who only ever watches variety shows for idol appearances, I was quite surprised to find myself watching it all the way through. The interesting format, camaraderie between the cast/participants and wittiness of the hosts made the show so enjoyable that 13 episodes seems way to short for such a gem of a show.

To reiterate, I've never watched a variety show in its entirety nor rated one so I don't quite know where to begin this review, many veteran variety watchers may agree or disagree with some of my points.

*Things I liked:*
1. It's constantly changing format. This might be a controversial point, but I personally loved how the format and goal of the show kept changing as new episodes aired. They never stuck to one particular concept for more than 3-4 episodes, though they all revolved around finding master keys. As someone who gets bored very easily watching tv shows and a newbie to variety shows, this changing format kept me on my toes and kept the show interesting to keep watching it.

2. It's only 13 episodes. Sure, I would've loved to see more episodes and even more seasons, but because it is so short, it made it easy to binge and is perfect for someone who doesn't want to commit to 100 + episodes over the span of seven years.

3. The Cast. I love LOVE Lee Su Geun, and in many aspects he made the show as hilarious as it was. However, he wasn't the only one carrying the show - the guests always seemed to be comfortable and have loads of fun. Their camaraderie and competition with each other is a definite highlight of the show. There were so many genuine smiles and laughter. I remember specifically some of the idols explaining how comfortable and included they felt on the last episode. It may seem like a small thing, but inclusiveness can be easily overlooked in these types of shows. No one was overlooked. Additionally, if you are an idol fan, I guarantee you will find at least one episode with one of your favs, or at the very least someone you are familiar with. Much of the cast had reoccurring appearances as well, allowing us viewers to always have a familiar face or two among the twelve participants.

4. The Games. Variety shows and games go hand in hand, and that was definitely the case with this show. Each episode consisted of different games and they were hardly repeated. If they were repeated, it was because those games were just that funny and were gladly welcomed by viewers. I wish I had 11 other friends that I could play those games with!

*Things I didn't like:*
1. Okay, so I said I loved the constantly changing format. I did. I truly did. But nothing could have been better or funnier than the angel/devil concept. The intense psychological warfare combined with the competitive nature of the games made for an absolutely hilarious display. Nothing could've been better than this, and yet they changed the format once again for the last 3 episodes. Though those episodes were enjoyable, it didn't feel like I was watching Master Key anymore. There were still keys involved in the theme, but the essential competitiveness and psychological warfare was absent, which made it quite dull in comparison to the previous 10 episodes.

2. Only ever having two women in each episode at max. I suppose this is a common theme in variety shows, but it definitely annoyed me throughout my viewing. Although to be fair, most of the women participants didn't really contribute to making the show all that funny (but that's likely because they kept being coddled by the rest of the male participants). --- With the exception of Ha Ni of course! I think I found my new favorite female idol.

*I honestly wouldn't let these two last points deter you from checking it out. Give the first episode a go, perhaps you'll love it as much as I do and jump into the world of variety shows. :)*

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Production mess.

They have overdone it on an impressive level. From ever-changing concept and format to constantly changing rules and games - we had it all, and we had nothing.

Being perfectly honest, there was only one episode I truly enjoyed from the beginning till the end - episode 9. All the rest felt extremely messy and not well planned. At some point I started skipping scenes, and just watching the games I was interested in.

The biggest flaw of the show was the lack of strong MCs. While both Lee Soo Geun and Jun Hyun Moo are amazing at leading the shows and games, I feel like they were not given the chance to shine. Most of the time they just felt like regular cast members, and with that there was no one to even try to control the chaos.

The idea behind the show was amazing - mixing psychological war with fun games to find the angel and not let the demons win the reward. For me, they did not dig deep enough into the mind games. Instead of allowing the players to walk around randomly talking to each other, there should have been some rules - exact time and place where you can meet the players to convince them, the chance given for the winning team etc. Sadly, it ended up with everyone just saying “I am an angel” and a guessing game.

Overall, skip this one. The physical games you will get from Running Man, the mind games were not explored and utilized to their full potential. I’d recommend watching episode 9 and, with that, saying goodbye to the show overall.

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