The Genius 4 Episode 1 Review

So... I have already watched The Genius Grand Final Episode 1 on Tuesday GMT+8 time. ;) Ahead of everyone else who are waiting for English subs and I really want to tweet about it... but of course I dislike spoilers so I decided to write a blog post about my thoughts instead of spamming them on twitter, like I used to when there were almost no The Genius fans following me haha.

They started off this all stars season with such huge personalities, everyone was so competitive!!! Though, it did kind of feel like a mess as there were so many things going on at the same time...
I will try to go in order of the edit as I go through the episode.

I really like the BGMs of The Genius, and when Dong Min came out, Fall Out Boy's Centuries was brilliant. Remember Me for centuriesssss.
Min-Min-Min! It was pretty interesting to see that Koreans had different chinese characters for their name, I never understood until then... :/

For this season, one main point is that the Death Matches are previous games. Each elimination candidate will rule out a few games and they will pick 1 from the remaining games at random. Interesting!
It will be so fun to watch the players come up with new strategies and to see if the same players go head to head in the same games again. E.g Kyungran & Sangmin with Same Picture Hunt! XD

Players started the main match by forming alliances.
But, some of them decided to make side deals... :/ Wait, Kyunghoon with DongMin? Oo that could be good! They looked pretty closed in the BTS clip for the press conference too. However, Kyunghoon decides to make sneaky deals and not be fully trusting of both his alliance and Dongmin... ?
He decided to switch cards unofficially with Sangmin... O.o He then swapped it with Yohwan. Interestingly, he swapped it back with Yohwan unofficially after, I wonder why...
Also, awesome, Sangmin managed to get rid of his Death card with just a quick lie. The other 2 alliances (excluding Kyunghoon's) then teamed up in attempt to get a joint win for all their members. They tried to recruit Yoonsun and Junseok too. Though, Junseok is pretty much all for himself heh. He took off after getting his points with the Official Card they were using, haha sneaky, sneaky. (Recall Layoff in Season 2.)
Then Sangmin tries to achieve an individual win???!!! O.O I can't fully understand. I mean perhaps he felt guilty for ruining Kyunghoon's game and tried to get him out of the situation by taking the Convict card back, but it just ends up ruining his own alliance/"team" game, no? I wonder who will continue to trust him after this. I just realised that Sangmin has been pretty sneaky all this while but he didn't get as bad an edit as Kyunghoon/Yohwan haha. Side Note: It was pretty cool to see that Yoohyun saw Sangmin's sneaky move to use the Convict card, but it was too late to savage their team's game. Junghyun ended up taking the fall for his alliance, such bad luck... /: He was such a nice guy.

I must say all these players have such poker faces! :| Also, while I don't really like Sangmin's moves in this game, props to him for totally turning his game from starting as the DM candidate to becoming the sole winner. Though, he did make his team mates look like fools for sticking together. ):

Death match was alright.

Now, for me to pick who I support as promised! :D
However, I am still not sure what to make of the dynamics between the players. ):
I do like Dongmin and Jinho but I was thinking there should be a new winner this time round. It's really hard to predict the players' future games as some change their strategies as the number of players dwindle... Plus, there are so few females this season! ):

I will not be picking one single player as my winner's pick yet.
For now, here's a whole list of players that I think could make it till the end and support:

• Jang Dong Min (Sorry I had to include him again, he has such strong winner's vibe.)
• Im Yo Hwan (If he gets better in team games, he will go far)
• Oh Hyun Min (just because he's good)
• Choi Yeon Seung (I could have underestimated his abilities in my preseason cast assessment)
• Kim Yoo Hyun (poker players are good picks, aren't they?)

Why I didn't choose the others:

Hong Jin Ho - he stands out too much as a target, it will be a tough climb all the way to the top.

Lee Sang Min - He's really good... but he doesn't have me rooting for him. 

Kim Kyung Ran - She's nice and works in group, don't see her surviving in such a ruthless group of players. :/

Lim Yoon Sun - I like her, but I am wondering if her game play is slightly too straightforward? I look forward to her moves in the game though. 

Choi Jung Moon - She's smart but I haven't seen a lot of her capabilities yet... 

Kim Kyung Hoon - I actually liked him in S3, but his image... is so down the drain for now, I can't support him anymore hahaha

Lee Jun Seok - If he keeps playing for himself, who will support him at the finale? He's good though. 

So... did Sangmin get a good edit this episode? Is there any similarities with Kyunghoon's move in last season's first episode?

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Depending on whether I watch the next episode before English subs are out, I might write another blog post if you guys want me to.
Do comment/tweet me @raycherr :) to discuss #TheGenius

Cheers! :)

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