Call me iconic because I might be the only person watching Battle Camp who has never seen any of the other reality shows that get mentioned on this one. Okay, to help you understand, Netflix’s new reality show brings together superstars in their own right from other reality shows like Squid Game: The Challenge, The Mole, The Circle, Too Hot To Handle, and more that I can’t bother remembering the names of. Every time I’m handed a reality show, I sigh in dismissal and watch with a grudge because this is a genre I just can’t wrap my head around. The fake drama, the random, unrealistic connections between contestants, or just the ego masked as competitiveness just makes me annoyed, you know? So, how did I feel watching Battle Camp?
Well, to be honest, I found it a little bit frustrating, because even though the “Fear Factor”-like games are actually quite entertaining, leaving the final choice to a wheel is a bit meh. Now, as a non-math genius (as a math failure), I know that math plays a huge role in this wheel situation, but at the end of the day, it is a luck thing. Anyway, in Battle Camp, we start off with 3 teams of 4: the eagles, bears, and wolves. Each team has two men and two women, who all have certain advantages over each other. So, the winning team of a certain challenge gets immunity from elimination, while the rest of the two teams have to compete to make sure their names don’t get on the wheel too often.
This is where the drama really begins. Rather than playing strategically or to your strengths, after a certain point, people start to become, honestly, quite cunning so that they can get other people’s names on the wheel rather than get their own names off it. Don’t get what I mean? Well, for example, if A doesn’t want their name on the wheel, they’ll probably just try to befriend everybody, show them that they’re a team player, and end it at that, but what happens here is that people decide it’s best to kick other people out. So rather than an equal chance, it becomes like one person has a 70% chance of being picked on the wheel.
I mean, I suppose this is what people watch reality shows for, to be able to see the worst side of humanity, eh? Yes, I’m exaggerating a little bit, but some of the things happening on this show are quite infuriating. I want to specifically talk about two players that really got on my nerves; one is Tony, and one is Trey. These men are two of the most cunning people I have ever seen. I mean, sure, there’s prize money, but, like, do you really want to be on global television looking like actual snakes? I guess in the bigger picture, it doesn’t really matter, but I was honestly so appalled. Outside of these two, the rest of the cast is pretty chill. I definitely felt more biased towards some people who seemed to be the nicest people there, like Shubham and Georgia. Despite wanting the same thing as the rest of them, it never came across as if they were trying to put someone down, just that they wanted to put their best foot forward.
Interestingly, in the first half of the show, when someone gets eliminated, a new member gets added to the team they’ve been removed from, so every team has an equal chance. But, as the season progresses, the teams merge into two teams when the eliminations become final and no new members are added, except for two bulky men as the “leaders” of these two teams. I didn’t get the point of this. But that does make it hard to root for any particular team or any one person as a favorite because anything can happen. But I guess that’s the whole point. However, what’s unfortunate is that immediately it becomes about getting rid of the weaklings at first, rather than the most competitive ones.
The “battles” begin almost immediately as the show starts, so initially, because players keep getting switched out, it’s really hard to keep track of who is who. Especially if you’re someone who has no idea who these people are from before, I guess you have to choose who you want to latch onto so that you can hope they get to the end. It’s a merciless environment, though, so if you pick one of the less cutthroat campers, it’s likely they’ll be gone before you can remember everybody’s names, so don’t get too attached.
As someone who doesn’t follow these kinds of shows, I did quite enjoy the games on this one. I think it’s the most exciting bit of reality TV, because I sure would not want to do most of those things. It’s like watching The Hunger Games but with lower stakes and more fun. The physical activities are definitely interesting to watch; I can’t deny that, but it’s the drama that comes along with it that really doesn’t sit well with me personally. It’s not that I don’t like drama; I mean, I love watching fictional drama, but it’s the fakeness with which it is obviously presented that really makes me cringe.
There are 10 hour-long episodes in the show, and I don’t think it’s the best idea to binge-watch it in a day (like I had to do). If you do end up watching it, I’d recommend spacing it out a little bit, just so you don’t let the negativity of the whole thing get to you. Overall, though, for reality TV, I think Battle Camp isn’t mind-blowing or massively entertaining, but it’s pretty okay to watch in the background. If you like survival shows, I think you might enjoy this one, but expect everybody to bring their own baggage from all the other shows they’ve been on. I’d give Battle Camp 2.5 out of 5 stars.
