Before I get into my breakdown of The Devil’s Plan, or rather, before I completely break down after having watched more than 6 hours of this show, you deserve a little disclaimer: I’ve never enjoyed reality TV, but this one has got to be the most boring show I’ve ever watched in my entire life. Now, I can understand the appeal of reality TV. It might not be for me, but I get that the gossip, the backstabbing, the relatability, and everything else that works for them is somewhat entertaining, if nothing else. But The Devil’s Plan: Death Room by far has been the one reality show I’ve been forced to watch that somehow makes me feel the most like I’ve got it all wrong. By this, I mean I can’t think of a single thing that makes this show in any way watchable.
In season 2, 14 participants, including celebrities and college students, gather together to play games and win 500 million won or get eliminated. I know, it sounds simple enough: smart people gather in a fancy house where they either come out on top and get to live lives of luxury, or they end up in “prison,” where they have to compete further and end up in a “death game,” where one person eventually gets eliminated. Here’s the thing, though: the games that are being played mostly have over 10 rounds, and all of these rounds play out on screen, rather than tight editing giving us the highlights of what’s gone down, stretching all the episodes out to over an hour long. Some are even longer than a typical rom-com, i.e., over 95 minutes. This completely threw me off as a viewer, because, to be honest, I’m not interested in what’s actually happening in the game, because I’m not the one playing it. I’m more interested in knowing why people are teaming up against a certain someone and what makes them strategize in a certain way. Having said that, I suppose episode 4 is the best of the lot, because we actually see some drama go down involving Justin Min, aka, the outsider.
The star-studded cast of season 2 includes Kyuhyun of Super Junior, American-Korean actor Justin Min, K-pop idol Chuu, and Lee Se-dol, the professional Go player, among others. It’s hard to keep track of who is who when the game starts, and I’ve noticed this is how I feel with most Korean reality shows because they’ve got so many people coming in all at once. Of course, 14 is nothing in comparison to the 100 in Physical 100. The survival show begins almost immediately after all the players have met each other, and some of the men have already decided who they want on their side. Even if it’s not necessarily a team game. One thing is clear from the start: it’s all about strategy, and whoever has the best individual one wins.
Within the first four episodes, the biggest takeaway is that an alliance is formed amongst the top-ranking players in order to keep themselves at the top. This includes Tinno (YouTuber), Kyuhyun, Ki-Young (announcer), So-Hui (actress), Hyun-Gyu (university student), and Sang-Yeon (Olympic gold medalist—what?!). After winning the games, players get a piece of cardboard, which you could consider the gold bars of this game, and the number of pieces is based on their ranking in the game. The first game is a mafia game that plays out for the entirety of the first episode, sending 6 players to “prison.” Everyone’s afraid to go there, but it turns out to be better than they imagined. Only they get bread for dinner and have to wear trendy blue uniforms. I’m not going to lie, but I also feel like the first game was set up a little biased towards the thieves, which gave them a winning advantage, but this is very clearly an unpopular opinion, as is my opinion of the show as a whole.
It’s unfortunately Chuu who gets out first in the Death Room game. Seung-Hyun is the second one to go after she goes into the manhole and tries to take one for the team but fails. It’s really quite unfortunate, especially seeing two women go so early on in the show, but I guess we’ll have to hope that the rest make it up for them. I suppose Seung-Hyun’s elimination is hidden from us because the show isn’t revealing the challenge just yet. Or she may have just become claustrophobic and quit.
The rest of episode 3 is another very long game that shows how cunning some of the players on this show are. Specifically, the ones with the power, i.e., the top tier who have been enjoying luxurious living and finding interesting clues in the house, while people are getting thrown out of prison, i.e. falling victim to clandestine eliminations. I thought this game was worse to watch than the mafia game, just because it felt never-ending and I didn’t really understand it. I know that’s a me problem, but hey, I’m just trying to give you my honest, unbiased opinion. At the end of this game, though, Sang-Yeon, who himself said he has a 95% chance of winning this show, ends up in prison because he gets cornered by the alliance. Interestingly, Sang-Yeon doesn’t really care that he had to go to prison, but he then pretends to the prison guys that he hated that he was cornered and forced out of the group, and he wants to take revenge. This is him trying to win over the other side.
However, his strategy doesn’t work, and neither does Justin Min’s. In all honesty, I finally found a reason to keep watching the 4th episode because of Justin’s expressions and how he’s forced to work as an individual because people stab him in the back and team up without him, with his own idea. This leaves him sour and hungry for victory. So, when they play the time game, he emerges somewhat victorious by saving the best for last. Truth be told, I’m totally vouching for this man now (and maybe because I’ve seen so many of his movies), but I’m sure he’s going to be eliminated earlier rather than later. Possibly because of the foreigner card, which does somewhat put him at risk.
At the end of The Devil’s Plan episode 4, Justin’s plan works, and Sang-Yeon is the one who gets eliminated. This leaves everyone in the house very upset, because not only was he the youngest of the lot, but he also had very good strategies. On the other hand, Hyun-Gyu gets to go to the “Hidden Stage” after the other group found a bunch of clues that led them to a hidden door at the gym. If he succeeds, he will get lots of benefits, but the advantage is, if he loses, he won’t get eliminated.
To be honest, I think when the number of participants declines, and the number of rounds per game reduces, and I’m more inclined to learn about each participant rather than look at them as groups, I might start enjoying the show a little bit. Or at least that’s what I’m hoping because 12 episodes is a lot. Who do you think is going to win The Devil’s Plan season 2? And do you think it’s better or worse than season 1? Let us know in the comments below.
