[REVIEW] Variety segment "Running Man"

Published on 2010/07/13 | Source

SBS TV's new game variety show "Running Man" [SBS]

SBS variety segment "Running Man" on "Happy Sunday" - Sunday, 5:20 P.M.

Perhaps "Running Man" could be an interesting segment that could carry on the tradition of game variety shows that had been severed after "X-Man" went off the air. The reason for using words like 'perhaps' and 'could be' is because the show's premiere episode, which aired July 11, was not at all good enough to keep the tradition alive. In the family tree of variety shows where the first season of "Family Outing" is looked upon as a game-based variety show rather than a reality-based one, what "Family" accomplished is that it went outside the studio and took advantage of its shooting locations such as rice fields and mud flats. And "Running Man", in which two teams chase after the secret password to escape a big, shut-down building, appears to have pushed to the extreme of making use of its distinct location, as "Family" did.

The problem with the first episode of "Running Man" is that although the show had a format which relied on the uniqueness of venue, it failed to take advantage of that very uniqueness. Inside an awfully spacious, huge shopping mall, the cast members carried out a mission to find 'a store that has the most expensive item'. But with the team moving around together as a group, the screen did not look very dynamic overall. And because one team can catch the other team, the chasing scene of all those team members is, from time to time, caught in one single camera frame.

In accordance with the show's catch phrase, "Run, don't walk", everybody runs around hard during the show. But spending more time running than stopping to play games also dilutes the uniqueness of the show's format. What's more, the producers seem to have their priorities wrong when they decide to show, for a length of time, the cast members having a chicken fight with fifty people while omitting to show their chase to find a wedding hall. On top of all this, when one team pushes the password, the other team can cheat and find out the password. So the final escape mission, where the team that knows the final password wins, makes all the chasing up until that point meaningless. In other words, the show had one idea that was different from other variety programs -- something that could have been speedy and dynamic -- but ended up discarding that one very element. In the next episode of "Running Man", I would like to see some real "running".