It's amazing how good 1-2-3 game turned out giving new viewer memorable characters right from the start -- you get all kinds of plays in the premiere -- Cha gathers big crowd and reveals simplistic 3 strategy, Jungmoon and Changeyop go a bit beyond that and do a safe 4:4 play, Jinho and Junseok create the best power strat of 9:0 but get too afraid to execute it fully which becomes their downfall, Sangmin tries to bond with Sunggyu but Sunggyu looking at Sangmin as "has-been", Gura being the shadow version of Cha, Eunji being kinda busybody running around investigating shadowy figure behind Sunggyu's win, Kyungran the puppet master, Sangmin creating a fun twist (
Bangarang!) out of thin air and book-smart gamer Jinho collectively made into a fool by entire cast because "that'd more fun".
Also -- Jinho is
2nd winner and he has
2 garnets AND he was placed 11th in deathmatch RPS line-up (1+1=
2). That
2 will haunt Jinho forever.
It is very fun to reminisce and look at the very first episode of The Genius with the knowledge of what's going to happen in S1.
Even more fun to look at The Genius at bigger scale and compare 1-2-3 to Grand Finale. First episode of season 4 feels very much like a "nostalgic" callback to the very first episode and has a similar "everyone vs everyone" feel. But the landscape has changed. Among experienced TG players "simple!" strats just don't fly and there are numerous "game breakers" just waiting for their chance.
In the very last episode (no spoilers!) level of gameplay jumps further exponentially to mindboggling math expressions like these:
TG's biggest achievement is casting and nurturing players into intellectual giants capable to manipulate numbers like these under pressure. Still, as impressive sheer mental prowess of the finalists is, fair-play attitude is just as important. I still think of individual performance in 4x11 and 4x12 as some of the classiest behavior ever. Not just on game show or on TV in general, just -- ever.
"Ugly victories and beautiful defeats..."
Cosmic level of competition but also prevailing fair conduct. Edit weaving the footage of 13 people playing board games into compelling arcs. Montage of finalists in the spotlight talking about their lives up to this moment and contrasting and comparing between them -- this editing is much a masterclass as the ensuing mental battle itself. The Genius is an inspiring triumph of performance from both playing cast and production team alike.
There will never be more of The Genius and there will never be anything like The Genius. Producer ended it at it's peak ("leave when your audience still wants for more"):
It is a good thing. Your memories of the show are still there and you can learn from them to always strive to be a better, smarter and more wholesome person in your professional and personal life.
Some interviews after the show ended:
Yeonseung's great write-up about his experience on the show
Youhyun's interviews, one on youtube:
And another on a podcast:
https://geniuscast.podbean.com/e/youhyun-dennis-kim-interview/