Opinion Piece - Hyperdrive, and Why I Love Netflix's Trash TV

I talk a lot about how I love trash on this blog. Mainly, that's restricted to films, specifically Fast and Furious, super specifically Hobbs and Shaw but sometimes, my love of trash spreads to TV. Not often, because the nature of that medium usually means you have to spend a lot of time getting invested in badness, compared to the hour and a half your average bad Nic Cage film demands. Still, it happens from time to time and recently, it happened with a new Netflix show called Hyperdrive. For those who don't know (which I assume is most people), it's a show from the producers of Fast and Furious where a bunch of racers and drifters have to drive around a car assault course, full of targets to hit, things to miss and all sorts of ridiculous stuff. I love it and it follows in a similar vein to another trashy Netflix competition show called Ultimate Beastmaster, which I also love. They both have debts than run deeper than that but they're two recent examples of my perfect type of trashy TV and I would love to sit and talk with you about it right now, if you have the time.

Let's clear up the inspiration for these shows straight away then: both of these shows owe a real debt to noughties shows like Ninja Warrior, Takeshi's Castle and Total Wipeout. Mainly it's Ninja Warrior because of the po-faced seriousness but I prefer the other two and would be remiss to not mention them. Anyhoo, what they owe, as you've probably figured out, is the focus on fairly ordinary people doing ridiculous physical feats. Ultimate Beastmaster is basically just Ninja Warrior on Netlfix and with an international focus, whereas Hyperdrive is Ultimate Beastmaster but everyone's in cars instead. That's no bad thing, because I could watch that kind of show for hours on repeat. The joy of Netflix is that I can do exactly that. You sit back with a beer, maybe some crisps and you have a great couple of hours ahead, where people and cars start to fall apart before your very eyes, episode over episode. People falling off obstacles or cars drifting between stuff just has an inherent entertainment value to it, as does those beautiful moments where someone actually manages to ace the course. Hardly cerebral stuff but that is exactly the joy.

A little bit of the joy also comes from the international focus of the shows, although both do it in different ways. Each episode of Ultimate Beastmaster is deliberately structured so that the same amount of athletes from six different countries compete against each other, each being cheered on by two hosts from each country. It creates the vibe of a much stupider Olympics, where competition is still rampant but everyone is quite supportive of each other. Hyperdrive is different, in that everyone is out for themselves and people are from all over the world, being cheered on by four very American hosts. Still, both have an international element to them which works for two reasons. First, it's always fun to see your country and people from it in works made by other countries, and no matter how badly they might do, I can't help but cheer on the Brits. Second, and much more important for Netflix, it allows for them to easily sell their shows all over the globe. Think about it. You could distribute something like Great British Bake Off around the world, which only has so much appeal because it's all in a different language and only stars people from the UK. Alternatively, you shoot something where six different countries bring their own contestants and hosts to the show, revolving those countries around between seasons and making a cheaper show that can be sold further around the world. It is impressive financial savvy that while not tied to my enjoyment of the show, proves why Netflix are so successful at what they do.

I'll get to wrapping this up now, you probably have something better to be reading or you've finished taking your shit. Reality TV is rarely something that I get into but when I do, I really, properly get into it. You are, after all, reading the words of someone whose decision to buy a VPN was largely based on not wanting to miss Great British Bake Off, The Circle or The Apprentice. Ultimate Beastmaster and Hyperdrive are just the latest examples of my prediliction for trash, it's just that their appeal is the hyper seriousness, as opposed to the twee sincerity of our little British shows. Yep, that's about all I have to say on those. I'm done. You can go now, have a nice day!