Netflix’s The Devil’s Plan is filling the Survivor-shaped hole in my heart

polygon.com:

I’ve always loved competition-based reality TV, especially any series with alliances and backstabbing — think shows like Survivor, The Amazing Race, and Big Brother, although the list goes on. I’ve finally found a new heir apparent to the genre, a Korean show called The Devil’s Plan. In The Devil’s Plan, which I mainlined on Netflix, players compete in brain games to win gold pieces. Players who lose all their pieces are eliminated, until there’s one winner left standing.

The show replicates the best parts of Survivor: excellent casting, social strategizing, and competitive challenges. But The Devil’s Plan also refreshes the genre with its emphasis on cooperation. Unlike the shows I watched growing up, every single Devil’s Plan match requires players to cooperate with each other in some way. Alliances are constantly formed and broken both in the shared living space and also during the course of puzzle-based matches. It’s so tense that people cry over math calculations or board game moves, fretting over being targeted or betraying others. It makes for extremely entertaining television.

The Devil’s Plan’s premise, like its matches, is complicated, but satisfyingly so. A group of 12 brainiacs and actors (basically, people who would crush it at puzzles or deception) live in one house. Though players have varied backgrounds, they all excel in their fields — there’s a professional Go player, a seasoned broadcast journalist, a hugely popular science YouTuber, and even a K-pop idol. They play two matches a day: one “competitive,” which always requires tactical teamwork, and one explicitly “cooperative.” During these matches, players win or lose gold pieces. Players can also give pieces to one another between matches, in a sign