Watching Physical:100 on Netflix

One of the thing I have really liked in Devil’s Plan and Physical:100 is how respectful and humble all the contestants are. This is really prevalent on Physical. When they win, they are so excited and when they lose they admit defeat gracefully and many say that they should have worked harder. 100 of the strongest people in Korea compete in quests and fights to keep their bust in tact. I’ve seen people call this a real-life Squid Game. In some ways they are right. It’s got the test of physical strength, the plot twists and ominous music. The lighting and stages are very dark like they are in a horror movie or an execution room.

The first episode puts us straight into a black room with 100 white torso busts. The introduction tells us this show is an experiment to find out what the perfect body is. The white torsos really pop out with the black and then the players slowly come in and they find out that the busts have all got names on. The players come in all shapes and sizes and includes men and women. They don’t look at age and gender and only rely on strength.

It was hard to find somebody to root for at first because keeping up with a 100 contestants is hard. The challenges are hard too. The moments where the players are hard on themselves are hard to watch. When they struggle in the games some even wonder if they are really as good as they think they are. They’re so determined to win and all of the players have a fire in their spirit.

The first task they have to do is hold onto a bar for as long as possible. I wouldn’t have lasted a second, but a lot of these people were hanging on for ages. The people that managed to hold on the longest got priority and advantages in the first proper game which was one on one match where the players had to be the player to hold the ball before their time limit is up. There were a lot of intense fights but I did find myself skipping a few times cause a lot of the fights felt competitive. I loved how the other players had their favourites and noticed a lot of them rooted for the underdogs. The losers who get eliminated have to destroy their bust.

The second quest was my favourite and I thought it was a lot of fun to watch. I liked how they all worked as teams to build bridges and to pour sand into their tubes. It really felt it could have been in a challenge in Squid Game especially how none of the teams know who won until the leader of the losing team falls off the bridge. I was on the edge of my seat and most of the teams were really close with the challenge with the exception of the last one.

The wildcard match was amazing. Seeing all the busts hang in the air with the red light really made it sound like a horror scene. The players that got eliminated in the sand game have to hold onto their bust so it doesn’t fall to the floor. These busts are heavy and they had to keep on holding till only five people were left. Some of them looked like they had already given up.

It was a shame that the underdogs and the people who won the wildcard match got eliminated after the ship game. As most of the ones that stood out got wiped out, and found it hard to carry on watching, but I persevered.

Physical:100 was enjoyable. It was repetitive at times, but it had a really strong middle and there was lots of tension. I admired all of the players for their strength and hard work. I did feel inspired to do more workouts after watching the show.