Review: LegoMasters

So this is very far from an insightful commentary on an obscure piece of cultured television, but it does go well with my last review of competitive reality TV.

Reality TV really is amazing, best paired with the commentary of someone beside you on the couch. It’s essentially the closest I've come to having a "sport" I’ve gotten into. I had never really watched any with my mum and dad though. I don’t think they really saw the appeal of it, which is fair enough. So when we were wondering what to watch on the weekend, I was pretty excited when dad mentioned a show where they compete to make lego designs.

The premise of Legomasters is that each week contestants (in their teams of two) get a Lego building challenge, and whichever team wins at the end are crowned LegoMasters and receive $100,000.

Legomasters is definitely aware of the fact that it has to be careful about not coming across as too “uncool”. Most competitive TV shows are premised on dating, improving appearance, cooking, home renovation, or some other serious adulting activity. Building lego doesn’t really fit the trend. This being said, this point of difference also gives Legomasters a spirit of playfulness and fun that gives it a unique appeal. Legomasters makes an effort to focus on imagination, and it pays off.

The designs that contestants come up with are just incredible. The fact that anyone is able to make these things out of lego is mind-blowing, let alone under the time constraints of the competition. The things that they build are all the things I imagined I could make when I played with lego as a kid.

Lego was an absolutely massive part of my childhood, so watching it with my parents was a chance for us all to reminisce on that, and that was nice. I'm not sure if the show would have the same appeal to everyone, but the dramatic rise in Lego purchases suggests it does (link). If you're skeptical, you might see the show as a big ad, which is fair, but I think there's more to it than that. Maybe it's best summed up with a paraphrasing of one of the contestants, "If we're not having fun building this, we shouldn't be here anymore, that's the whole point".