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[Spoilers inevitable<\/em>]<\/span><\/p>\n When I saw that Netflix\u2019s Physical: 100<\/em> franchise has branched off into Physical: Asia<\/em>, I thought that this was an interesting twist on the series, especially if it were going to be solely team-based and never branched off into individual competition.\u00a0 The nationalistic lean of categorizing competitors based on country seemed like a real intriguing way to be more than just a bunch of individuals trying to outdo one another, for the goal of being the Top-1 of Physical.<\/span><\/p>\n After watching Physical: Asia, I have to say that I found it to be completely enjoyable, and I tip my cap to the show for creating a series and format that I found to be captivating and often eliciting tension and excitement for me as a viewer, while also being wholesome and applause-worthy in a manner that\u2019s really basically only possible in shows produced outside of America.<\/span><\/p>\n It’s not because Korea won the whole thing, although that does please me, in spite of the obvious bias accusations that I\u2019m sure I\u2019ll touch on later, but as a whole, the show was exciting, compelling, seldom dull, and kept me on the edge of my seat more often than being able to sit there and simply relax while watching.<\/span><\/p>\n Frankly, I thought Korea had no chance of winning, solely based on the hypothesis that the showrunners wouldn\u2019t want to be accused of favoritism, and find some convoluted manner to eliminate them while not making them appear weak.\u00a0 But at the same time, seeing as how Japan was also a contending nation, I figured they had no shot at winning either, because fuck if a Korean-produced competitive television show would allow Japan to walk away victorious, but more on Japan a little later.<\/span><\/p>\n What was the most refreshing part about the show, to me, is basically the same reason why my wife enjoys The Great British Baking Show<\/em> \u2013 in spite of the competition, everyone is still cool to each other, and there\u2019s a lot of sportsmanship and general respect for one another.\u00a0 Even between the Koreans and Japanese athletes, there\u2019s not any genuine hostility beyond the obvious notion that when it comes down to it, neither of them wants to yield to the other.\u00a0 But otherwise, everyone is all about high-fives, hugs and fist-bumps when they\u2019re not actively trying to eliminate others, and the respect and sportsmanship among all competitors is refreshing to watch, especially as Americans who are so engrained in seeing absolute shitheads and the filth of the earth competing in reality television because controversy creates cash.<\/span><\/p>\n However, in spite of the praise I have for the show overall, I did think that there was some fishiness to the format, that I\u2019m sure people on reddit and other fan discussion forums have probably pointed out:<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n Firstly, let\u2019s talk about Manny Pacquiao\u2019s participation in the show.\u00a0 Obviously, he was brought in to really be the hard sell, to really draw in anyone who was on the fence about the show.\u00a0 One of the greatest boxers of all-time, he\u2019s an easy celebrity to bring in viewers, but what became really apparent as the show took off, was just how good was he going to be able to perform, considering his age compared to many of the other athletes, as well as the fact that, as freak of nature athletic he is, his overall beef was low, and the show has always favored those with some beef.<\/span><\/p>\n When he withdrew from the show \u201cdue to obligations to the Philippines,\u201d I couldn\u2019t help but notice that the very next event, was full of games where Pac-Man would have undoubtedly been exposed, and there was a little bit of stink that he was tipped off and sent off before he could potentially be embarrassed by being unable to parkour over some hurdles, hold half of a ton of weight, hang from some rings for over an hour, or flip a 20kg bag over a high-ass gate.<\/span><\/p>\n Second, let\u2019s get back to Japan.\u00a0 Obviously, I do not hate Japan, but as a full-blooded Korean, I will always support Koreans against the Japanese.\u00a0 That said, I really did think that Japan had no chance of winning the whole thing, whether or not the show made it happen deliberately, or not, notwithstanding how obvious they were going to be.\u00a0 But there were two specific instances where things got kind of fishy for Japan that I noticed, one of which helped them, but the other of them leading to their elimination.<\/span><\/p>\n In the multi-game event, Japan\u2019s \u201cmalfunction\u201d on the pillar pull was a real head-scratcher in that theirs were the only set of pillars to not launch correctly, and the show did a real hackneyed job of cutting the rest of the episode where nobody knew who was going home as they hadn\u2019t done their pillar pull yet, to suddenly bam, Turkiye\u2019s eliminated.\u00a0 My tin-foil hat theory is that the show wanted to keep Japan around, because more nationalistic Koreans would want to see Korea be the ones to eliminate them at a more critical point later on.<\/span><\/p>\n And in the castle crashing event, I know Japan had even admitted that when it came to sheer cumulative strength, they weren\u2019t as beefy as Korea or Mongolia, but it seemed real fishy to me that they were just so suddenly unable to lift the castle gate, at all, at the end, and spent 35 minutes trying and failing, before they got the straight failure result that sent them packing.\u00a0 Yes, they might not have been as collectively strong as the others, but they were still plenty strong enough to be able to at least tug-of-war the gate closed, and even though I bleed Korean, it still seemed fishy that they were sandbagged so hard.\u00a0 It seemed obvious enough that the showrunners might have massaged the challenge lineup to exploit Japan\u2019s deficiencies to get rid of them, but I don\u2019t buy that they were simply outclassed in their end.<\/span><\/p>\n The show also had some hilariously busted challenges, that I don\u2019t think they thought out entirely before executing the show; like twice, they had events that went so long, that the show had to start modifying rules on the fly in order for them to actually be able to conclude, but it was especially funny when it was Japan vs. Korea and the intensity in a tie-breaker got so heated that they had to go like 5-6 rounds before they had to start modifying rules in order for them to just be able to get to a break point.<\/span><\/p>\n But those are really the only criticisms I had about the show.\u00a0 Believe me, I\u2019m still happy that Korea won, but seeing as how it\u2019s a Korean show, held in Korea, it might not have been the worst idea to have allowed for someone else to win this competition, as to avoid the scrutiny that I\u2019ve heard they\u2019re getting already.<\/span><\/p>\n There were some truly incredible athletes that were on the show, and I think it was obvious who the MVPs of every team were, and the thing is that none of these guys were their teams\u2019 captains:<\/span><\/p>\n Korea: Yun Sung-bin<\/span> Honestly, the biggest surprise of the show for me was Japan\u2019s Itoi; I didn\u2019t think a baseball player was going to be nearly as effective as he was, but it\u2019s apparent that he\u2019s not just a baseball player, but rather a physical machine freak of nature, with Japanese discipline.\u00a0 Mongolia\u2019s Enkh-Orgil was also a delight to watch, seeing as how he basically looked like a modern day Genghis Khan, and never shied away from making references to his Mongolian blood and how he\u2019s basically a descendent of Genghis Khan.\u00a0 And finally, I want to point out Thailand\u2019s James, who probably surprised all competitors who saw his effeminate behavior and expected him to be some pushover, but the guy was a do-it-all wunderkind who had strength, brawn and endurance as well as the swag to strut away after he did his thing.<\/span><\/p>\n Overall, I really enjoyed the show, and I hope there will be future seasons of it.\u00a0 I\u2019ve heard that Physical is toying around with doing the Americas, or the United States outright, and I can only imagine the cringey shit-show that would become.\u00a0 Probably kill the whole vibe of the show, but such would be so on-brand for anything that America has to usurp for their own white folk audiences.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [Spoilers inevitable] When I saw that Netflix\u2019s Physical: 100 franchise has branched off into Physical: Asia, I thought that this was an interesting twist on the series, especially if it were going to be solely team-based and never branched off into individual competition.\u00a0 The nationalistic lean of categorizing competitors based on country seemed like a … Continue reading Thoughts on Netflix\u2019s Physical: Asia<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[103,83,69,190],"class_list":["post-50964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brog","tag-motherland","tag-observations","tag-television","tag-white-people"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=50964"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50964\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50967,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50964\/revisions\/50967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=50964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=50964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=50964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nJapan: Yoshio Itoi<\/span>
\nMongolia: Enkh-Orgil Baatarkhuu<\/span>
\nAustralia: Eloni Vunakecev<\/span>
\nPhilippines: Mark Mugen<\/span>
\nTurkey: Anil Berk Baki<\/span>
\nThailand: James Rusameekae Fagerlund<\/span>
\nIndonesia: Jeremiah Lakhwani<\/span><\/p>\n