The new Netflix game show What’s In The Box? plays out more like a reality competition than a game show, with a real emphasis on contestant reactions about the prizes and the other contestants rather than game play. Whether that’s a good thing or not is up for debate.
Opening Shot: Host Neil Patrick Harris stands in front of a stage full of huge boxes. “Behind me are 13 enormous gold boxes. Each one contains an unbelievable, unimaginable, unforgettable prizes.”
The Gist: In What’s In The Box?, hosted by Harris, eight two-person teams play the entire season, hoping to be in position to open as many of the 13 boxes as possible and hold onto the prizes.
A trivia question is asked of the 8 teams so they can get a chance to open the first box, which is called “Open Road.” The team that’s closest to the answer gets that chance. Then, that team has to put items in order to get chances to remove numbers from a grid. Behind those numbers are keywords; if the team successfully plays all three words, the box is unlocked and they win that prize.
However, there are also decoy words on the grid, as well as “wild cards.” Some are good, like extra plays, some affect other teams. Two good examples are “Who’s Next,” where the team playing the box has to pick someone to come down and take their place. Another wild card allows the team playing the box to freeze out another team for the length of time that box is being played.
A key wild card, though one that wasn’t seen in the first episode, is a “Steal” card, which allows the players to steal a prize won by another team. The team with the most boxes won after all 13 are revealed play for the “Superbox”, which is worth over $250,000.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? What’s In The Box? gives us strong Deal Or No Deal vibes, though it seems like there are Big Brother-esque reality elements married to the game show format, as we’ll explain below.
Our Take: The producers had to know that the gameplay of What’s In The Box? was inherently boring because they’ve larded the show down with so many reality elements it’s silly. We’ve got the teams doing side interviews reacting to things, then we have cameras in the contestant podiums so we can flash among teams reacting to the team that’s playing a box is doing. Then there is the idea that “alliances” can be made through some of the wild cards, while other wild cards might put a “target on the backs” of some of the teams.
It’s all highly annoying. The game itself has a little bit of strategy, like the idea that if you play a word to try to unlock a box and it’s a decoy, you have to earn more plays with another “put these in order” question. But most of the strategy has to do with steals and/or handing control of a box over to another team, who could end up winning the contents of that box.
The box reveals themselves are interesting, often holding a celebrity that represents an experience prize, as opposed to an actual material prize like a car. We found it interesting that the value of the prizes — either the experience prizes or the material ones — aren’t emphasized. It’s probably because the goal is to have as many boxes as possible going into the Superbox round, not the value of the prizes in those boxes, but it’s something that’s disconcerting to hardcore game show fans like us.
Like most modern game shows, the producers favor contestants that have no problems being loud and chatty, and have them on hot mics the entire time. This also gives the show a more reality than game show feel, but it can get grating after awhile. The first two episodes tended to drag for a couple of reasons: Producers seemed to highlight only about half of the eight teams, and because only a few boxes had been opened, there were no real opportunities for steals, which we suspect will make the show more interesting in later episodes.
Performance Worth Watching: Neil Patrick Harris does what needs to be done as a game show host: He has good command of the game, roots for contestants, and jokes around with them when they do or say something that’s funny. There are times when he is a little too serious; hopefully, NPH’s sincere snarkiness will come out more as things get more competitive.
Sex And Skin: None.
Parting Shot: The second box is unlocked, and the credits roll as everyone reacts to the prize reveal. Of course, we don’t see that prize reveal until the next episode starts because of Netflix’s annoying habit of reality and game show cliffhangers.
Sleeper Star: We give credit to the celebrities who have to sit in a box while the box is being played. It must feel like an eternity as the game goes along.
Most Pilot-y Line: We can’t emphasize enough how annoying we find the cameras that are in each contestant podium, mainly because the producers switch between them in rapid-fire fashion.
Our Call: SKIP IT. While the prizes up for grabs on What’s In The Box? are exciting and NPH is an affable host, the game play drags and the reality elements are too irritating to keep us watching.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.