Go Fighting! Season 1 (2015)

TLDR: WATCH. I‘m writing this really lengthy review because I hope to encourage more people to watch this masterpiece (and also express my love for this variety show as well).

(Please note that since this is a delayed review and I have watched up till Season 3 now, this is sort of a combined review for all 3 seasons. But season 1 was what truly captured my heart so in that case, even though every episode of Go Fighting is precious to me, I would deem season 1 to be the best since it's also the foundation of inside jokes in Season 2/3. Please start by watching Season 1. Just try out 2 episodes and you will be sold. I still remember -- I liked the first episode and laughed until my cheek hurt but it was by episode 2 that I knew I was completely sold.)

This is one of the first Chinese reality show I started watching and it brought me into the land of Chinese reality shows. After so many reality shows, this is still my favourite.  I know that I can count on this to bring me happiness and lift me to a better mood every time I watch an episode no matter how I felt before watching it (be it happy, sad or angry). That's how amazing it is.  There is consistency in quality.

Storyline 8/10
Honestly, there is nothing special about these storylines. It's decent, but there are tens of other shows with similar storylines. There are also many other shows that s tried to replicate the 6-male hosts 'gang of brotherhood' format that this show has after Go Fighting shot to success but I personally feel that none of this shows compared up to Go Fighting. I have tried to watch many similar shows with cast members whom I'm interested in but they fell pretty flat for me. The chemistry of those shows were lacking. I still managed to watch some of them but I couldn't make myself sit past a few episodes for some of them. I would think that the benchmark set by Go Fighting  is too high. It is really one of the most successful reality shows around.

Cast 10/10
I watched the first episode when it was airing because I saw Show Luo in the cast and boom, I never turned back again. Today,  season 3 is already out and I still love this show to bits. When I started watching the show, I only knew Show. (Punny... Ha ha.) But now, I love every single one of them.  The show did well in fleshing out the distinct personality of each one of them. The most important thing was that it did not feel forced. It was unlike other shows where each cast member was awkwardly force fitted into a role / stereotype. In fact, it was done so well that... my favourite cast member is now Huang Lei for his intelligence. I would never have thought that I would be so invested in a bunch of... uncles. (To be honest, Show is not too young anymore....) But really, if you made me rank the cast members according to how much I like each of them... I think it would be really tough. Even though I already adore Show Luo to bits and he is indeed very hilarious and comical in Go Fighting, each and every of the cast member shine in their own way and I love them equally much.

Sun Hong Lei. The oldest of the bunch. In a lot of Chinese shows, there is a very big thing about respecting seniors (not just elderly, but basically people with more experience than you). It is usually the cause of awkwardness because everyone has to be super careful around the eldest. But Sun Hong Lei breaks the stereotype. For one, he's not wise at all. Even though you still see people respecting him because he is the oldest, it is not too bad because Sun Hong Lei's existence itself is... a bug. He's violent. He cheats. He steals. He robs. He doesn't play by the rules. He think he is handsome. He is so ridiculous, it is extremely hilarious. So while there is respect towards him, his behaviour as a three year old kid doesn't distance the others as much. I held my reservations against him when I first started watching. But over time, his absurd presence just became... a source of comfort.

Huang Lei. The wise man. His intelligence is so high that I suspected he was cheating on a number of times. (But as it turns out, it seems that he was just really logical and knew how the producer team worked really well.) High IQ and high EQ. He's a joy to watch because you see him solving puzzles and challenges set by the producer team... Amazing even though he lacks physical advantages. I don't have much to elaborate about him because 'High IQ and High EQ' describes everything already. But rest assured, he is definitely not boring at all. His intelligence stole the show so many times (and once again, he is my favourite cast member which means his performance can't be lacking).

I'm not sure if this is considered a spoiler or not (consider yourself warned) but I would like to share this particular scene involving Sun Hong Lei and Huang Lei. I don't remember which season/episode it is from but to me, it was such a worthy moment because it showed off their respective characteristics so well. In that scene, we follow Huang Lei as he made a WHOLE BUNCH of impressive logical deductions (that pretty much no one else could do) based on the hints received and finally solving the secret code to open a treasure chest. While the audience is still awed by Huang Lei's spectacular performance, the scene cuts to Sun Hong Lei retrieving the item inside the treasure chest as well... But wait, Sun Hong Lei is known to be silly! He couldn't have possibly achieve that.... faster than Huang Lei too!... And then we see a playback.... Sun Hong Lei had simply smashed the treasure chest. Easily. No hesitation. That was such a golden moment. And that scene made me fall in love with the show once again.

This is a show that never plays by the rules. They never do things according to how a normal person think which is why it is so fun. Rules are indeed there to be broken and it would be a weird episode if everyone abided by the rules. In fact, towards the back, the cast members started coming up with their own rules to fool other members. And in Go Fighing, even the production team doesn't play by the rules: sometimes, when you win, you lose. When you lose, you actually win. Everything is ridiculous... yet fun. Ok, back to introduction of the cast members.

Zhang Yixing. Lay from Exo. I didn't know him prior to watching this show. And Lay's identity in this show was a lamb. He's young and innocent and easily fooled. His silliness started in Season 1 Episode 1 (I still remember that particular scene because it was so iconic even though it was not heavily discussed but I shall not step on boundaries and share it here in case that counts as a spoiler).  It was blown out of proportions by episode 2. I thought he was acting innocent at first. But over the season, you realise that he is really just like that. But something really heartening is that somewhere along the way, he made Huang Lei, the wily old fox, his shifu (master) and by season 2, he has graduated to be a sly little fox. Watching his character growth (who would have thought there would be character growth in a variety show as well!) was really fulfilling.

Show Luo Zhixiang. He is simply funny. From episode 1, he was the reason why I laughed till both my cheeks and stomach hurt. And mind you, I was watching that at 1am because I saw a notification about this new show on my phone right before I slept. I decided to postpone sleeping and that 1.5 hours was about the best decision ever. Even though I have an immense love for Show, I do feel that he is the most awkward member in the cast. It feels like he hasn't fully integrated with them (maybe because he is the only Taiwanese). But that did not affect the viewing pleasure because Show, himself, is hilarious! A lot of the best laugh-out-loud moments in Season 1 has to be credited to Show. He make funny out of nothing! And over time, he did integrate into the cast (while maintaining his hilarity).

Huang Bo. When I first started watching, I thought Huang Bo's role was the least distinct. I felt like he was designed to be funny but he couldn't even compare up to Show Luo. It was later in the show that I realised his role is crucial. He was the one that tied the six of them together. Huang Bo is a big name and he was the only one that could (and dared to openly) shoot down and manage Sun Hong Lei (probably because the two of them have similar standing). He balances the game out by supporting Huang Lei who had the brains to pit themselves against Sun Hong Lei's destructive nature. Without him, there won't be so much fun with the brains vs brawns because Sun Hong Lei would be overpowered.

Wang Xun. Quite a controversial guy but I shall not talk about that. I do like Wang Xun a lot. His stinginess is one of the funniest thing on the show. To me, it never gets old. It's even funnier because Wang Xun's status is one of the lowest in the cast so even though he would like to be stingy, he is always forced by the others to pretend to be generous. He's also the (not-so-bright) sidekick that gets bullied all the time. Apparently, the show was trying to portray him as a 'good guy' character but I never really felt that way. Honestly, the silly, stingy, little bullied guy is a perfect personality already. It's also funny how Wang Xun seems to be so silly and led around or cheated all the time. But his 'win-rate' is surprisingly high... Guess this is what they mean by 'the silly has their own fortune'.

The cast is fantastic. Don't be turned away even if you are not familiar with them. They bring so much joy! They are each funny on their own and their chemistry together is also fantastic. They mix very well amongst the group of 6 as well. In fact, the best episodes are when there are no guests. While other shows invite guests to boost their ratings, I sigh whenever I see guests on the show. While the six are still funny with their antics, to accommodate to guests, the extent of craziness to which they display does get tuned down. One of the rare guest-episodes I liked was the one with Wang Da Lu, Xie Na and Jiang Jinfu though. They were completely lost and left behind by the six. It really display the 'true spirit' of Go Fighting of not doing things the normal way (hence throwing the guests off).  After all that I said, just watch it already!

Music 8/10
Okay, to be honest I don't pay much attention to the music and I can't really recall offhand about the music. But I remember reading youtube comments that say that the music is the first (two?) season(s) is/are better and more varied because of copyright issues etc. While I don't recall much, I know that the iconic scenes are really good and the music didn't ruin it so I'm giving it a good rating of 8. Plus, Season 1's music & sound effect is definitely good/decent and by season 2, regardless of how crappy the music might have became, you would still want more so this rating is negligible. Bahahaha.

Rewatch value 10/10
Still funny no matter how many times I watch it. Cheers me up every single time.

Overall 10/10
Because this is (one of the) best! (Alright, I have to admit, I have added a few more 'favourite' variety show along my reality show watching journey. But this is definitely the best within its category/theme of 'games & challenges' reality show!)

...I hope this is not too much but I wrote a couple of posts regarding Go Fighting on my drama blog... I'm really not trying to advertise my own blog by writing this lengthy review... I genuinely wanted to share my love... But if anyone already watched the show and would like to discuss / want to read more about the show before watching, do head over to https://skimmedmilkdrama.com/tag/go-fighting/ . I've written about Zhang Yixing's growth from a lamb to a fox, recapped & reviewed the first episode of the first season of Go Fighting and shared many lovey and funny screencaps and gifs of my favourite moments of Go Fighting! If you are still hesitating, just go look at the screencaps. You will feel like you HAVE to watch the show then. It's that fabulous.

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