E4 reality show Josh Must Win isnt really about the underdog at all.
AfterThe Traitorstook the world by storm, high concept reality shows which arent about dating are hot property.
Its pitched as a nicer brand of reality show.
But is it, really?
At the end of each day contestants vote for their favourite and least favourite contestants.
Only the public vote doesnt exist and the celebs are just picking who they want to send home.
So until the finale Josh literally cant be voted out.
This mechanic is in fact also a fix.
The maximum amount of money in the prize pot, we are told, is 100k.
Do you know what this also means?
Its all been utterly irrelevant.
So as a game, it doesnt really work and it is basically inconsequential… And hes had validation after discovering the viewers have voted for him to stay in the competition.
Only they havent, have they?
And if it was a real show hed have gone home in episode one.
Whats that gonna do for your confidence when the cameras stop rolling?
And then theres the rest of the contestants.
Which he clearly is.
Hes obviously still upset when he comes out of the show.
What about lovely Sofia, who thinks the viewers have saved her three times?
A weird, fake lesson in how to be reality popular.
Maybe Josh is fine as he is, hanging out with his mum and enjoying his wrestling.
Maybe he doesnt actually want to be an alpha in the mold of every other person in the house.
But in the real world hes not getting cast.
He is only cast because he is, indeed, an underdog.
But rather than celebrating the underdog, Josh has to have that manipulated out of him.
There are sweet moments here, sure.
Sophia showed mad determination in the egg task despite being considerably smaller than some of the other contestants.
Liking Josh isnt intrinsically morally superior to preferring one of the others.
Jack isnt automatically a nob for playing a game he didnt understand.
That would have been a wild ending!!!).
Lets hope E4 has some decent aftershow care.
The whole series of The Underdog: Josh Must Win is available to stream on Channel 4.
