The Quiz Show 2 – First Impression

It’s Sho Time.

I have a paper tomorrow, so this has gotta be a quick one ): This is my most anticipated series of the season, very much because of my love for the first installment of The Quiz Show. I’ve been wanting to do a write-up about the first season, but never got the motivation or time to do so. Hopefully I can do it soon, like from tomorrow onwards XD.

Both Sakurai and Yokoyama lost so much weight. But they look so much better, especially Sakurai D:

Premise. Kamiyama Satoru (Sakurai Sho) wakes up in a isolation ward, pale, confused and frightened by the dream he had, but has no memories of anything about himself. So far, all that we know is that he drowned, leaving him in a vegetative state for 6 years, and he largely lost all his memories after he woke up.

The door of the ward opens, and Honma Toshio (Yokoyama Yu) walks in and says ‘it’s time’ coldly. Kamiyama thus get to leave the isolation ward with only one thing to do: to be the host of a wildly popular quiz show ‘The Quiz Show’.

It's kinda creepy that Kamiyama is everywhere...in every sense.

The rules of ‘The Quiz Show’ is fairly simple. There are 7 questions that a participants have to answer, and they will win 10 million yen  if they get through. They will then have the opportunity use the prize money as a stake to challenge a ‘dream chance’. If they answer it correctly, they will be allowed to fulfil any one wish that they have. They will lose the 10 million if they answer the dream chance question wrongly.

It's a quiz show, no it's drama, no it's a quiz show....

This is the live telecast of the programme for the first time, and a singer was chosen to be the contestant for this episode. While the questions started really normal, it started getting weird from the forth question onwards. To the producer’s Saejima Ryoko’s (Maya Miki) dismay, Honma changed the preset questions meant for the quiz, into question that would ultimately reveal the musician’s dark secret to the nation. 

What is Honma’s motive in divulging people’s private lives in a game show? Is he only interested in the ratings, or are there any other motives? What’s the blank in Kamiyama’s memories? Honma is desperate to make Kamiyama recover his memories, but for what reason? These are the questions  that The Quiz Show will answer in the coming weeks.

I'm trying not to become a yaoish fangirl. X|

I promise I’ll talk about Matsuura Aya’s role next week.

Impression. I’m a big fan of the first season, so naturally I would compare the two series. 

Still as creepy and twisted. Hehehe. XD

From what I read on the forums, many thought that Sakurai would not be able to deliver the role as well as Katagiri Jin (the host actor of the first season), but he did a good job in my opinion. I am really glad that Sakurai’s version of the host is, essentially, different from Katagiri’s. Although they are both sacarastic and rude, Katagiri’s Tazaki has more of a looney tone, while Sakurai has a streak of seriousness and evilness.

Really evil look |x_x|

You look the best when you look serious.*

In fact, I thought his fear and confusion in the isolation ward was stronger than Katagiri’s, which would be more reasonable  if you are locked in a room not knowing why the hell you are there. Honma’s role also lacked the sense of lunacy that Yamanobe (the first season producer) had, but he is way scarier than Yamanobe is. The prime difference between the Kamiyama/Honma over the Tazaki/Yamanobe pairing is that Kamiyama seems to be really fearful of Honma, while Tazaki was never looked too scared of Yamanobe. The last scene of this episode shows Kamiyama’s fear of Honma rather effectively.

Wheee, creeepy! but…萌え x_x

Differences aside, it was disappointing that both seasons used the same type of contestants for their debut episode: musicians who committed the same sin. The outcome of the episode would naturally be the same, which killed most of the excitment. Sakurai even asked the same question used in the season 1 episode (what is it like to be a third grade musician), which was a total turn off. I am not interested in watching what I know to expect next (just as I refuse to watch the Korean Hana Yori Dango for the 5th time), so yeah, I hope it would be different from the next episode onwards.

Filed under: Dorama, Jdrama, The Quiz Show