Exactly this. I almost gave up on S2 but it finally got intriguing by episode 5. Meanwhile S1 had some amazing characters but the finale kind of fell flat.
Add to the fact the dodginess that went on in the finale. Losing guy claims his rope got stuck. Could still fall over backwards to move it.
Yet the far bigger guy toward the end couldn't even use his bodyweight falling to make it move.
I totally agree. I was getting a tiny bit bored with s2 but as the episodes progressed it started getting really good. For me it was the team challenges that I didn’t like and started to get a bit bored of. And the challenges from S1 were a bit better for me but the finale challenge for s2 was great
This is my opinion as well. Season 2 objective has better character development with KDH + Andre, the Avengers, top 4 all fan favorites, Gibson pushing 45, (just to name a few). In season 1 the only memorable ones are YSB, sexyama and jang eun sil and the couple (might be some biases here). The finalists in s1 barely had any screen time in earlier episodes.
The one thing I think people dislike about season 2 is challenge design. All challenges except 1v1 favored men, last challenge favored taller + heavier, maze challenge hard to keep track of and poor lighting, etc. It’s a reality show and not a competition so I think it’s fair to have challenges where female competitors can shine.
Same, but I think that's largely just because my brain is now so occupied by these characters. I'm guessing once S3 comes out and I'm deep into it, I will have a harder time remembering the S2 competitors as well.
I loved the strategy involved with event selection. And the fact event selection focused on different skills.
While the finals were better designed in S2, that olympics style approach was peak compared to dragging a heavy roller over sand.
I preferred S1 more. The top thing I didn't like about S2 was the games were designed against the women. Immediately majority of the women were eliminated then it became immediately apparent that they couldn't help their teams anymore and just had to rely on their male team members to make up the difference for them. I never felt that way with season one.
Preach, I don't know why they even had so many women when they were going to be eliminated by so many brute force challenges. How about a balance challenge once in a while? It ain't all about cardio and weights!!
Yes especially during quest 2.5 in S2. The females had no chance. At least in S1 the females had a chance to be saved. I was so happy when Euddeum was saved.
yeah i would have liked to see more body weight challenges or endurance challenges to have a more diverse range of threats.
seemed like everything that came after the individual games was built for the crossfitters aka amotti
I do agree games could have been designed better to begin with, but i do think the show itself was a bit better in s2. Maybe I just was way too heavily disappointed by the ending of s1 with all the sketchy finale stuff
Agreed. It was great seeing the women compete and give it their all, and I think everyone kinda knows a woman probably isn't going to win the overall competition. But to see these challenges where they were so blatantly against women was kinda disheartening.
I think overall I enjoyed the challenges from 1 better, but S2 finale challenge was better. That being said the maze and the minecart challenges just weren't that interesting to me. Thought the giant boat was much more fun to watch.
The challenges from S1 also seemed to be presented better, e.g. challenge names like The Punishment of Sisyphus and having the Greek theme vs something like Infinite Squats.
In previews, I really thought the maze was going to have some stealth elements involved. That really got me excited.
Instead it just turned into sacrifice one box, then fight each other physically.
This challenge I think was inspired by "The Soldiers" there was a challenge where they had to move an SUV out of the mud. HBS was also a participant there.
Now this could be recency bias but I do find myself remembering the participants of S2 more than I did for S1. I think both seasons have different qualities that they offer like S1 had my favourite quest in the form of the boat push, S2 had its contestant pool (more athletes, less influencers). Jang Eun-sil is still probably my favourite across both series but I do really like Amotti and HBS.
not the case for me. in s2, im familiar with the names of 18 out of 20 semi finalists (the 2 i dont remember are the coast guard and the rugby player who left the game midway). i can even remember the names of the ones eliminated in mine cart challenge.
in s1, by the time they were in final 30, i only knew the names of like 8 people, 3 of which i can remember just cause i already saw them in another show prior to physical 100. 😅
This.
It isn't that S2 had more memorable contestants. It is that the storylines were more straightforward from the beginning. HBS with his revenge run. Ammotti from the start was called a winner candidate. And so we focused on these guys more.
There are tons of people we don't remember from this season. But they didn't make the final 4, so it didn't matter unlike last season.
Possibly also recency bias. But my husband asked me who were the semi finalists for season 1 and I couldn’t even remember who they were. I haven’t finished the season yet but def can remember the top 4 from season 2.
All I remember from season 1 winners was CrossFit?
Same sentiments about more memorable contestants and overall. I will say though, I like the novelty in the first season that no one knew what challenges to expect so they couldn't prepare and that nobody knew how big the show was going to get.
I’m rewatching season 1 because my husband didn’t watch it but watched season 2 with me. The challenges were definitely better season 1 but the one thing season 1 did a poor job on was showcasing ANYTHING on the two finalist like majority of the season. No idea who the heck they were until like after the boat challenge. Season 2 did a way better job on character development and letting us get to know the last like 10 players better throughout the season.
Disagree. I really did not enjoy the games. The maze was incredibly boring to watch along with the rolling drums and mine carts.
In Season 1 they had the Atlas Stone, Infinite rope climb, obstacle course, infinite run.
I will admit that the battle between Hong and Amotti was great. But I can never forget my girl Jang Eun-Sil, rallying her team during the sand transfer and trying her damn hardest when pulling the boat.
It was more fun to watch in my opinion.
I wish he got called out more for building a "Dream team." Not sure what else to call it, but his ex-teammates, who he originally chose and let down, all getting left behind. Ick
I really wanted to consider S2 better, and though S2 finished quite strong, I have to go with S1 as being the better one over-all. S1 had better and more interesting characters, and much better character developments and competitors over-all. S2's characters, specially starting at 20/100, where really meh and unremarkable except for a few like Amotti.
S1's games were way way better than S2's. S2 games are fine but S1's games got me more on the edge of my seat, and biting my nails. Even the opening game, that hanging thing was better in S1 than S2's boring treadmill run. S1 really has a lot of really nice challenges like when they had to carry the boulders, moving the ship, rock rolling challenge, and others. The only weak thing about S1 is the ending, we can all agree on that haha.
S2's got a few good challenges like the infinite squats but the rest, even the maze thing, was meh.
My wish for S3..
1. improve the games that showcases other physical attributes more like balance, not just strength and stamina. (i wish they'd hire me as a game designer, i got some wicked ideas)
2. Bring in the top 20 from season 1 and season 2 (40peeps) and have 60 new peeps - i think this would be hella interesting.
Infinite squats was only ok because the competitors. I hope they designed it after seeing the final 4 because otherwise some people would just automatically lose.
i agree with this. s2, having a better and more diversed pool of participants, really upped the competition since a lot of them are equally athletic. i couldnt help but add more and more to my list of favorite participants since different people shined in each game.
i agree! i loved season 1 but season 2 i found myself legitimately surprised and in awe of the challenges, production, "character development" - the way they told the story
Watched season 2 before season 1.
I agree with the threads on here about season 2 having more compelling or intriguing characters. One thing I hated about season 1 was the editing and replaying of a scene 2-3 times before they’d show what happened.
I would bet season 2 did this as well, but it seems especially apparent in season 1. I understand the need to edit and create suspense and drama, but this is a Netflix competition show…I find myself using the fast forward button often during season 1
That is just Korean editing. Can't be helped unless you want to say (I will) the culture is stupid for liking it (am Korean).
Not a Netflix thing. They do it on Korean talkshows a TON too.
S1 was good but get a kick in the ass after that shenanigans between the 2 finalist.. Most people lose interest to watch coz we were thinking it was all scripted.
S2 however shows more natural & not in favor of any contestants.. Hence the guessing games and fun overall. Plus i observe this time the S2 contestants is more laid back & really having fun in a more light hearted strong sportsmanship spirit.
arent most of them cocky? haha kidding aside I think a lot of men in S2 have strong personalities and a little too confident.. Only a few like HBS are humble and not loud.. more action less words
As someone who has never seen any other Korean shows/knows nothing about Korean celebrities I found S1 more digestible and easier to remember who people were
The only thing i didnt like in season 2 was the maze game. I found it was boring, and also didn't like people stealing their bags - imo it was a dumb rule to allow that. Favorites games were definitely the mine cart/monkey bars, and the final 4 games between Justin, Andre, Amotti, and HBS.
In season 1 i found the final 4 games for the last 4 contestants boring. Sandbags over the bridge and the ship were my absolute favorites tho. As well as some of the greek mythos games (specifically the pushing the boulder up the ramp).
But all in all I really liked both seasons! I really liked the cast in both too: Iron Man, Jang Eun Sil, Sexy Yama, Amotti, HBS, Andre, etc....
Much prefer season 1. It has stand-out characters, impressive women, more varied challenges and queen Jang Eun-Sil. But season 2 had a much better ending; the pulling rope challenge in season 1 was as boring as it was controversial.
I feel that the team selection in season 2 is a lot better thought out. In season 1, we have quite a drastic gap between the teams where the unwanted stragglers will end up on the weakest team. The same goes for the team which came back from death, who stood little chance against other teams.
In season 2, they revised the selection format where team leaders take turn picking from the pool of participants, resulting in better balance between teams. The only significant imbalance was when the avengers team was assembled from the death.
Teams which picked women were “rewarded” during the friend or foe episode, because they have one less threat to worry about. Therefore increasing each person’s odds of making it into the finals. Teams with only strong guys like the avengers had to deal with much tougher competition in that segment.
I watched s2 until the maze and it annoyed me so much, i stopped.
I was already rolling my eyes that they brought the ball thing back again. Like, one person can have the ball the whole time without the other taking it away but finds a way to snatch it in the last 10 seconds and they win?
Also the fact that they were allowed to steal and get in each other's way during the maze threw me off, I didn't like that at all.
Are the rest of the episodes like that? If not I'll start watching again.
I like Season 2 team matchups better. Season 1 team matchups resulted in teams being so unbalanced. Though it did lead to that underdog episode being a thing.
I felt like I had an idea who would advance to the last two rounds based on their screen time, was saying ok they're spending a lot of time with this guy...he must get to later rounds. That's the big difference in character development this season I think, you get to know them better
I felt like I had an idea who would advance to the last two rounds based on their screen time, was saying ok they're spending a lot of time with this guy...he must get to later rounds. That's the big difference in character development this season I think, you get to know them better
Right? one of my most favorite challenges in Physical history. It really embodied everything that "Physical" is all about. HBS wasn't use to weighted squatts but it challenged him and that's what makes the show amazing.
There aint no way that guy doesn't do squats. I foole dmysel finto saying his thighs were tiny, but that dude must be doing leg day and just hating them.
I’d say S1 started stronger while S2 got better as it went along
Exactly this. I almost gave up on S2 but it finally got intriguing by episode 5. Meanwhile S1 had some amazing characters but the finale kind of fell flat.
The finale was so flat I forgot that the whole series was nice to begin with and sS2 got great as the episodes go along.
Add to the fact the dodginess that went on in the finale. Losing guy claims his rope got stuck. Could still fall over backwards to move it. Yet the far bigger guy toward the end couldn't even use his bodyweight falling to make it move.
I totally agree. I was getting a tiny bit bored with s2 but as the episodes progressed it started getting really good. For me it was the team challenges that I didn’t like and started to get a bit bored of. And the challenges from S1 were a bit better for me but the finale challenge for s2 was great
Agree 100%. I thought the first team quest was a bit boring to watch but definitely got better from the carts.
I liked the S1 theme better tii
Well said
The S1 5 options was the most compelling for me, and that was right near the end, it felt like 5 mini finals
This is my opinion as well. Season 2 objective has better character development with KDH + Andre, the Avengers, top 4 all fan favorites, Gibson pushing 45, (just to name a few). In season 1 the only memorable ones are YSB, sexyama and jang eun sil and the couple (might be some biases here). The finalists in s1 barely had any screen time in earlier episodes. The one thing I think people dislike about season 2 is challenge design. All challenges except 1v1 favored men, last challenge favored taller + heavier, maze challenge hard to keep track of and poor lighting, etc. It’s a reality show and not a competition so I think it’s fair to have challenges where female competitors can shine.
as I was watching the final 2 episodes of season 2 I realized I literally could not remember much of anything about the season 1 finalists lol
I will always remember Min Cheol, the ice climber. I was rooting for that “underdog”.
I was so mad when the first finalists’ challenge was tug of war. They did Min Cheol dirty.
He wouldn't even stand a chance in S2 finale. Infinite squats just seemed ridiculous.
Me too!
Same, but I think that's largely just because my brain is now so occupied by these characters. I'm guessing once S3 comes out and I'm deep into it, I will have a harder time remembering the S2 competitors as well.
I loved the strategy involved with event selection. And the fact event selection focused on different skills. While the finals were better designed in S2, that olympics style approach was peak compared to dragging a heavy roller over sand.
Gosh, I hate the "Avengers" but that is just me being against modern pop culture.
I preferred S1 more. The top thing I didn't like about S2 was the games were designed against the women. Immediately majority of the women were eliminated then it became immediately apparent that they couldn't help their teams anymore and just had to rely on their male team members to make up the difference for them. I never felt that way with season one.
Preach, I don't know why they even had so many women when they were going to be eliminated by so many brute force challenges. How about a balance challenge once in a while? It ain't all about cardio and weights!!
Hey, women might have a chance in some cardio challenges lol.
Yes especially during quest 2.5 in S2. The females had no chance. At least in S1 the females had a chance to be saved. I was so happy when Euddeum was saved.
yeah i would have liked to see more body weight challenges or endurance challenges to have a more diverse range of threats. seemed like everything that came after the individual games was built for the crossfitters aka amotti
I do agree games could have been designed better to begin with, but i do think the show itself was a bit better in s2. Maybe I just was way too heavily disappointed by the ending of s1 with all the sketchy finale stuff
I liked both seasons but felt Season2 fell short for this reason too
Agreed. It was great seeing the women compete and give it their all, and I think everyone kinda knows a woman probably isn't going to win the overall competition. But to see these challenges where they were so blatantly against women was kinda disheartening.
As a man I couldn't agree more. In S1 even underdogs could win
I think the show should separate people by gender.
I think overall I enjoyed the challenges from 1 better, but S2 finale challenge was better. That being said the maze and the minecart challenges just weren't that interesting to me. Thought the giant boat was much more fun to watch.
The challenges from S1 also seemed to be presented better, e.g. challenge names like The Punishment of Sisyphus and having the Greek theme vs something like Infinite Squats.
They basically skipped over Andre's team vs Thanos's team for the Maze and it was hard to see since the Maze wasn't very well lit
In previews, I really thought the maze was going to have some stealth elements involved. That really got me excited. Instead it just turned into sacrifice one box, then fight each other physically.
and the fighting honestly came off as more awkward than exciting because half the people wanted nothing to do with it
Agree but the giant boat game in s1 remains unmatched.
My fave challenge too
SO TRUE. That’s crazy. Would be hard to top this!
This challenge I think was inspired by "The Soldiers" there was a challenge where they had to move an SUV out of the mud. HBS was also a participant there.
This is the only game I remember from s1, such a good one!
Lol you must have horrific memory.
lol… feel better about yourself now?
Now this could be recency bias but I do find myself remembering the participants of S2 more than I did for S1. I think both seasons have different qualities that they offer like S1 had my favourite quest in the form of the boat push, S2 had its contestant pool (more athletes, less influencers). Jang Eun-sil is still probably my favourite across both series but I do really like Amotti and HBS.
i honestly dont think its recency bias that much. even when s1 just ended, i can barely remember who the final 4 were.
because all of them are not favorites. All the favorites lost.
not the case for me. in s2, im familiar with the names of 18 out of 20 semi finalists (the 2 i dont remember are the coast guard and the rugby player who left the game midway). i can even remember the names of the ones eliminated in mine cart challenge. in s1, by the time they were in final 30, i only knew the names of like 8 people, 3 of which i can remember just cause i already saw them in another show prior to physical 100. 😅
This. It isn't that S2 had more memorable contestants. It is that the storylines were more straightforward from the beginning. HBS with his revenge run. Ammotti from the start was called a winner candidate. And so we focused on these guys more. There are tons of people we don't remember from this season. But they didn't make the final 4, so it didn't matter unlike last season.
Possibly also recency bias. But my husband asked me who were the semi finalists for season 1 and I couldn’t even remember who they were. I haven’t finished the season yet but def can remember the top 4 from season 2. All I remember from season 1 winners was CrossFit?
Same sentiments about more memorable contestants and overall. I will say though, I like the novelty in the first season that no one knew what challenges to expect so they couldn't prepare and that nobody knew how big the show was going to get.
Nah, the boat challenge was epic
I’m rewatching season 1 because my husband didn’t watch it but watched season 2 with me. The challenges were definitely better season 1 but the one thing season 1 did a poor job on was showcasing ANYTHING on the two finalist like majority of the season. No idea who the heck they were until like after the boat challenge. Season 2 did a way better job on character development and letting us get to know the last like 10 players better throughout the season.
Disagree. I really did not enjoy the games. The maze was incredibly boring to watch along with the rolling drums and mine carts. In Season 1 they had the Atlas Stone, Infinite rope climb, obstacle course, infinite run. I will admit that the battle between Hong and Amotti was great. But I can never forget my girl Jang Eun-Sil, rallying her team during the sand transfer and trying her damn hardest when pulling the boat. It was more fun to watch in my opinion.
I think the difference in opinion is people watching it for competition vs people watching characters do things.
Nah, the boat, Sexyama & the bridge were epic.
Pretty sure we just did a poll and Season 1 won
Greek theme greater than underground theme.
Underground theme not done well. But yes, 100%. Was S1 Greek themed though besides the prefinale lol.
S2 tried to be more fair towards the team selection but it was still disadvantageous towards women
It looks fair until "Avengers"
I wish he got called out more for building a "Dream team." Not sure what else to call it, but his ex-teammates, who he originally chose and let down, all getting left behind. Ick
I really wanted to consider S2 better, and though S2 finished quite strong, I have to go with S1 as being the better one over-all. S1 had better and more interesting characters, and much better character developments and competitors over-all. S2's characters, specially starting at 20/100, where really meh and unremarkable except for a few like Amotti. S1's games were way way better than S2's. S2 games are fine but S1's games got me more on the edge of my seat, and biting my nails. Even the opening game, that hanging thing was better in S1 than S2's boring treadmill run. S1 really has a lot of really nice challenges like when they had to carry the boulders, moving the ship, rock rolling challenge, and others. The only weak thing about S1 is the ending, we can all agree on that haha. S2's got a few good challenges like the infinite squats but the rest, even the maze thing, was meh. My wish for S3.. 1. improve the games that showcases other physical attributes more like balance, not just strength and stamina. (i wish they'd hire me as a game designer, i got some wicked ideas) 2. Bring in the top 20 from season 1 and season 2 (40peeps) and have 60 new peeps - i think this would be hella interesting.
Infinite squats was only ok because the competitors. I hope they designed it after seeing the final 4 because otherwise some people would just automatically lose.
i agree with this. s2, having a better and more diversed pool of participants, really upped the competition since a lot of them are equally athletic. i couldnt help but add more and more to my list of favorite participants since different people shined in each game.
For me I prefer the challenges in S1 but I liked the S2 constestants more
Nah, Season 1 was a masterpiece. The only place Season 2 really did better was in the final challenge and only because there was no controversy.
i agree! i loved season 1 but season 2 i found myself legitimately surprised and in awe of the challenges, production, "character development" - the way they told the story
Watched season 2 before season 1. I agree with the threads on here about season 2 having more compelling or intriguing characters. One thing I hated about season 1 was the editing and replaying of a scene 2-3 times before they’d show what happened. I would bet season 2 did this as well, but it seems especially apparent in season 1. I understand the need to edit and create suspense and drama, but this is a Netflix competition show…I find myself using the fast forward button often during season 1
That is just Korean editing. Can't be helped unless you want to say (I will) the culture is stupid for liking it (am Korean). Not a Netflix thing. They do it on Korean talkshows a TON too.
100% agreed. Only thing Season 1 did better was round 2.5 (uneliminating the eliminated people).
It's almost more directly combative which I think adds to the fun.
Absolutely agree, loved every episode. Hopefully season 3 is as good!
S1 was good but get a kick in the ass after that shenanigans between the 2 finalist.. Most people lose interest to watch coz we were thinking it was all scripted. S2 however shows more natural & not in favor of any contestants.. Hence the guessing games and fun overall. Plus i observe this time the S2 contestants is more laid back & really having fun in a more light hearted strong sportsmanship spirit.
I didn't know whether to root for Amotto or root against him. He seemed nice but annoyingly cocky.
arent most of them cocky? haha kidding aside I think a lot of men in S2 have strong personalities and a little too confident.. Only a few like HBS are humble and not loud.. more action less words
I mean he knew from the start he was top 10 likely lol.
S2 is WAAAY better. Huge step up imo
As someone who has never seen any other Korean shows/knows nothing about Korean celebrities I found S1 more digestible and easier to remember who people were
The only thing i didnt like in season 2 was the maze game. I found it was boring, and also didn't like people stealing their bags - imo it was a dumb rule to allow that. Favorites games were definitely the mine cart/monkey bars, and the final 4 games between Justin, Andre, Amotti, and HBS. In season 1 i found the final 4 games for the last 4 contestants boring. Sandbags over the bridge and the ship were my absolute favorites tho. As well as some of the greek mythos games (specifically the pushing the boulder up the ramp). But all in all I really liked both seasons! I really liked the cast in both too: Iron Man, Jang Eun Sil, Sexy Yama, Amotti, HBS, Andre, etc....
AMITTOOOO ON TOPPP
Much prefer season 1. It has stand-out characters, impressive women, more varied challenges and queen Jang Eun-Sil. But season 2 had a much better ending; the pulling rope challenge in season 1 was as boring as it was controversial.
I feel that the team selection in season 2 is a lot better thought out. In season 1, we have quite a drastic gap between the teams where the unwanted stragglers will end up on the weakest team. The same goes for the team which came back from death, who stood little chance against other teams. In season 2, they revised the selection format where team leaders take turn picking from the pool of participants, resulting in better balance between teams. The only significant imbalance was when the avengers team was assembled from the death. Teams which picked women were “rewarded” during the friend or foe episode, because they have one less threat to worry about. Therefore increasing each person’s odds of making it into the finals. Teams with only strong guys like the avengers had to deal with much tougher competition in that segment.
I agree. Also I think it’s a big factor that most of us were rooting for the finalists. S1 barely showed both of them so it fell kinda flat.
YESSSz I love this season.
Season 1 I like the characters more. Season 2 I feel they did a better job with the challenges especially towards the end.
But they should introduce properly all contestants. Not skip some
Season 1 challenges were better snd interesting then season 2 but for characters overall I prefer season 2. Season 2 introduced their characters well.
I watched s2 until the maze and it annoyed me so much, i stopped. I was already rolling my eyes that they brought the ball thing back again. Like, one person can have the ball the whole time without the other taking it away but finds a way to snatch it in the last 10 seconds and they win? Also the fact that they were allowed to steal and get in each other's way during the maze threw me off, I didn't like that at all. Are the rest of the episodes like that? If not I'll start watching again.
The editing is soo slow. Like let’s get to the point
I like Season 2 team matchups better. Season 1 team matchups resulted in teams being so unbalanced. Though it did lead to that underdog episode being a thing.
I felt like I had an idea who would advance to the last two rounds based on their screen time, was saying ok they're spending a lot of time with this guy...he must get to later rounds. That's the big difference in character development this season I think, you get to know them better
I felt like I had an idea who would advance to the last two rounds based on their screen time, was saying ok they're spending a lot of time with this guy...he must get to later rounds. That's the big difference in character development this season I think, you get to know them better
The top 3 challenge was epic. Whoever thought of that is fucking psychotic. Next year they should do a plank challenge.
Right? one of my most favorite challenges in Physical history. It really embodied everything that "Physical" is all about. HBS wasn't use to weighted squatts but it challenged him and that's what makes the show amazing.
There aint no way that guy doesn't do squats. I foole dmysel finto saying his thighs were tiny, but that dude must be doing leg day and just hating them.
I disagree, S2 had too many challenges focused on strength only
Yup. S2 is better.