King of the Nerds

The first season was alright, I quite enjoyed it. There were a wide range of "nerds" and the Nerd Wars and Nerd-Offs were quite interesting. Another thing is that it was the first season, therefore, nothing was expected and nobody knew about the twists and turns. Many of the competitors seemed more passionate about their nerdiness and strong bonds were made. It felt like most aimed for the title of "King of the Nerds" rather than the prize money. But personally, I feel like in season 2 and 3, competitors were more willing to stab each other in the back for the money. Besides, they had an idea of what was going to happen and so they came into the challenges much more prepared. So that made it a lot less exciting to watch.

The show is nothing special, i mean we have shows about cooks, shows about hunters, shows about people who buy storage buildings, shows about truck drivers, so a show about who is the "best" nerd is nothing special. The problem with the show is two-fold. First and foremost as they recognize there are many types of nerds yet the goal of the show is to sit atop the "Throne of Games", a twist on the popular "Game of Thrones" which is a much better show to watch than this one, but I digress. The show tries to cover a lot of types of nerds as as such most contestants are at a disadvantage most of the time since the challenges cover a diverse range of skills. On a cooking show you might be asked to make desserts one week and Italian food the next but you still use the same tools and the same skills. Creating a cos-play costume is NOTHING like piloting a drone, winning at chess, or answering obscure trivia. The second problem is how the winner is actually chosen. The whole concept is to focus on nerds, people who are perceived as social misfits, the kids never chosen for sports or to be prom queen, yet in the end the winners chosen BY A POPULARITY CONTEST! Epic Fail.

This is a must for me because I am a total nerd. King of the Nerds combines many internet celebrities with countless other brains to compete for the ultimate reward. I am especially surprised for their pick on nerds. I knew Jovenshire, or Joshua Ovenshire, one of the nerds on the show, as he was a host and producer over at Smosh Games. He was one of the most loved people ever for everything he did and how he would sacrifice himself countless times to be the one getting hurt on their hilarious...and somewhat humiliating games. But hey it's the internet. Joven was awesome and too see him on King of the Nerds was definitely one of the greatest highlights of this show for me. I was in the biggest state of shock in the history of the state of shocks when I saw himself, his face, on the show. I didn't move for at least 15 minutes. I think for people who are a part of the internet, this is one of the best, or the best show ever for them because there's a good chance for people to know the contestants for this show and the looks on their faces are priceless when they see for the first time Joven or Danielle or anyone else they "know" on that show. They are in a state of shock and the memory of it will last them a lifetime. This show is undoubtedly one of the greatest things TV directors have ever created.

What bugs me about this show is it's so-called nerds. It seems nowadays that what passes as nerds are whiny little idiots that go out of their way to look and act weird and freaky then whine and cry about being socially rejected. If I had a chance I'd love to tell these brats a thing or two. Not long ago being a nerd wasn't something you'd ever brag about. It wasn't a title you'd willingly apply to yourself. And it had nothing to do with having pink hair or prattling on about useless comic book trivia. Not long ago being a nerd meant getting the hell beaten out of you because you preferred reading over playing ball. It meant getting the hell beaten out of you because you were deemed too skinny or too fat or too freckled or whatever else some jock douche decided was uncool at any particular point in time. To me, watching any of these twits being crowned king of the nerds would be a little like Rosa Parks watching Will Smith being crowned king of the civil rights movement. Maybe not the best analogy but you get my point. These are kids who go out of their way to not fit in then whine about not fitting in. In my day being a nerd meant doing whatever you could to avoid attention and fly under the radar to avoid someone noticing that Tolkien book in your hands and beating the crap out of you or doing some other humiliating thing to make you feel like you just want to die. These kids act like weirdos then cry when they're not voted prom queen. I guess it's nice to see nerds getting some positive attention these days, but for those of us who were nerds back when being a nerd meant facing serious abuse and humiliation, this show seems worthy of a major eye roll.

I was really looking forward to this show from the first time it was advertised. I have always fit very securely in the nerd demographic. The commercials made it look like it was going to be the new rave in reality television.

It has not lived up to those expectations. There are some interesting participants in the competition. Some of the guests are fun to see. But honestly, I am failing to see the point in the competition. The Throne of Games looks quite stupid and sitting on it seems to be the only prize the winner will get. None of the players really seem motivated to win it. In the episode tonight, Virgil's attitude is the correct one. He has lost all interest because there is no reason to have it. Alana was the only nerd who seemed motivated to win and she was the single most annoying reality show character since Puck in the third Real World.

The competitions are boring. Cosplay is not fun when you make up your own characters. The point of it is that you get to BECOME an actual character in media. If you are just making up costumes and playing, it's not Cosplay. The video game competition had the nerds piloting a hovering device rather than playing video games. The nerdoff sets are subparr compared to Ren Faire sets.

Nothing else about the show works either. Nerdvana as a nerd paradise leaves a lot to be desired. Curtis Armstrong and Robert Carradine's participation seems forced.

All I can say is that it seems like they threw this show together way too quickly. The idea was great, but they should have worked to get sponsors that would make the competition more interesting. They could work with Marvel or Tite Kubo to cosplay Marvel or Bleach. They could have had actual video games on consoles. It is just so unfortunate that such a great idea was so poorly executed.