As a fan of Ninja Warrior/Sasuke, I admire Ultimate Beastmaster for continuing the obstacle course genre, and Netflix was smart to pick this up to round out its offerings. It's entertaining to watch contestants attempt to conquer four rounds of obstacles through cumulative scoring, but Ultimate Beastmaster still hasn't worked out some of the kinks in its armor.
The best part of UB is its international appeal. The program has contestants from six different countries with a pair of hosts for each of the countries as well. Its nice to see how athletes from different countries stack up against each other, and to see that that the obstacle course genre is gaining traction throughout the world
The cumulative-round scoring does bring more strategy into the fold, with contestants going for extra points whether by hitting point thrusters or saving their strength for later levels by electing to land in the water.
The main downside, though, is the lack of progression through the series. Within each episode, there's a group of 10 contestants that go through the obstacles, but it's the same thing for every episode... until the last one where the champions of the first nine episodes compete against each other. I think the program would be much better to have all the athletes compete through each level one by one, similar to the way Ninja Warrior works.
That said, if they choose to stick with the current format, I would have one episode that is exclusive to the female competitors. Most of the women are pretty much knocked about by the second or third round in every episode. Just have all of them compete with one another in one episode to level the playing field.
I also think there should be more variety and challenge in the obstacles themselves. Most of the obstacles from season one to season two are exactly the same. And compared to the obstacles on Ninja Warrior, many on UM aren't as difficult. Stage 3 from NW makes Stage 3 from UM look like a course for children.
The best part of UB is its international appeal. The program has contestants from six different countries with a pair of hosts for each of the countries as well. Its nice to see how athletes from different countries stack up against each other, and to see that that the obstacle course genre is gaining traction throughout the world
The cumulative-round scoring does bring more strategy into the fold, with contestants going for extra points whether by hitting point thrusters or saving their strength for later levels by electing to land in the water.
The main downside, though, is the lack of progression through the series. Within each episode, there's a group of 10 contestants that go through the obstacles, but it's the same thing for every episode... until the last one where the champions of the first nine episodes compete against each other. I think the program would be much better to have all the athletes compete through each level one by one, similar to the way Ninja Warrior works.
That said, if they choose to stick with the current format, I would have one episode that is exclusive to the female competitors. Most of the women are pretty much knocked about by the second or third round in every episode. Just have all of them compete with one another in one episode to level the playing field.
I also think there should be more variety and challenge in the obstacles themselves. Most of the obstacles from season one to season two are exactly the same. And compared to the obstacles on Ninja Warrior, many on UM aren't as difficult. Stage 3 from NW makes Stage 3 from UM look like a course for children.