18 Best Reality Movies to Watch (Page 2)

Alongside its Thai counterpart, Comedy Island Thailand, this blend of game show, reality program, and fantasy series remains thoroughly unpredictable in terms of which parts of itself are partially scripted or not at all. It's fun to watch these actors try to keep a straight face precisely because the show doesn't take itself seriously at all. Unfortunately despite its originality, the actors who've been assembled for Comedy Island Philippines still seem restricted by how basic the challenges are that they have to accomplish (at least in the first two episodes watched for this review). It becomes clear in the segments between the actual challenges that this cast is at their best when they're riffing to each other or as a group—something that the series doesn't take full advantage of. There's a rigidity to the show's idea of improv; ironically, as enthusiastic as these actors are, the show itself doesn't say "yes, and."

Genre: Action & Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy, Reality

Actor: Andrea Brillantes, Awra Briguela, Carlo Aquino, Drew Arellano, Rufa Mae Quinto

Structurally, the show is very clear and intentional, spelling out the stories by giving us the who, the why, and the how behind the pranks. It's fun to think of them as revenge stories, where the payoffs and tricks can be entertaining—but the level of slapstick payoffs we get does not warrant the hefty, hefty setup at all. It fancies itself like a home renovation or baking reality show; difference is we're not really here for the process because we don't need to know how to stage these things, and we're not dying to hear 3 segments of brainstorming banter. It's a lot of sneak peeks and filler and bloat to get to the half decent stuff, but there is some half-decent stuff.

Genre: Comedy, Reality

Actor: Justin Willman, Kimberly Congdon, Kyle Marlett, Simon Taylor