'Lego Masters' entertains with stacked competition

Remember the days of childhood where you'd spend hours stacking LEGO brick on LEGO brick to create something? Fox remembers. This month it debuted its new reality competition show "LEGO Masters" (2020–).

The concept is pretty simple. Ten pairs start out and each week they are tasked to build something grand out of LEGOs. Two judges then determine whose creation is the worst based on the criteria given, and a pair is sent home.

While the setup of the show seems straightforward, the producers and creators of the show go to great lengths to entertain. The show goes over, above and beyond to be self-aware. At the beginning of each episode we can hear the camera crew, acknowledging its existence. Host Will Arnett addresses contestants multiple times basically saying, 'by this point in this show normally X would happen.' Arnett also, like many reality competition hosts, will break the fourth wall to do his best Jim Halpert impersonation and see if you too found the thing that was just said awkwardly funny. All of this just so that "LEGO Masters" can be modern and aware of the fact that it is a TV show.

That's not to mention the absurdity of this show. The set is humongous, with a balcony for Arnett and the two judges to stand on and watch the contests from above, and a giant doomsday-like clock timing them. Also, the winners of the entire competition get $100,000. If I had known when I was nine that I could win that much from building legos, I certainly would not be writing for the Tufts Daily right now.

The pairs selected to compete are a rather diverse group. There's everything from a duo of friends who met through cosplay to a pair of retired moms pursuing their passion. “LEGO Masters” also takes the time to show you interactions between the pairs, increasing  the bond between viewer and participant. Like all reality competition shows, there will definitely be fan favorites and villains as the season goes on.

In the first week contestants were asked to design a dream park, each with their own theme and a moving structure. In only 15 hours, the teams built incredible structures featuring multi-level rollercoasters and even a moving ferris wheel. It's remarkable and accessible. Since many people spent time trying to build a LEGO spaceship as children, only to watch a parent as they freak out because one piece wouldn’t go into its place, they can marvel in the feats of the contestants’ designs. Some contestants' moving structures don't work — regardless, they're incredibly impressive.

At the end of the first week, the contestants are all given a mulligan, and nobody goes home. Again the show zags and lets you know that all the others just zig.

All in all, "LEGO Masters" is a solid watch. It's incredibly entertaining thanks to Arnett and its cast of contestants. It definitely has the capacity to hook you in if you want it to.

It's interesting how "LEGO Masters" seems like part of a growing trend of Fox's content strategy. As cable television continues to struggle to bring in viewers, it seems like reality competition shows still have a foothold. Over the past few years Fox has not just created shows in a similar vein to classics like "The Bachelor" (2002–) or "Survivor" (2000–), but shows in the style of cable television like "Project Runway" (2004–) on Bravo or "The Great Food Truck Race" (2010–) on Food Network. These shows aren't necessarily the content you seek out in your busy time during the school year, but they're the comfort television you find yourself watching when you go back home for break and have access to cable television again. It's simple, it's entertaining and you can watch a marathon from 9 p.m. to midnight without really noticing. It'll be interesting if the same comes from "LEGO Masters."