Review: 'Final Draft'

I'm weary of most of what passes for competitive reality shows recently. Endless trash talking, contestants drawn primarily from other shows or people who are hoping to use the series as a way to build a revenue stream. In its purest form, competitions bring out the best in its participants. pushing them physically and opening them up to new experiences. But it's been a long time since I've watch a competition show that felt like anything more than a mutual branding exercise.

The Japanese series Final Draft premiered last week on Netflix and as is often the case with that streamer's global productions, it dropped without much notice. So I began watching the series not knowing what to expect. And what I found was a show that perfectly balances incredibly physically challenging tasks with honest emotional moments and a camaraderie among the contestants that is rare in most American productions.

The premise sounds straight-forward enough: twenty-five athletes who ended their sports careers, either involuntarily or by choice, try to knock one another down and be the last one standing as they compete for a 30-million-yen grand prize.

The former athletes encompass a variety of sports from the well-known - football/baseball/rugby - to water polo and martial arts skills that aren't even in that known in Japan. But while the contestants are obviously there to win the money, they begin to realize that they're also there to experience that sense of working on teams focused on a common goal. They might now be a barber or teacher. But at their core, they also still have the soul of an athlete. And the show provides them that chance to channel that feeling one last time.

The early competitions are individual and physically brutal, including a miles-long run up a snowy mountain with a 30-40 degree incline and a challenge that puts them on a ramp facing backwards in which they have to do a sit-up every five seconds until they collapse. Later tasks are more team-oriented, although the teams are constantly remixed in ways that are surprising without ever feeling contrived.

But the parts of the show I enjoyed the most were the downtimes when the contestants did video call with their loved ones or sat around talking about their lives with their fellow contestants. Every one wants to win, but there's remarkably little puffing up of chests. Somehow Final Draft manages to embody the best of competitive sports while reminding viewers that the contestants are at their cores real humans with problems we've all likely dealt with at some point in their lives.

I absolutely loved this show and I hope they do other regionalized versions of the format. But not with well-known athletes or celebrities. Casting the show with athletes who likely consider their sports careers as a failure provides an innocence that I'll remember for a long time. After watching Final Draft, I want to know more about these contestants and their lives after the show ended. And that's the ultimate compliment for any unscripted series.