Netflix's New Prank Show Sounds Like a Real Bad Idea
Streaming behemoth Netflix has ordered a new hidden camera prank show with a, well, questionable premise. According to Deadline, the eight-episode first season of the subtly named Prank Encounters will premiere later this year. Per Deadline:
Each episode of this terrifying and hilarious prank show takes two complete strangers who each think they’re starting their first day at a new job. It’s business as usual until their paths collide and these part-time jobs turn into full-time nightmares.
Prank Encounters will feature 16-year-old Stranger Things actor Gaten Matarazzo as the host and executive producer, and making an actual kid the face of the show is probably the only way that this thing got greenlit in the first place. It's hard to judge the show before seeing how it's executed, but the premise sounds like a really exploitative middle finger to people looking for work. Older prank shows like MTV's Punk'd could get away with elaborately stressing out its targets because they were all famous or just had questionable enough judgment to be friends with Ashton Kutcher. "Terrifying" people who were jobless before getting snagged by TV producers has a distinctly different flavor to it.
Netflix has had some success lately with game shows that get laughs at regular people's expense, like Nailed It!, the baking show that pits three people who have no idea how to bake against each other. But Nailed It! works because the amateurs on that show are fully aware of both their baking skills and what they signed up for.
Of course, how Prank Encounters executes its pranks depends largely on what job, exactly, people are getting hired for. Maybe it'll even surprise everyone and be very thoughtfully executed! If it's targeting, say, health insurance CEOs, then by all means, terrify away.
Originally Appeared on GQ
