Hive Minds

Hive Minds - BBC Four

Did anyone catch the new BBC Four show "Hive Minds" last night? If so, what are your thoughts? It airs Tuesday nights at 8.30pm and is of course available on the iplayer. Episode 1 featured two formidable teams include Mastermind 2015 Champion Marianne Fairthorne and Rob Hannah who has appeared on numerous (and runs this excellent site).

For me, Hive Minds is an easy show to sum up......brilliant to play, not so great to watch. The whole idea, if you haven't seen the show, is all about finding words within a Hive....in essence word searches. But a clue will be given and there may be traps etc and of course its all against the timer. This makes for a game that looks incredibly fun to play and there is no doubt about it that this would make an excellent app or facebook style game.

However, as a TV Show I am not sure it actually works very well. Watching other people find words is not particularity fun and I for one was just itching for a go myself. I will probably stick with the show in the short term but I think it needs some serious work to get it up to something close to a must-see show. It is rather frustrating to watch at home when all the answers are running through your head and not only is the grid rather small but the fact 3 other people are playing on it.

Disappointing as I had heard good things about this show, mainly from the players, which sort of sums up my original point....I would love to go on this at some point, but can't see myself playing catch up if I miss it as I do with other shows.