Prank Encounters is a new (as the name suggests) prank show where most of the people involved are actors and a few unsuspecting guests are subjected to situations meant to get a rise out of them. This is nothing new to television and I think that is a big part of the reason why I was relatively nonplussed by this show in a general sense. Rather than being funny, this is meant to scare the people involved and I guess they succeed but mostly the show is just really boring and i don't think i will be the only one that reaches for the fast forward button while it is playing.
The show is hosted by Stranger Things star Gaten Matarazzo, who we are meant to believe (because he is wearing a headset) is the director behind all of these pranks. This obviously is not the case and also is not a problem that I have with it. They needed a semi-recognizable face to play the lead and Winona Ryder was likely busy.
Like any prank show, they need a few subjects to participate in the situation and this normally would incorporate someone that is unfamiliar with the surroundings. Netflix introduced people into the situation under the auspices of getting a new job or some sort of temp work. This situation is completely necessary for the prank to possibly be pulled off, because the "victim" needs to be unfamiliar with their environment... yet of course and right on cue the SJW's jumped out of the woodwork and protested that Netflix was "taking advantage of people looking for a job." I promise I am not making this up... no matter what anyone does these days someone is going to get offended and have a problem with it.
The show is average at best even without the controversy. The controversy is so silly that in my mind, it almost seems like it could have been planted by Netflix themselves in order to generate more viewers.
The problem with this show is that the buildup takes entirely too long and the introductions are sometimes extraordinarily boring and I don't mean to be mean, but the overall production looks quite low-budget. The "monsters" that appear to frighten our hapless guests are not terribly convincing but that might just be because we have access to all the cameras.
When looking at the victims there does seem to be a rather lackadaisical response and not real sense of urgency in a lot of them.
There are several portions of the show (from the 4 episodes i watched) where it appears as though the victims are actually figuring out that this is a prank before the big reveal where Gaten Matarazzo runs out to inform everyone that it is "just a a part of his new prank show on Netflix."
One of the funniest things is that when Gaten does run out, nearly half of the guests don't even know who he is because let's be honest, if you don't watch Stranger Things then wtf else are you going to know him from?
from the official Netflix channel
I suppose it is a little innovative that each of the pranks involves 2 unsuspecting guests instead of the usual one and that is about all I can really say about this show. In my opinion, i got bored really quickly because the lead-in takes entirely too long from each of the situations for just a little bit of action... perhaps I am expecting too much.
I am more of a fan of those hidden camera pranks where they play the same prank on groups of people all day long and select the best reactions rather than depending on the reactions from the only 2 people that you have in the "cast" for the entire idea. I suppose this would be very difficult to pull of any other way than the way that they did. I dunno, i just feel like the pranks are kind of dumb and not very scary.
I also think that in this day and age of Youtubers gaining fame from pulling pranks all the time that today's people (especially the youth) are so accustomed to pranks that you are gonna have to do more than this in order to get a real reaction out of them.
I am a fan of hidden camera shows but honestly i think that this one will be a flash in the pan and then forgotten shortly after Halloween. I don't think most viewers will even watch all of the episodes in season 1... i know I don't plan to watch the rest of them.
I'm not gonna tell you skip it because perhaps I just have different expectations than many other people do but I would bet money on the fact that no one is going to be showering this show with accolades of any sort.
Maybe watch an episode (just pick at random, there is no best / worst out of what is bound to be the only 8 episodes made, ever) and see what you think. I believe that you will come out of it with the same impression that I have.