TV Review: Hyperdrive (2019). A high octane reality game show from Netflix

Image Courtesy of Netflix

TV Review: Hyperdrive (2019) by Ben Jeffries (24/8/2019)Season 1 (21/8/2019)
10 episodes, 40 - 60 minutes each
Reality, Competition, Automotive
Streaming on Netflix


Fuel up with some snacks and strap yourself into the couch for this high octane stunt driving competition from Netflix.

Hyperdrive is a reality competition show based around a tournament of driving skill. 28 drivers from all around the world bring their specially built cars to a business park in Rochester, New York, and compete in a series of ever more challenging events in hopes of taking home the title of “Hyperdrive Champion.” With the support of a single “spotter” to talk them through the challenges, each driver will attack the course in an attempt to post the fastest lap around a track made up of outrageous challenges which will test their skills and their cars. Think Ninja Warrior, but with supercharged V8’s instead of ripped biceps.

The show bears many of the hallmarks of your typical reality tv competition. Any driver who has even the most remotely heart warming story is introduced through a short pre-packaged segment as a way of stoking the shows dramatic stakes. There are racers hoping to make parents proud, or inspire younger siblings, or make a name for themselves after struggling for years to break through on the pro circuit. Along the way there are devastating, tearful, losses and inspiring redemptions. Rivalries are forged on track but, thankfully, they don’t spill over into the pits as the show eschews the more nasty elements which punctuate lesser reality programming. But while you can see the occasional fingerprint left behind by a producer as they put the show together, the final product has been constructed with quality components and the material stands on it’s own merits.

The excellent group of contestants that have been cast is chief among Hyperdrive’s well crafted elements. The 28 contestants are a diverse group from across the world, representing the spectrum of international car culture. There are drag racers from America, drifters from Japan, a married couple from Germany who compete against each other, national champions and grass roots amateurs, with a laudable balance between male and female contestants. It’s hard not to get invested in the stories of the various drivers as they struggle to avoid being eliminated, and the charismatic and quirky cast only make it easier to care. Whether it’s the energetic Frenchman, Axel Francois, who takes the time to tell his spotter, fiancee Lise, “I love you” in the middle of a run, or the charming Sara Haro, a 22 year old truck driver from Florida with a can-do attitude and a sharp sense of humour, every driver is a big personality that you want to see succeed as they thrash their way around the course. And while the show stokes the initial fires of the drivers personal journeys by making sure the audience knows the sacrifices they’ve made, or the hardships they’ve overcome, just to make it to the competition, it’s the on track drama that sucks you in.

Motor sport is a great catalyst for dramatic storytelling. Put high powered machines in the hands of competitive individuals competing under immense pressure and you have a recipe for unexpected circumstances. Components fail, cars break, humans make mistakes, and the way drivers and teams rise to those challenges is great fuel for inspiring stories. It’s no different on Hyperdrive. It’s second nature to root for a driver as they attack a course at full throttle, trying to make up for time lost to a simple error, and you’ll find yourself sitting on the edge of your seat as they risk everything to keep the dream of winning alive. Each driver brings their own unique car to the competition, from a BMW powered Nissan coupe built in a barn, to a professionally built Mustang race car with a supercharged V8, to a 1000 horsepower Lamborghini Huracan supercar. Whether it’s a highly modified drift car, or a bone stock Mustang borrowed from a friend, each vehicle is unique and that variety enhances the level of competition as the various combinations of machine and driver approach each course differently.

When it comes to the courses, don’t expect your average slalom or some traffic cones loosely arranged on a wet skid pan, either. Each of the ten episodes features a different layout of obstacles and challenges designed to test both car and driver. The elements range from a basic technique like performing a reverse 180 (a.k.a. a Rockford turn) in a narrow space, to using a cars weight to balance a six story see-saw, to drifting through a series of swinging targets. Each challenging element asks something different of the drivers, with the goal being to string the whole course together in as short a time as possible.

Hyperdrive takes place in a world of bright, colourful, exciting visuals. The competition is filmed entirely at night, and if you’ve been having trouble finding a coloured LED in North America recently this show is probably why, because they’re everywhere. They form the futuristic tunnel of light that serves as the start/finish line; blinking crimson, then blue, then solid green to send the drivers tearing off toward the first corner. They line the track, flashing as the cars fly past in an effect that highlights the impressive speeds being reached. There are flashing LEDs that switch from red to green as the drivers complete the various challenges, or glare solid red to indicate failure. They’re even inside the cars, giving the cabins a golden glow as the drivers wheel their way from one challenge to the next. It’s a bold aesthetic that could look really chintzy if it was handled poorly, but through sheer density the colourful lighting does two things for the show: it makes each car look amazing as they slide their way around the circuit, and at the same time it camouflages the drab grey background of what, by day, is a boring old business park, turning it into a futuristic high speed playground like something out of a video game.

While the challenges are genuinely exciting and the course is dramatically designed, the show takes a moment to get up to speed, falling pretty easily into a formulaic format in the first few episodes. After a brief introduction from the hosts, automotive journalist and former Top Gear USA host Rutledge Wood, retired UFC fighter turned sports analyst Michael Bisping, and ESPN and Fox Sports anchor Mike Hill, with Fox Sports anchor Lindsay Czarniak acting as the roving pit reporter, the episode gets right into the running. We start with one or two full runs to set the expectations for that particular course configuration, followed by a montage of three or four less successful runs cut together to highlight the pressure points of the course, then a couple more full runs to round out the leaderboard and bring the episode home with some excitement. Before the credits roll, the hosts make sure to remind the audience that they don’t have to wait for the next episode, because it’s starting “right now”, taking full advantage of the binge-able Netflix release model. Coupled with a few less exciting track configurations as the show saves it’s biggest surprises for later, the result is a little monotone as the show works it’s way through the qualifying rounds, before finally building a proper head of steam as it moves into the knockout rounds.

For a game show where the competition is about highly skilled driving and automotive action, the show isn’t really geared towards your typical rev-head. Most of the vehicles are highly modified, purpose built machines, but aside from the most cursory of introductions from Rutledge Wood, the one host that seems to know anything about cars, don’t expect any really in depth coverage of the cars themselves. For the audience segment who want to know what size turbo or which engine management system, or even what engine a car is running, there’s a frustrating lack of coverage. On the other hand, for the broader audience who are interested purely in the drama of competition, those are just boring numbers and jargon that get in the way of the action, and it’s that broader audience that’s being targeted here. Ninja Warrior doesn’t step away from the action to get into detailed breakdowns of each competitors workout schedule and diet, and Hyperdrive doesn’t allow itself to get sidetracked by automotive fetishism.

The biggest gap in the shows presentation is the panel of hosts. Hill and Bisping are appropriately enthusiastic, but they don’t have a lot to contribute beyond energy and asking the questions that allow Wood to keep the audience in the loop with the more mechanical developments of the show. It’s Wood who explains why a car has broken down or the unique challenges it faces in a given obstacle, and his explanations are easy to understand without being overly detailed, letting the audience know what’s going on without boring them. The three main hosts share a good natured camaraderie where they all genuinely seem to be having a good time, but they’re a little too shouty and a little under informed, and it feels like Wood is the guy who convinced his friends to try his niche hobby and wound up having to explain everything to them. Czarniak is disappointingly under utilised, all but disappearing from the show for what feels like multiple episodes as the editors opt for a more candid style of coverage between each run instead of interview content where she can ask the drivers for their reactions.

Despite some rough edges and a few flat spots, Hyperdrive is an engaging competition. The skill of the contestants is thrilling, the challenges are genuinely exciting, and the whole thing looks incredibly cool as it’s drenched in LED light so bright it looks as if it’s bleeding into the very air. If you enjoy athletic tournaments like Ninja Warrior or Ultimate Beast Master, Hyperdrive is definitely worth a look. It might require a different mind set, but at it’s core it’s still a competition about mental discipline and skill. There might be a lack of background detail for car fans, but there’s plenty of high speed action to make up for it as the cars blast around the track, shooting flames from exhausts as the drivers keep their engines pinned to the rev limiter in hopes of saving a few tenths of a second. With fun and excitement built into it’s DNA, and a genuine competition at it’s core, Hyperdrive has plenty of entertainment horsepower.

7/10

Hyperdrive is Produced by: Whalerock Industries, Denver and Delilah Productions
Distributed by: Netflix
Executive Producers: Aaron Catling, Charlize Theron