There are just some shows that are there to be silly. Whoever came up with the idea to have humans race hamsters in obstacle courses was probably thinking that it was too silly of a show to greenlight. Bless that person for pitching it anyway, because Magnolia Network and Max said yes to it.
Opening Shot: On a huge obstacle course set, host Sarah Sherman talks about wishing for “a large-scale competition reality show that pits humans versus hamsters using cool challenges.”
The Gist: Human Vs. Hamster, hosted by Sherman, Kyle Brandt of the NFL Network and “hamster enthusiast” Brian Balthazar, does exactly what the title says it’s going to do: Two teams of humans will race trained hamsters in various courses, scaled to their respective sizes. Every time a team beats the hamster, they win $1,000. The winning team after four challenges takes on a hamster in the final challenge, “Escape The Cage,” for the chance at an additional $5,000 and a statue in the shape of a hamster’s water bottle.
In the first two episodes, a team of two teachers take on a team of two nurses. The first challenge requires climbing up a three-story building facade, standing on thin ledges and going around protruding flower boxes and air conditioners, to grab a key. The hamsters — one of whom is Sherman’s own hamster, Kevin — get their own tiny version. In the second challenge, the human has to push a car that’s the same weight as they are up a spiral incline, push it back down, and head down an elevator. Of course, the hamsters get the same challenge scaled down to their size.
In the third challenge, the teams challenge each other to see who squeezes through a narrow opening into a bottle and out again the fastest. Then, a round of inflatable ball bowling determines who will go on to the final round. If there are any ties, there is a run-off in two human-sized hamster wheels.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Human Vs. Hamster has the same silliness as game shows like Floor Is Lava, Frogger, and Wipeout.
Our Take: One of the things that stands out about Human Vs. Hamster is that the people who designed the challenges are really hoping the hamsters win. Why do we think that? Because the obstacle courses play to the cute little rodents’ strengths: The ability to collapse their bodies and squeeze into tight spaces, their ability to push weights that weigh as much as they do, their ability to hang on in tenuous situations, and more.
What this also does is make the show more of a feelgood watch, not one where we’re looking to see people get embarrassed because they couldn’t beat a tiny hamster. If anything, the show points out in a very adorable way what hamsters can accomplish.
The producers picked a perfect host in Sherman; she can dress like a cross between Willy Wonka and the Mad Hatter and get away with it, because she’s established over her years on SNL that she’s up for anything. Her irreverence shows through when she treats Brandt like Colin Jost on Weekend Update, mouthing things like “he’s stupid,” in a way that the audience knows she’s just joking. But she also has a lot of respect for both the hamsters and the humans competing here.
Brandt is there to be the “sports guy,” and he’s fine. We’re not sure what purpose Balthazar serves. To be honest, perhaps cutting down to two hosts will allow the producers to offer more than a paltry maximum of $9,000 for a team that wins these physical challenges.
But the idea here is just to have fun, and it looks like the contestants are having a lot of fun. Also, these challenges are actually hard; one of the nurses is shown with her leg shaking as she tried to hang on to a ledge in the first challenge. Somehow, the show manages to balance the silliness of the situation with how tough these challenges actually are, something that’s tough to achieve.
Sex and Skin: None. This is a show for all ages.
Parting Shot: We won’t say what happened at the end, but we do like the send-off phrase: “Unfortunately, your wheel has run its course. Fur-well!”
Sleeper Star: We’ll give this to the hamsters we saw in the first episode: Ham, Shadow, Kevin and Warrior.
Most Pilot-y Line: There is a two-question quiz in the middle of the episode that doesn’t offer any money or competitive advantage and is just there to give the contestants a breather. Can’t they just do that off-camera?
Our Call: STREAM IT. Don’t get us wrong: Human Vs. Hamster is silly as hell. But it’s fun to watch, and host Sarah Sherman takes the show just as seriously as it deserves to be taken.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.