Can Fox’s ‘LEGO Masters’ Take The Feelgood Reality TV Crown From ‘The Great British Baking Show’?

In the same year that it poached The Great British Baking Show from the BBC, the UK’s Channel 4 also gave another seemingly genteel pastime the competitive treatment. Instead of towering croquembouches and vegan pavlovas, LEGO Masters asked the nation’s most enthusiastic toy brick builders to construct everything from life-size crazy golf courses to all-walking, all-talking robotic pets.

It was an instant success. Replicating the early charms of the GBBS – before all the lucrative book deals and smarmy Hollywood handshakes – the celebration of Denmark’s finest cultural export was low-stakes but highly creative comfort TV which left the sob stories firmly in the storage box.

While ABC’s The American Baking Show, perhaps surprisingly, retained the original’s quaint and cozy nature, Fox have decided that LEGO building needs a little more razzle-dazzle to sustain audience interest on the other side of the pond.

Last night’s first episode of LEGO Masters (“Dream Park Theme Park”) saw ten pairs of contestants walk into a high-tech studio more suited to a Tron reboot than a contest involving miniature interlocking bricks. There, they were greeted by five-time Emmy nominee Will Arnett, whose booming tones informed them of the $100,000 grand prize (in stark contrast, the Channel 4 winner receives a LEGO brick trophy and a display in Denmark’s new LEGO museum).

Fans of the far more restrained British version may balk at the overly dramatic orchestral backdrop and emergency klaxon used to signal the final-hour. Yet unlike many transatlantic reality TV remakes (see the unwatchably angry Kitchen Nightmares, for example) this is a case where such bombast is welcome.

LEGO building isn’t exactly the most exciting of spectator sports. Sure, the end result can be just as spectacular as a levitating soda can-topped meringue or a lion made entirely out of bread. But with far fewer variables than in the GBBS tent, the LEGO Masters’ journeys to get there aren’t nearly as entertaining.

As the voice of LEGO Batman, a fact which he proudly states throughout, Arnett is a fitting choice to liven up the 15-hour-long challenge. The host skillfully maneuvers that fine line between humor and mockery as he gets to know the teams – he briefly convinces them that the first week prize isn’t the immunity-giving golden LEGO brick but an actual sports car.

And whether he’s faux-pondering on the plural of LEGO (it’s just LEGO) or acknowledging the awkwardness of the host/competitor interactions, he undoubtedly recognizes the sheer ridiculousness of it all.

But the Arrested Development star appears genuinely enthusiastic about their creations, too. “We were not prepared for these teams to be so good,” he admits in one of several deadpan asides to camera, and early on he sincerely expresses how honored he is to be involved.

Arnett has also been gifted with a somewhat eccentric array of contestants. There’s friends Jessie and Kara, the latter a Beverly Goldberg-esque figure with the motto of “the bigger the hair, the closer to God” and a fondness for giant ducks.

Artists Sam and Jessica had never built bricks together before entering the LEGO Masters studio. And their passive-aggressive behavior while constructing their confectionary-themed Sugar Hill suggests that once they exit they’re unlikely to do so ever again.

Most memorably of all, if for slightly icky reasons, is Tyler and Amy, two newlyweds who suddenly start making out halfway through their first interview. Arnett’s visible amazement says it all.

However, the show’s two experts, aka the Brick Masters, are less charismatic. Amy Corbett and Jamie Berard sure know their stuff but their laid-back energy is more suited to the politer UK version. Producers may wish to follow the original’s lead and rotate the judging panel if a second series is greenlit.

So what about the actual creations? Well, Christian and Aaron get another chance to bro it up when their Space Land effort, complete with spinning Ferris wheel, is awarded the golden brick. Mark and Boone, two bearded builders whose eyes first met in a toy aisle, looked like hot favorites before their Timber Town vertical lift got embarrassingly stuck. And expect to see more PDA from Tyler and Amy after impressing with their Funny Farm idea.

Other duos such as cosplayers Krystle & Amie, husbands Richard & Flynn and brothers Travis & Corey enjoy so little screentime that it’s obvious they won’t get caught up in the bottom-two drama. Instead, it involves Sam & Jess, whose peppermint bumper cars end up violently attacking each other rather comically, and Nestor & Manny, a highly emotional father-son team whose main rollercoaster track cuts out halfway.

But there’s an unnecessary twist. Despite Arnett deriding all the elimination clichés (“this is the moment where the music hits… we all know how it goes”) as he prepares to deliver the verdict, he then throws in one of the biggest: no-one is going home this week, meaning that all that painstaking assembling had essentially been for nothing.

Such curveballs seem wasted at a time when viewers aren’t yet invested in the contestants enough to care about a last-minute reprieve. It’s an avoidably flat ending to a promising first episode which retains the original’s pureness (“we want to beat those guys but at their best” note Mel and Jermaine following the Bearded Builders’ fail) while adding a whole lot of pizzazz.

Jon O’Brien (@jonobrien81) is a freelance entertainment and sports writer from the North West of England. His work has appeared in the likes of Esquire, Billboard, Paste, i-D, The Guardian, Vinyl Me Please and Allmusic.

Stream LEGO Masters on Hulu