I have a new obsession. And by obsession, I mean, possibly illegal levels of full-on addiction. It was just a couple of weeks ago when a friend of mine, out of the blue, mentioned that he’d enjoys a YouTube game called Jet Lag. “Huh, what is that Matt?” And voila, it was all downhill from there.
The Concept of Jet Lag is Simple
There are three guys that comprise the core Jet Lag team – Sam, Adam, & Ben. And they play games… you know these games, they are Hide & Seek, Tag, Capture the Flag, and the like. But instead of playing them like you did in elementary school, they play them across countries, nay even continents. Wait, how is that even possible, I hear you saying… and I agree. I’ve watched every single season, and every single episode of every single game, and I’m still not 100% certain.
But generally speaking, for a game of Hide & Seek… the hider is given two and a half hours to hop the nearest train, and to run for it. Once the hiding period is up, the two seekers begin their hunt by asking the hider questions. There are a pile of questions that they can choose from:
They can ask for a photo from the hider of the nearest 5 buildings, a photo of the nearest train station, questions about the nearest zoos, are they hotter or colder, etc., etc. But each question the seekers get to ask allows the hider to get more power. This power is in the form of curses that will force the seekers to accomplish tasks or act differently for certain amounts of time. For example, one curse might only allow the seekers to walk sideways for 2 hours… or forces them to carry a melon with them for the duration, etc. You get the idea.
Why Is It So Addictive?
The question still remains, why am I so obsessed? That’s a really great question that I find myself asking regularly as I burned through every single episode of all (currently) 14 seasons. It’s sort of a silly premise on a grand scale. Might it be because of the quirky, totally random sense of humor of it all? Maybe… during season 10, the Australian season, there was a challenge where players had to throw shrimp, 100 feet, on to a Barbie. As in, a Barbie doll. Wait, what? I know! Exactly.
Or maybe it is off the chart intuition and strategies necessary to anticipate where a human might run to across the continent of Europe. Oh, and the skill of tracking train tables, bus charts, and all, in order to stay one step ahead of the hider. I love traveling and so that part of the game is regularly scratching an itch for me as well.
Then there is the relationships between Sam/Adam/&Ben… as the seasons progress, the games progress and their relationships also progress. Which, is just as interesting and involved as the complexities of the games themselves. I find myself, now that I’m waiting for the next season to come out, watching interviews and learning more about the Jet Lag Production company and team that make these games. I can’t get enough.
I mean, there are a million reasons – the travel, the laughs, the inside jokes, the strategies, the different game mechanics, the surprises. And still, after that long list of reasons, I still really can’t explain it to myself as to why I am so addicted. Generally I don’t watch YouTube. Generally I am a movie guy, not a show guy. Generally this wouldn’t be my thing. Like at all. And yet, here I am, extolling the wonders that is Jet Lag The Game.
Jet Lag The Schedule
If Jet Lag seems like something you’d be interested in, I extended out this schedule of all the seasons etc., here on this calendar. (To be clear, I didn’t originally create this calendar – but I did extend it a year.) It shows the dates the episodes came out, the dates of the original filming, etc.
Yes, now you are seeing the levels of addiction I’m talking about. Ah well. Hopefully a few of you will check them out over on YouTube, and give it a try!
Edited by: CY
