Running Man Show - A grown up hide & seek

Dearies, do you remember a time where you would play hide and seek in your home? You would wish to have a better hiding spot than behind the curtain...
Running Man, a hilarious korean variety TV show, takes this dream to the next level and takes your childhood game into museums, amusement parks, office buildings, shopping centres and even city wide. It is a highly rated show domestically and internationally. Don't worry if you don't understand a word of Korean (like me) there is english subs available. Reading subtitles?! Trust me, give this a shot.

Set up

The show is set up with the same seven main cast members consisting of comedians, artists and actors every week. This cast will be directed to find the two famous guests invited on the show. Meanwhile, the guests have their own mission to find running balls which contain names of their seekers. Seekers will be eliminated out of the search if a running ball is found. Strange punishments are given to the losing team.

Since there has been over 100 episodes there are tweaks to the show to keep it interesting. eg. mole in the group, the hunters become the hunted or just different missions. After the hide & seek segment is over, guests are invited to play games with the cast. (I usually only watch the chase, that's the heart pumping action segment.)

Setting & Props

From a vampire/masquerade special 

What captures my interest about this show is the mind blowing places they actually play these games in. Sometimes they hire extras to hide the guests and fill in the area such as a hired out cultural centre or they go around in public areas like the airport. It's a bit of bonus for international viewers to get an insight into Korean tourist spots, culture and beyond that. 

My favourite location they've done would be in a massive office building with 400 employees. Some workers are excited and others are minding their own business. One of the missions was to find the most office couples! Imagine the time that took. It was funny that the cast members even met the CEO.

Team dynamics

What's kept the show going for so long is the character development and interactions between the main cast.   After a while you realise the team resemble a stereotypical comedic family. You've got a lame joke making father, some loser cousins striving to be liked, the buff brother with a soft side, intelligent sister and a perverted uncle. Also they've put in a potential love relationship called the "Monday couple" (the show is aired on Monday) to keep us all wanting more.

Comic

Running man has been so popular it has expanded graphically into a comic. This is put on their korean website and translated by fans into english. You need to watch the show to understand the jokes. 

Read the comic here.

Links
No need to watch it in order but try the later ones after 20 when they actually get the concept going. All with english subtitles.
KShowsNow
Drama Crazy
Epdrama
Allkoreanentertainment blog

xoxo
Your loser grandma,

nana