Must-See TV

Calling a board game “underrated” will always feel a bit awkward when online communities and their rating systems tend to average everything to about a 7/10. Aside from the one in a million stone cold classics all games will fade from the greater conversation as they age, such is the nature of the zeitgeist. Reprints are an opportunity for a game to expand and attract a broader audience, to spark up old conversations. A reprint implies confidence, especially if it’s been picked up by a new publisher, and in this case I think that’s entirely warranted. If you have any affection for television, drafting, and/or some of the most dynamic tableau building in all of tableau-build-ery, I’m going to insist you give The Networks: Primetime a look. Come on over to the water cooler with me for a sec, I gotta tell you about this show I’ve been rewatching.

First, a primer. The Networks: Primetime is a game about the television biz, set sometime before streaming fully obviated channel surfing. Players start with a slate filled with public access dreck, a bit of money, and a couple of aces up their sleeves thanks to an initial Pilot Season new to this edition. Each season you’ll compete to hire stars, sign ads, produce shows that pull as many viewers as possible, and get ahold of a litany of powerful Network cards with game-shifting effects. This is accomplished via a draft. You can almost always get some of what you want, but you’ll never get it all. What do you prioritize, and can you stymie your fellow execs in the process?

Thanks to Allplay’s development pass (credited to Jeff Fraser and AJ Brandon) there are several notable changes from the previous edition, but calling them all out wouldn’t be helpful to most folks approaching Primetime for the first time. What I can do is summarize the effects: The game is now a bit leaner, quicker to play, and notably more explosive. Shows produce more viewers sooner, and you’re expected to maximize said viewership ASAP as you only get 4 seasons (rounds), plus some end game bonuses including reruns of all your syndicated shows. Where the original used to occasionally feel like it was awarding points for the fun of it, Primetime makes every viewer feel earned and tightens the score spread, resulting in an experience that feels honed.

Most turns in Primetime couldn’t be simpler: take a card from the table and do what it says, or exit for the round and get a chunk of change (or viewers if you’re already rich!) for doing so. There’s a wonderful set of tensions at play here. Drafting public offerings will always see players stealing furtive glances at each other, then at their most desired card, then back at their friends, hoping against hope that no one prevents them from securing yet another sports program or the next big supporting actor. Pulling you in the opposite direction, the first player to dip out of the round is awarded the heftiest payout and that bonus degrades with each subsequent pass, which means the siren song of simoleons is constantly humming in your ear.

The game is constantly asking questions that rarely have easy answers. How long do you stay in? How many more things can you afford to take? What do you actually need, and which are just nice-to-have’s? Bail too early and your opponents will just scoop everything you left behind then overtake your lineup’s viewership, but stay too late and you could end up over your financial skis, potentially to the point where you need to unceremoniously cancel a show lest you blow your budget. Every round is a tightrope walk and it’s up to you whether you want to hop before your fellow C-levels remove the safety net. You’ll feel like some kind of executive acrobat each time your station manages to skate by for just one more season while pulling more eyeballs than ever before.

As an aside, I’m of the opinion that after a play or two everyone should use the turn order variant towards the back of the book, which sees the player who scored the least in the previous round drafting first in the next, and so on up the scoreboard. The slight mental wrinkle gained from not taking turns clockwise is absolutely worth giving players the tactical space to intentionally sacrifice a few potential viewers in an attempt to bid for first player and slingshot past their opponents in the next round. It also adds a bit of thematic grounding – sometimes real life shows suck on purpose! Television was and is an incredibly strange business!

If I fully affix my critic hat I can find things to complain about, sure. The game still runs pretty long at a full player count even with a round lopped off, and the draft often becomes so chaotic that winning becomes more about being the least frequent victim of the chaos than the result of carefully executed strategy. The Network cards being so punchy and powerful makes them exciting and memorable, but can result in the round 1 deal feeling a bit more impactful than some may like, especially if a permanent passive is dealt and immediately swiped by the first player. The closest thing to a substantial gripe I can manage is that I’m a bit skeptical of genre bonuses being competitive with just putting on the biggest shows possible regardless of your network’s specialty, but that’s kept in check by drafting the pieces out from under each other so I’m inclined to give the set collection a pass.

Oh, who am I kidding? I can’t even make any of these criticisms without a justification as to why the decisions made are a net positive, and none of them dampen my enthusiasm anyway. Primetime just rules and I’m so very happy it exists. The original has been one of our household’s favorite games for about 10 years now and this new edition has overcome all of our “I dunno, change is scary” skepticism. It’s just better now. I would be doing the game and anyone reading this a disservice if I didn’t say so. I’m accustomed to championing plenty of excellent titles that don’t get their due, but between CMYK’s phenomenal treatment of my beloved Magical Athlete and Allplay making Hova’s already great game even better, I’m feeling more optimistic than ever about excellent games finding a way back into the limelight eventually. The Networks is at the height of its powers, truly in its prime, and you owe it to yourself to tune into its newest season. 

9/10