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Flinch (2019)

Netflix has been in the game show business for a hot minute now after the runaway success of Nailed It! last year. If 2018 established their presence on the competition show scene, then 2019 is the year Netflix decides to get weird. How do you get weirder than a baking show featuring clueless “chefs”? You make Flinch, a show that pushes boundaries and buttons (as well as chickens on conveyor belts and massive tires on rope swings). So what is Flinch on Netflix? If you’ve just seen a second of footage from this show, you’ve probably got a lot of questions. Here’s everything you need to know about Flinch on Netflix.

**What is Flinch on Netflix about?**

Toss Double Dare, Fear Factor, and Saw into a blender and what do you get? You get the chunky milkshake that is Flinch, a game show that will make you wince and LOL at the same time. Flinch takes a group of contestants from all walks of life (although presumably ones that aren’t prone to heart attacks?) and drops them in truly horrific contraptions involving flames, balloons, industrial strength rubber bands, paintball guns, and live chickens. They then endure the trials (a tire swinging at their face, balloons popping next to their heads, smelling raw meat) and resist flinching with all their might. And if they flinch, they get shocked! Yeah, not only do they have to endure the physical challenges, they get shocked if they can’t handle the heat!

Flinch on Netflix hosts — Photo: Netflix

**Who is in the Flinch on Netflix cast?**

Flinch is hosted by three comedians: Lloyd Griffith, Desiree Burch, and Seann Walsh.

Griffith is an English comedian that’s worked as a host on plenty of shows across the pond, including Soccer AM and The Premier League Show. Flinch is his first major hosting gig for American audiences. You can follow Lloyd Griffith on Twitter and Instagram.

Burch is also a mainstay of British panel shows, but actually hails from America. Since moving to London, she’s appeared on The Jonathan Ross Show, Roast Battle, Mock the Week, QI, and a bunch more. You can follow Desiree Burch on Twitter and Instagram.

Walsh is also an English comedian that’ll be recognizable to anyone that keep sup with UK panel shows. He’s appeared as a panelist on Mock the Week, 8 Out of 10 Cats, and Never Mind the Buzzcocks among many, many other series. American audiences may have seen him when he did standup on Conan last year. You can follow Seann Walsh on Twitter and Instagram.

**Is Flinch on Netflix real?**

In every way that really matters, I’m going with “yes.” Are these real Rube Goldbergian nightmare machines and were the contestants really flinching? I think the show itself proves that flinching isn’t something you can control easily. That’s the whole point! While the show never reveals how much voltage is coursing through the contestants’ bodies, they are being subjected to all manner of barn-based torture.

Now, is the show produced? That’s also a yes. As is the case with a lot of reality shows, the contestants aren’t solely what they’re introduced as. In fact, the IMDB page lists a couple of contestants (Episode 3’s Henrietta and Episode 10’s Charley) as cast members. Note that IMDB is peer-edited like Wikipedia, so it’s definitely possible that Henrietta and Charley added themselves to the page because in addition to being a secretary and makeup artist, respectively, Henrietta (a.k.a. Anne Wonder) is an actress/model and Charley is a TV personality. Additionally, Terri from Episode 2 is credited as a “Mum” and IRL works as a podcast host.

So, does Flinch tell you everything about the contestants? No. Does it need to or even have time to? No. This isn’t Queer Eye! You want to see people get clobbered by old vegetables and Flinch delivers!

Flinch hosts doing challenge — Photo: Netflix

**Where was Flinch on Netflix filmed?**

Netflix’s promotional materials state that the show was filmed on a remote farm in Ireland. If you do some digging online, you can find out that the farm is located outside Belfast in Northern Ireland, in the countryside of County Antrim.