Caught some of ABC’s ballyhooed obstacle course game which, of course, is fashioned after
MXC, itself fashioned after the Japanese head-scratcher Takeshi’s Castle. Or maybe it skips the middle-man and apes Takeshi’s Castle. Whatever, it sucks either way.
The obstacles are not nearly as entertaining as the Japanese counterparts–the bouncy balls are a sad trade-off for the head-traumatizing awesomeness of the log roll. There’s still mud and water and contestants saying stupid things and announcers saying stupider things, but the dialog pales in comparison to the MXC voice-overs. Then again, you could get away with a lot more innuendo on Spike TV than you can on ABC prime time.
The lone highlight was that boxing glove obstacle and the inevitable crotch punches.
3 comments ↓
ABC makes two big mistakes with this show. First they sanitize the obstacles - no doubt out of fear of lawsuits. Then they insist on trying to present the contestants as individual personalities. As if we can be made to care about these idiots. Who wants to identify with people who would subject themselves to such degredation. The Japanese formula works - mass carnage and screw the personalities. The few, actually interesting players will emerge naturally.
ok it was funny to begin with, then it got old. seriously, nothing can beat that japanese show being dubbed over on Spike.
Dump the idiot hosts: John and John, there is no need to have three hosts. Keep Jill and expand her role, making her a more supportive person towards the contestants. She is often quite guilty of making fun of the contestants short comings herself and she does not need to, she needs to rise above it. Clean up the stupid never ending jokes about “balls” too — that has gone on long enough and was never funny.
I have found the only way to truly enjoy this show, is to hit the mute button.
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