Re: Wipeout

I was really disappointed. I didn't think this show worked on any level.
I think:

1. If you're going to do this as a traditional reality show, it needs to
be more like Survivor: Urban Japan. They needed to turn them loose in
the city and film their reactions as they try to navigate it. Instead,
they get chauffeured everywhere, and even have a nanny. It's about as
edgy as watching people ride a tour bus. That said, it was a mistake to
go with Survivor-like eliminations. Totally kills the mood of the show.
This either should have been a total meritocracy (score points during
the first game to avoid the elimination round), or they should have had
the Japanese game show audience vote on it. Then we could have seen our
American contestants trying to play up to a Japanese audience, who like
different traits in their contestants. Would have provided great
opportunities for contestant interviews on their strategies for winning
over the audience, instead of giving us a talking head every 8 seconds
just to tell us, "Japan is weird!" Yes, we know Japan is weird, that's
the entire hook to the show. It's the only reason we're watching. Gotta
cut down on the talking heads.

2. The actual Japanese game show, especially for the first ever episode,
was way too tame. Maybe I've seen too many Japanese game shows (I'm a
big fan), but this was like watching adults do the physical challenges
from that old Double Dare show they used to have on Nickelodeon. It
didn't help that they were following Wipeout, which itself is a pale
imitation of MXC. The show needs to be more extreme/bizarre than this.

3. The casting was poorly done. These guys are way too up for this and
way too happy to be on TV. For this concept to work, most of the
contestants needed to be very uncomfortable, true fish-out-of-water
people. Instead they give us possibly the most non-traditional Alabama
Boy in all of Alabama. A traditional, even bad stereotype Alabama Boy
would have been a better choice. What's the fun in torturing people who
are clearly up for the experience? And no, I don't buy for a second that
they had no idea what sort of show this was. Though that would explain
why the cast is the way they are, since only people who are game for
anything would apply to be on a blank sheet reality show. That and
completely desperate famewhores.

I was ready to cross this show off, but based solely on the mostly
positive feedback it's received here, I'll give the second episode a
chance. It's a wonderful concept, but I think they've botched the
execution badly. We'll see.

In article
<d7831591-b31f-4758-8757-136dd1068efd@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
seerialmom@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
On Jun 25, 12:53 pm, Ubiquitous <web...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
seerial...@xxxxxxxxx wrote:

MXC is currently shown on "Spike TV", MXC stands for Most Extreme
Elimination Challenge.  From what I recall the show was "real" in
Japan, it was brought over to the US and "dubbed" with American
voices
who made up names for the contestants and descriptions of what they
do
for a living, fun.  They also dub the voices of the contestants.
Here's a "best of MXC" on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4VomImtzVw

Sadly, the redubbed version is far superior to the original.

No argument there. MXC is hilarious. But it's still fun to have
something silly like this on network TV in the US for those without
cable.

.

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