Tuesday, January 29, 2008

American Gladiators

It doesn't capture the magic of the original, but it's not bad. My favorite gladiators so far are Justice, who appears to be the most competent of the male gladiators and isn't overly gimmicky, and Crush, for a more obvious reason.

The most annoying thing is the increase in the number of commercials and jabbering that combine to decrease the number of events that the contestants get to do. This is followed closely by some problems with the Eliminator.

A look at the events:

Assault: The changes to this event are bad ones. Having to load the weapons and the silly digging in the sand for an arrow make things take to long for the contestants.

Earthquake: This event is ok, but I don't like how the ropes come into play so much. All and all, I'd rather have Breakthrough and Conquer back.

Gauntlet: Nice to see this one back.

Hang Tough: It has less rings than the original version, I'm undecided as to the question if it is an improvement or not.

Hit & Run: Lame. Is it the lamest event ever? It does have competition with Swingshot and Sky Track.

Joust: Perhaps my favorite, but the gladiators need to step it up.

Powerball: One of my favorites. The change to make the opening on the scoring containers bigger is a good one, but perhaps overdone just a little.

Pyramid: Another event (with Gauntlet) that wasn't on every season of the original series that it's good to see back.

The Wall: The Wall is the Wall, never one of my favorites.

Which brings us to the Eliminator. The Eliminator was always the deciding event, but in the new version it is decisive to the point that the first four events have basically not mattered. Even worse, it one aspect of the eliminator that has decide 75% of the contests - the treadmill. In addition, there's no longer a time penalty for falling of the hand bike. It would have been better for half the men and almost all the women to fall off on purpose at the start. This is a something that needs to be changed. Hopefully these factors will not be as decisive in the 2nd round of competition.

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