Distracted - February 22
After the Super Bowl, I stuck around with a friend, and
after Millionaire, Match Game and some video games, I
was treated to an episode of "Distraction." After seeing
Jimmy Carr's standup act on Conan O'Brien's show, I had
heard about the show from various friends and
acquaintances. After the episode finished with the
champion taking home a Vespa scooter, a computer and a
ruined Sony Vega TV, I used the drive home to reflect on
it.
I was disappointed just a little bit, and not at all
surprised. I'll now spend the rest of the column
explaining it.
The disappointment doesn't land on Jimmy Carr; he's
easily the best part of the show. Perhaps that's the
problem. The game is almost too basic, and it doesn't
work here. We have rounds of questions, contestants
being abused and the final round where the prizes are
destroyed. The rest of the half hour is filled up with
commercials. Round one is a minute and a half, round two
is two more minutes, and round three the fastest of all.
The bonus game is another short affair. By the time I'm
getting into the game, it's over, and I'm left wanting
more.
Second is the look of the show. I don't know who it was,
but someone watched an episode of "Remote Control" and
decided that every game show set would either look like
the Fortress of Solitude (Millionaire, Twenty-one,
Weakest Link) or the basement of my grandmother's house.
A brick wall should be load bearing, not a set piece.
For that matter, there aren't any scoreboards or
flashing lights anywhere to be seen. The score is
flashed briefly on a flatscreen for a few seconds, and
then it's on to the next round. Are game shows becoming
so self-conscious now that the shows are going out of
their way to NOT have anything in common with the game
shows of old? (T-Note: hey, that sounds like a good
topic. Watch for that some week when there's no action
on the small screen.) But all of that is how the other
shows have been doing it, and Jimmy's opening monologue
is funny, even if he does recycle jokes.
I'm not surprised because I know what network picked up
the show. A standard buzz-in round would work on
Discovery (and why not, they picked up "Cash Cab"?) but
to work on cable there has to be something more. And
I'll admit that I was mildly amused by the sight of
contestants pulling rubber bands over their faces while
naming 90s bands, or a wrecking ball destroying a big
screen TV. The contestants knew what they were in for
and I knew what was going to happen. This is what Comedy
Central thinks will draw eyeballs at midnight, and
they're probably right. I would rather see "Win Ben
Stein's Money" in its tenth season, but apparently
that's not going to happen because it was too smart for
its own good. So enjoy watching people pee on command to
answer questions, or pinning clothespins to their nose,
because one was enough for me.
For the record, Travis Eberle did enjoy the round
when people affixed rubber bands to their faces. E-mail him at traviseberle@gmail.com. |