GSN > Fox?
Gordon PepperI'm
going to spare you the claptrap and opening dialogue on
how open and unbiased we are as a group. We try to be
fair about what we cover and we try to give shows the
benefit of the doubt before reviewing them. That being
said, as you can probably tell in our We Love To
Interrupt segments, we have noticeable biases towards
and against shows and people. For example, if I told
Chico that I set up a dinner appointment with himself,
Trista Rehn and Mike Fleiss, he would probably shrink in
a little ball, bury himself under the covers and start
singing excerpts from Carmina Burana.
If his bugaboo is Fleiss and Rehn, then mine is GSN.
Granted, this is the network that has given us gems such
as Lingo and shows that I enjoy covering such as Poker
Royale and Extreme Dodgeball. Unfortunately, there's
some other stuff on GSN that I unfortunately got to
cover, such as Greek Games and Fake-A-Date. In addition,
they have unleashed upon us American Dream Derby, Burt
Luddin's Love Buffet, The All New 3's a Crowd, Throut
and Neck (though I sheepishly admit to liking that
show), Kenny Vs. Spenny (I know they didn't create the
show, but they did air it in the U.S and that's bad
enough), Who Wants to Be Governor of California: The
Debating Game (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0381708/) and
had a deal to repeat episodes of The Next Action Star.
Though I am not going to put Russian Roulette, Friend of
Foe, Whammy! or Hollywood Showdown on the 'Bad Show'
list, I am not a fan of any of those shows, and as you
can see from my list, the bad heavily outweighs the
good. And don't get me started on Decades, Trivia Track
or all of those other call in and win shows.
Needless to say, I wasn't expecting much from
Ballbreakers. What I got instead was a show that not
only is based on pool, but has so much side betting and
smack-talking that It actually adds to the entertainment
of watching people play billiards.
Of course, it's fun to see skilled players go at it, but
there's a completely different level of play that hasn't
been tapped yet. You knock a player out of the game be
draining him out of his money. There are 2 ways to do
that. The way that the show preaches it an elimination
match, but there is another way, which is to drain him
of his money by side-betting him until he's out of cash.
It's a great strategy to eliminate a shark if you know
you have no shot against him at the table. All in all, a
surprisingly good show from GSN.
Game #2 of the week - Extreme Dodgeball 3. They took the
action and hooked it up a few notches to create a
fully-contained game which will easily last an hour.
It's an excellent transition from just trying to get rid
of 5 people to an actual scoring match. This not only
changes the game, it also changes the strategy. as you
can have any combination of people playing.
The 'celebrity' captains are more like normal players,
each with their own strengths and weaknesses. As much as
I would like to see this as an 8 team league, the action
is quick and furious, and most of all, compelling. GSN
once again has another hit on their hands, and they are
an amazing 2 for 2 on the week...
...which is ironic, because I thought that the best show
on was actually the one I liked the least. Fox unleashed
"So You Think You Can Dance", and although it wasn't
bad, it wasn't what I expected. I would have liked to
see any sort of different change of format, but instead,
I was left with "Oh, It's American Idol Gone
Dancing."
We had everything that was Idol. Three judges. The girl
who says nice things. The cranky Brit. The reject
dancers. Sure, there were some good ones, but this had
the patented 'Idol' play on it all the way. I expected
that it should, but I expected something different from
Fox.
I guess this was the biggest irony of them all. The
reason why my expectations were raised is because it's
coming off of the heels of ABC's dance show. How ironic
is it that Fox's show lost some luster because ABC beat
them to the punch? This is the same ABC that saw Wife
Swap, Millionaire, Supernanny and other shows get cloned
out by Fox, so imagine when Fox, who obviously had a
decent budget riding on this show, gets to see a show
steal lustre from them. Isn't it ironic, don't you
think...
From that last line, you can tell that Gordon Pepper is
stuck in 1995. E-mail him your favorite Alanis lyric at gordon@gameshownewsnet.com |