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ruskryger
Reviews
Legends of the Hidden Temple (2021)
Adult reboot that suffers from poor editing and a small temple
I've watched all three seasons of the original show on Nickelodeon and was psyched to hear about this reboot for adults on the CW. It's got some of the elements of the original show and I'll still watch it for the sake of nostalgia, but the editing for the program is absolutely cringe.
Positives:
- They got the same voice actor to voice Olmec
- It has the familiar progression of going across the moat, the steps of knowledge, the temple games, and then the temple run
- They added comic book-style graphics to explain the story
- $25,000 cash prize is sweet
- I liked the first-person camera bits; I think they could have made it easier to view the entire temple from the side though
- I didn't mind that they cut the number of teams from six to four; I also didn't mind that they turned the third temple game into a steps of knowledge tiebreaker to save time, although having a more physical, head-to-head tiebreaker would have been more exciting
Negatives:
- The lethargic music sucks a lot of energy out of the reboot. The whole point of this show is to the ride on our nostalgia, so it would have been far better if they could have remixed the classic tunes -- especially the temple run music -- and added them in.
- Because of COVID restrictions, there's no live audience. Not really their fault, but it just contributes to the lack of energy.
- There are far too many edit inserts of commentary from the host and the contestants. I want to watch the challenges from start to finish. If you want to splice in what the contestants are thinking, do it after they're over. The constant edits just make it feel like it's not live, which is one of the strengths of the original show.
- Worst of all, they cut the temple run IN HALF with a commercial break, destroying the momentum and intensity of the most important part of the show. I would rather watch longer commercials before the temple run than break it up like that. Just WHY?!
- The temple is actually sort of small. Since it only has about ten rooms or so, it's clear that there's really just one path through the temple where the contestants have to hit every room to get to the treasure. (Which means they will likely hit all three temple guards.) At least on the original show there was the illusion that you could go in multiple directions and there were times were shortcut doors did exist.
- By default, the final contestants are given two pendants of life, so the temple guards are not really that much of a threat, just more of a nuisance. One of the dangers of the temple games in the original was that if you only had 1 or 1.5 pendants of life at the end, you could be unlucky with the temple guard placement (tho you could the find the missing half pendant in the temple itself). I suppose that they wanted to make sure that the contestants always had a shot at the prize money, but it defeats the point of the guards.
The One (2021)
One and done
For a series about the idea of soulmates, The One spends most of the time mired in boardroom politics and power plays, a murder mystery that's not really a mystery after a few episodes in, and mundane trust issues in relationships. Sometimes it relates in some way to reckoning with actual soulmates, but the series constantly looks over its shoulder as if, ironically, its true match is a storyline that ISN'T about soulmates at all.
The acting isn't terrible, so much as the direction of the acting was meant to be more muted and realistic. Unfortunately, that results in the tension of the series being self-suppressed. The main character, while ruthless in a badass way, is difficult to root for, as the story doesn't really show us what is at stake apart from her just not wanting to get caught or punished for what she did. She continues to state that she does things for true love, so the series should have shown just how many people have been helped by the matchmaking service.
The One has a decent premise and you can binge it in a day, but it washes itself out and isn't very memorable. You can predict where the show will go for the most part after a few episodes. Perhaps if there is a second season, the series can pose enough philosophical, psychological, and social questions to keep the soulmate concept interesting.
500 Questions (2015)
Wastes too much time
The second season of 500 Questions does provide some interesting strategy from the contestants and the cinematic quality of the design is intense.
However, the game is incredibly slow-paced, mainly due to ridiculous number of time-wasters. Aside from the annoying number of "quick breaks," is it necessary for the host to blather between every question and to rattle off all of the correct answers in a battle question? We can SEE what question the contestant is on and how many wrongs there are the board, so it's useless to tell us what they are.
Another problem is that the prize earnings are extremely low. Having each correct answer be only worth $1,000 doesn't provide a lot of tension; maybe if contestants earned a bonus for getting questions correct in a row, it would feel more exciting.
Moreover, it takes a contestant to answer all 30 questions to bank money, which leads to rather extremely low payouts and takes way too much time. Many times, the contestant walks away with nothing. Who Wants To Be A Millionaire took less time to reach the $32,000 mark. Heck, Jeopardy is a better game show and it finished in 30 minutes.
Worse, the likelihood of anyone reaching 500 questions, let alone half that, is improbable enough that the whole premise of the show is moot.