Archive for February 18th, 2008
American Gladiator Finale
Some random notes on the American Gladiator finale:
- My first thought when I noticed it was two-hours: “Wow, they must be doing a full compliment of events tonight.”
- Second thought: “Thank God I DVRed this.” According to the fast-forward information, the first event started 23 minutes in to the two hours. The first 20 minutes was commercials, crappy interviews, and other filler.
- At this point, I think they should just ban Evan from the events and just spot his opponent the head start at the Eliminator… just to make it challenging for him. Evan’s eliminator times have been 1:29 and 1:23. He’s set the competitor record each time he’s run it.
- If you’re keeping track at home, the first men’s event (after even more filler, commercials, and a Wolf rules at Hang Tough package) doesn’t start until 37 minutes in.
- And we get a commercial between the men’s Hang Tough, so the second guy doesn’t go until 44 minutes in. This show is tightly put together. We’re 45 minutes into a 120 minute show and we’ve JUST completed the first event. As we all know, everyone who’s tuning in to this show is here to see highlight packages, commercials, and filler. Eff the events. Who’s booking this, Russo?
- Wolf falls off the rings during Hang Tough against Evan, furthering my theory that they’re jobbing out for him.
- Shanay says re: Assault: “I didn’t dunk her today, but I hope she gets dunked tonight.” She’s rooting for her opponent to get 10 points. You’re doing it wrong.
- Evan jumps out to a 19 point lead after two events (which, by the way, puts us past the hour mark). Apparently the new strategy is to build enough of a head start to see if he can finish the Eliminator before his opponent actually gets to start.
- They interviewed each contender before they Jousted. Three of them are just going to try their best. Evan has a full interview. We also get a Why Titan Rules At Joust promo package. So much filler.
- I don’t know why, but it really bothers me that Titan always starts his first swing before the whistle in Joust and they never call it. Not only that, but the contender never calls him out on it. Something like: “I didn’t know it was ok to start swinging before the whistle. I’ll try that next time.” If you want to give these guys the microphone CONSTANTLY. Tell them to say stuff.
- At least I finally noticed that when they start playing the over-dramatically music before the event starts, that they’re going to do the super annoying “cut to commercial as the event’s starting” thing.
- Alex catches up five points in pyramid. The next event was the Wall. If you’re not following, Evan is a rock climbing instructor. His wall times have been :27 and :20. Let’s see what happens.
- He gets up the wall in :23, getting his five points back.
- Going into the Eliminator, Evan gets 9.5 seconds. We can probably just skip it.
- And he dominates it again in 1:19, beating his own record.
- I don’t understand the gimmick of giving these guys the “chance to become the next American Gladiator.” These guys are both normal dudes. The Gladiators are roided up maniacs.
- Both women have figured out the “touch the handles of the handbike and fall off because you can run across the pit quicker with no penalty” trick.
- Monica beats Shanay and her husband came over the stands to congratulate her. A living vicariously through his wife and stealing her moment thing or a sappy “I love my family” moment set up by the producers. You decide.
- I guess this is coming back for a 2nd season. I’m on the fence as to whether or not I’ll bother watching. It drives me crazy.