Last week, ABC premiered two “goofy” reality shows: Wipeout and I Survived a Japanese Game Show. Both have lots of potential, but only one seems to realize it. In short, Wipeout is awful. I could only bear to watch five minutes of it before turning it off. The main problem (among others): canned “play-by-play,” which is clearly scripted in post production and is therefore dumb and annoying. The whole fun of a silly obstacle course should be the spontaneity of it all, but instead, Wipeout is dumbed down, thus proving that the producers have little or no faith that their subject can be amusing on its own. I know this is supposed to be a ripoff of MXC, but seriously, it’s a piece of garbage.
On the other end of the spectrum is I Survived a Japanese Game Show, which is shaping up to be a great summer guilty pleasure. The show sort of plays out like The Gauntlet meets animé: two teams (the Yellow Penguins and Green Pandas) duke it out in a game show challenge, with the losing squad sending two members to an additional elimination challenge at the end of the episode. Along the way, there’s plenty of funny yet fascinating cultural high jinks, and a spunky little housekeeper lady who’s not unlike Japan’s answer to Mrs. Beakley.
The first episode was hilarious, even if it was a bit uneven. However, last night’s edition rose (just a tad) above the camp level as backstage drama flared. I actually found myself drawn into the story way more than I had expected. Don’t get me wrong: this ain’t high level stuff. But it’s fun. My only critiques are the production similarities of Hell’s Kitchen: same narration style, same interview style, same ambient music. I know the two shows share producers, but can we mix it up a bit? After all, if there’s anything that reality TV has taught us, it’s that we become more engaged when the characters do the exposition, not some disembodied voice (always a problem with Hell’s Kitchen, in my humble opinion).
Nevertheless, in the clip above, one contestant, Meaghan, must act as a human claw and pluck stuffed pandas from a pile of balloons. Glorious exasperation ensues…