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Giving the Big Balls
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TBS 2021 - Season Review


aka Things we've already said.

I'll keep it to pros and cons:

Pros
The hosts - I think all three are pretty decent and do well with the material they're given. I've found John and Nicole to be far better than I expected and like their partnership, and like that they're not just a clone of the Johns.

Graphics and Music - wasn't sure at first but I've grown pretty fond of the new theme and the graphics look good too. Could just do with the times being back on screen throughout the qualifier, but that's an easy fix.

Course design - and by that I mean the yellow and blue look throughout the course, with the odd hint of red. I always thought the original run lost something when it began to move away from the red and blue colour scheme of the early year. It just looks so much better when there are common elements (usually colour) running throughout each element of the course design.

Intros - I know many of you don't like them, but I actually quite like the little VT intros now. They're usually quite brief and generally used to showcase their personality rather than their life story. Just makes Camille's role in the qualifier somewhat redundant though.


Cons
Opening obstacles - having two alternates is a joke, especially when they could have been split to at least give us four - although I doubt we'd have been happy with that either given historically they only usually have two or three repeats per course.

Lack of variation - same thing every week.

Relay style Wipeout Zone - clearly done to half the filming time, it just feels so underwhelming. They should have redesigned the zone for two people to do at once if they didn't want them to do two runs each.

Forgettable contestants - not sure if it's the teams, the editing or there being a round less but I've really struggled to connect with the teams this year. They could stick a brand new team in the Wipeout Zone most weeks and I wouldn't know they hadn't been in the episode throughout.


Overall there have been more problems than I'd have liked, but I have enjoyed the (half) season more than I thought I would. Probably a solid 7/10.

---
"It's a bit like water boarding. It's got water in it... and I'm bored!"
Charlie Brooker on Total Wipeout
8/Jun/21, 6:01 pm Link to this post    PM Brekkie
 
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Re: TBS 2021 - Season Review


Keep in mind that we still have another 10 episodes of this (they might try calling the other 10 season 2). While the hosts are getting better, they really need to work on their delivery. This was something that the Johns almost never struggled with. The course also desperately needs more variation. 4 starters for 20 episodes is unacceptable. The original format also needs to return.
10/Jun/21, 7:50 am Link to this post    PM LS6
 
Messup434 Profile
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Re: TBS 2021 - Season Review


Good points Brekkie, but over all I'd say you're a bit generous to them. The way I see it, this season very much disappointed.

Pros:

-SOME new ideas. While I was disappointed in the lack of originality on the few new things they created did work well. The Lollipop, Leap of Faith and Triple Threat come to mind. All pretty simple, but the ideas work very well.

-SOME improvement throughout the season. It may have just been my imagination, but I felt like things tended to gradually improve, episode by episode. The editing and commentary in particular come to mind..

Cons:

-Way too much repetition. This is what most peoples' number one problem is, and it's not only the first obstacle that's the issue. They definitely need to make sure that no starting obstacle is used more than twice, but AT LEAST one of the final two Qualifier obstacles needs to vary regularly. While I agree that having a Qualifier that varies would be a great start, the later rounds should definitely have a couple of elements that change. Still, having a different starter every week would at least place the show on-par with season 5 Winter. I would most like them to do what they did for the first few years and be flexible in what changes, adding simple twists all over the place, but these obstacles are bigger and therefore more cumbersome to change in so many ways. But themed Zones would be great to see back. There should also definitely be an alternate second round, instead of one mega round.

-All teams episodes weren't horrible, but they weren't great and definitely aren't Wipeout at it's simplest point. The team dynamic changes things, especially in The Gauntlet, where players have to wait for each other. That seems to slow things down and doesn't really add anything positive for me. They seemed to use teams for budget reasons, but failed to capitalize on them and change the format to play off of pairs running the course together. The only way they used the teams to change the format (the relay in the Zone) sucked.

-The commentary did make me chuckle at times, but it's overall nothing to write home about. I still feel like the hosts are more talking about themselves than the course/competitors. I don't require intense analysis of each wipeout or great detailed explanations of the rules, but I felt like John and Nicole were often just talking about randomness rather than the course. In the original show, you would have the hosts somewhat celebrate (or at least point out the novelty in) someone clearing a tough Qualifier obstacle, but here it was sometimes just ignored. Additionally, you'd typically get brief explanations of each obstacle during the first Qualifier run to introduce them - of course there was a bit more that changed to introduce every week on the original, even in the later seasons! Also, the obstacle intros themselves were different every week!

-The editing needs improving. This includes having a different course intro each week as mentioned a second ago, showing a full first Qualifier run, and having a few less montages every week. Also, less jumpy editing in The Gauntlet!

Overall, it wasn't horrible, but I will only give it 5/10.

---
Keshi Heads
17/Jun/21, 11:11 pm Link to this post    PM Messup434
 
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Re: TBS 2021 - Season Review


This popped up on my phone and didn't really know where to post it, it's another article - this one from I think New Zealand - reviewing the first episode with similar thoughts to ours and the other article that was posted somewhere here:

Episode 1 review article
2/Jul/21, 10:27 pm Link to this post    PM Takeshi1
 
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Re: TBS 2021 - Season Review


It's cathartic to see an official review point out pretty much everything that I feel about the new remake. Even those little things that just irk me such as the overall tone of the show not working and the stupid things the contestants say and do (especially the trite millennial/Gen Z comments!). The teams are something I've seen few people off of here taking issue with (I think some may not realize that it wasn't always teams anyway!) so also nice to see that got a mention.

I'm sure if they watched more they'd also be discussing the lack of variety and tedium of watching the same course for 10 (no, make that 20) weeks straight emoticon Proud of them for not holding back and pretty much saying it sucks as a remake.

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Keshi Heads
3/Jul/21, 7:19 am Link to this post    PM Messup434
 
Brekkie Profile
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Giving the Big Balls
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Re: TBS 2021 - Season Review


It's even more annoying when all the problems are so blatantly obvious and at least half of them can be fixed without throwing more money at the show.

---
"It's a bit like water boarding. It's got water in it... and I'm bored!"
Charlie Brooker on Total Wipeout
3/Jul/21, 9:37 pm Link to this post    PM Brekkie
 
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Re: TBS 2021 - Season Review


Do we know how it's rating? I can't imagine it did too well, but maybe it has succeeded enough that they're thinking "Don't mess with success"? I can't think of any other reason they're continuing with the teams and format, except for extreme budget restrictions.

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Keshi Heads
3/Jul/21, 11:40 pm Link to this post    PM Messup434
 


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