If you missed The Rock’s physical game last year you will be able to watch it on Netflix in the UK from next weekend – the games and set are genuinely impressive looking, but I hope you like inspirational backstory because there’s a looooot of it:
It’s a shame then that it feels like so much of it feels like it’s given over to each contestant’s “inspiring” backstory, over the course of the two hours you’ll see up to 16 video pieces (for whatever reason, one game was just a highlights package in the second of last night’s tournaments). If you add to that the 20% of the show given over to Dwayne Johnson being just a great guy, that means we have a frustrating situation where the key centrepieces, the events, begin to feel a bit like unwelcome guests at their own party.
Me talking about The Titan Games last year
This probably isn’t accidental timing, the second series of the show begins tomorrow (Monday) night on NBC and it appears to have become a pro-am tournament, with the winners of each of the best-of-three match-ups taking on a professional athlete on Mount Olumpus to become the reigning Titan. Here’s a ten minute sneak peek:
Edit: Or at least there was one, The Rock’s made it private.
So, I can admit I looked forward to The Titan Games last year and came away almost completely disappointed for many of the reasons you mentioned. Honestly, if it wasn’t for Million Dollar Mile (a show where I still wonder how it was allowed to be released in the form that it was), I would have considered it my worse game show of 2019. Either way, I did not watch it all because I just couldn’t care.
I just watched the full season premiere for season 2 and I will say there is a lot of improvement here. The format switch from 4 competitors doing knockout to 2 competitors best of 3 really cuts down the backstory segments and also makes the competition feel a bit more fair. There’s still The Rock being The Rock, but it does feel more focused this time on around the show/set, especially with the commentators (which they cut down from 3 to 2 and feels a lot smoother now). Also, its only a pro-am as long as the pro keeps winning on Mount Olympus: as soon as one of the competitors wins the final, they replace the pro as the opposing runner. They also split the nation into 3 regions (an undefined East, Central and West) so its inter-region into the national final, kind of like American Ninja Warrior. They also upped the game variety I think, which is nice to see.
The set isn’t as grand this time, mostly because its moved production from an outdoor setting in California to an indoor one in Georgia. There was something about the outdoor part that kind of made the Mount more intimidating. Outside of that though, after one episode it feels like the show has made a lot of steps in the right direction. I still don’t think its great, but I feel a lot more certain that I’m going to watch it through to the end this time.
Yes, pretty much agree with all that. I *think* I like the emphasis on race-to-do-something-then-tug-of-war that several of the games seem to have, although Herculean Pull and Kick Off look a bit similar. I quite like the “when do you go for it?” concept of Nuts and Bolts, although suspect the correct strategy is going to be the same for most people.
Mount Olympus looked spectacular last series so yes it’s a bit of a come down setting it up Eliminator style, but it’s still an impressive setpiece. I appreciate the art department has gone all out on the symbolism – they love their T-shapes!
Not so sure on the tournament structure – as long as you make it to Mount Olympus if you lose (including if you’re a celeb) you get to go into a repechage. I do wonder how different results are likely to be with a second match-up, and only one of the four runnings in ep one was especially close. It’s like they’ve looked at Only Connect.
The camera loves The Rock and The Rock loves the camera, I quite enjoyed the back and forth with him and the commentary team.
While we’re doing Americana, the US version of Red Nose Day saw Celebrity Escape Room, which was pretty much a total mess, but at least a reasonably nice-looking one, and at least it’s available to view freely outside the US.
It immediately becomes head canon that Jack Black is Treguard of Dunhelm’s American second cousin about two dozen times removed, but still remains some of the family traits despite striking it rich in each of the Gold Rush, the Oil Boom and the .com Bubble in turn.