Popular Alexander Armstrong quiz Pointless returns for its third series today at 4:30pm on BBC2, here’s a place to discuss it.
The biggest change is in round two which works quite well and opens up quite a large avenue to explore – the category is given (in this first episode “movies and their taglines”) and then six tagliunes are bought up. The object is to select one and give the correct movie the tag comes from. If they are correct, they score the same amount as the amount of the 100 people who also got it right (so the object is pick the ones you know that also fewest people knew), a wrong answer scores an automatic 100. A second set of questions comes up after the first sweep. At a very basic level, you could ask any set of questions that has been tested on the 100 respondees here, turning into a sort of Pointless take on Beat the Nation. It looks like there’s a pointless answer on each list as well, although this isn’t explicitly stated, and in the first episode brings some surprising results. I prefer it to series two’s round two, which seemed a bit easy.
Round three has been reduced to best of three rather than five. Otherwise no other changes to report. Pointless is probably the best daytime quiz on the telly right now, and possibly one of the most consistantly entertaining quizzes full stop.
Domincan Republic and Mykonos as countries in the Med? Where are they getting these people?
Also it appears that there’s more banter from looking at this first episode. Loving it already.
I’m liking the new round two – basically it’s just a quiz where you predict which answers the public didn’t know, making sure you know the answers yourself. Probably a large avenue of questions to go down there.
Bit sad about the head to head being reduced – it cheapens it a bit too much for my liking. And the font they use on the board for round 2 is a bit nasty. And some of the new bits of neon are reflecting badly in bits of the set they didn’t plan for.
I was quitr surprised to notice there was a Pointless answer for round three (two in fact, in the Madonna albums question). Was that ever the case last time? It did seem surprisingly broad.
There were a few pointless answers in the third round last series but few, very, very few.
Yes I noticed the wires the board are suspended from are now visible, but at least the metal bars held together with duct tape are gone! Overall I feel the lighting is much better than series 2 and this may be subjective, but the picture quality is less mushy. Would like to see it made in HD, if only to appreciate the laser etching work on the Pointless trophy.
I wasn’t that thrilled by the new round two, but that’s partly cos I don’t like movie questions on Pointless, because I’m generally rubbish at them. My main concern was that, the way they’re geared, there’s a distinct advantage to being the team in the middle – it seemed there were often two obvious-ish ones, and four harder ones, meaning if you have to go last, you’re potentially screwed.
Though, having said that, the second team ended up losing, so…
I’m intrigued by the methodology in concocting this round – did they just pluck twelve out of the air and give all 100 people one guess at each one? Or, more likely, were they given 50 or so so they can re-use the category on a later episode and cherrypick ones with interesting numbers? I think I’d have gone for more of a range myself if I was putting it together.
It seemed to be quite a low scoring round geenrally – as you say, two pretty obvious ones but lots of very low numbers. I’d be interested to see what else they come up with.
Or even if they gave people a blank sheet and asked them to provide as many pairs as they could think of.
What it should be is a good opportunity to reuse capitals/country questions – give them capitals and make them say the countries.
I was very confused as to how all these reviews and comments had been posted… before realising yesterday was Bank Holiday Monday. Anyone else out of kilter…?!
To get you in the mood for OC 4 next week, there’s a preview question posted in the description on the BBC Programmes site:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00tnw4m
No Googling, now!
I look forward to “Have a Look on Google” becoming a lifeline on Fox’s Only Connect in the States in the year 2015, as well as multiplying all the points by five to make it more exciting.
And Missing Vowels somehow has a $1,000,000 or nothing gamble added to it.
YULLN VRB LVW HTHP PNS!
FTRTH SCMM RCL BRK!
(SPN SRDB YMCD NLDS(tm))
I keep thinking there’s some sort of interesting trivia to be got out of which shows award unneccesary numbers of points (e.g. University Challenge and Antiques Master back-to-back last night: both deal in nothing smaller than fives). Then a few seconds after that, I realise it’s not actually that interesting at all.
Rather brilliantly, there was an old Beat the Teacher grand final on a torrent site a few years ago, and Paul Jones says that “because it’s the grand final we’ve doubled all the points to make it EVEN MORE exciting!” so that is now the reason I give for points inflation to everything now.
Wasn’t it Ron Pickering-era We Are the Champions which always used to award points in multiples of fifty?
99 times out of 100, I’d spell “unnecessary” correctly.
One cup, two sugars.
Oh that’s quite clever. Isn’t that also the sequel to (No. – Ed)
I remember it as “one collar, two socks”. Back in the 1970s, there used to be ten-minute adult literacy filler programmes, usually early Sunday evening (the one people remember is the Bob Hoskins-involving “On The Move”, which Not The Nine O’Clock News parodied as “On The Moov”) and there was an animation on one of them of a vicar who said it was necessary for him to wear one collar and two socks. I also remember one set in the wild west where a gunslinger told his rival “you’re a rat – let me spell it out for you” and spelt out “a rat” in bulletholes on a door, then somehow worked the word “separate” into the conversation, adding the extra letters to “a rat”. So no spelling it with an “e” in the middle!
Also… “Rhythm Has Your Two Hips Moving”.
True fact: I asked one of my stateside friends to complete a sequence that had evaded the contestants. After explaining the answer perfectly, the question was asked, “How much do I win?” Why is it always about the money! You win the honour of being right, of beating six of the UK’s finest brains, of being a Proper Cleverclogs! Is that not enough?!
I gather the connection has something to do with Ironide. Raymond Burr played the wheelchair cop in the 60/70s (currently airing on ITV3). It’s that or a connection with Perry Mason and the law courts.
Having gotten a good result with a query re “Only Connect”, i figure I’ll try again.
The very first episode of “Pointless” is on YT. I’m tempted to give it a go, but I wonder if there are better episodes out there.
From the sound of it, first impression could be summed up as “Family Fortunes in reverse”. When and if, I could well revise that impression.
Not being able to name ONE Madonna album.
!!
Is it just me or was that the most baffling display of non-knowledge on a quiz in a looooong time.
OK, if it was a suitably nerd-tastic Uni Challenge team that couldn’t name a Madonna album, I’d understand (assuming they made up for it for remarkable displays of knowledge in other fields).
I think that’s a tad harsh, Madonna’s better known for her singles than her albums I think, and if I was put on the spot I’d probably only be able to come up with Erotica like they did. And that’s coming from someone who owns Confessions of a Dancefloor…
I only knew Hard Candy, because the album cover was so bad I can’t forget it.
You’d at least have a guess at her having done an album called “Madonna”, wouldn’t you? (And you’d be right.)
They brought last series round 2 up to round 1 today. Hope it’s not something they’ll continue.
If I were to guess I’d say that’s something they’d bring in if there’s been a drought of pointless answers. None in the first 2 episodes then 3 in the 3rd thanks to that.