PING: Gemini, Nitro, Laser...

[cthomer5000]

I'll preface my thoughts by saying I watched every episode this year.


1. This show can only be watched via DVR. The filler level is simply unbelievable. I have literally ZERO interest in the reality angle.

2. Many of the events are fundamentally broken. The one with the swinging balls over the bridge was #1. It shouldn't be possible to simply lie down and avoid getting hit.

3. Can we get some rule enforcement on the joust? I remember a gladiator got busted for going to both knees at one point during the season, but multiple contenders did it with no issue. The girl in the final practically just sat down and waited for time to run out. Either the rules matter or they dont.

4. Focus on the Gladiators. Give me some of their personality. Give me some stats ("Crush is 10-0 on the Joust", "Toa has never given up a point on the Volcano", etc.). Let's pretend its a real sporting competition and treat it as such. The show is named after the Gladiators, so make them the star of the show and larger than life. this ties into...

5. Make the events HARD. It should be RARE that a competitor takes full points from an event. Most times this year it felt like they were takin a dive, particularly on the rings.

6. Many of the problems revolve around the fact that the season appears to have all been filmed in a single week. They had no time to fix things that were wrong. Film it regularly. I dont know if this means moving it around to different venues or building a huge permanent Gladiator arena, but fix the f'ing thing.

7. Make the individual events more valuable. It was painfully obvious that the eliminator was EVERYTHING. No matter how bad someone cleaned up in the events, they couldnt create an insurmountable lead.


other quick thoughts:
- i dont necessarily care about the tournament angle
- give me more real people (ive had my fill of inspriational life coach-types and firefighters)
- increase the prize money, 100K is weak as hell in this day and age
- did the earthquake event just kind of disappear halfway through the season?
- bring back the sort of "surprise!" element at the end of the eliminator where there were corridors with and without gladiators

[Pumpy Tudors]

Originally Posted by ISiddiqui

Since it's over on the West Coast too, but are you kidding? Put Evan as one of the Gladiators on the Wall, and no one is getting up that thing. He'd probably be pretty damned good for Powerball too. He's incredibly quick and apparently doesn't get tired. There are uses for him.

Pretty much all Evan could do is the Wall. With practice, I guess he could be OK at the Joust, but I'm not so sure about Powerball. I admit that I could be wrong.

I guess my point is that gladiators and contenders require different skill sets. A gladiator really doesn't need to be terribly fast or agile. For most of the events, just being big or being able to tackle is enough. I have my doubts about somebody like Evan or Monica being able to bring down a contender who's just as quick as they are. Even if they would make decent gladiators, they would just look strange when standing alongside the others. The current gladiators make Evan look kinda puny, and Monica is a soccer mom who's going to be standing alongside bodybuilders and a MMA fighter.

Maybe it'll work, but it just seems a bit silly to me.

[cthomer5000]

Originally Posted by Pumpy Tudors

Oh, I agree with this, because the contenders seem to take a lot longer than 10 seconds to get across the handbike.

yes yes yes

handbike was the worst thing ever. any smart contestant "slipped" off and climbed up. No time penalty is absurd.

[cthomer5000]

Originally Posted by Pumpy Tudors

Even if they would make decent gladiators, they would just look strange when standing alongside the others. The current gladiators make Evan look kinda puny, and Monica is a soccer mom who's going to be standing alongside bodybuilders and a MMA fighter.

Maybe it'll work, but it just seems a bit silly to me.

We're seeing eye to eye on this. Also, you dont WANT your gladiators to be everyday joes who go to the gym a lot or teach rock climbing... you want behemoths who are intimidating and awe-inspiring... the show is named after them, they need to be larger than life basically.

Hopefully they just give them some extra money instead of going through with this gladiator angle.

[Pumpy Tudors]

I think I agree with everything cthomer5000 said, 100%.

I also have a question. Is Wolf the only gladiator who's allowed to talk? I think Titan and Justice said a sentence or two every now and then, but all Mayhem and Toa did was make strange sounds. All of the female gladiators said only a word or two most of the time, if anything. To be honest, I originally thought that a couple of them were from foreign countries and didn't understand English at first.

The gladiators definitely need to have their characters developed much more if they're going to go through with this second season.

[cthomer5000]

Originally Posted by Pumpy Tudors

I think I agree with everything cthomer5000 said, 100%.

Me and you. Powerpoint presentation. NBC head of programming.

[Doug5984]

Originally Posted by cthomer5000

I'll preface my thoughts by saying I watched every episode this year.


1. This show can only be watched via DVR. The filler level is simply unbelievable. I have literally ZERO interest in the reality angle.

2. Many of the events are fundamentally broken. The one with the swinging balls over the bridge was #1. It shouldn't be possible to simply lie down and avoid getting hit.

3. Can we get some rule enforcement on the joust? I remember a gladiator got busted for going to both knees at one point during the season, but multiple contenders did it with no issue. The girl in the final practically just sat down and waited for time to run out. Either the rules matter or they dont.

4. Focus on the Gladiators. Give me some of their personality. Give me some stats ("Crush is 10-0 on the Joust", "Toa has never given up a point on the Volcano", etc.). Let's pretend its a real sporting competition and treat it as such. The show is named after the Gladiators, so make them the star of the show and larger than life. this ties into...

5. Make the events HARD. It should be RARE that a competitor takes full points from an event. Most times this year it felt like they were takin a dive, particularly on the rings.

6. Many of the problems revolve around the fact that the season appears to have all been filmed in a single week. They had no time to fix things that were wrong. Film it regularly. I dont know if this means moving it around to different venues or building a huge permanent Gladiator arena, but fix the f'ing thing.

7. Make the individual events more valuable. It was painfully obvious that the eliminator was EVERYTHING. No matter how bad someone cleaned up in the events, they couldnt create an insurmountable lead.


other quick thoughts:
- i dont necessarily care about the tournament angle
- give me more real people (ive had my fill of inspriational life coach-types and firefighters)
- increase the prize money, 100K is weak as hell in this day and age
- did the earthquake event just kind of disappear halfway through the season?
- bring back the sort of "surprise!" element at the end of the eliminator where there were corridors with and without gladiators

I agree with all this 100%....without DVR I wouldn't have watched a single episode, seriously I just don't care much about how inspiring these people are.

A couple things to fix- penalty for falling off the hand bike, something needs to be done for the travelator i think its called, too many times with the pre-finals people would someone have a huge lead only to get stuck and then it'd be 30 seconds of who could manage to walk up the sides without breaking the rules, it was a joke sometimes... Maybe move this to the beginning.

Bring back sphere!

My favorite event as a kid was assault, now its a mix of too hard and too easy- which may not sound right, but I'll try to explain. The guns are too accurate, both the gladiator, and the contenders. Having to find the crossbow arrow is plain dumb, I used to like how people would make it to the end and get points, even if you don't knock them off.

There is wayy to much talking from the contenders about giving it all they can, this goes back to the DVR- if it wasn't for DVR I wouldn't be able to make it through this.

Hulk Hogan is terrible.

[Tyrith]

I too have great love for the old American Gladiators, and watch it pretty regularly on ESPN Classic. And this new show is horrible, even though it's SO CLOSE to being pretty good. They did a lot of pretty logical changes, like adding the 5 points on pyramid, making hang tough smaller (although too small), making the eliminator longer (although too long)...sigh, if they could have worked with it it'd be really cool. They need to do more than 4 freaking events a show, have everyone stop talking, and only have 5 gladiators a side at most -- with this many gladiators it's really hard to develop favorites, especially with only 4 events, because you see them once an episode. This show is just so frustrating because I want to love it, and they did some smart things, but it's just so unbearable most of the time.

Oh, and they screwed up the coolest event ever, ASSAULT, by making it way too complicated and slow. The tempo made it cool, now it plays in slow motion or something.

[ISiddiqui]

3. Can we get some rule enforcement on the joust? I remember a gladiator got busted for going to both knees at one point during the season, but multiple contenders did it with no issue. The girl in the final practically just sat down and waited for time to run out. Either the rules matter or they dont.

I believe the rules are different for the Gladiator and the contender. Two knees down is out for the Gladiator, but not for the contestant (they just have to try to get up from that position).

[cthomer5000]

I hope they really do listen to the feedback of the fans. We're all talking a lot of sense here. I'm barely on-board with this show right now, but some changes here and there and it could be something im (embarassingly) looking forward to watching each week.

[ISiddiqui]

The also need to stop with the event starting up, whistle blowing, commerical thing. That's annoying as balls. Just have a commerical before you set up the event.

[Doug5984]

I think that if the things that need to be fixed aren't fixed then they'll lose a lot of people very quickly.

The first season was very nostalgic for a lot of people, but at the same time so frustrating that if season 2 is a copy of season 1 I think a lot of people will give up and quit watching (I'm pretty sure I would)

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by cthomer5000

yes yes yes

handbike was the worst thing ever. any smart contestant "slipped" off and climbed up. No time penalty is absurd.

During the finales last night, they showed when both girls slipped off the handbike a video shot where the first one was being held at the bottom and told by a guy in grey when she could go. She was lined up ready to start up the ladder as soon as she was allowed. So it seems the time penalty actually is still there, just video editing never really let us see it before.

As for the other comments, I watched every episode and enjoyed it myself. There are likely two reasons I watched every episode: 1) The writer's strike forcing very little else to be on.. 2) Nostalgia... I agree fully with some of the fixes that people suggested before the next season...

[stevew]

I wouldn't be opposed to them getting a muzzle for Ali.

[Raiders Army]

Ninja Warrior kicks the shit outta American Gladiator.

[Toddzilla]

FRAUD!

What a miscarriage of justice - if the producers wanted Evan to win so bad, just say so, don't rig the game.

Of the 4 events in the final beteween Evan and the other guy:

The other guy had never competed in 2 of them.
The 3rd was the wall, which happens to be Evan's occupation.

Pretty disappointing if you ask me - I'd have liked to seen a fair competition. Why didn't they have the event with the bridge? That was the best event for The Other Guy.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

[Toddzilla]

Originally Posted by Raiders Army

Ninja Warrior kicks the shit outta American Gladiator.

+1