Wipeout/I Survived a Japanese Game Show

I really didn't think I'd end up writing about these when I sat down to watch 'em, but darned if I didn't find myself with something to say afterward.

Wipeout is the same show as Spike's Most Extreme Elimination Challenge, except with virtually all of the humor sucked out of it. I think someone at ABC managed to entirely miss the point about what makes MXE (as they abbreviate it) entertaining. MXE is a wild Japanese game show called "Takeshi's Castle" with hilarious English language overdubbing that is clearly not a direct translation of the original. Wipeout is the same show with none of the over-the-top touch inherent to many Japanese game shows and none of the fun of jokes like reviewing The Most Painful Eliminations of the Day. It's just the obstacle course without the humor. If you think watching people fall off a platform into water repeatedly is funny, this is just the show for you. Not for me, though. I can't believe this made it to network television.

I have to admit that I found "I Survived a Japanese Game Show" genuinely entertaining. It's a strange combination of, yes, a Japanese game show and Survivor: Metropolitan Tokyo. I could do with less of the agonizing over who to put in the elimination challenge and more of the game show brimming over with enthusiasm from everyone from the MC to the audience to that dancing group of Pulp Fiction wannabees that literally carried the loser out of the studio at the end. I think I'd like it even more if at least a few of the Americans would roll with that Japanese spirit and stop thinking so much about winning the grand prize. You can only take dressing up as flies and flinging yourself onto an oversized windshield so seriously, but maybe I'd feel differently if I personally were competing for $250,000.

I really don't care at all who wins, but I'm likely to at least check it out again. I might have to watch this one with the sound off during the reality show parts and turn it back on for the game show parts, 'cause that's where the real fun is.