The Wall

The premise is simple, the gameplay is too. I won't fault it for that. My issues with this show are that 1) The participants are all the exact same: Really stupid living saints. Meaning, while being "great" people, they obviously have lower-than-average intelligence, making their easy trivia questions way harder than they should be (I believe gameshows pick "dumb" people on purpose, to lower the prize value given away, and to make the audience at home feel "smart" by comparison), 2) For a "feel good" game show, most of the episodes end with (what I'm assuming will be) a lifetime of trauma for the contestants, when the show often ends with an individual being told by a smiling loved one that they just threw away millions of dollars. How "uplifting". 3) Cliched! Cliches galore! I really hope the 1:1 conversations were written for the contestants, it's so cheesy!

Chris Hardwick does a serviceable, if unenviable, job hosting, as he tries to piece back together the shattered psyche of his contestants, but I think he's good at that due to his years of experience (at his other job) of trying to make the most of a terrible situation (TWD).

The worst aspect of this show is that, in the end, every episode is a repeat of the last, nothing ever changes, and you forget the contestants 5 seconds after they leave the screen, meaning this show gets very boring after watching 2-3 episodes.

Do you need to have a sob story to be on the show? Do you need to yell at an inanimate object falling, trying to convince it to defy gravity? Should we believe the ball they push into the floor is the same one that pops out at the top? There's a fair amount of showmanship I'm not willing to ignore in this show.

I actually like the game and the fact that they seem to gear it towards contestants who are the unsung heroes of the world. I'm not a huge fan of the immense amounts of drama that are added. It's almost more like a reality show at points. When the game ends and the two contestants have to stand there with tears in their eyes and profess their love for each other for 5 minutes before saying what needs to be said, I cringe a little. That whole portion of the show could be rewritten and be more concise so that it still gives has the same "wow" factor with less pain for the at home audience.

At the time I wrote this, there were 6 other reviews and I read them all. My favorite was by "atlasmb". I must admit, the concept for this game is intriguing -- you get money in your "game bank", you answer crappy trivia questions to hope to get more in your bank, but if you miss the answer, you have an equal chance of losing money in your bank. Then at the end of the round you have to perform an act where you can only lose money. Each time the odds of gaining or losing money are 50/50. So it's basically a demented PLINKO ripoff. The Price is Right might have a lawsuit (snicker).

Now here's the part that bugs me -- there are several phases of the game where drama is intentionally built. I'm not talking extemporaneous drama (like people just saying what's on their minds), NO, I mean scripted drama, like on your basic crappy reality show. It's all too-well rehearsed, and no amount of editing can hide that. I gave this show a 5/10 because I don't even know if this show is "real". And we'll never know...everyone involved has (no doubt) signed legal documents that if they come forward they get their pants sued off.

So welcome to the new world of reality game shows, where actors replace contestants, and life just gets more disappointing. Nice try producers, just make more Hell's Kitchens...at least Gordon makes me laugh.

This should be a half hour show. Just play. Less talk, and because they are stretching it out for an hour, the contestants end up rambling. I skip forward 30 seconds whenever they're talking. The worst parts are when the person heads to the back, and they have to talk for a minute about how much the love the other person. Then, after they come back, it's even worse. Agonizing over it and blah blah blah. I end up watching this hour show in about 20 minutes. If they have to keep it at an hour, add more questions. I don't need 30 seconds of why they chose the number 6.