The Wall

Absolutely awful show on Game Show Network it is the worst I've seen in a long time pathetic and stupid. It has this pathetic melodrama about people's past lives or heroics or disabilities that one has grown through. Okay but let's get real this is the game show I don't know why we need all this extraaneous other things attached to it that's soppy and sad and supposedly enlightening I don't need that in a game show at all there's no fun. Once again it seems that the game show is trying to keep Pace with reality TV shows where there's family dramas or housewife dramas etc etc they're trying to put too many things that they think will Encompass all peoples' interests.

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.

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.

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.

I enjoy watching this show--in fast forward with brief pauses to watch the trivia answers and then for the question and then to watch the ball(s) fall. I can watch an entire episode in about 15 minutes. There is their phrase that the contestants can win over $12 million, but I have yet to see anyone even get more than $2 million before losing some/most/all of it. There is soooooo much talking and so little actual game. I really don't like listening to someone's long, drawn-out thought process as to which answer to choose or which of 7 numbered places to put the ball in. This show would be better if there were more game, less talking, and actual real chances at contestants winning more than $1-2 million.