The Wall

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.

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.

"The Wall" is a game show where a married couple competes against The Wall for money. And The Wall is very impressive: 4 stories tall, a massive video display, complete with built-in cameras. The host, Chris Hardwick, says the show is designed to provide "good opportunities for good people". We might wonder how they defines "good people".

In the first four episodes, the contestants include s school teacher, two marines, a parole officer, a police officer and couple that gives free donuts to police and fire personnel. Obviously, giving service--especially in the government sector--is what makes one good. As far as I know, this is the first game show with a political/philosophical agenda.

The game-play involves dropping balls down the wall, like a giant pachinko machine, and seeing if they land in slots designated as large money amounts or smaller money amounts. You can count the number of slots and their values to determine the odds of getting big bucks or not. But some balls subtract money, making it even more a game of chance. Yes, there are (embarrassingly easy) multiple-choice trivia questions involved at some point, but they only serve to distract one from the randomness of the outcome.

The ideal contestant is someone who (besides working for the government) is not too smart, likes gambling (e.g. dice, the lottery, or slot machines), likes to be the center of attention, is overly dramatic, voices every thought, and is superstitious. Expect to see every game show cliché. Expect contestants to give inane reasons for choosing certain numbers. Expect them to talk to the balls, perhaps even kiss them. And you can definitely expect them to provide lengthy, sometimes irrelevant justifications for their trivia answers.

The first couple is from Akron. So is LeBron James, producer of the show. A coincidence? Or just a totally random outcome, like The Wall?

If you like games of skill, try "Jeopardy". If you like games of chance that last an hour, "The Wall" may be for you.

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.

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.