The Wall

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 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.

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.

"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.

Holy moly, this is painful. Kind of reminds me of that weird game show hosted by Ryan Seacrest a couple of years ago where people were kept underground in NYC...and then they were brought up to compete, then taken back down...they actually lived in this bunker... Oh, Lord, that was weird.

This compares. When somebody watches a good trivia show, they truly do not care about the contestant...except to feel superior to them when they get stuff wrong. This is a show that involves a couple, and then they separate the couple, and the couple professes their undying love for each other, and every question involves one or both telling a very boring, long story about why they are answering this way....interspersed is "I love you!" "I love you, too!" and speeches about their kids, and their hardships...

and this is AN HOUR. With one set of contestants. And then there are green and red balls, and then a rip-off of Plinko, and then some weird twist at the end when one half of the pair has to either accept a contract or tear it up..

I am not making any of this up. I wish I was.