When Fear Factor was unleashed on NBC back in the 2000's, I was drawn into it. The reality competition had a lot of crazy stunts, from the kind of stunts seen in action movies, to even gross stunts like eating animal body parts or even live insects (some of them going as far as to cross the line with NBC's standards and practices). I never knew MTV decided to try a reboot, and man, while it is good to see the original reality fear inducer back, it is not as good as it used to be.
Hosted by Ludacris, the reboot sees four teams of two go at it in three stunts. However, unlike the original, which mixed things up, the stunts are separated by three categories, the first category is Beat The Beast, and is the one involving creepy crawlies and other creatures, the second is Face Your Fears, which is a challenge created based on a common fear shared by the contestants of the episode, and the third challenge is called The Final Fear, which is the Hollywood stunt events like doing something at high heights or escaping a certain object while airborne or underwater.
Okay, seeing the episoded, this reboot lacks the edge and gross factor of the original (which is something to say, especially since this reboot is airing on MTV, a cable channel that is aimed at older viewers, and thus, would not have the same restrictions as NBC, a network that has to follow FCC guidelines as well as their network broadcast standards and practices). One of the bigger issues I have is the lack of eating gross things. To me, the eating of live insects and animal body parts like livers was what made Fear Factor. While some episodes do have them, sadly, they are reduced to just eating gross food combinations like shakes mixed with Chipolte peppers, old sardines, and alfredo, or even a drink made of habanero and ghost peppers. While some episodes do have such animal parts involved, it is sad that they are infrequent, which is sad, especially when you consider MTV has aired similar shows with gross out eating in the past, mostly for comedic purposes.
My other problems are the fact that too many episodes are basically celebrity episodes (which make up the second half of the second and final season), which is gimmicky, as we want to see ordinary people facing their fears, and Ludacris is not a good host, as he is not as energetic as Joe Rogan (who was not afraid to call contestants animals when they easily clear a eating challenge), and in the first episode, he is even interrupted by his mother calling him, which ends up hurting the show's scary stunts. To me, this is not a bad reboot, but with its changes and host being too silly and laid back, this is not on par with the NBC original.
