Arena

G4 Media TV had something going for them. Arena was an awesome TV show, they didn't play for prizes, two teams go it for bragging rights of who are the best gamers and who are the chumps who can't back up their mouth. Hosting the show was Wil Wheaton of Star Trek: Next Generation and Travis "The Fatman" Oates, who had a following of fans called "The Fat Side." Oates and Wheaton were the perfect team as they brought humor to the action pack rounds. Too bad G4 appreciate them for all of their work.

God how lame is this idea for a show: let's take avid online gaming groups, composed mainly of pimply-face high school dropouts and having them compete with each other for dumb prizes and bragging rights. Oh, and lets have a dumb ex-pro-football player host the show. Seriously, this show stinks, unless of course you like watching 25-year-old losers play Unreal Tournament for a half-hour, muttering "Darn it", "Crud", and "Dang It!" whenever they get "fragged." One of the lamest aspects of the show is the "professional" commentary given by the hosts as the players proceed into the game. They actually give player stats! What the hell do they say: "Billy Smith was top competitor in his chess club, chairman of the I Love Natalie Portman fanclub, and now resides in his mother's basement, holding an lower-management job at Staples"? Yeah, it would be a good idea to avoid this show, and if anyone ever meets Kevin Parirah, punch him in the mouth for me.

(Note: I have not seen any shows with the previous hosts. Therefore, I'm not qualified to judge how good the show is in relation to previous incarnations. I can only talk about how good the show is in general.) "Arena" is a perfectly mediocre show on G4 that some will love, and others will absolutely loathe. It features teams of gamers competing against each other in multi-player games in a tournament-style match up. Honestly, watching other people play video games is a slight step above watching other people play golf. But hey, some people like it. I personally found it to be okay, but in games like Unreal Tournament (which I have zero familiarity with), the action can move so fast that it's difficult to keep up.

The show treats video games with respect, like it is a real sport. The commentators, Lee and Kevin, do a decent job of summarizing the action for people who can't follow it (like me), but they can easily go off on a tangent and risk leaving the audience behind in the dust. Basically, they are there to make sure that the people watching have just enough of a grasp on the action to understand who is winning, which is really all you need to know.

Overall, the show is mildly entertaining video game fare from a network that is increasingly dropping its video game content. If you're flipping by G4, it's worth at least 5 minutes.

The startup network G4 had one big star, on person with a name, he was Wil Wheaton. Unfortunately, due to the ineptness of producer Jim Downs, Wil and Travis "The Fatman" Oates left the show. G4 had the making of something special, Wil and Travis didn't just host the show, and go straight from the script. They seemed like they had fun, and really enjoyed themselves. Which made you enjoy it that much more.

Anyway, Down with Downs etc. etc.