BBC reboot went out today. Who watched it? I watched it to see how bad it was going to be, but I was genuinely entertained by it. Thought it was very faithful to the original, the whole roster of gladiators look great, and a couple of entertaining villians in Viper and Legend. Clattenburg was interesting as the ref, not sure if he was putting on a weak Scottish accent to imitate John Anderson or if I was just hearing what I wanted to hear. Only negative would be the presenting team - Bradley is fine of course, but his son is irritating for some reason. Looking forward to keeping up with it.
Yet more rehashed tripe from the archives, saves them having any original thoughts. I see Jeopardy (1964) and Wheel of Fortune (1975) have also appeared on mainstream TV in 'reboots'. Glad you enjoyed it @Foxwell - but it's not for me, though at least it doesn't feature Dec & Ant, so that's one thing it has in its favour!
it really needs a very very nasty wolf character. in fact these days I'd say wolf would be considered very tame so maybe get joey Barton in there?
You should give the documentary on Netflix a watch - muscles and mayhem! It’s a really good watch for anyone who used to like the show. How no one was seriously hurt in the early shows is just down to pure luck!
It was resurrected in the mid-noughties I think, though I didn't see any of it. I'm with you, it was Jim Bowen's show, no remake could be as cheesy or as corny.
Viper looks to be taking on the Wolf-style pantomime villian, getting DQ'd in his first event and squaring up to ref Mark Clattenburg, which I can imagine Barton probably did once upon a time too. TWO Gladiators forced out of BBC reboot after suffering injuries during brutal challenge | Daily Mail Online Indeed, and it didn't take long for someone to get seriously hurt this time around either. Unfortunate to read about Sabre, she was probably the female I enjoyed the most in the first episode hope she managed to film a decent amount before the injury!
Well the regularity that Bradly Walsh appears on my tv screen is getting to be almost Ant and Dec saturation, I'm fully expecting him reading the frigging news and weather next. And the nepotism with them now shoehorning his son into mainstream tv is frankly vomit enducing.
It's becoming a plague on TV, having decided they should just revamp all the old crap from 40 - 50 years ago they also seem to have decided they should get the current crop of TV 'stars' to produce drivel with their families. Off the top of my head I can think of Bradley Walsh, Martin Kemp, Jack Whitehouse, Romesh Ranganathan, Matt Baker etc. etc. etc.
Thought it was pretty good to be honest. Stuck to the spirit of the original with the original theme tune, the same sort of atmosphere and pacing, the classic games back and a decent looking cast of Gladiators. Seemed to get the balance right and Viper seemed to do a good job in the Wolf pantomime villain role. It has to be remembered that this is a family show with kids an important part of the audience so these elements have to be in there and I think the show struck the right balance of getting the character building and role playing in there for the kids whilst providing enough action, entertainment and eye candy for the adults. As the original show did. And I was so glad that the classic Eliminator in its original configuration was back and they didn't piss around with it and add gimmicks like most classic show remakes do. In an overly serious world these days where politics, virtue signalling and gestures seem to creep into everything it was refreshing to see a proper old school family entertainment show that wasn't trying to educate, push political causes or change the world. Just sit down, relax and enjoy the entertainment without being reminded how the world is burning or full of racists and homophobes. The original referee John Anderson is irreplaceable but Mark Clattenburg did better than I expected in his role. The only negative as others have pointed out was Barney Walsh being shoehorned in as co presenter. He doesn't have his dad's natural charisma and is as wooden as my dancing. Bradley is a safe pair of hands and does a good enough job but his lad isn't following in his footsteps and it probably needs a female co presenter to reprise Ulrika's role.
Wasn't bad, worth watching. Agree about Walsh's son, he's charisma free, and made worse by the nepotism.
Accidentally had it on for a couple of minutes whilst channel surfing last night steroid pumped behemoth on a platform beating some skinny bloke with a pugel stick - it was shit in the '90's and its still shit now
I enjoyed it when I was a kid, and my daughter is enjoying watching it with me now. Just a bit of fun...
That's basically the point of it. It does what it's supposed to do, provide a really entertaining family show that the kids love and has enough entertainment factor to not be a chore for the adults to sit through, and it does it well in my opinion. It doesn't pretend to be anything it's not but what it does it does it well. Bit of proper old school Saturday night TV of the kind that there hasn't been enough of in recent years in a world that likes to overcomplicate things and take itself too seriously.
It's fun Saturday night TV. I've enjoyed the reboot. Viper's taken on the "villain" role but has been woeful in every event I've seen him participate in so far
Legend has been the more interesting villian tbh, he does the cocky and whiny thing, and backs it up by usually being decent in the events.
Really? Must have improved. I saw 'Legend' getting rinsed in the ones I watched, think he's just a bodybuilder so no surprise.
