UK Gladiators - 2024 reboot

It was above average. Watching it the day after I could skip through the Walsh presenters stuff. They were both really, really bad imo. Spent far too long on the unfunny Leg-End joke, for example. The son doesn't even look like he is old enough to have seen the original series. I miss John Fashanu and Ulrika-ka-ka-ka.

New Gladiators were good and I liked their entrances, a bit too nicey nicey in the chats as others have mentioned. Viper being the bad guy and the booing of him and Legend seems dated and scripted. Nitro doing all those "Fortnite" dances is gonna annoy me very quickly. Waiting for Comet's entrance next week :D

The new games were good, BUT, if they want the whole competition to seem even vaguely competitive they have to have every single game played by every single contestant. Next week features different games, for example. And the Eliminator really hasn't stood the test of time. I don't really watch them, but the Water wipeout show and American Ninja clips i've seen seem much more challenging, as a finale style event. I know they are constrained by the arena size but the final event is lame.

It feels like the whole show just hasn't been updated enough from the original. Having said that, for me and similar aged people the nostalgia and memories of being glued to this every Saturday night on ITV are just too strong to resist!


rp2000
 
rp2000 said:
It was above average. Watching it the day after I could skip through the Walsh presenters stuff. They were both really, really bad imo. Spent far too long on the unfunny Leg-End joke, for example. The son doesn't even look like he is old enough to have seen the original series. I miss John Fashanu and Ulrika-ka-ka-ka.
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From an interview I saw Barney visited the original set when he was a baby as his mum was the choreographer of the cheerleaders on the original show. He is 26 so would have been born in 1997, so at most would only have been 3 when it ended.
 
@rp2000 - that's a great review a few posts above ^^. In particular the point you made about Viper being booed by the crowd. It reminds me of the recent Deal or No Deal reboot where the crowd is made to react in a certain way depending on what are inside the red boxes. Like with wrestling though, Gladiators is bound to be scripted to some extent and each Glad have their own character style, poses, entrances / backdrops, dances, music, victory stances and so on.

steve5424 said:
I posted my thoughts on it earlier. It was pretty terrible. They changed too much of it and having water under the events instead of crash mats was just silly. Full episodes are on YouTube.

In fact here is one that actually has some of Gladiators in it. A legends return one.
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Sorry I missed your original thoughts on 2008/9, so I have just caught up. Thanks for the video. I watched it in full, and I quite enjoyed it actually! The new 2023/24 reboot is still better though because of its familiarity with the original run and that seems to be working with today's viewership. From the 2008/9 video, I think the main downside is that the set looked rather black and white and I wasn't too keen on the Glads' costumes (also black and white). Battleaxe would have probably been my favourite Glad though and I noticed that the name "Panther" got re-used as there was a Glad called Panther in the original run.

Seeing John Anderson was a surprise for me and that it had some of the original Glads as contenders. I remembered Flame as a red-head so she looked pretty different as a blonde. Again it might be scripted, but was good to see a bad guy in the 2008/9 version as well, which seemed to be Oblivion, as he and Wolf were picking on each other a few times. Also, I liked Hunter's line: "I've never been one for scantily clad gentlemen throw balls at me" :p The one main / only thing from 2008/9 that was probably better than 2023/24 now were the 2 presenters from back then. Quite liked the female one in particular. Swimming pool instead of a crash mat? Nice idea, but nah.
 
Pawnless Endgame said:
@rp2000 - that's a great review a few posts above ^^. In particular the point you made about Viper being booed by the crowd. It reminds me of the recent Deal or No Deal reboot where the crowd is made to react in a certain way depending on what are inside the red boxes. Like with wrestling though, Gladiators is bound to be scripted to some extent and each Glad have their own character style, poses, entrances / backdrops, dances, music, victory stances and so on.



Sorry I missed your original thoughts on 2008/9, so I have just caught up. Thanks for the video. I watched it in full, and I quite enjoyed it actually! The new 2023/24 reboot is still better though because of its familiarity with the original run and that seems to be working with today's viewership. From the 2008/9 video, I think the main downside is that the set looked rather black and white and I wasn't too keen on the Glads' costumes (also black and white). Battleaxe would have probably been my favourite Glad though and I noticed that the name "Panther" got re-used as there was a Glad called Panther in the original run.

Seeing John Anderson was a surprise for me and that it had some of the original Glads as contenders. I remembered Flame as a red-head so she looked pretty different as a blonde. Again it might be scripted, but was good to see a bad guy in the 2008/9 version as well, which seemed to be Oblivion, as he and Wolf were picking on each other a few times. Also, I liked Hunter's line: "I've never been one for scantily clad gentlemen throw balls at me" :p The one main / only thing from 2008/9 that was probably better than 2023/24 now were the 2 presenters from back then. Quite liked the female one in particular. Swimming pool instead of a crash mat? Nice idea, but nah.
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That episode with the old glads was just a one off. Normally featured regular contestants.

Yes Kirsty Gallagher is a great presenter and was a regular on Sky Sports News for years.
 
robgmun said:
Oddly, i don't really remember the cheerleaders at all, I guess I was always focused on Jet the whole time :cry: :D
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They were always there at the start of episodes and in the background occasionally :)

Probably for the best, modern cheerleaders would probably be a bit different knowing the BBC.
 
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