Things I’d Like To See In Season 2 Of American Gladiators
February 17th, 2008 . by ChuckIf you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed to receive instant updates.
Those of you who read my American Gladiators review in early January know that I’m an advocate of the show. NBC almost immediately ordered a second season of the program due to good ratings, so I thought I’d list a few things they can improve on when the show returns.
1. I touched on this briefly in my original review, but it progressively worsened as the season went on. The forced “character traits” are ridiculous.
- Every time the camera is on Wolf, he starts howling and sticking his tongue out like a dog. Then when he gets on the mic he’ll say something like “I haven’t had a meal all day, and it’s time to feast”, while looking at his half naked contestant. Not only is it cheesy, it’s slightly homo erotic… STOP IT.
- Every time Justice is on camera, he starts pumping his arms back and forth (mimicking a judges gavel)… it’s not clever… stop it.
2. Favortism?
It seems like some gladiators get tons of air time, while others are rarely seen. Titan, Justice, Wolf, Crush and Venom seem like they’re in every event…. Stealth and Hellga barely get any airtime. It’s sorta understandable why Hellga is on the sidelines a lot, shes fat compared to the contestants (and I remember that being exploited by contestants during Powerball on one episode), but theres no reason Stealth should be left out. Do a better job of working them in next season.
3. Contestant Vignettes are good… you care more about them winning if you know a little back story first.
4. Bring back the episodes where professional athletes team up against the Gladiators. Even if they’re retired washed up athletes, that would be entertaining. Just picture Freddie Mitchell, Marcus Vick, and Ryan Leaf on the show…. thats good TV.
5. Include the Gladiators in the final Eliminator obstacle course. Remember back in the old show, at the end of the eliminator the contestants had the option of running through 4 pathways? 2 of the pathways contained Gladiators waiting to tackle them, and the other 2 were empty. It creates extra drama at the end of the show…. bring it back.
6. Bring back the Atlasphere! that was one of my favorite events in the original show. It’s fun to watch and looks physically draining as hell.
I agree with everything but bringing back the athletes versus the Gladiators. Any decent athlete would pretty much dominate the Gladiators, that’s why the contestants are all like 5′9, 160 pounds. But if the contestants were bigger, there would likely be more injuries…and no one wants to see more injuries (like Militia making it like 8 seconds on Hang Tough on the debut show).
On another note, I think there should just be less talking altogether. The Gladiators characters are stretched, the contestants lines are awfully written and cheesy, and Hulk and Leila are straining themselves to talk for 30 seconds.
you’re right about the small contestants, I don’t think the show would be able to afford the Gladiators getting hurt.
I don’t mind Leila Ali (im sure you can guess why), but everyone else on the mic is just painful.
Agree with you 100% on number 5. I don’t know why they removed them from the final event.
Also doesn’t the winner get to be a gladiator in season 2. If that is the case all these contestants are too small. How could they be a gladiator.
I’m not watching unless they bring back Alex Castro. It’s crappy if they don’t just because he did those erotic vids for Male Perfection and Colt.
LMAO