Another Lock-in. (Crystal Maze, The)

Member Name: daseaford

Product:	Crystal Maze, The
Date:	04/12/01 (175 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fast Moving., Entertaining.

Disadvantages: Contrived.

Why is it that television game shows look so easy when you watch them at home, but the contestants seem to do so badly? Is that only inept or incompetent people are chosen for the shows, or is there more too it than that?

In the Crystal Maze show a lot of the contestants appeared to be totally mismatched to the tasks they so enthusiastically attempted. When I originally watched this series I failed to understand how any of these teams ever got together, and why they chose the tasks they did. However, I later read an article about the show and now when I watch the repeats on Challenge TV the whole set-up is much clearer.

For anybody who has never watched the show, a team of six people is set a number of tasks with a time limit for each task, that individual members of the team attempt. If they succeed they are awarded a crystal that can be used towards achieving the ‘big prize’ at the end of the show. If they fail there is no penalty, unless they fail to leave the challenge room in time, in which case they are ‘locked in’ for the duration of the show unless the team later release them in exchange for a crystal.

The tasks are split into different categories, which are Mental, Physical, Skill or Mystery. The tasks are set in different scenes and these are Aztec, Medieval, Industrial and Future. Before the start of each game the presenter (Richard O'Brien) asks the team captain which type of challenge they want to play and who is going to attempt it. At this point you find yourself screaming at the TV, why did you chose them!

Well, it appears that most of the programme is contrived, what a surprise for a TV show. The team is not in fact a team at all, and most likely the team members have never met each other before the recording of the show. What appears to be a democratic decision as to which game to play, and who should play it, has been previously decided by the production team from the information give
n on the application forms and from the auditions.

Silly me, of course I thought the teams were doing their best to succeed, and as individuals I do still believe that to be true, but the odds were often stacked against them. For the sake of ‘good’ TV contestants were often given tasks which were completely opposite to their own individual skills, and that they were sure to fail in.

Not only did this make them look silly, but made you wonder about the sanity of the team captain, who supposedly had devised their strategy.

I do find it a pity when shows are contrived this much. The real attraction of a challenge programme is to see somebody really struggle with a task that should be within their capabilities, and the tension of will they/won’t they succeed. To see somebody obviously fail does not really make very interesting shows.

After saying all this why am I watching the repeats? Well, I must admit that I am not watching every one, but when I flick around the TV channels and come across the Crystal Maze I do normally watch it to the end. The programme is fast moving and the challenges are normally only 2 or 3 minutes long, so there is no time to get bored or fed up with a particular challenge.

The sets are very impressive and although you know that most of it is plastic and wood you can tell that somebody has spent a lot of time on the design work. Richard O'Brien is very good as the presenter, and I find his little asides quite amusing. He seems genuinely enthusiastic about the whole programme. I should imagine he is quite an interesting man to meet. In later shows he was replaced by Ed Tudor-Pole who did not have the same charisma.

Would I like to appear on the Crystal Maze? The answer is definitely NO. But, I would like to sneak in when nobody else was about and try each of the challenges when nobody was looking.

I am sure I will continue to watch the repeats, it is just a sham
e that it was not a bit more genuine.

Summary: