The bastard Child of Westernism and Takeshi's Castle (Total Wipeout)

Member Name: iamasadlittleboy

Product:	Total Wipeout
Date:	15/08/09 (80 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Funny, Simple, Silly

Disadvantages: Won't be to everyones taste

Simply put this is silly and hosted by the 5 foot 7 Richard Hammond. For those wanting to know more read on...

Total Wipeout is a game show (not quiz show) in which 20 contestants start and only 1 wins the prize (£10,000) after going through 4 stages of humiliation, water and dirt. For those of you familiar with Takeshi's Castle this will fit right into your TV viewing at it's scheduled hour slot (19:20-20:20 on a Saturday evening) as it takes a similar idea (silly games and people flying about) and Westernises the idea.

The show starts with an assault course concept for the contestants with the first 12 (of 20) qualifying for the next round. This stage features several sections with some of them changing but the main 2 seemingly remaining. Those two are the boxing wall (cross in front of a wall that has gloves throwing punches at you), which almost always sees people covered in mud and on their knees after being punched. The second main one is the Big balls (no not little hamsters) which are 4 giant foam balls that need to be crossed one by one over a pool of water (often seeing the muddy contestants getting cleaned).

The top 12 then progress onto "The sweeper" which sees the remaining players standing on a platform each as a sweeping arm comes around trying to knock them off. Again players are eliminated depending on their position (the top 6 qualify for the next round, the rest go home) with the winners going on to either of the third round games.

The third round seems to either being Dizzy Dummies or some treadmill thing. Sadly the treadmill thing is a bit pap. Dizzy dummies is quite fun as it sees the players getting spun around then doing another assault course type thing over water. The top 3 go into the final round, but this is often one of the best parts of the show as the event sees idiots falling off and needing to go back in a race against each other.

The final is another assault course, the race this time has a prize, £10,000. With each person going once at a time and not knowing the times of the others this is a matter of rushing and sometimes losing it just because your rushing. This stage is always done at night (so I'm presuming here) that each show is filmed over the duration of a single day. The again sees the contestants getting wet, dizzy and tired as the bets 3 race for the prize in what's usually a great combination of tension and comedy.

What the show also includes is Top Gears (and Brainiacs) Richard Hammond hosting and commentating on the show (Craig Charles' job on the English translation of Takeshi's Castle) giving each contests a silly name "Fast Eric" or "Slippy Joe" for example based on something they've said or done. These often stick for the full episode with him never really referring to the contestants by their true names through out (though their nick names are their first name added to something usually) and can have quite a childish humour that appeal to a slightly intoxicated me on a Saturday after a hard day at work and not a great deal of food.

For those who would rather watch Antiques Roadshow than Gladiators you can put BBC4 on and what ever their showing. For those of you who can mix your slapstick real action comedy with assault courses this is ideal for you. Often this seems like the auditions of X factor as portrayed as visual instead of vocal, with fat people falling into mud, off balls and generally getting wet. Simple things amuse simple minds however and I'm blonde so well, I'm obviously easily entertained by people falling over and being forced into involuntary back flips into water.

Overall this is ideal and just what BBC1 needed as light entertainment on a Saturday night to replace the conceptually clever but badly performed "Hole in The Wall" as a light hearted comedy game show. Thankfully with out the annoyance that is Anton Du Beke who should either go back to dancing, or just the sod the...(insert a naughty word here boys and girls) off my TV. Finally BBC have hit the jackpot in the evening entertainment show on a Saturday, something they've been found to have lacked in recent years trying to fill the gap with relative garbage.

Summary: Lots of people get wet and play with some big red balls