27Apr2008
No News Video: UK “Russian Roulette”
Russian Roulette is back in full force on GSN. Apparently it’s pretty popular too. It’s getting a lot of airings, it’s the only show beyond Bingo America I see actually advertised on GSN’s website, and there are commercials airing for it as if it’s new or something. It’s like they are testing the ratings to see if a new version could be popular, isn’t it? I often blast America for having severely inferior game shows than other countries such as England. There are only two modern shows I will hold higher over theirs, though. 1 VS 100 (before the season two crappy format came out) and Russian Roulette. Take a look at how they messed up the show and then thank Rich Cronin for not messing the show up this badly.
[youtube EGy42dIIj_Y]
wow…That is horrible. Very confusing rules and the set is horrible too. The host is OK, but she can’t save a horrible format.
I`ve found this clip before and, I dunno. This, I believe was a celebrity edition, and it’s edited so choppily that we can’t tell all of what the rules are, or what the format is. (It seems to be a two-stage tournament: twelve celebs, with the 6 men facing off and the 6 women, and then there’s one overall winner, but… Who won among the men? What did the woman do to defeat him? These questions might have been answered if we could watch the whole thing, but I’m not even 100% certain it’s all one episode.)
I’m more inclined to blame the hack job that whoever put this on YouTube did for how horrible this looks. (But it might be equally horrible at full length. :-P )
Everyone else does Russian Roulette just fine…except the UK. The format is so flawed, all someone has to do is watch the clock, squeak in a right answer at the very end, and theoretically win the whole thing for doing virtually nothing. And don’t even get me started on the spins. Especially the ones that stop on an empty trapdoor, and then they have to do the whole shebang all over again…
Plus, the whole celeb dealie never fit. I mean, did you see how they were goofing off in a round where every second counted? (Would also help if we at home could see the clock too…)
But you know what the kicker is? This, according to ukgameshows.com, was only the pilot. Everything in the miniseries stayed the same except for the head-to-head; both players got the same question and wrote their answer down on cards. If either player was wrong, s/he had to play RR with three drop zones. If they were both wrong, one was certain to fall because of the way they were positioned.
Crap, that is NOT Russian Roulette in my eyes!
I would place this in the same category as the Spoilers on “Crosswords”, and a potential $6,000 Final Spin spin on Wheel Of Fortune. That being the, “Win for getting the last one right despite doing little, or nothing during most of the game”….category.
Even though that isn’t always the case, the fact said element is there on some shows really irks me. I know producers like to say “Well, it adds suspense and a big element of risk and intrigue to the game.” Still, it just doesn’t seem right to us. Only Wheel, in my opinion, seems to get away with it because it’s always been there, from day one of the daytime version.
Pretty cool how they got k.d. lang to host.
Okay, I take it back. After reading dropzone’s report, I agree that it sucks canal water.
Honestly, I don’t know what’s worse; the head-to-head format we saw in the video, or the actual format I described…
The UK’s spins took away all the heart-stopping suspense that the other international versions’ spins provide. (I personally think both the US and Russia pull it off the best.) If anything, the UK’s procedure made everything more tedious…wrong answer, other player steps out of hole, pulls lever, wrong answer, steps out of hole, pulls lever…*shudders*
I'm sad that the vid got removed from because the only thing i got to see about the uk version of russian roulette is the sounds from the international game show sound libary (deep breath) and the logo :( [youtube EGy42dIIj_Y http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGy42dIIj_Y youtube]
I'm sad that the vid got removed from because the only thing i got to see about the uk version of russian roulette is the sounds from the international game show sound libary (deep breath) and the logo :( [youtube EGy42dIIj_Y http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGy42dIIj_Y youtube]