Gladiators

1 Sort by date Sort by reaction score 2
Was a massive fan as a kid. I was in the fan club 🤣 Loved this, think they've done really well. Just the right amount if cheese. Liked the gladiators, Sabre was fierce in Hang Tough! The new Lightning?! Was so pumped as soon as the theme tune started!
 
It was brilliant! I loved how similar they kept it. Even the contender costumes were the same - I was worried they'd have the girls in thong hotpants and the boys in string vests :ROFLMAO: .

Barney was absolutely terrible, so out of his depth. I agree there should have been a sports presenter, or at least a presenter that's into sports/fitness.
 
Loved Gladiators back when I was a tiny kid, we used to roll up a rug and pretend we were running across that rolling cylinder thing they used to have in the Eliminator.

I'd give this 7/10, it was an enjoyable watch but didn't quite have the magic of the original.

I liked the majority of the Gladiators, and the majority of the events except that stupid running to the centre one. Missed the dramatic 90's music during the events. But I'm glad they've mostly kept the series true to the original.

The tattooed girl humping the lesbian contestant to defeat on Hang Tough was very funny and I'm surprised more wasn't made of it.

I thought this series would have been better with a few more well-known athletes and minor sporting/fitness celebrities as Gladiators to add more gravitas (I know there's a couple but some are nobodies), and also to have a few foreign ones. It makes it seem more important if foreigners come over to participate, like in Strictly. I also think it would have been more fresh to have the Gladiators under their own names rather than the cheesy 90's nicknames (I understand that's probably unpopular and most people want to stick as much to the original as possible!)

I thought Bradley and Barney did fine. Barney is always going to be judged extremely harshly because of the nepo thing. I can see where the producers were going: Bradley is familiar to the middle-aged nostalgic viewers who they want to bring back, and they hope that young Barney will be relatable to the new young viewers they want to draw in. Also Bradley's wife/Barney's mum was a choreographer for the original Gladiator's cheerleaders, so there's a family connection.

That said, I can think of presenters who would be a better fit and add more to the show, for example Chris Kamara for the middle aged presenter, and some younger sportsperson for him to bounce off of.

I could have done without the contrived Viper-being-a-baddie thing. It wasn't acted very well by him (why was he so angry? Is it realistic for him to not know the rules?), Clattenburg or the contestant Fin, who all seemed to be in on it and not shocked. It also wasn't very fair to the other contestant that Fin was picked out for this drama session that ultimately benefitted him. In general I think 2020's viewers are much better informed than 90's viewers, and TV shows can't get away with manufacturing bullshit any more so they should have left trying to reincarnate Wolf.

Legend is a more natural fit for a baddie, and he's making the role his own instead of being aggressive or trying to copy Wolf.

I think they should have had someone like Luke Stoltman as the main ref. He's not a ref but he's an experienced strongman athlete, and he's got the booming Scots voice and is charismatic. Clattenburg is meh so far. Don't mind him but the show does have a Jon Anderson shaped hole that he's not quite filling.

Anyway looking forward to the next one, mostly for nostalgia.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top