Veritas - TV Review - Wipeout (ABC)

Sadly, I've watched a lot of tv in my time. I'll admit to that. But it at least makes me feel like I'm qualified enough to review shows and episodes. This first one goes out to ABC's Wipeout, only because it happens to be the first show on my list with a new episode coming up... Tuesday August 12th.

Let's do Pro's and Con's... Con's first...

CONS

• The Commentary/ Commentators- This first because it is by far the WORST part of the show. The two hosts, John and... John... yes... you read that right... believe me, it was more painful to type than to read. The two hosts of the show are named John and John. Casting really failed on this one because had they picked at least one better host, then that host's name would have fallen in the set of all better hosts... which would include other "John's", but would have also included EVERYONE. Basically what I'm saying is that there is NO NEED to have the hosts named the same, especially when they both completely lack charisma, personality, and any skill for commentary. There have been times when I would be laughing at the show (like the contestants)... really laughing, hard... and I would be derailed by something one of these unworthy of tv-time idiots said. In the week 6 episode, I had to MUTE what they were saying just so that I wouldn't try to jam a single pen through one ear and out the other.
• Sometimes the obstacles are LAME... there I said it. The qualifying obstacles are kind of cool, the "Sweeper", cool, the "Dreadmill"... sigh... is pretty bad. Even "The Wipeout Zone"... which is supposed to be the point to the show, is probably the worst... the "Spinner" - a giant platform that spins with padded columns on it - is the saving grace for the "Zone". It easily packs quite a hurt on the contestants. Basically anything that looks fun for the contestant is lame, but anything that hurts them is good :)

PROS

• Jill Wagner - One word. Gorgeous. For those of you who don't know (I had to google it because she really looked familiar), she's the lovely girl from the Mercury car commercials... yeah :) By far, the best part of the show. Unfortunately, she's only doing the 'field reporting', i.e. talking to the contestants. She should be doing the commentary too, just fire John and John. What's also good is you get to see her openly laugh at the contestants as they fall and hurt themselves. I've always been of the mindset that you can judge a girl by what she finds funny. That being said, the lovely Ms. Wagner is perfect.
• Watching the contestants get hurt. It never gets old.
• Watching the fat people struggle with the course. It's just too funny.

In short, it's a good enough watch if you can stand annoying hosts, love watching people getting hurt and beautiful women. It's like Most Extreme Elimination Challenge (MXC) + Beautiful girl - Guy LeDouche - Two funny hosts + Two awful hosts.

I feel it's worth a watch, and I will continue to watch it. If you are interested check it out on ABC Tuesdays at 8pm. It's an hour long show FYI. It is also available on ABC.com the day after with limited commercials in their online player, which isn't half bad, but that's another review for another time. I tend to watch online, but that's my personal preference.