It started in The Netherlands, the first series was a hit, the second series did OK but took a significant (i.e. about a third) fall. And there’s been a third on a streaming service.
Already we’ve got versions coming in the UK, US, Australia, France, Belgium, Norway and probably quite a few other territories I’m not aware of.
I love This Sort Of Thing so I’m hoping it’s good and a success, but there’s an element of unproven, unearned success here and I’ve a horrible feeling it’s the next Too Big To Fail format heading for a fall.
Look, the Strictly launch show has been postponed until the 23rd (the day before the first live show, but it’s a prerecord so it’s OK), let’s be honest you’re not going to watch The Masked Dancer, so why not join us on the Discord from 7:15pm UK as we watch two famous German comics battle it out over 15 mystery events to win a €100,000 briefcase? There’s usually “fun” and “bants” and the bonus fun of figuring out what the games are. Join us!
It’s another reboot, this time of a show ITV only axed about three years ago, Ninja Warrior IS BACK and now contestants have to do courses racing against the resident gladiators ninjas in a format point that’s been lifted from various international versions of the show. There’s definitely going to be a male and female winner, does this mean they’re just going to keep letting the best performers through to the next round even though they don’t finish the course so they can have a Mount Midoriyama head-to-head?
We’ve never been a massive fan of the international formatting of the show, much preferring the sense-making Japanese original’s simple “complete the course in the time or sod off” idea so we’re intrigued to see what, if anything, the race element is going to add to proceedings.
Dutch Genius arrives on 3rd October and that ought to be PRETTY EXCITING as the Dutch tend to do this sort of thing well.
The Mole on Netflix arrives 7th October and is likely to be PRETTY UNDERWHELMING as US versions of things frequently are, not helped by a rather unusual content drop strategy of five straight off, three the following week and the final two the week after. It’s not like a lot of the excitement building for The Mole is allowing people a proper chance to digest and discuss, is it. Still, our expectations being pretty low means it might be a pleasant surprise if it’s basically any good at all.
Tonight saw the return of Die 100,000 Mark Show to RTL. Old currency. Old host. (Largely) old games. It actually had roughly the same amount of content as the old 90 minute show, but incredibly despite being twice as long (three hours) it wasn’t until towards the end I was feeling the length a bit.
I don’t think it gets off to a good start – it immediately looks and feels quite a bit cheaper than the 90s original (there are plenty of eps on Youtube now, but you can read a write up of an episode here) although thankfully it kept the banging theme music. The original made out to be the most spectacular show on television – this clearly was not going to be the case in 2022. Similarly to the original it opens with an eliminatory obstacle course which hit many of the same beats as the original but not in *quite* the same way, and unexpectedly with a lengthy explanation video for everyone who doesn’t know how an obstacle course works, presumably. Clearly that was how it was going to stretch to three hours, but no this did not continue.
The show got rather better after that – a slightly dull meet the contestants true/false quiz followed by the first quite old school game, the human pinball machine, where one contestant acting as a “spring” had to pull themselves forward and let themselves go to launch a pinball into play, whilst their teammate had to simultaneously press buttons to keep the ball in play whilst sorting out a stripped and rearranged picture on a video wall for two and a half minutes, played three times and somehow worked. The rest of the show largely featured buzzer quizzes or physical set design that by the standards of the 90s show probably have the lowest budget necessary for it to work, but the games were certainly solid enough – many of them retreads as it is. Other places where you could see the stretch was the lack of physical bidding round replaced by both couples performing the task as a time trial.
There were also a couple of fun twists – the winning couple could choose to add a (expensive) car to their potential winnings if they also gave up their earnt money before the final, and the first game of the final came with a choice of condition – the lower the time limit they chose, the more false cylinders would be removed at the end. Disappointingly the Hot Wire was now a five minute (plus any time left over from game one) job, losing all the moving obstacles, pace and shouting that made it compelling almost thirty years ago. And the wait between entering the code and revealing whether it was correct or not felt like five minutes.
I’m not entirely sure awarding all prizemoney in Deutschemarks really added anything (basically halve to covert to Euro. I hope contestants don’t have to pay a conversion fee). Ulla Kock um Brink was very good though, if she hasn’t really done much television in about twenty years you wouldn’t have known it.
Four shows have been recorded and will be going out in due course – not weekly.
For no other reason than it makes me laugh, here’s the original intro to De 100,000 Gulden Show, the Dutch show Die 100,000 Mark Show was based on.
