Missed our Schlag den Star English watchalong last week? Don’t worry, here’s some of the more formatty things we got up to hastily edited together. Thanks to Daniel Peake for coming up and hosting these.
First: Buried Treasure. Answer questions to dig in the sand for money but make sure you’re not the last one to get home.
And next: Brain of Schlag. Which is Brian of Britain, but with the SdS commentators.
Toujours Plus Fort (effectively Fort Boyard’s Bit On The Side) gave us GOLD this evening with about a minute of the Richard O Brien Fort Boyard pilot they filmed in London. We’ve previously seen about two seconds of it as part of a contestant call out for the original French show so this is both fascinating and wonderful. Also: the look is very Industrial zone.
I don’t know if this will go directly to the bit, but it’s just after 30:30 on the clock here:
Don’t forget! Fort Boyard starts on France 2 tonight at 8pm UK. You’ll likely need a VPN to watch live, or hopefully they’ll be putting them up officially on Youtube later on this evening. Our discussion page is here.
Speaking of VPNs, I fear too many services are catching on to Tunnelbear which has done me well over the years, but my sub runs out end of June. Does anyone have any recommendations? I don’t mind paying money. Sounds like Express VPN and NordVPN are well regarded.
Fridays, 8pm,
Channel 4
I can’t be bothered keeping track of what “series” it is, it’s the third recording block anyway and we’re getting six episodes now and seven later on.
Anyway we’re getting 30 new games, a new Eastern zone (if Richard uses the phrase “culturally sensitive”, take a drink) and a new MEGACRYSTAL worth 10 seconds in the Dome.
And it looks like they’ve doubled down on the audience baiting tone, with its archness and having Gemma Collins on the first episode and its irritatingly matey social media presence and trying desperately to go viral and having a game that’s a bit like the planets one from series one, because you lack imagination and you like that sort of thing don’t you Dave?
And I respect that, to keep doing the same thing in the face of severe audience decline isn’t stupid it’s clearly art. And that virtual room game looks good (even if, as has been pointed out, it’s basically that game from Sub Zero I was involved with twenty-odd years ago).
Anyway, let us know what you think.
Bother’s Bar Plays Badly IS BACK! And what a game to come back with, the recently released Supermarket Shriek on XBox One and Windows PC.
As you can probably guess it’s a take-off of Supermarket Sweep. However it plays more like Total Wipeout. This fifteen minute vid will show you me aceing the first set of levels and then messing up the outro but in a way that was probably better than the original intention.
Check it out! Check it out!
Monday to Thursday, 8pm, for two weeks,
(Except for viewers in Wales in which case eps 1-4 are Tuesday-Friday 6:30pm),
BBC2
Join Dara O’Briain and eight families across the two weeks as they battle it out to be called Britain’s Brightest Family win The Family Brain Games.
Still don’t think the title shouts mass appeal. However it’s got the ever popular Dara and the games look quite good in the adverts.
It’s also quite interestingly scheduled, almost weekdaily across the next two weeks, heats in the first week, three-semis (with the four winners and two best runners up) and three-way final in week two. That’s quite brave, especially for a show like this, although if it does look like taking off that’d give BBC2 a decent annual returning strand alongside the likes of Springwatch.
Of course we can’t not mention that Friend of the Bar David Bodycombe is a consultant and commentator on this. This will not stop us being FEARLESS in taking it apart if it’s rubbish though.
Let us know what you think in the comments.