Show discussion: Power Struggle/Maa Al Tayar

By | February 18, 2011

Right, as it turns out this is on today on JCCTV (Sky Channel 823) at 3:30pm UK time, repeated at 8:30pm and also on tomorrow as well.

Hopefully it will be on the Al-Jazeera Watch Again service, I won’t get a chance to watch it until Sunday I don’t think, but I’m always interested in your opinions in the meantime.

20 thoughts on “Show discussion: Power Struggle/Maa Al Tayar

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  2. David B

    To give you a fighting chance of following this, this is the basic plot:

    A team of five teens travel to the Fort to experience what it would be like in a future world where the oil has run out. Electricity is available, but it is scarce and can be seen to be ‘running out’ on a multi-coloured hexagonal meter in their communal room.

    There are two ways they can top up their power: by riding a manual exercise bike in their communal room, or by playing Crystal Maze-style games to win a power brick.

    If the oppression of the situation is getting to any of the players, they can opt to go into an extra special treat room but this too will drain the power.

    Reply
      1. David B

        I don’t know how many episodes are in each cycle, but there is an endgame where the players go into the old mine and have to transfer ‘power liquid’ in a suspended dish without spilling it.

        Reply
        1. Brig Bother Post author

          Mmm, I’ve seen that in the promo.

          Incidentally, even if full episodes aren’t up yet you can watch the opening three minutes on the linked site.

          Reply
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    1. CMD in yet another browser

      Mmm… could you be so kind as to provide a direct link, please? My grasp of Arabic isn’t what it might be – and, more to the point, I fail at the “try to recogise the screen grabs and deduce what the shapes of the letters that make up the name of the show to find the link to follow” game.

      Reply
  5. Brig Bother Post author

    Watching episode one now, and what have we learnt? That given a large fortress to explore, kids still can’t entertain themselves without electronics.

    Reply
    1. Brig Bother Post author

      Right, finished watching ep 1 now, for me it falls irritatingly between two stools – a realty show that doesn’t seem to tell us very much about people and things and a gameshow without that many games in it. What games were there were fine, although I’m slightly upset that a bit more effort hasn’t gone into the cause and effect thing – the power bricks are right there for the taking, really what are you going to do about it if I don’t bother with the task and just take the brick? And I can’t help but think there should be some sort of mesh on that ball maze to stop any sort of idea that someone can just take the ball out and plonk it where they want – something Adventure Line do well is that if you aren’t meant to do something there will be something physically stopping you rather than a man commenting at you. It’s small things that cross quality boundaries I find.

      They should use the brilliant set more. I shall watch episode two forthwith.

      Reply
      1. Brig Bother Post author

        Episofe two a bit better I thought, although again not really enough meat for my liking. It looks like each cycle is going to be three episodes.

        Reply
        1. David B

          I’m fairly sure the cycle is more than 3 episodes…

          There was an awful lot of explanation in show 1 – I presume it will lighten up from hereon.

          Reply
          1. Brig Bother Post author

            Cool, I’ll take your word for it, although the ‘coming up’ bit suggested three more games. Maybe four then.

      2. art begotti

        I wasn’t able to watch this, it got so start/stoppy (even with preloading) that it was too much effort to watch it. Could there be some sort of preventative elements given verbally (not in English) to prevent such “cheating”? For example, might they say something to the effect of “don’t touch the balls, they’re made of highly reactive [element]ium that will melt your skin if you touch them” or “the power bricks are electrified until the task is complete”? Not that these things are true, but they’d be enough “reason” in a fictional setting to prevent outright cheating.

        Reply
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