I'm sure video game-based TV used to be good (or at the very least watchable) but it seems as the medium has advanced, TV's ability to do something good with it has all but vanished and this panel-show-cum- car-crash perhaps marks a new record low.
The format is similar to The Generation Game, but messy or complex activities that have scope for comical failures have been replaced with video game-related challenges so instead of watching some unwitting member of the public performing some highly-skilled task with no preparation with the potential for emergent slapstick comedy we get to watch a celebrity playing a game. Sometimes they're OK at it, sometimes they're not, but the result is either dull or annoying -- there are no impressive skills to marvel at, and there are no comic consequences of failure.
The resident team captains seem to have little or no experience with or connection to games and their purpose on the show is somewhat unclear, the audience voting does nothing but pad the running time, the host/co-host banter is painfully unfunny, and the fact that everyone involved seems to pander to the "games players are generally sad and pathetic loners" is just the rancid icing on the stale cake.
It's a shame, really, as Dara O'Briain is usually pretty funny and from his appearances on other shows he also seems to be a bit of a gamer so I was hoping for something worthwhile, but alas it was not to be. Stick on some old episodes of Bad Influence! or Gamesmaster, or re-watch Charlie Brooker's Gameswipe instead...
The format is similar to The Generation Game, but messy or complex activities that have scope for comical failures have been replaced with video game-related challenges so instead of watching some unwitting member of the public performing some highly-skilled task with no preparation with the potential for emergent slapstick comedy we get to watch a celebrity playing a game. Sometimes they're OK at it, sometimes they're not, but the result is either dull or annoying -- there are no impressive skills to marvel at, and there are no comic consequences of failure.
The resident team captains seem to have little or no experience with or connection to games and their purpose on the show is somewhat unclear, the audience voting does nothing but pad the running time, the host/co-host banter is painfully unfunny, and the fact that everyone involved seems to pander to the "games players are generally sad and pathetic loners" is just the rancid icing on the stale cake.
It's a shame, really, as Dara O'Briain is usually pretty funny and from his appearances on other shows he also seems to be a bit of a gamer so I was hoping for something worthwhile, but alas it was not to be. Stick on some old episodes of Bad Influence! or Gamesmaster, or re-watch Charlie Brooker's Gameswipe instead...