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Post by S_SweepFan3 on May 11, 2021 18:35:22 GMT -5
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Post by Mandoli on Oct 11, 2021 11:20:21 GMT -5
I don't usually sit down and watch game shows. When I do, it involves something near and dear to my heart. Case in point? Last night's Legends of the Hidden Temple premiere on The CW, which is something I was ready to watch for quite some time now. I'll put the majority of this post under a spoiler, for those of you who didn't watch it (and let's be honest, most of it should go under a spoiler since it's under 24 hours since the show aired). Let's get going. Moat Crossing: I like how they tied the legend into the moat crossing. A lot of the actual moat crossings in the original version were basic (and re-used over the course of time). Not in this one. This time, there was a combination of physical and mental aspects of the crossing. From knocking the wooden bird off of the pedestal, to making "poison", this was a nice way to start off the show.
Steps of Knowledge: Your typical question/answer round. Can't complain with the way they did it. General questions, such as "what does Guatemala mean", really helped. The legend was longer than your standard Nickelodeon version. It was harder to answer the questions this time around, because of how long the legend was.
Temple Games: Only two games in this show, boys and girls (and a tiebreaker, which will be discussed later). One of them is a head-to-head, like the original. The other game is a timed game with one team going at a time, with the fastest time earning a full pendant. Both games will earn you a full pendant. First team to get two pendants will go to the Temple. If each team wins a game, then a tiebreaker question is asked regarding the legend... Which is what happened in the premiere. Both of the actual Temple games include both members of the team. And there's a commercial after the first game. The hell? Okay, least of my problems here.
Temple Run: Four minutes to get through the temple this time around. Only round where the team involved in the run is wearing protective gear (pads, helmets). When a Temple Guard comes out, do we need the close-up shots of it like a horror movie? I don't know. Kind of weird. Contestant actually put the Silver Monkey together in one try, even as a Temple Guard took the teammate out in that room. And a commercial right as the Guard came out in the Shrine of the Silver Monkey? Are you fucking serious? Now that pissed me off.
General Thoughts: I kind of like the confessionals during the game itself. Not sure if they're really needed during the Steps of Knowledge, but whatever? Cristela is a good host, and thank God Dee is back as Olmec. I'm glad they had four teams in the game to start, because 6 > 4 > 2 > 1 would have been way too much and not a lot of time to get to know the teams. Silver Snakes come in next week, from what I could tell? Any other thoughts? Your opinions?
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Post by S_SweepFan3 on Oct 11, 2021 19:32:49 GMT -5
I'll post my thoughts in a spoiler box. It's mostly a copy-paste of what I said on another forum. I wouldn't say the reboot sucks. It's only one episode in and I did like some things about it. However, I will say I found the first episode to be underwhelming. I'll start with the negatives.
-As [username redacted] said, I'm not a fan of those contestant interjections. They felt like pace breakers more than anything else. While it's nice to learn more about the contestants, Legends in the past worked really well without the interjections similar to what a lot of reality shows have. These interjections result in episodes being an hour long. I honestly preferred it when Legends was half an hour. It made the episodes more digestible if you get what I mean.
-Each episode will only have four teams of two competing. This first episode saw the exclusion of the Orange Iguanas and the Silver Snakes. However, judging by the second episode promo at the end of this episode, it looks like the Silver Snakes will appear. I wish it stayed at six teams, but that's just my personal preference. This really wasn't too big of a con in my opinion.
-New host Cristela Alonzo's first performance was underwhelming. Echoing what [username redacted] said, she didn't seem that invested, which isn't good at all. I know Kirk took a while to get things going and obviously Cristela could get it going at some point too, but her first episode wasn't all that impressive.
-The way the show told the story with the cartoony looking images looked.....cheesy? I think that's the right word to describe it? I wasn't too big on that. I thought it looked silly. Maybe that's a better word to describe it. I wasn't a fan of that.
-Another thing I didn't like is the fact that temple runs can no longer end via temple guard capture. Yep, another thing that [username redacted] mentioned as being a negative. It was fun watching teams go through the temple and wondering if they would make it to the artifact or get caught by the third temple guard if the team had one or one and a half pendant of life. Now teams are guaranteed to enter the temple with two pendants due to how the temple games work (two games, one pendant earned for each one and if the teams split the games, a tiebreaker determines the winner and it nets them a second pendant). Obviously it would suck if a run ends in capture super early like in Elizabeth I's Golden Ship from season 1 in the Nick version, but early ends were rare anyway and usually it was the team's fault for letting it happen (*cough* Harriet Tubman run from Nick's season 2 *cough*). I feel like doing it this way with team's being guaranteed two pendants for the temple run kind of ruins the tension, especially when it looks like there's only one set path the team can take to get to the item.
-Did we really need the Chime sponsorship? We already get plenty of those ads on YouTube, so seeing them again here left me feeling annoyed.
-Commercials. There were way too many of those in my opinion. The worst part about these is that one appeared in between the two temple games and one appeared after the first temple runner got caught by the second temple guard. If you ask me, that really breaks the immersion.
Now the positives. I'll just sum it up with this sentence: even though things look different, it's still Legends of the Hidden Temple.
+The Moat was a little different, but it still felt like the moat if you catch my drift. It involved doing multiple things before ringing the gong. The first three teams to succeed move on, the last place team is eliminated.
+The Steps of Knowledge are pretty much unchanged and that's fine. No complaints here other than the aforementioned silly looking imagery used to tell the story.
+The Temple Games were fun to watch. It's only two games this time around, but I still found it to be entertaining. Each game was team based and they both had multiple objectives that had to be completed before hitting the button on the gong pedestal. The second game had one team play the game while the other team stood back and watched to see how fast they could complete it. If the second team isn't able to beat the first team's time, then a pendant is awarded to the first team. Minus the commercial, I thought the temple games were good. I like it.
+The temple has been revamped with some new rooms and I think they're good. Rooms like The Dark Forest, Spider's Lair, and the ever popular Shrine of the Silver Monkey are back, but the new rooms work rather well. I forgot the names already, but one room had the temple runner reach through three skeleton bodies to find a beating heart which must be inserted into a slot to open the door. Another room requires the runner to pull sticks out of a cylinder which drops objects onto the ground. One of them is a jade token and the player must find it and insert it into a slot to advance. Another room has the player finding articles of clothes to put onto a queen mannequin and once all of them are on, the next room opens. I like that the show is trying new things with the rooms and I thought they were good.
+Dee Bradley Baker back as the voice of Olmec! Of course this is a positive.
There are a couple of things I'm indifferent about. One is the lack of Kirk Fogg. I would've loved to see him make an appearance, even if it meant him being a cameo. However, I'm not gonna lose sleep over this. I'm sure he'll appear or get a mention at some point. Also, temple runs are now 4 minutes instead of the previous three. I don't know how to feel about that yet, so I'll hold off on judgment here for now. Prizes aren't that bad either. Losing team at the moat keeps their team shirts, losing team at the steps gets Legends memorabilia (I think they keep their team shirts too), and I actually forgot what the losing team in the temple games gets, but I think I remember it being good too. Way better than what kids got in the Nick classic. As for prizes for the temple run, the winning team gets $2,500 for making it to the temple, $10,000 if they grab the artifact, and $25,000 if they bring it out of the temple in time. That's a huge improvement over prizes from back then, I'm looking at you CD-I Player.
All in all, not bad. However, it wasn't that impressive. I feel like the cons outweigh the pros, which is a shame. Still, it is the first episode, so things could always improve. At least I hope.
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Post by palmer7 on Oct 19, 2021 14:49:51 GMT -5
What I do like: - Dee Bradley Baker back as both announcer and Olmec! - The entire legend is tied together - Increased budget (goodbye Kooshlings and Quik, hello Razor scooters) - Cristina is OK, too
What I don't like: - The contestants cutting through the action and talking all the time. What is this, Survivor? - Chime sponsorship is tacky, just admit you're giving away cash. Maybe a car every once in a while? (Although with the current supply chain crisis, cash may be king anyway) - Temple runs have one set path (don't know if there were multiple paths on the 90s version or not) - No danger of ending a temple run by Temple Guard - A commercial break during a temple run!??
What I'd change: - Dee: "Just for entering the temple, you each win $2,500 in cash! If you can grab the [artifact] before three minutes is up, you're off to [insert trip location, plus details]. And if you can bring the [artifact] out of the temple before four minutes is up, you'll each win A BRAND NEW CAR!" (it doesn't have to be all cash all the time, give Dee the announcer something to say) - Cut out the talking, the interviews, the random stuff. That way, you might have time for more temple games.
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Post by S_SweepFan3 on Oct 31, 2021 22:13:05 GMT -5
In tonight's episode, the Silver Monkey claimed another victim in the temple run. The front runner spent like a minute trying to assemble it and it took him a long time to realize the belly was upside-down. That had to be one of the worst attempts at putting that monkey together in Legends history and there were some kids in the Nick version that struggled badly with it. That's how bad it was.
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Post by S_SweepFan3 on Jun 4, 2022 4:02:20 GMT -5
Sadly, CW Legends is one and done: deadline.com/2022/06/legends-of-the-hidden-temple-canceled-the-cw-after-one-season-1235038265/Can't say I'm too surprised by this cancelation. It did bad ratings wise and it just wasn't as good as the Nick version. The pacing was slow, there were too many commercials, the host was uninteresting and boring, the gameplay felt like a step back, and I didn't like the reality TV feel with the cuts in the middle of the action to the contestants talking. It was nice to see Legends return for a dozen episodes, but I'm not shocked to see it get the ax after one season.
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