Do you feel the power of the Gladiator? By which I mean, anyone else watching this, in the BBC 1 Saturday primetime slot? We're currently partway through the quarterfinals, with I think 4 episodes left to go.
I suppose it may have quite a niche nostalgia age, I remember watching the ITV run when it started at the age of about 11, but I'd stopped watching long before it finished. I've spoken to cousins and colleagues all around 5 years older than me who remember hating the 90s show as teenagers and as such have no interest in a reboot. Whether a new generation of kids are interested, no idea. Don't know any. I know Sky attempted a reboot some time back that was a failure, never saw it myself.
Anyway, it's a pretty faithful homage to the old show, although the new gladiators look like they could properly batter the 90s ones, I guess fitness has come a long way since the days of Mr Motivator et al. In the place of "Big Bad" Wolf you now have two of the male gladiators showing a bit of personality - Viper is angry and cheats; and Legend is obsessed by his own greatness, even when underperforming. Most of the other gladiators get a chance to speak after events but generally give praise to the contenders.
The biggest disappointment (if you ignore Ulrika Jonson shrieking about the lack of cheerleaders being too 'Woke') is the lack of variety in events, they've only brought back a few of the old events (Duel, Hang Tough, Gauntlet & The Wall) and added some new ones they seem to prefer. Sadly we no longer have the big hamster balls or the one with the tennis ball cannon. Maybe next year.
Oh yeah, and the presenting team of Bradley Walsh & his son are a bit rubbish. But as they only pop in between the events I can live with it - there's probably a glut of decent sports-based presenters out there who would be a better fit though.
