After years of watching a bunch of Asian’s scurry through obstacle courses on MXC and inevitably eat shit, ABC has created Wipeout, a spinoff of the classic dubbed over Japanese game show. I’m not gunna lie, I LOVE to watch people crash and fall (I especially enjoy a good faceplant), and since MXC is rarely on TV before midnight I decided to tune into Wipeout to see if it could replace the classic Japanese game show.
When I sat down to watch the show for the first time I was a little confused as to its similarity to MXC. I thought that ABC had some sort of contract with MXC concerning the content of Wipeout (i.e. obstacles, challenge format, types of contestants). After some research I found that this is not the case at all. They are currently feuding with each other over it, but since this is not my battle, I’m going to decide for myself how much I like it.
I immediately didn’t like that they decided to go with a blind date format for the first episode. Dating shows are very cliché right now and implementing that into the shows format was a poor decision. The audience isn’t watching to see people on a blind date; they just want to see people jump over, swing into, fall through, slide down and eventually violently crash into the mud, water, or whatever obstacle they might be close to. Though Wipeout does provide that spectacle, adding the blind date theme to the show provides an unnecessary component that I believe to be for the worse. MXC’s themes always added to the shows spectacle by providing some creative way to crack jokes at the contestants.
The new show’s hosts John Anderson (of ESPN) and John Henson (of Talk Soup) are awkward and not really that funny. They can’t compete with the hilariously funny Japanese hosts Vic Ramano and Kenny Blankenship who enjoy dressing up in some weird costumes for the show, cracking sex jokes and mocking every contestant in any way possible. It changes the whole dynamic of the show, making it less entertaining to watch. Wipeout’s obstacle courses look pretty hard and fun and I think they did MXC justice in that department, but why does everything have to be soooooooooo padded. On MXC’s obstacle course they is little if any padding at all. The log roll doesn’t seem to have any padding at all compared to the new bouncy ball jumps. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all about safety, but I know that if it’s aired on TV its safe to say that all the contestants are going to be ok and its ok. Soooo…. take some padding away; it makes for more realistic and more epic crashes.
The interviews with contestants on Wipeout are utterly lame compared to those on MXC which are short, sweet, funny and awkward all at the same time. Maybe it’s just me, but there is something much funnier about dubbing over hilariously unskilled Japanese contestants than watching an average Joe try to be funny and fail miserably.
Even though I think MXC is a better show than Wipeout, it still manages to satisfy my need for seeing people fail. I think it’s safe to say that Wipeout is clearly a rip-off of MXC. But since I still love to watch people fall, I’ll still end up watching most episodes of Wipeout. Here’s the video comparison of the two shows.
I would have much preferred to see an american adaptation of ninja warrior. I too love watching people eat it, provided its in a ridiculous enough way. Your right that no one can compete with the greatness of the original dubbers of the Japanese show. It's like changing those aspects changes the whole dynamic of the show and make it a lot different and less funny than the original.
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