So… the show is cheesy, the prizes are cheesy… this show will run on the CW for YEARS.
There’s something abjectly cruel about asking a contestant to play up wanting to win for her dead mother, only to lose and be ushered off with a “enjoy your pointless scooter consolation prizes…see ya!” And that’s still better than the first team who were told they got to keep their moat-soaked t-shirts.
The big win? $2500! Lol. And, like the original show, I have no doubt “big” winners ($25k? That won’t even buy a car, as one contestant suggested they would do if they won.) will be few and far between, and deliberately so.
The host is barely visible and seems to be there only for a paycheck, and the folks editing seem to know that. As the guards seem to be inevitable, they must exist only to guarantee switching off between the two contestants.
This is an embarrassment. The only one getting anything from this joyless slog-with-a-dash-of-sadism are the producers making bank from a rehashed idea for the least amount of money possible.
It does afford millennials the opportunity to reevaluate a nostalgic memory and decide, “Wow… maybe it really did suck.”
Josh Corey - 3 years ago
So the show was... Okay? It felt a little... Slow at times. Let's break it down from the beginning.
I do like the decision to cut down on the number of teams playing from the beginning if I'm honest, this was probably done to make it easier to focus on the action of each team, and I think it worked out pretty well! And the most crossing was a pretty nice upgrade too, actually giving teams something to do while getting across the river. It just felt a tiny bit boring without a studio audience roaring in the background... Felt a bit more like low-budget survivor, something the temple games suffered from as well. (But again, we can get to that later.) Notable in this version are the confession cam cutaways, which, I get, if you're watching the CW you probably want to see a reality show type thing with drama and little bites at other contestants, but like... C'mon, it's Legends of the Hidden Temple, it's a cheesy game show styled a bit like Indiana Jones meets the Jungle Cruise! Not to mention, you have a really good host in Cristela, let her do more play by play action like how Kirk Fogg did in the original show! She feels sorely underutilized... The music during this section, just like the rest of the show, was okay, felt a bit like you looked under the "jungle adventure" section of a royalty free music website somewhere. The music for the show, at least to me, is just as iconic as Olmec, maybe some slightly remixed versions of the songs could have breathed a bit more life into the show.
Steps of Knowledge, no complaints here, though it's hard to mess this up. In fact, you improved on it seems like! The bigger buttons I'm sure made it easier for contestants, I loved hearing the Steps ring in sound (And yet you couldn't use even the original music? C'mon guys...), and using mythology instead of historical facts was an awesome move! Plus, just getting to hear Dee Bradley Baker as Olmec again just made me feel happy! No complaints, just maybe went on a tad longer than I would have liked due to the confessionals... Again, let's cut those out, if you want to introduce the contestants, take the time before the Steps to do a mini interview or something. It's a game show, not Big Brother, we aren't going to see any of these guys next week.
The Temple Games... were a thing. How did a Nickelodeon show with a relatively smaller budget manage to make its games feel bigger and more exciting than this? I blame it not necessarily on the games themselves, but the atmosphere around it. No cheering crowd rooting teams on, no high energy music, barely any play by play commentary from the host... And I know I said I didn't really blame it on the games, but let's face it, this first show's games felt more like something you might see in a backyard birthday party... I think CW needs to take a good hard look there.
Now for the temple itself, I feel torn honestly. Part of me really likes it... The design of everything was definitely nailed here, it felt like I was watching the old shoe again, it was hectic, it was fast and furious, the temple guards still surprised me from time to time (and the zoom ins on their faces felt appropriately cheesy), and the more adult room themes were cool, what you would actually expect in an old Indiana Jones-esque temple. And yet, it didn't quite stick the landing for me... Again, the music felt wrong, especially because the original temple run music was one of my favorite parts of the show. And finally getting to feel something fast paced meant that it highlighted how slow the rest of the show felt with all the confessionals put in... And they still broke it up with a commercial break after the first runner was out!
The show could work, but it needs to find it's identity, which I think means embracing the past and leaning into that a bit more. An adult version could work, but it needs to appeal to adults who watched the show, which means bringing in more things that remind them of
Another Visitor - 3 years ago
It is yet another example of modern television's fascination with trying to "edit" their way to victory. The original show was 30 minutes, got through things quickly. Did you remember the kids names at the end? No. Did you care? No. Instead, they are trying to make us care about these contestants with interludes and stories and ALLOWING THEM TO PERFORM PLAY BY PLAY OF THEIR OWN CHALLENGE. This isn't Survivor. Win or lose, we will never see them again. I'd like to see Cristela actually get a chance to host rather than having editors splice in corny fed lines that producers tell contestants to give, and let the natural drama of the game do the talking. The GAME is the star. Not the contestants. The temple? Pretty good. The music? Severely lacking. The LENGTH of the challenges, my God. Too long.
This is a 30 minute show stretched to 60 minutes with the stupid thing that Hollywood does time and again now - overproduction. Extra drama, extra polish, which NEVER results in a better program on a game show. Lets see the warts, lets hear actual live action play by play. No cutaways. No COMMERCIAL BREAK IN THE MIDDLE OF THE TEMPLE.
Imagine Matt from Jeopardy saying "Wow. When she asked me this question, I was baffled", edited between questions. It's that stupid. LET THE SHOW BE THE STAR. Let the contestants be what they want to be, contestants, and stop trying to "joosh" up a show that needs no jooshing. People have been bootlegging t-shirts from Legends for over two decades for Halloween parties... all they had to do was follow the original formula, and no one would have batted a lash. Instead? This. I'm the biggest old school Nick game show fan you can find, and I don't think I'll watch another episode. Massively disappointed.
(Side note, Nickelodeon did this with a Guts reboot several years ago as well. 2 challenges instead of 4 so they could show us cute packages about the families and tell their story. NO ONE IS WATCHING FOR STORIES. They are watching for the game. Jill's a teacher from Illinois, OK spin the wheel. Mike is a fitness instructor from Boston, OK answer the question. I don't need to know your upbringing, favorite food, cute pet name for you and your teammate, the funniest thing that happened on a road trip. It just takes away from the game.
Temple and Cristela. Both good. Everything else around those two have been trampled on.
Visitor - 3 years ago
This is what you get for taking an Indians-Jones-for-kids adventure game show and ruin it in every conceivable way. The music sucks, there’s no immersive fantasy atmosphere, no adrenaline-pumped kids with that sense of awe. It’s just a bunch of idiotic, self-absorbed 20s/30s people who want to play a game they grew up with. There’s no tension, no fun. Just more people drowning themselves and us in their own misplaced nostalgia. Get rid of the adults and it *might* be salvageable. Barely.
So… the show is cheesy, the prizes are cheesy… this show will run on the CW for YEARS.
There’s something abjectly cruel about asking a contestant to play up wanting to win for her dead mother, only to lose and be ushered off with a “enjoy your pointless scooter consolation prizes…see ya!” And that’s still better than the first team who were told they got to keep their moat-soaked t-shirts.
The big win? $2500! Lol. And, like the original show, I have no doubt “big” winners ($25k? That won’t even buy a car, as one contestant suggested they would do if they won.) will be few and far between, and deliberately so.
The host is barely visible and seems to be there only for a paycheck, and the folks editing seem to know that. As the guards seem to be inevitable, they must exist only to guarantee switching off between the two contestants.
This is an embarrassment. The only one getting anything from this joyless slog-with-a-dash-of-sadism are the producers making bank from a rehashed idea for the least amount of money possible.
It does afford millennials the opportunity to reevaluate a nostalgic memory and decide, “Wow… maybe it really did suck.”
So the show was... Okay? It felt a little... Slow at times. Let's break it down from the beginning.
I do like the decision to cut down on the number of teams playing from the beginning if I'm honest, this was probably done to make it easier to focus on the action of each team, and I think it worked out pretty well! And the most crossing was a pretty nice upgrade too, actually giving teams something to do while getting across the river. It just felt a tiny bit boring without a studio audience roaring in the background... Felt a bit more like low-budget survivor, something the temple games suffered from as well. (But again, we can get to that later.) Notable in this version are the confession cam cutaways, which, I get, if you're watching the CW you probably want to see a reality show type thing with drama and little bites at other contestants, but like... C'mon, it's Legends of the Hidden Temple, it's a cheesy game show styled a bit like Indiana Jones meets the Jungle Cruise! Not to mention, you have a really good host in Cristela, let her do more play by play action like how Kirk Fogg did in the original show! She feels sorely underutilized... The music during this section, just like the rest of the show, was okay, felt a bit like you looked under the "jungle adventure" section of a royalty free music website somewhere. The music for the show, at least to me, is just as iconic as Olmec, maybe some slightly remixed versions of the songs could have breathed a bit more life into the show.
Steps of Knowledge, no complaints here, though it's hard to mess this up. In fact, you improved on it seems like! The bigger buttons I'm sure made it easier for contestants, I loved hearing the Steps ring in sound (And yet you couldn't use even the original music? C'mon guys...), and using mythology instead of historical facts was an awesome move! Plus, just getting to hear Dee Bradley Baker as Olmec again just made me feel happy! No complaints, just maybe went on a tad longer than I would have liked due to the confessionals... Again, let's cut those out, if you want to introduce the contestants, take the time before the Steps to do a mini interview or something. It's a game show, not Big Brother, we aren't going to see any of these guys next week.
The Temple Games... were a thing. How did a Nickelodeon show with a relatively smaller budget manage to make its games feel bigger and more exciting than this? I blame it not necessarily on the games themselves, but the atmosphere around it. No cheering crowd rooting teams on, no high energy music, barely any play by play commentary from the host... And I know I said I didn't really blame it on the games, but let's face it, this first show's games felt more like something you might see in a backyard birthday party... I think CW needs to take a good hard look there.
Now for the temple itself, I feel torn honestly. Part of me really likes it... The design of everything was definitely nailed here, it felt like I was watching the old shoe again, it was hectic, it was fast and furious, the temple guards still surprised me from time to time (and the zoom ins on their faces felt appropriately cheesy), and the more adult room themes were cool, what you would actually expect in an old Indiana Jones-esque temple. And yet, it didn't quite stick the landing for me... Again, the music felt wrong, especially because the original temple run music was one of my favorite parts of the show. And finally getting to feel something fast paced meant that it highlighted how slow the rest of the show felt with all the confessionals put in... And they still broke it up with a commercial break after the first runner was out!
The show could work, but it needs to find it's identity, which I think means embracing the past and leaning into that a bit more. An adult version could work, but it needs to appeal to adults who watched the show, which means bringing in more things that remind them of
It is yet another example of modern television's fascination with trying to "edit" their way to victory. The original show was 30 minutes, got through things quickly. Did you remember the kids names at the end? No. Did you care? No. Instead, they are trying to make us care about these contestants with interludes and stories and ALLOWING THEM TO PERFORM PLAY BY PLAY OF THEIR OWN CHALLENGE. This isn't Survivor. Win or lose, we will never see them again. I'd like to see Cristela actually get a chance to host rather than having editors splice in corny fed lines that producers tell contestants to give, and let the natural drama of the game do the talking. The GAME is the star. Not the contestants. The temple? Pretty good. The music? Severely lacking. The LENGTH of the challenges, my God. Too long.
This is a 30 minute show stretched to 60 minutes with the stupid thing that Hollywood does time and again now - overproduction. Extra drama, extra polish, which NEVER results in a better program on a game show. Lets see the warts, lets hear actual live action play by play. No cutaways. No COMMERCIAL BREAK IN THE MIDDLE OF THE TEMPLE.
Imagine Matt from Jeopardy saying "Wow. When she asked me this question, I was baffled", edited between questions. It's that stupid. LET THE SHOW BE THE STAR. Let the contestants be what they want to be, contestants, and stop trying to "joosh" up a show that needs no jooshing. People have been bootlegging t-shirts from Legends for over two decades for Halloween parties... all they had to do was follow the original formula, and no one would have batted a lash. Instead? This. I'm the biggest old school Nick game show fan you can find, and I don't think I'll watch another episode. Massively disappointed.
(Side note, Nickelodeon did this with a Guts reboot several years ago as well. 2 challenges instead of 4 so they could show us cute packages about the families and tell their story. NO ONE IS WATCHING FOR STORIES. They are watching for the game. Jill's a teacher from Illinois, OK spin the wheel. Mike is a fitness instructor from Boston, OK answer the question. I don't need to know your upbringing, favorite food, cute pet name for you and your teammate, the funniest thing that happened on a road trip. It just takes away from the game.
Temple and Cristela. Both good. Everything else around those two have been trampled on.
This is what you get for taking an Indians-Jones-for-kids adventure game show and ruin it in every conceivable way. The music sucks, there’s no immersive fantasy atmosphere, no adrenaline-pumped kids with that sense of awe. It’s just a bunch of idiotic, self-absorbed 20s/30s people who want to play a game they grew up with. There’s no tension, no fun. Just more people drowning themselves and us in their own misplaced nostalgia. Get rid of the adults and it *might* be salvageable. Barely.