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The Crystal Maze

New series... and a new zone (May 2019)

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BR
Brekkie
Yes, I really like him although he is a bit marmite.

I think for a show like The Crystal Maze to be revived successfully it had to be absolutely perfect and sadly it just didn't click into place the way it needed to.
NJ
Neil Jones Founding member
I think there were probably too many deviations from the base formula that made the show a success in the 1990s. References to "editing" probably didn't help, we know TV shows are edited to some extent, and in fairness it wasn't particularly hard to notice in the original show where you were watching gameplay footage or a pick-up shot that was done two days later or whatever it was. For some reason it had to be pointed out at at every available opportunity this time round to explain why in the next shot Fred is wearing a helmet when he wasn't previously, although it would have been easy to circumvent by his putting it on before entering the cell, but apparently that doesn't make great telly.

I've said before in this thread about other "issues" I had with the revival and I'm not going to go over them again. Some of the basics were right though - making a hash of a game, check. charging in like a bull in a chinashop, check. Coming out at 10 seconds when you're literally right next to the door, check.
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IN
Interceptor
I don't think the mentions of editing had much to do with the failure to land, to be honest.
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:-(
A former member
I don't think the mentions of editing had much to do with the failure to land, to be honest.

I think it did a little. Richard O’B and Ed made you at least feel like they could feasibly be living in the maze. Ayoade played it a little too ironically.
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NJ
Neil Jones Founding member
I don't think the mentions of editing had much to do with the failure to land, to be honest.

I think it did a little. Richard O’B and Ed made you at least feel like they could feasibly be living in the maze. Ayoade played it a little too ironically.


I think it played into the whole "suspension of disbelief" thing that anything fictional needs. We know the TV show is not real, its just a TV studio somewhere and we make our own magic as to how engaged we want to be with it. To be told "you will look different because of editing" sort of takes you out that a bit.

Its like reading a book and being told Chapter 2 was written after Chapter 27 and was added later, because of "revision". Well we all know revisions of writing happens, much like we know editing of TV programmes happens. We don't need to be told it happens, even literacy geniuses like Mark Twain had at least three goes at The Mysterious Stranger, none of which were completed by him. The story we know today attributed to him was actually cobbled together by somebody else.
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PF
PFML84
I think Richard Ayoade was a better host choice than Stephen Marchant, but neither of them suited the show (for me) and there were, as Neil said, too many changes to the base formula for it to work. They tried something new and different, and fair play them for doing it, but I think if they show is to continue, they need to acknowledge these failures and try again with perhaps another host and a different change in style. Getting rid of a lot of the waffle and fitting in a few more games certainly wouldn't hurt either.
SP
Steve in Pudsey
I caught part of one of the US kids episodes on Nick and they were using the same editing references
NJ
Neil Jones Founding member
I think Richard Ayoade was a better host choice than Stephen Marchant, but neither of them suited the show (for me) and there were, as Neil said, too many changes to the base formula for it to work. They tried something new and different, and fair play them for doing it, but I think if they show is to continue, they need to acknowledge these failures and try again with perhaps another host and a different change in style. Getting rid of a lot of the waffle and fitting in a few more games certainly wouldn't hurt either.


The trend of "waffle" seems to be a relatively new thing. Yes its important but it can go on for too long, and if it goes on for too long it comes across as blatant filler. If it was a one off in one, maybe two episodes of a series, maybe it could be given benefit of the doubt, but if its used in every episode it's surely a clear sign you don't have enough key material, and when "waffle" starts padding out the before and after games sections, then we have a format problem.

The original show managed to circumvent all of this with ease, and there was one episode where the team were debating amongst themselves as to whether to buy somebody out or not, and the response of O'Brien jumping in was "come on, you're wasting time to play more games". And that I think was one of the keys - if you want a debate about whether its worth buying Fred out or not, have it. But if you can't get another game in because you can't come to a consensus, that's your loss, and that may have a knock-on effect in the dome.

In other words - it felt more "realistic". Yes it was staged to an extent within the arch of the format (how could it not be?), but you never felt the screen experience was limited by the format.
BR
Brekkie
Referencing to editing isn't an issue - it is just a running gag and better to flag it in a fairly comic way than leave it to the hands of the Twitterarti. Timing certainly is and two more games would easily fit by cutting the waffle, but I don't think that is the reason it hasn't taken off in the way we'd have liked.

It's biggest issue may be the struggle to walk the line between ticking the nostalgia box and being a game show for the current day, and I think in trying to walk that line they've not really satisfied old viewers or potential new viewers in the way you'd like.
SP
Steve in Pudsey
Waffle is cheaper to produce than games though!
JA
james-2001
Just rebrand the show as "The Crystal Waffle", then.

At least it's not as bad as listening to Radio 1 or 2.
VM
VMPhil
Referencing to editing isn't an issue - it is just a running gag and better to flag it in a fairly comic way than leave it to the hands of the Twitterarti.

References to the machinations of TV production are part of Ayoade's shtick - as viewers of Travel Man will attest to.

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