I'm finding it a bit repetitive as well, although I'm not sure how much of that is down to the games and how much is down to the presenter. Don't get me wrong, I like Richard Ayoade as a presenter, but I think it's the way he doesn't throw himself into the fiction, and instead pokes holes in it, that gets a bit samey.
I've yet to see them doing anything much with the sets, as well, which could be down to that. In the original, Aztec was "at night" once or twice, and on one occasion had a crashed plane in it which of course gave Richard O'Brien a chance to spin a ridiculous tale - things which Richard A's style doesn't let itself to.
I also think Ocean was better than Industrial, but there we are...
It just feels like a carbon copy each week - "Tonight Matthew I'm going to be", "ALIS situation" (of which there were FIVE in a row of last night!) gets old quite fast, then they chuck in the medieval woman a few times throughout the series as a bit of a side joke but it isn't really that consistent.
I can't really blame Richard too much with all the episodes being recorded in a block, the main issue is how Channel 4 have dragged it out so much and chucked it all over the schedule (7PM next Sunday, and it is the 'last in series' yet there are still a handful more to go so looks like they'll be dragging it out again!)
The very first series back in the day was repetitive too, but I still find myself enjoying those on Challenge where I couldn't really say the same if they started to repeat the revival episodes, think I would get bored rather quickly.
Agree Ocean was better. Not surprised it moves to 7pm - it's just not rated well at all sadly - probably lost most it's viewers in the half hour Louie Spence featured early on! C4 just haven't nurtured it enough and not quite known where to pitch it, probably relying a bit too much on nostalgia.
Ocean only looked good in its first series IMO. It lost a lot of lighting power in the Tudor-Pole years and looked a bit miserable. But that's my take on that matter.
I'd say if you're used to the pace of the original show this revival is slow and full of padding. While the odd post-mortem did happen previously it was more natural and wasn't "forced" to the degree it is now. It was more of a "oh dear you stuffed that up, never mind let's play another game" as opposed to "Fred you found that hard, tell us why" and then two minutes later "The next game is a skill, who have you selected and why?"
Sometimes I wonder if it should have just stayed as a SU2C special.
Getting the quota up to 12 games an episode would go a long way to pleasing the old school fans. I must say though that has bothered me less as the series has gone on, but it is a change I'd definately make. I'd also take out the long reveals of solutions to unsolved games, and as others say a bit of the padding (though I think it is more natural than noticeable padding) and you do have a better show.
Series 2 celeb specials will air next month even though series 1 is yet to finish. On the whole a decent line up of celebs though with some usual reality suspects putting you off a couple of episodes. The Derry Girls special should be good though.
It was announced at the time that they're only playing 10 games per show and we do see 10 games per episode. The leeway for editing probably comes from all the introductions, banter between games and before/during/after the dome.
It would probably just complicate matters and the ability to edit considerably if they played 15 games and only showed 10, because of the constant "let's recap: you've won x crystals" references as otherwise you'd probably have to ADR* all the dialogue afterwards.
*ADR, automated dialog replacement, replacing speech after it was recorded on set, not unheard of in TV but more often seen in film/movie production.
Series 2 or series 8 of The Crystal Maze started tonight with celebrities. I noticed little changes to the format from series 1 or series 7:-
- Richard still had his hand
- No transitions from zone to zone were shown
- They travelled diagnonally across the maze rather than clock/anti-clockwise
- ALIS, editing, mins were still referred to
- Entering the dome was not shown
The only main changes to the format were:-
- Jarhead was based in the Medievel Zone
- The lighting was better in the Industrial Zone
- All new games
They travelled diagonally in the first series too. If it's easier to film that way I just wish they'd redraw the map (which is inaccurate anyway as it is based on the classic layout, so wrong for Future).
Big Narstie proving himself to be the new Joey Essex when it comes to TV value - absolute idiot, but the Jarhead game was laugh out loud funny.