John Burke

If you love a well written, intelligent comedy, with a great cast of characters, and clever plot… don’t watch this show! Mark Heap is clearly just in it for the money. The rest of the cast range from average, to poor. I’m 75% through the second episode, and haven’t laughed once. They’ve literally rehashed the story of Mahoney in Police Academy too, the recruit who doesn’t want to be there, trying to get thrown out. There’s not one believable character and the story is nonexistent. I know it’s a comedy, and you need a bit of silliness, but you also need some kind of story and some sensible characters. Every character is trying to be “funny” and it just doesn’t work.

On the negatives, the games need to be tougher. The Gauntlet is too short, doesn’t give the Gladiators a chance to get into it. They should bring back the cheerleaders, and all the theme music. On the positives, it’s very nostalgic. The gladiators are all good, they got their own characters going on, which is important. They’ve also stayed true to the original in most ways. I think it will get better as the show goes along and they iron the little bits out.