S15.E03: Qualifiers 4

[Lantern7]

Looks like Jessie Graff runs tonight.

Hey, Cake Ninja got hitched to another ninja! Good for them. And we got another ninja wedding!

Edited June 20, 2023 by Lantern7

[ams1001]

Go, Jesse's Mom! She still did better than I would...

[Lantern7]

Dang, The Cubes were designed by a ten-year-old. That’s hardcore.

[ams1001]

So by telling us that Brandon's last run is tonight before he even starts, they're giving away that he doesn't make it through...

[Lantern7]

Looks like the Mega Wall count is stuck at 3.

Wait, the women don’t get a Run-Off?

ETA: Spoke too soon. We got teenaged girls running for the next round. I feel old.

ETA2’ “Every run is a race!” can get you killed in a drinking game.

Edited June 20, 2023 by Lantern7

[enoughcats]

Did I blink at inauspicious times?  They had competitors up for a couple of seconds and didn't even flash their names (or did I blink and miss them.

That third obstacle was a dream killer.  I freeze framed the end of game summary and they only listed three females, and were none of them the racers???

The men contestants had bad runs IMO, did I read it right that one of them only completed the first obstacle and others only got to the third?

Tonight's runs may have been so bad that the editors depended on massive fluff to fill the hour.

 

[SophiaD]

Some nice things about tonight's runs.  Great to see Jessie's mom.  Jessie herself looks like she's getting back to where she was, if not quite as invincible as she was a few seasons ago.  I'm so glad she made it to the next round.  RJ Roman was his usual awesome self.  I also enjoyed the final run from the young women, even though I'm not thrilled with the format itself.  I'm amused that the winner's mother was a former American Gladiator - I used to stay up and watch the classic version of the show, back in the day.  

It was also great to see the Cake Ninja and his new spouse.  How cute they hyphenated both of their names when they got married.  Also, very impressive runs from the two brothers.  I hope we see more of them.  

I'm sorry not to see a few old favorites, but glad that Geri D'Angelo made it to the finals.  They definitely overhyped the LAST RUN from Brandon.  No suspense there.  I hope the ten-year-old girl who designed the new Cube obstacle becomes some sort of engineer.  MIT, RPI, Cal Tech, are you paying attention?  

[MsVixen]

I missed Brandon's run entirely!  Why?  Because the local news had to inform us of the worsening weather.  Now I've got to watch "On Demand" if I want to see it.

There was mention during RJ's run of a team of Ninjas representing the USA in Greece.  Has that been shown in the USA?  

[Frisky Wig]

Reminder to Matt and Akbar: the ninjas don’t die when they hit the water. I mean, we see them hug their families, talk to Zuri, dry off with towels. No deaths, no drownings though. Maybe it’s time to stop talking about how so-and-so “didn’t survive the third obstacle?” 

[Lovecat]

8 hours ago, Frisky Wig said:

Reminder to Matt and Akbar: the ninjas don’t die when they hit the water. I mean, we see them hug their families, talk to Zuri, dry off with towels. No deaths, no drownings though. Maybe it’s time to stop talking about how so-and-so “didn’t survive the third obstacle?” 

Right?  There is so much weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth when someone is eliminated from a competitive reality show.  I am constantly yelling at people on the teevee to calm the hell down, because the person being eliminated is not actually being *eliminated*...

[SophiaD]

9 hours ago, MsVixen said:

There was mention during RJ's run of a team of Ninjas representing the USA in Greece.  Has that been shown in the USA?  

I don't think it has, which is a shame.  IIRC, there also used to be a USA vs. The World or something like that, but I don't remember seeing it this year.  

 

8 hours ago, Frisky Wig said:

Reminder to Matt and Akbar: the ninjas don’t die when they hit the water.

LOL, yes, that's a great point.  I think I've just started tuning them out when they start yelling like that (which is pretty much all of the time).  This show has become something I have on in the background, rather than something I sit and watch.

One advantage of the shorter format is that we have far fewer of the backstories, which I appreciate.  OTOH, the last "ninja vs. ninja" race this time featured people I hadn't seen before, so it was hard to be invested in the outcome.  

It's odd that such a successful show (or so it seems) keeps tinkering with its format year over year like this. 

[Rickster]

5 hours ago, SophiaD said:

I don't think it has, which is a shame.  IIRC, there also used to be a USA vs. The World or something like that, but I don't remember seeing it this year.  

 

LOL, yes, that's a great point.  I think I've just started tuning them out when they start yelling like that (which is pretty much all of the time).  This show has become something I have on in the background, rather than something I sit and watch.

One advantage of the shorter format is that we have far fewer of the backstories, which I appreciate.  OTOH, the last "ninja vs. ninja" race this time featured people I hadn't seen before, so it was hard to be invested in the outcome.  

It's odd that such a successful show (or so it seems) keeps tinkering with its format year over year like this. 

I think the USA vs. the World might have been pre COVID.

While I was a person who complained about too much backstory/sobstory in the past, I’m finding this season’s format disorienting and uninvolving. Just faceless people running the course. It’s exacerbated by the youth movement, where we have little or no history with the competitor. How do you know who to root for? There was almost a family sense about the Ninjas that seems to be disappearing.

 

 

 

[DEL901]

1 hour ago, Rickster said:

I think the USA vs. the World might have been pre COVID.

While I was a person who complained about too much backstory/sobstory in the past, I’m finding this season’s format disorienting and uninvolving. Just faceless people running the course. It’s exacerbated by the youth movement, where we have little or no history with the competitor. How do you know who to root for? There was almost a family sense about the Ninjas that seems to be disappearing.

 

 

 

And the kids are blank slates.  No personality.   And as much as I hate sob stories, they can’t even come up with something interesting about most of the kids because they have no life experience.   I want to see vets with a mix of new folks.  

I only watch it now because summers have slim pickings.  It isn’t Must See TV anymore. 

[SophiaD]

2 hours ago, Rickster said:

While I was a person who complained about too much backstory/sobstory in the past, I’m finding this season’s format disorienting and uninvolving. Just faceless people running the course. It’s exacerbated by the youth movement, where we have little or no history with the competitor. How do you know who to root for? There was almost a family sense about the Ninjas that seems to be disappearing.

Yes. there is a balance there and they definitely have gone too far the other way.  I got tired of the same-old, same-old backstories season after season, but now we don't even get to know anyone.  If I hadn't been a follower of American Gladiators back in the day, I wouldn't have cared which teenager made it through.  As it was, since we didn't see either of their runs before, it was hard to root for anyone.  

I do miss the pre-Covid format, especially the walk-ons.  I hope the show manages to return to what made it compelling in the first place, the combination of sheer athleticism and quirky characters.  I don't see getting attached to any of the younger folks anytime soon.  

[enoughcats]

1 hour ago, SophiaD said:

especially the walk-ons.

Yes.  Let me expand with what I miss: I miss the surprise of the self made ninjas, the ninjas who didn't have a course built for them, but who took what they found where they lived and worked with it until they had gotten strong enough to compete. Steffi Graff had her skill from being a pole vaulter, some others were rock climbers, and possibly my favorite two from their side stories:

Lance Pinkus who used his whole farm to train on.

And the Eskimo ninja who had Alaska to train on until invited to a warmer climate by another ninja to do it without cold fingers. (I don't remember his name, and it may be the one 'name for TV' that really worked to separate him from the others.)(I think it's telling that the young ones are labeled with their ages but it implies they don't have anything else to distinguish themselves.)

[mlp]

6 hours ago, Rickster said:

I’m finding this season’s format disorienting and uninvolving.

Sadly, this and comments above are true for me.  I used to be glued to my TV, tape it and watch it again, sometimes more than once.  I'm still watching but with a lot less enthusiasm until one of the "old timers" shows up.

[Rickster]

I wonder if these changes are financially driven. We're now down to one location instead of the traveling roadshow, less resources devoted to filming of background stories (although most of the teens don't have much of a backstory worth filming), and filming two seasons at once.

[Quilt Fairy]

I'm not engaged this season, either. 

[Ciarrai]

Thank god the obnoxious Towers of Power guy is done forever.