The Gladiators Thread

[Benji]

Weirdly hyped for the return of Gladiators tonight.

[Colly]

I'm semi fuming I'll be in Newcastle for the match.

[Bobfoc]

I consider that a decent start. While the scale was a little smaller than the original series, owing to the difference in arena sizes, they made good use of the space and managed to have a good go at emulating the feel of the show.

I'm glad they didn't do what Sky did and make all the Gladiators heels. The old series was mostly good natured and friendly, which is what they're clearly trying to do here as well. All the events were fun to watch, and I'm looking forward to seeing Power Ball return next week, if the preview is accurate.

If I'm going to nitpick, it would have been nice to see the old Eliminator theme tune come back. It's also clear that this is a first series because the crowd doesn't really know the Gladiators' personalities yet, but that's something that should sort itself out if the show gets to keep going long enough.

[TheGrandAvatar]

Was a lot of nostalgic fun watching Gladiators. Did not intend to watch it. Just glad I did. A very fun time. Bradley Walsh and his son are fun hosts and it was pretty easy to get into and hyped for once the game's started. 

The Gladiators helped a lot by having heel and face alignments. Much like wrestling. Which is probably why I'm enjoying the show so much.

Even pulled my own knee getting up off the couch after it. 

[Colly]

Big fan of the fact that on 90s Gladiators Powerball was basically just rugby tackles, but the current generation have grown up with WWE and UFC so it's Ron Simmons spinebusters and Rock Bottoms all round.

[Bobfoc]

I know it's an event from the original series, but Gauntlet has never done much for me. There evidently isn't much the Gladiators can do when they're standing still to stop a contender running at full speed, especially with the little arm pads. It's not really a great way for them to demonstrate their skills.

[Chris2K]

God I love that Gladiators is back, and has been kept as similar to the original as possible. There's obviously going to be some modernisation such as slow-motion being thrown in whenever possible, but the concept will never not be intoxicating for me and I will watch every second of it.

Most of the Gladiators seem to be pretty good as personalities, I like what they're doing with Viper (although it does perhaps tread on the line of the silent Asian villain stereotype) and Legend has the arrogant fool gimmick down. It might have perhaps been an idea to have one of the female Gladiators be the designated bad Gladiator this time, but ah well. There's not much to differentiate them other than Dynamite being tiny and Diamond being tall and blonde.

Nitro is a fountain of charisma and incredibly athletic, if anyone is going to break out of this into other gigs then I hope it's him. I find it funny that they have Giant marked out as this huge man, when there are three other male Gladiators only an inch shorter than him.

Powerball remains my favourite event and this week's round was as good as any from the old shows. I agree with Gauntlet, which has always been a weird event in that it doesn't really display any athleticism and usually ends up being stopped for one reason or another.

That said, I am naturally a negative person, so here are my gripes as someone who has spent a lot of the last year watching old episodes on YouTube (literally every episode that aired in the UK is on there):

- The music. I'm so glad they kept the original theme, but it also needs the epic Duel, Hang Tough and Eliminator music.
- Speaking of Duel, I don't like that the Gladiator is on screen left, instead of screen right.
- The arena seems really small compared to the National Indoor Arena and it's really noticeable that events like Hang Tough, Powerball and Gauntlet have had their playing areas heavily reduced. The Eliminator also doesn't look as daunting in this setting.
- The new games are hit and miss, I think they all have potential that a few tweaks could fix. The Ring for example is pretty good, but by letting the contenders just get straight back up instead of having to go back to the outside once grounded makes it too easy. I can't believe Collision passes health and safety protocols with Gladiators swinging directly into the contender, especially considering the event is exactly the same as Hit & Run and they could have used the balls they did previously.
- The Walshes. One I could stand, both is hard to stomach. It's crazy to me that they don't have a female host, with the 90s show being far more gender and ethnically diverse in its presenters than a show in 2024.
- Mark Clattenberg is fine as referee, probably better than he was as a football one. And when this series is finished I'm sure he can go over to Saudi Arabia to improve the levels of Gladiators refereeing in the region.
- The contenders seem VERY aware that they're on a TV show and seem to be doing anything they can to maximise their camera time, such as doing the worm after every event or doing selfie poses in the background of a shot. This is a show where the members of the public are very much from the post-X Factor/Apprentice/Love Island era of television compared to the past, where the contenders just seemed happy to be out of the house.

Anyway, long story short, just hook it to my veins.

[Colly]

Agree with a lot of your points, but I remember lots of contenders trying to be characters at the time and looking a bit silly. Can't say I've noticed the reduced sizes either, if there's room for an Eliminator there's clearly room for a 5 Gladiator Gauntlet so it's clearly a decision made somewhere.

Giant actually isn't even the tallest Gladiator (and as you say there's a few similar) so it does feel a lazy name. And I'm convinced Clattenburgs timekeeping is off, he seemed to start the Gladiators late on the wall and his Eliminator time splits are terrible.

[Chris2K]

They even run Gauntlet lengthwise down the arena, which is longer than it is wide, so there seems like there would be enough room for 5 Gladiators. The only thing I can think is that they want more room for a run-off area as they're running directly towards the crowd.  

I had noticed during all the Duels that the first shot seemed to land before the whistle started, so either Clattenburg's time is off or there's some kind of delay between the audio and the recording.

I also like that every media outlet is just pretending that the Sky reboot never happened. 

[Cymbols]

I kinda think the Sky reboot gets slated more than it should. Like compared to the original run it possibly wasn’t as good. But in isolation, I actually really liked it and thought it was entertaining. Also it gave us Mason Ryan.

[Bobfoc]

28 minutes ago, Cymbols said:

Also it gave us Mason Ryan.

And Nick Aldis.

[Chris2K]

But the water... why did they need to use water... Aldis did play his role perfectly though, and I did enjoy when the old Gladiators came back to challenge the new ones. Can't see that happening this time around seeing as most of them are in their 60s (and Wolf is 71).

Worrying times ahead for the Gladiators themselves, as the BBC have a poll up for people to vote for their favourite Gladiator. They did a magazine poll during the first series in 1992, and the three Gladiators with the lowest number of votes (Flame, Phoenix and Hawk) got kicked off the show. They wouldn't do that again, surely...

[Colly]

I'm voting Apollo because he looks like a massive Ed Miliband.

[FLiam]

Have they brought SkyTrack back yet? Haven’t watched the second episode but I loved that event.

One observation I had from the first episode was how many people in the audience looked tired and bored when the presenters were talking, which made me think that it must take hours upon hours to film with all the apparatus etc that have to be moved. Pretty sure I saw on kid asleep against their Mum’s shoulder. 

[Bobfoc]

The original series used to take hours to film, so that's probably an accurate observation. Someone I went to school with went to a Gladiators taping in the 90s and said that spectators were advised to bring books and suchlike along with them to keep them occupied during all the downtime.

As for Skytrak, it hasn't been on yet. I remember thinking it was like watching a slow, upside-down Slalextric set, but in a much better way than that sounds.

[Chris2K]

I'm surprised Atlaspheres hasn't been featured because that's about as iconic a Gladiators event as there is, along with maybe Duel, and I have to assume that is based on the arena size.

From what I've read the events we've seen are the whole lot (Duel, Hang Tough, The Wall, Powerball, Gauntlet, The Ring, The Edge, Collision and the Eliminator), so Skytrak won't be in this series.

 

Here's the YT channel with all the old episodes by the way: https://www.youtube.com/@tewolde103/playlists

[Colly]

I suppose the Edge replaces Skytrak in terms of scary heights. I do miss Atlaspheres though.

[Benji]

I'm definitely developing a crush on Diamond and Dynamite on Gladiators. It's Jet and Lightning all over again 😭

[Baddar]

Love the Gladiators reboot. Don't like Brad and Barney though, I have to say. This would've been perfect for Marvin and Rochelle to present I think.

[Benji]

Ulrika or bust.