There's a reason Greg Nicotero has always been BEHIND the camera. He does excellent work OFF SCREEN. I don't think Nicotero is geared, nor has the personality, to be an on-screen host. He's not good at it. Perhaps if he took his appearance more seriously that may have helped. A 60 year old balding, long-haired man means one of 2 things -- you are either unhoused/homeless/housing challenged (whatever), or have so much money that you don't care. This series suffers greatly form Nicotero doing EVERYTHING in a very narcissistic manner. It needed another person to tell Greg "that's not good for a competition show, it needs to change".
So, as expected, most of the special effects in this are pretty great - I mean that's what Nicotero is known for. Any work he's done behind the scenes as a producer/director for The Walking Dead I write off. That series, and all its spinoffs, haven't been good for a decade (its truly a zombie show).
As a "competition" show this is really lacking any drive to discover what's next. By episode 4 it's become more about the effects than the actual "game show". I don't really care, nor am I interested in, these "contestants". They either come across as just plain weird, or they are plants that can't act very well. Some of the phrasing the "contestants" use in the "interviews" just sound scripted... real people in real settings just don't use the same vocabulary on display here. The contestants seem disingenuous at every turn.
So, one could easily just skip this series. It's not vey engaging or compelling.
But if you want to see some decent special effects in a more "realistic" (or pseudo realistic) setting, they can be interesting. But none of the people on screen are really likable or engaging.
