Gladiators was touted as the next big thing when it started in 1991. People said it was going to be big and become more popular than other forms of entertainment such as wrestling. It is now 2002 and Gladiators is a distant memory.
Gladiators was a repetitive and monotonous show which had an intriguing concept but fell short in many areas.
Ulrika Johnson and ex-footballer John Fashanu presented as each week, four contestants (two males, two females) would pit their wits against the Gladiators (such as Wolf and Shadow) in a series of games which were designed to push the contestants to their physical limits. Points from the games would convert into seconds to be used in the final game where the competitors would race each other over a huge assault course in order to try and win a place in the Grand Final.
The series hardly changed-they did bring in different games at times but it was quite boring and repetitive. The Gladiators themselves were not exactly high on charisma (with the exception of a couple) which didn't help the show. You never felt the Gladiators were real people when you watched the show-they were more like robots. You could watch one episode of this but if you watched any others, they were all identical to the one you watched. A few more interviews with the Gladiators and different games each week would have been the answer.
Gladiators has been off the air for awhile and is dead and buried. It ran it's course and I feel that the show did a lot of things wrong and didn't do anything really memorable. Not one I would recommend.
