I have enjoyed this revival hosted by Wayne Brady for quite a long time. This show has had a lot of good qualities over the years, and it was a show I would look forward to every day. It had laughs, fun, and a whole bunch of prizes and funny zonks. But after 12 years, does this revival still stand strong?
To be honest, it's a little hard to say. Season 12 of LMAD has recently ended, and I was unfortunately a bit underwhelmed with this last season. Don't get me wrong, many of the same great games of the show were still there, but that's part of the problem: it creates a feeling of deja vu. Only 2 games were added to the show this season, and while that's better than nothing, it isn't enough to make the show feel brand new. As a result, I felt as if they played it safe this season, but at least they didn't try to fix what isn't broken.
Actually, it's probably a good thing they played it safe. After all, we are still in the middle of the pandemic right now, and I think the team did a great job to protect their contestants from Covid. The new format is designed quite well, with 12 contestants onstage socially distanced from each other, and 18 more contestants playing from the comfort of their homes.
Unfortunately, I noticed that when Wayne picks contestants, he mostly picks contestants onstage rather than the ones at home, and it feels a bit unbalanced as a result.
The flaws don't quite end there, however. One of the problems with this show is that when Wayne offers money to stop playing certain games, he can go a bit too far so that the contestant takes the money but misses out on a truly amazing prize, usually a car or a vacation. A good example of this is when a woman played 0 to 80, a game where you must pick up tokens and reach 80 miles per hour in 4 picks or less. After her second pick, she was already at 60 miles per hour, but Wayne offered $1,000 not to continue. Then $2,000. Then $3,000. She agreed to take the $3,000 before her third pick, which would have won her the car. It sometimes feels like Wayne doesn't want to give out these prizes at all, and while this has always been a problem with the show, it only feels more frustrating now.
Still, as previously mentioned, this show has a lot of great qualities. Oftentimes, Wayne will reward a person $100 or so if they get zonked but show an impressive talent or if it's a friends birthday. Speaking of zonks, the show boasts a great variety of zonks, which are funny but worthless prizes. A lot of these zonks are very clever, such as a pot of mold(as opposed to a pot of gold) or a jelly bean purse.
Meanwhile, many of the games are good fun to watch, though it can be a bit tiring to watch the same game 100 times or so. Though most of them are luck based, some involve a bit of trivia or even drawing something as accurately as possible within 15 seconds.
All in all, Let's Make a Deal has had an impressive run over the years, and this revival has been quite enjoyable for some time. However, it could definitely use some improvements, such as adding a few new games. I also agree with the discrimination comments somewhat, as Wayne can sometimes be a bit picky with the contestants. In the end though, this is still a rock solid show, even if I did find season 12 to be a bit underwhelming, though it certainly isn't worse than previous seasons.
