I enjoyed this comeback series! It brought me right back to my childhood. :wub:

 

Who is everyone's favourite Gladiator? I'd say Diamond or Fury out of the female Gladiators, and it really has to be Legend for the males who really stole the show with his persona. However for other reasons, I'd say Steel. :kink:

 

What about events? I feel like a couple of them didn't work as well as they could do... Gauntlet always seems a bit too easy for the contestants to complete due to the Gladiators having to RELEASE! after like two seconds. :kink: Although I think that event brought the most drama (though manipulated in some cases, I'm sure) which could be entertaining. I think The Wall perhaps gave the contestants a little bit too much of a headstart? I like The Edge and Collision, and of course Duel is a classic. *.*

 

Presenters - well, the show is supremely light entertainment, and to that end I didn't actually mind Bradley and Barney as a duo. I totally understand why people would find Barney to be wooden... but I think he worked as being "the sensible one" as a kind of foil to Bradley's silly jokes/puns.

I think next time they need to better plan how to utilise all of the gladiators throughout the series (particularly some of the female ones who seemed to only show up once in a blue moon... looking at you, Comet, where on earth were you all series? :lol:). I understand they'll all have events that they're more suited to or stronger at than others, but it felt like you'd only ever see certain gladiators appear in x event, or they certainly favoured some over others. I'd much rather they gave Viper a personality transplant for the next series too if he returns because the whole act got tiring after one episode, and even the show itself seemed to just let it fizzle out and ignore it by the end. Just let him be a normal gladiator that maybe does go in a bit aggressively at times but still has a human side when the events are over. :lol:

 

That said, my favourite female gladiators were definitely Fire, Fury and Sabre, and for the male gladiators I'll divide into two categories. :kink: In terms of actual personality and as gladiators throughout the series Nitro and Legend really dominated, but as for the 'other reasons' Bionic and Phantom were my favourites.

 

Agree with you Jay about Gauntlet always seeming like much too easy an event. I don't think there was a single person the whole series that didn't manage to make it through all four zones? I think that would benefit from - and be a lot more tense an event - if the gladiators were given longer to hold them in a lock before having to release. Duel, while a classic, was always underwhelming for me because not a single gladiator was knocked off all series either (I don't think?). The Edge and The Wall ended up being my favourite events overall.

 

Edit: I've just read that Comet sustained pretty serious injuries during Hang Tough so had to go on hiatus for the rest of the series, so that explains that.

Bionic was my fave for (what I'm assuming are the) other reasons. 🙊

 

 

Oh he was another fave of mine for the same reason :wub:

I think next time they need to better plan how to utilise all of the gladiators throughout the series (particularly some of the female ones who seemed to only show up once in a blue moon... looking at you, Comet, where on earth were you all series? :lol:). I understand they'll all have events that they're more suited to or stronger at than others, but it felt like you'd only ever see certain gladiators appear in x event, or they certainly favoured some over others. I'd much rather they gave Viper a personality transplant for the next series too if he returns because the whole act got tiring after one episode, and even the show itself seemed to just let it fizzle out and ignore it by the end. Just let him be a normal gladiator that maybe does go in a bit aggressively at times but still has a human side when the events are over. :lol:

 

That said, my favourite female gladiators were definitely Fire, Fury and Sabre, and for the male gladiators I'll divide into two categories. :kink: In terms of actual personality and as gladiators throughout the series Nitro and Legend really dominated, but as for the 'other reasons' Bionic and Phantom were my favourites.

 

Agree with you Jay about Gauntlet always seeming like much too easy an event. I don't think there was a single person the whole series that didn't manage to make it through all four zones? I think that would benefit from - and be a lot more tense an event - if the gladiators were given longer to hold them in a lock before having to release. Duel, while a classic, was always underwhelming for me because not a single gladiator was knocked off all series either (I don't think?). The Edge and The Wall ended up being my favourite events overall.

 

Edit: I've just read that Comet sustained pretty serious injuries during Hang Tough so had to go on hiatus for the rest of the series, so that explains that.

 

 

One of the female contestants knocked off a gladiator thinking it might have been sabre. Also two of the male contestants didnt complete gauntlet, one had an injury during it and one couldn't get past Bionic.

 

Favourite gladiators: Dynamite and Fury, Legend and Nitro.

 

Favourite events: Dual and The Wall. It would be nice to see some of the others return like Atlaspheres and Swingshot. 8 in total feels a little too few with 5 featured each episode. And I’m pretty sure Gauntlet always was fairly easy but they used to only get 5 points if they finished in the second fastest time which made it a bit more interesting. It was odd how they wouldn’t even let the gladiators hold the contestants when that seemed to be the only effective counter and surely is the most effective use of those pads!

 

All in all a really good return for this!

Assume I'm ok to post in here without spoilers?

 

Should Gauntlet just be renamed "Free 10 Points"? They've pretty much all breezed through it in both episodes, the only one not doing so being the one that sprained his leg (and that could have happened on any game...). I'm sure this one used to seem much harder, have they widened the gauntlet maybe?

 

Other than that, loving everything else about this!

Yeah, this was the case for the whole series. And it featured in most episodes too!

 

I'm pretty sure it's there to prevent the humiliation of ending with next to no points 😂

@1817628874207064297

The celebrity special is going to be on at 6pm on New Year’s Day.

New series starts 18th January.

So looking forwards to the new series, the Celeb one was cute enough and amusing in parts but I am looking forwards to seeing proper challengers again. They definitely went light on the female contestants (with fair reason!).

Really excited for this to be back!

 

I don't think I mentioned it on the forum before, but I went to see an episode of Gladitors being filmed, back in August! In fact, it was their first date of filming for Series 2. I assume it'll be the first episode shown unless they mix things up in the edit.

 

My inner child who loved Gladiators back in the 90s was super thrilled to be there, and it was interesting to see how it was filmed. We were there for about 9 hours in all (from midday - and that's not including the queuing time to secure tickets, which happened at 9am!). Despite the long day, it actually felt like it went by pretty quickly. There were quite lengthy gaps between events being filmed, but these gaps were filled up with some activities to keep the crowd engaged, for example a Q&A with a couple of the Gladiators.

 

Just like back in the 90s, it was super clear that Gladiators has cast a magic spell over kids - there were so many families with young children there. I was quite surprised/impressed with how well behaved they all were considering how long the day was, they were very enthralled!

 

I remember that Giant needed his own special reinforced ladder to climb up onto a podium for a particular event! :lol:

 

(I hope I don't see myself on screen though! :lol: We were in the second tier - not the side ones, but the back one. So if it was a music concert, it's the seating area where you'd be directly facing the stage).

 

 

I did enjoy the celebrity one. It did give me an extra appreciation for just how in shape the regular contestants have to be to do this show, because even Joel who by any measure is incredibly fit, was completely worn out during the Eliminator. Bless Louise for not being able to get over the first bars - atlhough quite frankly I doubt I'd be able to either and I'm 20 years younger than her :rofl:

I particularly admire Mark Clattenburg's approach of telling off the Gladiators like they're part of a rebellious school class.

Renewed for a third season!!!

Season 2 is going great. It's really hit its stride and I'm loving the personality of some of the new Glads (Legend, Sabre, Cyclone, Diamond...)

 

I thought the husband and wife would get favouritism too but nope!

 

Still think a female co-host would be better than Bradley's son though.

I think Unleash is a great new game. I can understand why the 'one step rule' is there but they might as well just replace it with a ramp.