PILOT REVIEW: Take It All

TAKE IT ALL

Hosted by Howie Mandel
Directed by Michael Dimich

Take it All is a new game show that's a high cash rewards spin on the classic Christmas game White Elephant (or Yankee Swap, Thief of the Presents, etc). Five contestants start the game and then play with traditional White Elephant rules only they can't be the one who ends up with the prize with the lowest cash value. When it gets down to two people, they must decide whether they want to keep what they have or risk taking it all but if both pick take it all, no one gets anything.

THE GOOD: Here's what drives me crazy about games like this and myself. There's so much I hate about it (and I'll get into that momentarily) yet I get completely sucked into it. I spent most of the episode hating the show only to find myself interested in finding out what happened next and who won. That's something shows like this do really well and this is no exception. It really does a good job of making each round interesting and then the final moment where you have to see people's true colors is actually quite interesting.

THE BAD: Everything I hate about most current game shows is present here. First of all, it's way overproduced. No more in prime time do we have simple games like Wheel of Fortune or Jeopardy. Instead, everything is SO high stakes. Howie Mandel treats the reveals of the cost of a prize like he's announcing the winner of American Idol. He also said with a serious face that this was "bigger, crazier television than you've ever seen before." Really? The contestants were super annoying too. Either they found people who just had that way about them or they were highly coached and I think it's more of the latter especially with personal sob stories like they were on Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. Perhaps most annoying of all was the crowd reactions as some faces looked like someone had just killed somebody rather than stolen a present.

BOTTOM LINE: Despite all my anger towards shows like this, I still get sucked into them and I still wanted to see who won. I won't spoil the ending but it was very interesting to see the way it was played and not what I expected. I probably shouldn't even turn this show on again because then I'll get sucked in again and be mad at myself after for letting that happen.