Last night saw the return of the Channel 5 tech geek show and for those that had watched the show since its beginning in 2004, things would have appeared a great deal different. And I am not on about the HD that had finally bought a technology programme into its own realm at last.
Gone was the sophisticated Mr Jon Bentley, the ever so properly spoken elder presenter who knew his stuff and bought the gravitas quite often needed, despite his younger presenters frequently mocking him.
Gone was the screamer, Ortis Deley. The somewhat haphazard presenter, who had bought fun to the show, mostly at his expense.
Gone, and most significantly, the one and only Suzi Perry. Often referred to as the first lady of gadge, and now cast aside, because? Who knows, maybe the travesty of modern television, because there was a younger model on offer?
So what remained of the show that devoted fans loved? Well first and foremost, Jason Bradbury, the shiny topped individual with occasional cap. The guaranteed driving force of the show, and whether you liked his hyper-antics or not, a required staple of the show, and if he had gone, there perhaps really would be no hope for the series.
And also, we had the newest recruit to the series, Pollyanna Woodward, the glamour to Jasons, non-glamour. The younger substitute for Suzi, but lacking somewhat in the personality department, and certainly in the knowledge of the subject.
So to the show, what of it? Despite such dramatic changes, it wasn't as bad as had been feared. Still the basic principles of the show were there, a bit of random testing, a bit of destruction testing, and a challenge. The latter perhaps being the bane of the recent series, where the challenge of the week had started to overshadow the whole show.
The first of the so-called world tour started worryingly in the tech planet that is Japan, and gave me more of a concern that the show was firing its whole load in the first week. After all, how do you go up from the creators of nearly everything tech?
The format itself therefore was pretty much the same as it had always been, although they were trying to dress it up as a world tour. Unfortunately there was some glaring issues, the talking heads parts the most significant. Where our presenters would talk to the camera in a mock-interview way about their experience. These felt like a totally inadequate replacement for the studio bound scenes of old and just didn't work.
Likewise the rapport between our two presenters wasn't there. Whether it be fake or not, the dynamic interplay between Jason and Suzi had frequently made the show and this was glaring by it absence. Even Jason, the hyper-active monster felt somewhat dormant, where before he would be that energetic as to pop out of the screen at you, this just felt very clinical.
The very beginning also set the scene for what Polly was in the show for, rather that the previously mentioned knowledge. Dressing her up as a Manga character in the first section of the series demeaned any hope for her importance, and seeing her knickers before five minutes had passed may well have proved enlightening for some, but simply proved what she was there for.
Summing up though, it was watch-able, like it has always been. However sadly it was a long way from an improvement and no prospect for the future. The new format simply won't stand the test of time, as it would never be current, like they were able to make the studio scenes. The reduction to two presenters also will not work, where as before with three to the latter five, you could get away with those presenters you hated, because the next piece would be with someone else, if you hate these two, or are indifferent to them, you are stuck in a hard place.
The only way I can see the Gadget Show returning at all after this series, is to return quickly to the old format, with perhaps a little less of the challenges. Personally though, I fear that Channel 5 have set the death-knell for the series, and this will be a crying shame.
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