A Lot About Nothing

Did any of you check out this revamped show this past Sunday and Monday night? I have to admit, I was anticipating it’s debut… mainly because I was a big fan of the original show back in the early 90s (Nitroooo!). Sunday and Monday’s debut episodes were 2 hours each (which I found a tad long), but the show sticks to it’s Monday timeslot at from 8-9pm beginning next week.

My thoughts? I thought it was okay. They did the original series justice (no pun intended) by keeping a lot of the original events in with a few modifications. Putting a pool of water below events like Joust and Hang Tough, instead of the pads was cool. Too bad I could never go on this show since I can’t swim. I found there was way too much talking though… too many interviews with the contestants (and it seemed there were a lot of commercial breaks)… I wanted to see more action. I liked the new event of Hit and Run… looked kind of fun. The Wall has always been one of my favs though.

The Eliminator seemed a bit long. What’s w/ the fire on water… seems a little dangerous (one of the first contestants hit her head on the fire emitting metal bar). Get rid of the hand-bike already… or at least put it near the beginning when the contestants have more energy. LOL… they all were so exhausted at the end. One female contestant literally just lied down and hung on to the top of the reverse escalator near the end of it, losing her huge lead. I didn’t like the barrel roll thing they had in it either.
Most of the Gladiators seem all right. From the men’s side I like Toa, and on the woman’s side I think Crush and Fury are cool. I wouldn’t want to be caught alone in a dark alley with Hellga though.

Check out a clip from the new series and the original:

Leave it to me to sleep in the one day that I take off from work in order to see some of the cast from one of my favourites shows.

I was aiming to be down at Yonge-Dundas Square, where the Toronto Heroes World Tour was taking place, by 11am… you know, so I could line up and possibly get a shot of getting an autograph.

As usual, I turned off my alarm clock when it beeped at 9am and went back to sleep. Next thing you know it’s 11:30. I decide to check my email just in case I get any important requests for my graphic design clients, and lo and behold I have 3 separate emails to make corrections. I managed to finish fairly quickly and got downtown a little after 1pm.

Of course by the time I got down there the autograph line-up was closed, but I did manage to see 4 of the cast members up close signing autographs for the fans who DID wake up on time this morning.  On the big screen behind the stage they were showing the unaired 73-minute premiere episode that’s currently available on the Season 1 DVD.

The good thing was that all four cast members came down to the gate and shook hands with all the fans (including myself) who were watching. Damn… Zachary Quinto (Sylar) has a really strong grip, and he has a nice sense of style. He might give Milo Ventimiglia a run for his money on my “hottest male Hero list”. Noah Gray-Cabey (Micah) is sooo adorable (don’t you just wanna pinch his cheeks in that photo?)! Dania Ramierez (Maya) is hot, and James Kyson Lee (Ando) is a cutie who seems to really care about his fans.

So, even though I didn’t get my Season 1 DVD set autographed, I did get some handshakes and got my photo taken at the Global TV-sponsored booth that will be digitally altered to look as if I’m part of the cast poster (I’ll post it when it becomes available next week. ) Click on any of the images at the top of this post to see a larger version.