I eschew the majority of US "reality" shows as the strangely OTT hyper-edited version of events they portray is just too irritating to find enjoyable. This almost hilariously functional competitive tagging show is a rare exception - it took me back to the days of "Gladiators" and was quite refreshingly light on the fakeness. Over the weeks it genuinely became a bit of a serious pleasure to watch.
What you have here - is a tired and unimaginative producer going "WHAT IF WE JUST MAKE TAG A SHOW, THAT COULD WORK RIGHT?" and yeah, it basically does because beyond that core concept they don't do much else. With an in-house team of thirty-or-so "character" taggers and six competitors an episode, you have about five courses and they clearly all recorded over one or two days in a massive hanger somewhere. It's cheaply constructed and the character taggers intro videos, the costumes and the three hosts are all somewhat basic but quite endearingly so. A lot of the competitors are refreshingly "normal" and especially as a non-American it's nice to actually see some regular people. Like those just wanting to pay for surgery or, as in one episode, when asked what they'd spend the winnings on one bellowed "THEM BILLS". I know that makes it sound like the Hunger Games but frankly guys, that's what your country looks like from the outside.
The only actual real problem is that the whole format is skewed towards those who practice parkour - the majority of the in-house team are astonishingly talented at it (my personal favourites being the adorable The Flow & The Atomic Ant) and when a contestant shows up who can actually do it, they flatten the competition within seconds. Whenever a parkour person is put against a crossfit trainer or like, just a bodybuilder, you KNOW it isn't going to go well for them. So some weighting could be done there to even the odds. This points towards its barely-disguised origins as a purloined "underground parkour" format.
Whether it gets another outing is still on the cards - and whether or not I should have written such a long and detailed review about a what is only really a very bare-bones tagging-based competitive show I don't know. However it was so winningly straightforward that it is extremely hard to dislike. TAG ON SON, TAG ON.
What you have here - is a tired and unimaginative producer going "WHAT IF WE JUST MAKE TAG A SHOW, THAT COULD WORK RIGHT?" and yeah, it basically does because beyond that core concept they don't do much else. With an in-house team of thirty-or-so "character" taggers and six competitors an episode, you have about five courses and they clearly all recorded over one or two days in a massive hanger somewhere. It's cheaply constructed and the character taggers intro videos, the costumes and the three hosts are all somewhat basic but quite endearingly so. A lot of the competitors are refreshingly "normal" and especially as a non-American it's nice to actually see some regular people. Like those just wanting to pay for surgery or, as in one episode, when asked what they'd spend the winnings on one bellowed "THEM BILLS". I know that makes it sound like the Hunger Games but frankly guys, that's what your country looks like from the outside.
The only actual real problem is that the whole format is skewed towards those who practice parkour - the majority of the in-house team are astonishingly talented at it (my personal favourites being the adorable The Flow & The Atomic Ant) and when a contestant shows up who can actually do it, they flatten the competition within seconds. Whenever a parkour person is put against a crossfit trainer or like, just a bodybuilder, you KNOW it isn't going to go well for them. So some weighting could be done there to even the odds. This points towards its barely-disguised origins as a purloined "underground parkour" format.
Whether it gets another outing is still on the cards - and whether or not I should have written such a long and detailed review about a what is only really a very bare-bones tagging-based competitive show I don't know. However it was so winningly straightforward that it is extremely hard to dislike. TAG ON SON, TAG ON.