Easily one of the goofiest reality-type competitions ever produced, "Fame Games" has celebrities from previous seasons of "The Surreal Life" once again living together in a fabulous mansion. However, this time they're all there to compete in a series of events which will eliminate one of them a week until the winner is crowned at the end. Sounds like it should be fun, and granted, the amusing (and occasionally crude) shenanigans we expect when the celebrities interact still occur as when Tracy Bingham spends the night in Verne Troyer's bedroom. In fact, these two are funny enough to spin-off into a show of their own. "Stranger Love" maybe.
What defeats "Fame Games" is the game show portion which is badly designed and, at times, downright cruel. Example: the first challenge had the stars posing for pictures requested by fans. The two receiving the fewest requests would be declared the losers, and watching this play out, one just can't help but cringe along with the humiliated celebrities who weren't being asked to pose for as many pics as the other competitors.
Competition losers get consigned to the "B List": a section of the mansion where the food isn't as good, and the perks not as perky. This wasn't really so bad though as it gave some of them added incentive to compete that much harder.
The worst challenge of all was probably when the celebs were asked to phone as many famous friends as they knew to see how many would return their calls. After all the responses were received, an expert in pop culture came in to rank the celebrity status of the acquaintances who were nice enough to call back. This sent returning "Surreal Life" vet Vanilla Ice into another one of his infamous tirades, demanding all his friends be removed from the list as he didn't want them to suffer the indignity of being ranked.
Particularly strange was the expert brought in to judge: she of the dorky glasses, former MTV VJ Kennedy was deemed qualified to determine which of the celebrities who called could probably get a good table at a posh restaurant. As a judge, it appeared that Kennedy was as intimidated by Vanilla Ice's rant as she was suckered by the tears of "Poor me, I don't know many stars", Andrea Lowell. After a very questionable job of name ranking, competitor Chyna Doll was sent home with the Fame Gamers (and viewers) left shaking their heads over the absurdity of Kennedy's rulings.
Similarly strange, the decision of who would win the grand prize was left up to actress/comedian Kathy Griffin. While she may be well-known for her love of reality TV, choosing the winner based on completely subjective stuff like who, in Griffin's opinion, gave the better improvised acceptance speech and who was the better dancer, really felt like it negated the validity of the final outcome. And though it was nice to see Traci Bingham win, it seemed like a debatable choice next to her much craftier co-finalist, Ron Jeremy.
"Fames Games" wasn't a well-conceived show, and it certainly wasn't very concerned with the feelings of it's stars (after all, does C.C. Deville really need to learn that his name got the fewest hits on Google of anyone there?). If the producers are smart (and if this show is re-newed), they'll return to the traditional concept of The Surreal Life: a dysfunctional family of famous and quasi-famous people trying to co-exist for a couple weeks under the same roof. Now that's fun.
What defeats "Fame Games" is the game show portion which is badly designed and, at times, downright cruel. Example: the first challenge had the stars posing for pictures requested by fans. The two receiving the fewest requests would be declared the losers, and watching this play out, one just can't help but cringe along with the humiliated celebrities who weren't being asked to pose for as many pics as the other competitors.
Competition losers get consigned to the "B List": a section of the mansion where the food isn't as good, and the perks not as perky. This wasn't really so bad though as it gave some of them added incentive to compete that much harder.
The worst challenge of all was probably when the celebs were asked to phone as many famous friends as they knew to see how many would return their calls. After all the responses were received, an expert in pop culture came in to rank the celebrity status of the acquaintances who were nice enough to call back. This sent returning "Surreal Life" vet Vanilla Ice into another one of his infamous tirades, demanding all his friends be removed from the list as he didn't want them to suffer the indignity of being ranked.
Particularly strange was the expert brought in to judge: she of the dorky glasses, former MTV VJ Kennedy was deemed qualified to determine which of the celebrities who called could probably get a good table at a posh restaurant. As a judge, it appeared that Kennedy was as intimidated by Vanilla Ice's rant as she was suckered by the tears of "Poor me, I don't know many stars", Andrea Lowell. After a very questionable job of name ranking, competitor Chyna Doll was sent home with the Fame Gamers (and viewers) left shaking their heads over the absurdity of Kennedy's rulings.
Similarly strange, the decision of who would win the grand prize was left up to actress/comedian Kathy Griffin. While she may be well-known for her love of reality TV, choosing the winner based on completely subjective stuff like who, in Griffin's opinion, gave the better improvised acceptance speech and who was the better dancer, really felt like it negated the validity of the final outcome. And though it was nice to see Traci Bingham win, it seemed like a debatable choice next to her much craftier co-finalist, Ron Jeremy.
"Fames Games" wasn't a well-conceived show, and it certainly wasn't very concerned with the feelings of it's stars (after all, does C.C. Deville really need to learn that his name got the fewest hits on Google of anyone there?). If the producers are smart (and if this show is re-newed), they'll return to the traditional concept of The Surreal Life: a dysfunctional family of famous and quasi-famous people trying to co-exist for a couple weeks under the same roof. Now that's fun.