Let me be frank...i dont like fear factor. period. I used to watch it some time ago in AXN..but then it slowly became so disgusting to me...it heads my list of never-watchers.
So what do I have against the show? everything! ok...let me just chill for a sec..and try to write this without getting too passionate :) Hold my breathe for a sec....there! I feel better now, so here goes:
For openers, I think this is not a reality show at all, its just a game show and a very crude one at that. Everything looks artificial and rigged..lets start with the settings. How can this appeal as a reality show with all the giant props, full safety equips and all those hi-tech paraphernalia? If its reality it should be more realistic, instead of having fantastic settings and stuff. They could have done better to create themes around maybe jungle obstacle circuits, slippery waterfall themes, underground dungeons and caves..it would look scary and genuine..
And the contestants? I mean 'normal' contestants in a reality show would be 'normal' looking people - semi-athletic, average guys and girls in all sizes and shapes (and ages), short, lanky, fat, skeletonised, potbellied...THEY are the real folks..but here, it just isnt so..all the guys and all the ladies just look soo out of the prop box - athletic, trim, sexy...im not buying it that they are normal folks participating in a reality show. Maybe its true, the show might be interviewing and taking more athletic and model kinda people. But then, that will not appeal in a reality show. Its called reality because people can relate to it..i look at the models there and say, if they are normal, what the hell am i!:)
Dont get me wrong here..im not saying that just because they are these athletic, model kinda people, I hate it..i just said that casting such folks in a reality show makes it lose the appeal..i would rather see an obese middle aged lady trying to scramble over a 5 foot wall rather than see a muscular tall hunk jump over a 12 foot wall in a reality series. And some of the contestants overact, which makes me doubt their authenticity.
So thats it..i vote out the settings and the contestants.
Next we move to the stunts - The stunts are things that would have been scary IF there were no strings attached (pun intended:). You see a narrow wooden beam perched across two 80 foot tall podiums and each contestant has to ride a cycle from one podium to the other..people fall..just to have the strings attached pull them back to safety. Thats scary? lol..i dont know to laugh or get insulted. Takishi's castle looks scarier to me.
I mean, why have them climb 80 feet and do some stupid stunt when we all know the risk is zero..thats not scary..They pull this girl up on a stand so high and ask her to collect flags..and she starts yelling that shes so scared and all..and joe rogan explains that she has a phobia for heights and thats why for her its too scary than we think..well, I call that insulting someones intelligence.i mean she knows, she cant get hurt..with safety strings attached, any level-headed person will not be crying that bad..one of the reasons why I dont completely believe the cast.
Then theres this whole thing with the eating contests.. I dont know which sicko thought up that idea in the first place. He should be really given some serious medical aid. So what do the contestants have to eat? I remember the first time I saw someone eat a cockroach or earthworm live, I felt disgusted..how much more would they go, I thought...the coming weeks saw raw eating of pig rectum,brain, cow testicles, bulls eyeballs, sausages with live leaches, and more insect species than I can count and to top it all - glasses of cow's intestinal juices to wash it down. phew..i made it through all those sentences without puking.
It is just so sick! And they keep telling its for the sake of confronting and overcoming your worst fears..now, I got a serious problem with spiders..i cant stand them..if I were to be made sit steady with a spider scrambling all over my face I would just die..i can understand that stunt as a way of confronting and overcoming my fear..but I dont appreciate eating the poor spider alive as a means of overcoming my fear.
i can almost imagine one of the contestants getting interviewed in a TV show..she would say ' Mah wuust feer was cyockhrowches...yoww, I cudnt styan 'em! Buh afteh pyaticipaytin in FF, wheneveh ah see a roach in muh toilet, I chayse it dyown an' yeat it 'live. FF 'as hyelped me chonqhuer mah feers!''
I almost feel sorry for all the bugs getting eaten live. The only joy is seeing how stupid the losers look after realizing they just ate a dozen leeches live for nothing! Serves them right! As for the ones who won..well I hope they get nightmares for the rest of their lives, being forced to eat bugs alive!
While I thought this was the max they could go, the sick weirdo who thinks up these stupid stunts just realised theres one more fear that needs to be taken care of: Nudophobia - so they cook up this stunt where u have to stand in ur birthday suits in front of the camera for the whole wide world to appreciate you overcoming that fear as well. dumb, dumber dumbest!
What will they contrive next? Maybe they will decide to overcome the fear of sexual intercourse in the open and have the contestants mating before the camera..u never know!!
Sorry I got a bit carried away, I almost wanted to erase that last paragraph I wrote..but I guess this review is about what ''I'' feel about the whole show..and what I wrote just reflects that..so I leave it there.
Coming to some brighter aspects..the show sometimes has some genuine items, alright, like the bull ride they once showed and a couple of others..but by the time I last watched it, it had become so disgusting that I dont follow it any more.
Im sure many people watch it, just to see to what levels folks will go to get some prize money..well..and from business point of view for FF, the more weird tricks they have, the more people will watch it for the same above reason. And for FF thats good. To be frank..if they remove the grossy stuff like the sick eating and all, the viewership is sure to fall. thats why I feel its better they revamp the whole project leave the stunts, make it a full time eating and puking contest and rename it to something more suitable like the 'Sicko Factor - show the world how sick u are'
Truck jumping, walking through narrow ridges in incredible heights..with all the safety measures,it doesnt appeal all that much..make the stunts smaller and a bit realistic..get them do some obstacle courses through barbed wires and stuff and get cut or bruised or get them handle some scorpions or such small poisonous creatures and get stung..or maybe fetch something from between a mesh of wires that deliver a mild electric shock, if handled incorrectly..even that can be interesting...but it needs to be real..add a pinch of pain and danger..it would look better.
After all, if these dumbos can stand there stark naked or eat such disgusting stuff for the sake of the money, then they might as well break a finger or spill some blood for it.
And for heavens sake, leave the bugs alone.
