from Drew Deitch
| Updated
Danger! exists in a very unique place in the game show ecosphere. It’s one of the few remaining old school games from the ancient guard of the genre. And thanks to its specific setting and trivia-based tournaments, it was the one game show that best extolled the ideas of intelligence, education, and facts.
But in a cultural landscape where these same ideas are increasingly not celebrated (or even openly vilified), Danger! it had to change with the times and adapt to accommodate a larger audience. And the latest attempt to do so has jeopardized the very reputation of a show that increasingly seems less and less true to its intended spirit.
Pop Culture Danger!
Pop Culture Danger! is a new series that is being broadcast Amazon Prime Video, which acts as a spinoff of the classic Danger! format. But, really, the show is just the lowest denominator that takes trivia to the bar with Danger! skin draped over it. Hosted by Colin Jost, the series is clearly aimed at a much wider and younger audience than the average game show viewer.
And it’s here Pop Culture Danger! reveals the crack at its base. By limiting the scope of potential trivia to “pop culture,” the series comes to the realization that many current cultural moments don’t deserve to be interesting trivia. Watching contestants fail to answer questions about YouTube controversies and celebs on TikTok don’t make me feel bad for the contestants. It makes me wonder why anyone needs to know these things, let alone the viewing public Danger! both to develop their own knowledge while learning about useful topics.
Pop Culture Danger! demonstrates what the actual does Danger! such a fascinating series after all these years: viewers love the show’s advocacy of legitimate intelligence on a wide variety of topics. Bringing things down to “pop culture”, the format and presentation don’t seem to be in sync.
And that seems to be the direction the franchise wants to go, and it makes me want to stop watching Danger! show.
The end of an era
Look, I love movies. If there’s one subject I feel confident about when it comes to trivia, it’s movies. I wouldn’t want there to be Danger! At the cinema series. why because Danger! it’s not formatted and themed to be the ultimate movie game show. Instead, you should create a new game show around that as a key concept and build a game format that best enhances the idea of ​​a game show centered around movies.
The same goes for pop culture, but because Danger! is a trademark that people will recognize, as opposed to a new game show property, this new series should try to cram itself into an inappropriate Danger! a jacket. And I see Danger! continuing to produce spinoffs in this vein until something sticks.
There were other issues with the regular show over the years, but it still managed to stay true to the spirit of Danger!. This spinoff mindset feels like a dilution that will only continue as the regular show begins to seemingly lose cultural relevance.
I grew up with Danger! and I always tried to watch it when I could. But lately it’s starting to look like the end of a certain era of game shows. With Ryan Seacrest taking over Wheel of Fortune and Danger! is starting to mutate into new forms, maybe it’s better to find old episodes and remember the better years of one of my favorite game shows.
