Those who have seen Spike TV's Most Extreme Elimination Challenge know the show is ridiculous and amusing, but probably have no idea what the hell is going on. Amid Asian people competing in bizarre, almost always painful games with severe lack of safety, lays a Japanese cult classic, adding to the array of lowbrow shows available on Spike TV's programming menu.
MXC uses video from Takeshi's Castle, a late '80s Japanese game show. Contestants of the original show were eliminated until an army of survivors remained who would attempt to storm Takeshi's castle by competing in humiliating and unhinged games.
MXC uses the video to create an extremely unimportant plot line, where two teams compete against one another. The dubbed comedy throughout the show is based on the plot and is mildly funny at its best. The season five premiere features The Religious Right vs. Gay Rights.
The fifth season does not differ much from the previous four because, quite frankly, it cannot. The new season includes classic contests like Sinkers and Floaters, where contestants sprint across loosely arranged stone steps in a swamp-like body of water, while trying to avoid steps that are simply floating (think about that for a second). Somehow watching people fall down and get hurt is always funny, and like it's obnoxious cousin Jackass, MXC offers many of the same side-splitting, head-turning moments.
This show is entertaining partly because it took place in the late '80s, a time that has maintained a degree of hilarity and ridiculousness in its own right. Furthermore, as many times as some of the contestants bite it G
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James Rice
