I really liked the old, classic game show, Press Your Luck, but I've told the TiVo to stop recording its new, updated incarnation, Whammy! I tried to like the new version — really, I did — but it just doesn't hold even the limited amount of my attention it takes to enjoy a game show. My main problems have to do with how frenetic the whole thing is. The show is too loud and too fast for me to care about the players, and the strategy components of the game are lost amidst the high-tech shouting. In the old version, contestants were up against a constant decision: Do I take another spin and Press My Luck or do I pass? The game board was configured to put them in this position repeatedly with dire and ever-changing consequences. That part's buried somewhere in the new format but we don't get to know the contestants as well; ergo, we care less about how they decide what they decide, and I even find myself wondering if some of them even understand that there are strategies involved in playing this game of chance.
The new host, Todd Newton, is nowhere near as good as Peter Tomarken, though that may not be his fault. You get the feeling someone off-stage is constantly screaming at Newton, "Keep it moving, keep it moving!" I could also do without the animated Whammy dumping pizza dough or Silly String™ on the contestants' heads…but the thing I like the least is the new game board. The old one was designed to let you easily see the amounts and the contestants' faces as they played. The more stylish design of the new one fills your screen with dead area, making the important things smaller and harder to see. All of this conspires to yield a show that is loud and fast but strangely remote to me. And I'm sorry because, like I said, I really wanted to like this.