watching catch 21 for the first time

[toetyper]

thanks  to  xfinity upgrades; my four year drought without GSN has been broken. i finally saw catch 21;  a few thoughts

ribieros good for THAT SHOW;  would  he be good on something else? Meh

the  question material stinks, octomom; bachelor. no   thanks

the front games solid but the  end game drags

[TLEberle]

the front games solid but the  end game drags

I found the inverse to be true.

[BrandonFG]

Have the contestants stopped shouting yet? The format is okay, but I find the show (as in the atmosphere) itself irritating as hell.

[TLEberle]

The format is okay,

I found that just about every instance when the show deviated from the Gambit formula, it was quantitatively and qualitatively worse.

It is fun to watch the episodes with Tim and Adam as contestants where they manage to win the day not through any sort of good fortune drawing cards but by dominating the quiz portion.

[clemon79]

ribieros good for THAT SHOW;  would  he be good on something else? Meh

The premise is based on pure fantasy, therefore, the question is unanswerable.

[dmota104]

the  question material stinks, octomom; bachelor. no   thanks

the front games solid but the  end game drags

Actually, I found the question-writing to be quite creative.  Even though I'm no fan of Octomom and dating reality shows, you can't ignore them when writing questions about current pop culture.  

As for the dragging end game, if at least two rounds ended in *quick* catches of 21s (player was spotted a face card and dealt an ace, for example), then, by default, they gotta fill time somehow.

From this corner, "Catch 21" was a fun way to spend a half hour.  Alfonso Ribeiro was a great host, Mikki Padilla was a lovely dealer, the production team knew what they were doing (Merrill Heatter and Scott Sternberg on down).  Had the GSN powers-that-be not meddled with the time slot, I'm confident C21 would still be in first run production.

[TLEberle]

Actually, I found the question-writing to be quite creative.  Even though I'm no fan of Octomom and dating reality shows, you can't ignore them when writing questions about current pop culture.  

There were several questions where the answer would be obvious before the choices were asked. The pop-culture-ness wasn't what was bad, it was that the questions weren't done all that well.

Alfonso Ribeiro was a great host,

I think anything higher praise than "passable" is generous.