I loved Gladiators growing up in the UK, but this is my first experience of the Australian version. First impressions were it's aiming for something much bigger with the whole Greek gods opening. Aussies love turning their reality shows up to 11, but it just comes off as cheesy. The budget effects, costumes and limp catchphrases were laughable more than powerful. That continues into the show, sadly, with far more emphasis on the smack talking drama of the rivalries than the games themselves with the painfully slow first 20 mins barely having 60 seconds of action. Instead of doing what it was supposed to, the show wanted to deliver this rogue's gallery of grisly, wooden characters, stomping about and snarling at the camera.
Everything was just frustratingly and excruciatingly slow. Even the referee's "ARE YOU READY? 3... 2... 1" was so draaaawn oooouuut for, you know, DRAMA, and another opportunity to squeeze in more smack talk from the Gladi-haters. So slow, in fact that the very first game had the Gladiator barked at for a false start. Even He couldn't wait to get started, although I'm guessing it was fabricated for more DRAMA.
All this slow pace unnecessarily stuffed with snarling smack talk was made all the worse by the lack of an audience (!!). The lack of an audience desperately needed to lift the energy also meant there was no positive reenforcement for the contestants who were grossly outnumbered by the aggressive Glads continuing to hurl yet more smack talk behind the scenes as the games (FINALLY) began. With all the snarling rivalry from the Gladiators and even the snarling rivalry between the contestants, this just makes for a pretty ugly ride. I think it thinks it's fun, but there's nothing fun here. It's clearly trying to bring that MAFS/Love Island reality DRAMA to what should be a fun, lighthearted game show and it just makes for unpleasant viewing.
Cheesiness aside, all-in-all this is a joyless, drawn out ride, with far too much attention paid to wanting you to BOOOO at the villains that they forgot what is really important: FUN. It definitely had me BOOOING, and yawning, and reaching for the off button.