Making “reality” feel like a crappy movie.
I like MMA. I like Muy Thai. I love the UFC/Spike series “Ultimate Fighter”. So you’d think I’d like the new version of “The Contender,” (called “The Contender Asia”) which features Muy Thai fighters instead of traditional boxers like the original, horrible Sylvester Stallone produced and hosted version of the show did. VS network started re-running the ‘08 series last night, and since I hadn’t seen it in its original airing, I checked it out.
The good news is that Sylvester Stallone is not on the show. The bad news is that the show sucks anyway. I’ll admit that I was watched the first 40 minutes of the show while I was on my laptop, so I wasn’t really paying very close attention. But when the fight began I put down the computer to watch. And while Muy Thai can be a great style of fighting to watch, it flat blows when they have fucking MUSIC behind the fight. This is supposed to be a Muy Thai match. A fight. A real fight. And they run a hideous action movie-style music bed through the whole fight scene, which makes the entire thing feel fake, edited, and stupid.
Once you know that, it’s pointless to review any other part of the show, because it’s pointless to watch it. It’s not even worth grabbing a photo to put in this post. Spend your time clipping your toe nails or licking frogs instead. 1 out of 5 bones, and they only get the 1 because it’s Muy Thai instead of boxing, and there’s no Sly Stallone bolloxing things up.
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Comments 3
I guarantee that you watch it next week. You know why? Because John Wayne Parr is hot and you want to see who fights next.
Posted 02 Aug 2008 at 10:53 pm ¶I believe the show is called “The Contender: Muay Thai”
While I agree with you about the horrid music, I think they put it there to counteract the drab, un-charismatic personalities in the ring…except for that French dude, who is very animated, but stinks at fighting.
If you can get past the post production “drama” that they add through the magic of editing, the show is actually great. The training and the fights are well worth it.
Posted 15 Aug 2008 at 3:44 pm ¶I’d be lying if I didn’t have some real doubts about it, but I will give it another shot.
Frankly though, I’m just not sure I CAN get past the fake drama. And if the fights are good, then they shouldn’t need to be counter-acted, n’est pas?
As an aside, just caught the replay of Smith/Lawler II and was sadly disappointed in Smith’s performance. Though his frank admission of his stupidity made me like him more.
Posted 15 Aug 2008 at 3:56 pm ¶Post a Comment