Million Dollar Money Drop

Hint: watch it on YouTube where you can stream at 1.25 speed. Otherwise it's an excruciatingly dragged out show about trivia: Which famous logo first appeared on the market; what sports team was most popular the year before... Prime showed me this series after I watched The 1% Club. I'm not a gameshow person but I'm old enough to remember when the few channels on television - before Cable - always had things like Jeapordy and Wheel of fortune. Since then, I've checked out only a few episodes of things like Deal or No Deal, Who Wants to be a Millionaire or such. There's so much more to choose from in this century -- you're not stuck with The Weakest Link being the only channel that comes in. But if you like those shows, Money Drop will probably be enjoyable for you.

I found it entertaining enough to watch several episodes after going on YT Premium where I sped it up and could more easily ff through the long repetative moments of the couples yelling "drop" or harassing each other about which drop to choose. You definitly get the feeling that at least one mate between any given couple is seeing their partner in a way that's never been exposed before and wonder if their relationship can survive whatever demanding screams to place it here, not there, caused them to watch hundreds of thousands get sucked out of sight as it dropped into the black hole.

I liked the challenge of the trivia questions and I thought the idea of the money being sucked down into a black hole was intriguing. But the presentation wasn't that great. I'm not familiar with the host as an actor, really, but there was no added value from him. By E6, he starts chidding the couple about how excited they are, like it's weird, in a failed attempt to insert humor, perhaps. The wait to see which money perch actually drops is so long that by then you've changed your attention to some noise in the kitchen or checking you're email - and even if you're watching, the money drop is shown just for milliseconds and you're not really sure which one dropped until the camera finally pans up. It's just very frustrating and is designed to make the audience feel out of control, perhaps.

Like another reviewer mentioned, there should have been more than one couple per episode - the couple's get extremely hard to watch and predictable; most of the women act like they were doing lines right before they came on stage while the men focus on one aspect of a question and think they have the answer. I mean honestly, I can only imagine the adrenaline pumping through these couples as they envision themselves taking home the money and feel as if they're losing their personal savings. So there is a level of interest but I can see why this show didn't continue.

It's interesting that the producers didn't take notes from any other successful show like audience participation or lifelines, or asking simple things like is your family in the audience and then pointing out aunt Mary and uncle Ted. That could have added to the excitement and removed a lot of the redundancy and waiting. Also I think the host should have had something more colorful on, he was in all black each time and looked like a floating head. But I appreciated him more than the hosts such as on shows like Is It Cake who try too hard and end up being grating.