Quarantine Control #35: The Chase Is On

These opening paragraphs about how Covid-19 is continuing to wreak havoc on humanity, especially the United States, have gone beyond being a broken record. But it has to be noted just how badly the human race is screwing this thing up. The death count in the US is climbing at a disheartening rate, and while it’s being handled with some sense in other countries, there are people within them that sure wish they weren’t. The strategy in the so-called richest country in the world is to simply wait until a vaccine is available for most of the public, regardless of how long that takes. Until then? You’re on your own, suckers. It’s tough to take a breather and absorb entertainment, but it’s necessary to keep sane.

 

Joseph Daniels

As of late, I’ve been in more of a game show mood.  I’ve finally talked about the ill-fated You Don’t Know Jack game show, something I’ve wanted to bring up for years, and between last week’s discussion about the three greatest Jeopardy! players and who would make the best host and this week’s mention in yesterday’s article about the British game show The Chase, it’s probably about time that I briefly talk about another bit of recent news related to everything I’ve been posting recently.

There’s an American revival of The Chase coming to ABC (yep, the same network that showed You Don’t Know Jack), and instead of British quiz master Mark “Beast” Labbett – I guess it would be too much to ask him to come back when he still appears on the original British version and started appearing in The Chase Australia after the first American version ended – the revival is going to feature the three greatest Jeopardy! players of all time as chasers.  Brad Rutter has had experience as a chaser before, having filmed a failed American pilot version for FOX before that network passed on the show, and James Holzhauer has had experience as a contestant before, having appeared on the American version when it was eventually picked up by GSN.  The only one who hasn’t had an opportunity to give any aspect of The Chase a spin is Ken Jennings, who may be a bit too nice to be a chaser, but it remains to be seen what tone the new version will take.  Brad, similarly, might be a bit too nice to be a chaser, but we shall see.  The only one who I feel would step into the role and flourish is the one which just last week, I figured would be least likely of the three to work as a Jeopardy! host.  James’s poker brat persona is perfectly crafted for the role of chaser, and I think he could spit barbs just as fierce as anything Mark Labbett ever said.

In Quarantine Control #8, I talked about the original British version of The Chase.  In anticipation of:

The Chase (2021)
Source: ABC
Episodes 9 (so far)

I’d like to briefly mention:

The Chase (2013)
Source: Netflix
Episodes: 51 (according to Wikipedia; 17 available on Netflix in Canada and the United States)

Unfortunately, the James Holzhauer episode aired during season three, so it’s not available, but enough of the series is to give everyone in North America a taste of what the show is all about in advance of next month’s revival.  The GSN version, currently partially available on Netflix for users in Canada and the United States, differed from the British version in that it only featured one chaser, the aforementioned Beast, and only featured three contestants per episode.  The British version also moves along at a much faster pace than the American version did, although that could’ve been by design.  The British version needs to rush four contestants through each episode so they don’t have time to make the home audience feel the tension of each moment, but the American version seems to have taken the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? route by making every moment tense and pausing the action during key questions to keep viewers on the edge of their seats.

By the way, Millionaire also aired on ABC.  I’m beginning to notice a trend here.

Unlike the British version, North American audiences should get more correct, since there’ll be less European geography and history being asked, and no Fanny Chmelar questions at all.

When you’re finished watching what Netflix currently has, you won’t have to wait long for more episodes.  The revival premieres Thursday January 7, 2021.

 

Geoffrey Barnes

Hey, remember when I said I was unenthused about pursuing further Disney remakes after watching or suffering through) Dumbo last week? Turns out, I lied.

Aladdin (2019)
Format: Disney+
Episodes: One movie (with — guess what — a sequel on the way)

The lackluster Dumbo remake left my expectations low for other Disney remakes, but part of me still wanted to check out the Aladdin remake. This section is proof enough that the other part lost the valiant battle. While it has its stumbles, I finished the movie actually glad that I went back on my word.

The live-action Aladdin remake is remarkably and unsurprisingly similar to the original 1992 animated film, starring Aladdin, a so-called “street rat,” and his pet monkey Abu eventually meeting Princess Jasmine and the Genie through an adventure he’s initially forced to go on. It even includes all the same songs, with a few new ones along the way. But the combination of retaining much of the charm the original contained and some superlative acting, largely good casting, and great direction makes this one of the more enjoyable remakes Disney has released.

It’s tough not to be mesmerized at how beautiful its visuals are throughout its runtime. Disney pumped in as large a budget as they could to recreate Agrabah as one of the most beautiful fantastical middle eastern lands around, and did a fantastic job. There are, to be fair, visuals that didn’t make the cut due to being too difficult to recreate in live-action, most evident during the A Whole New World musical sequence where the magic carpet doesn’t travel nearly as far out into the, well, “whole new world” compared to the animated version. There are sacrifices, but they’re nowhere near enough to discount the level of visual splendor on display.

The acting chops of everyone involved are good, despite the characters and the way in which they interpret them not being beat-for-beat identical to the original. Even though it was done to prevent Disney from receiving a deserved level of righteous backlash, it’s appreciable how they casted actors who matched, or almost matched, the actual ethnic backgrounds of the characters instead going with the tired solution of white people and filters. Someone like Mena Massoud, who plays the titular Aladdin, shows how it’s always possible to find an actor who’s at least close to the nationality they need to represent. We’re dealing with an audience that gives a damn about casting these days, and even though it’s not perfect, the hitches are minor.

One of the biggest fears before the movie released was whether Will Smith could match the late Robin Williams’ performance as the Genie, something I never read thoughts about after the movie released. Fortunately, he’s great, far better than he came off in the trailers and stills. There wasn’t a single time when I wished for Williams’ Genie to reappear on the screen. Don’t get me wrong here: I still think Williams’ iteration presented a charming performance that was tough for other voice actors in subsequent animated Aladdin works to match, but Will Smith does a great job crafting his own unique performance. Not that I ever personally doubted him, of course, given his prior performances that several skeptics obviously never watched.

Naomi Scott’s performance as Jasmine is also good, even though it’s clear part of the reason why she was cast was due to her looking middle eastern enough. She is, to be fair, nonetheless a minority. The only casting choice that sticks out in a bad way is Jaffar’s, in which Marwan Kenzari’s performance doesn’t come close to matching Jonathan Freeman’s vocal performance. I understand why the role was interpreted in a different way, since the animated Jaffar both looked and sounded obviously evil from the start despite being one of the Sultan’s trusted advisers. But it makes for a forgettable performance, the most egregious sin of all. While Alan Tudyk’s performance as Iago is good, character’s role is greatly and sadly scaled back, like other talking animals in live-action Disney remakes.

I still prefer the animated version of Aladdin thanks to its charms and overall appeal that are impossible to replicate in live-action form, the overall problem for Disney remakes. But I was surprised I enjoyed the movie as much as I did, and it’s close to the best they could have done with a remake of this beloved film. This will result in my expectations for The Lion King remake being higher when I see it one day soon, which I’m sure will work out fine and couldn’t possibly backfire.

 

It’s tough to look at the news and not think that we’re super screwed, especially in the United States. This is despite Dr. Herd Immunity leaving the White House and its so-called Coronavirus Task Force at the beginning of the week. The next few months are going to suck hard, and that’s not even getting into all the other problems the country is facing. Some world leader, huh?