MOST EXTREME ELIMINATION:
Season Two

MXC takes video from Takeshi’s Castle, a late ‘80s Japanese game show, where individuals competed against each other through a series of silly, yet dangerous-looking stunts for chance at one million yen. Through the magic of post production, most notably the hysterical commentary, ranging from witty to crude, MXC appears as a team competition between groups. Some are understandable rivals, former US vs. World Olympians, while others are as apparent. Cable TV Workers vs. White House Employees sounds like an unlikely duo until the explanation that it’s “counter programming vs. counter intelligence.”

Vic Romano (voiced by Victor Wilson) is the show’s play-by-play man. He takes the competition seriously and tries to keep the show focused and moving forward. Kenny Blankenship (Christopher Darga) is the color commentator. His favorite games are those that give him an excuse to say “Balls,” and he only focuses when he sees certain parts of women moving. Joining them is Captain Tenneal and sideline reporter Guy LeDouche (John Cervenka doing double duty). The former opens the competition and the latter hits on every single female contestant.

Contestants compete in a wide and wild assortment of games. During Sinkers and Floaters, they attempt to get across a creek using stones, some of which are false. In Wallbangers there are four walls with a series of doors. At each one, they must guess which door is real so they can pass onto the next. Some choose to do this at their top running speed, which I don’t understand, but do appreciate when they guess wrong. Log Drop looks the most painful as people have to make their way across spinning cylinders to safety. The contestants are usually unsuccessful in most of the games, which is how those of us desensitized to violence get most of the laughs.

The thirteen episodes of Season Two appear on two discs; however, “The Monster Show” has been edited from the Broadcast Version. The show normally runs 20 minutes, but the edited version has been nearly cut in half and is down to 11 minutes. There’s no official explanation given why, but since this show featured people in costumes, cuts most likely occurred due to characters whose likeness would have required a license fee. Hard core fans will be disappointed, but the set is still worth buying.

Special features for Season Two are similar to Season One. Kenny Blankenship’s Top 25 Most Painful Eliminations of the Season presents the best of the best moments and there is an episode (#61) of Takeshi’s Castle. Unfortunately, there are no audio commentary tracks this time around. Instead, we get a six-minute peek behind the scenes, mostly made up of the voice talent.