After the horror that assaulted us in the terrible first season of Fear Factor SA I never thought I'd be brave enough to subject myself to another episode of the show ever again.
The trouble with me is that I'm a glutton for punishment and way too quizzy for my own safety so when the
Season 2 premiered on e.tv on Monday night (8 January at 20h00) I armed myself with some booze and plonked on the couch with one hand in front of my eyes and the other on the remote to change channels if it was all too appalling.
It started, a few minutes passed, I was pleasantly surprised and caught the whole thing.
For starters the show's looking zingier and brighter, as if it's got a different energy behind it - which immediately gave it an entertaining feeling.
The production quality and lighting looks better and the uplifting mood has loads to do with the show's new presenter
Lungile Radu - who I'm pleased to see has won the Battle of the Smile.
As you may or may not know last season's presenter Taps Mokoena was given
strict production instructions not to smile because of all the Fear that was supposed to be involved. I know, soo pathetic.
In contrast Lungile's smile and vibey light delivery immediately drew me in as he introduced each of the contestants.
Spending the episode meeting everyone was good to see too 'cos when you get bombarded by a group of Pigs one moment then see them in a head-pit of roaches the next it's very difficult to make out who's who.
The crowd of contestants they've chosen also seem very aware of the fact that the last thing we want to see is them all loving each other in a hippie holiday commune.
The majority of them were adamant that they're there to win no matter how fierce they need to get and some of the cast from Season 1's Brady Bunch reiterated that this season's lot need to make sure they go to war.
Judging from their intros it's not gonna be difficult - at least three quarters of them needed a slap within two seconds of being introduced. The girls in particular. Three most espesh, namely
Delicia (who calls themselves that??),
Tanya - the blonde schmodel who desperaterly tried to convince us she has a brain and
Palesa who's got "issues".
Her greatest fear is, I quote, "being emotionally vulnerable." She's also so proud of it it's guaranteed to inspire a loathe-fest.
That said, no-one could beat the smackability of the fruitcake numerologist, astrologer and some psycho dude who hovered round the edges of the introductions giving their kooky take on what difficulties the contestants and their personalities are gonna face.
I tried morphing the faces of the numerologist and astrologer into one while they were speaking and trust me when I tell you it was creepy stuff. Leaving the contestants in the dead of the night with them should
so be the first challenge - which they'll be launching into next week.
If both the show and the contestants live up to the commitments they made us in this intro episode then Fear Factor SA - I'm almost too terrified to say it - isn't too bad and has promise.
I'm gonna wait to see what happens next week before giving it a rating.
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