@nprofile1q... ah see i grew up on the 90s scifi show version

@nprofile1q... i havent but it looks like a revival of that style and i therefore love it

but where's the guy who talks to animals?!

anyway, the futurismo of these shows, and the sincerity of their aspirationalism within that futurish setting, is what makes it so very TNG to me

it feels almost imaginable that someone in 1992 could express pride in winning American Gladiator, as if that were a genuine accomplishment on par with winning an Olympic gold medal

i can't see anyone feeling similarly about WipeOut or its ilk

and so i think that's why this kind of cringey camp futurismo versions of these kinds of shows went away and were replaced by goofball comedy versions

caring about the future, even your own personal future, and honestly believing you can improve it is cringe, don't you know? the future can't be better, don't be so naive and childish to think you can do things, don't be a rube!

the aspirational scifi faux-sport games of the 90s couldn't last because they inherently run counter to a core embarrassment that Americans, at least, feel about positivity toward the future, especially when that involves personal and collective choices to improve things

but that kind of sincerity and seriousness about aspirational utopian futures is often seen as cringe, naive, and childish

so the choice is to either abandon the activity entirely or strip it of sincerity and turn it into funny haha goofiness

the shows are very serious and sincere about how they treat it all, even tho its dripping with campy 80s low budget scifi, because there is a core mood of aspiration which is inherently utopian and future fictional

like, the campy futurismo of those shows is so front and center, because there is a very real kind of science fictional aspirationalism to exalting people who aspire to excel in their pursuits even when they're completely dork ass things

and I think part of the reason those specific kinds of shows died out, and were eventually replaced by shows like WipeOut, which is tonally completely different, is that those shows require a sincerity that WipeOut doesn't

American Gladiators takes that to the more scifi extreme, with weird laser tag firefight simulation, fantastic future combat games definitely remeniscent of anbo-jutsu, a proper climbing wall

completely unashamed to be doing what are basically stupid future scifi sports