This is a gameshow on Netflix that is based on what you used to do as a kid when you were in your living room and pretended that the floor was molten lava and you had to jump from one piece of furniture to another. This game could only be played when I was home alone. My mama would not have put up with that for one second. Between feeding the cows, conversing with Will-e-talk, my ventriloquist dummy, and the lava thing, I had a rich and fulfilling childhood. If my middle name was Wayne, I could have turned out to be a serial killer.

Of course the premise of the show is to have a room, could be a living room, bedroom, or basement etc., that in place of a floor, is molten lava. I’m not sure what the lava is but it’s thick, viscous, and red and there is 80,000 gallons of it. It is constantly bubbling and from time to time there are eruptions that sprays it all over the constants. There are three teams competing. Each team is made up of three people that are connect to each other. The first episode consisted of a mother and her twins, one team was identical triplets, and the other three youth pastors. 

They work their way through the obstacles by jumping, swinging, and sliding while trying not to fall into the lava. They are hidden things that you can use to help you, like a rope you pull that drops something down. There are multiple paths and strategy is required. Each person that makes it to safety is a point. At the end of the game the most points win. The winning team gets $10,000 and a lava lamp trophy.

The coolest part of the game is if someone falls into the lava they are gone. They do not resurface, they are just gone. The rest of the team treats them like they are dead. They mourn the loss but keep going. We don’t see them again until the team gets back together at the end. That was a great decision. Of course you know they aren’t really dead, but it just adds something to the show.

The worst part of the show is the banter between the teammates. They never shut up, and everything they say is annoying. “Mom, this is why you do Pilates!” I’m not sure if the show is giving them suggestions on their banter, or if they get picked because of their goofiness.  The only thing more annoying is the announcer, Rutledge Wood, from Top Gear. All he does is state the obvious, that we are already seeing, using the worst puns possible. “That math teacher is finally adding himself to the equation.”

The action part with leaps face first on rocks is pretty interesting even though the rocks seem reasonably soft, the contestants still get banged up.

This show is fairly entertaining, but at the same time annoying. I watched the first 3 episodes out of 10 and I’m pretty sure I got all I wanted. You may like it better than me, you’ll know for sure after the first 15 minutes.

My Score: 2 Budweisers could have been 3 if it was a little less annoying.

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