#Mxc spike tv series#
#Mxc spike tv tv#

Through it all, Count Takeshi acts as a sort of Virgil, guiding his contestants through his land of torture and humiliation. Some of the stones are fakes that sink when stepped on, making for excruciating falls. The cause of this particular injury is usually the Skipping Stones challenge, where contestants run at top speed onto stones to reach the other side of a pond. Each episode has a segment called Most Painful Elimination, which consists of slow motion clips featuring Japanese men getting it where it hurts. Like its less-competitive cousin, MTV’s late, lamented Jackass, MXC’s humor often relies on frontal assaults to the groin. Most are hurled into the mud, where Count Takeshi and his nemesis General Lee, dressed in massive shoulder pads decorated by gold-braid epaulets, rush to trip and wrestle the struggling fallen. In the show’s Mushroom Trip, for instance, contestants must hang on to a giant spinning mushroom to reach a platform on the other side of an oozy mud pit. The contests preparing for the siege of the castle are humiliating and painful, and many have more than a tinge of the Freudian about them. The survivors, led by a character named General Lee, then attempt a takeover of the eponymous castle. During the show’s initial contests, players are eliminated until an “army” of 100 survivors remains. Takeshi’s Castle was licensed by Spike TV, renamed Most Extreme Elimination Challenge, and given an occasionally amusing dubbed English narration, performed by two comedians drafted from L.A.’s Groundlings comedy troupe.

#Mxc spike tv series#

The show was hosted by “Count” Takeshi Kitano and featured ordinary Japanese citizens navigating a bizarre series of difficult physical contests while attempting to win a series of prizes. MXC’s main footage is taken from the Japanese reality show Takeshi’s Castle, which was a runaway hit from 1985 to 1990 on Tokyo’s NHK network.

#Mxc spike tv tv#

If Spike TV has anything to communicate beyond beer and boobs, it may be found amid MXC’s Downhill Giant Rice Bowl Slalom and its Eat Shiitake Challenge. But among the MacGyver reruns and commercials for herbal testosterone enhancers resides something oddly artistic and genuinely resonant, an obstacle course reality show titled Most Extreme Elimination Challenge- MXC to its fans (Wednesday through Friday at 11:30 p.m. Billing itself as “the first network for men,” Spike TV appears to be aimed at an audience that lacks the physical energy required to turn the pages of Maxim.

Finally, last summer brought the launch of Spike TV, an entire network devoted to reality programming and other low-concept fare-shows like Joe Schmo 2, Trucks! and Pamela Anderson’s Stripperella. Then came the bachelors, bachelorettes, big fat obnoxious fiances, and that reddish, fuzzy thing that makes its home on Donald Trump’s head. First came Big Brother and Survivor, shows that introduced American audiences to reality television’s pungent blend of narcissistic participants, base audience urges, and network executives’ bad faith.