For decades now, there have been few TV summer rituals quite like the new game show season. Before the dawn of streaming and year-round programming, it was a perfect dumping ground to try out cheap entertainment with low stakes. There was no need to get wrapped up in a 22-episode arc. Game shows have the ability to be aired out of sequence and still be appealing, meaning it makes for perfect filler. ABC in particular has taken this credo to heart in recent years, making Sundays especially a night full of entertainment like Celebrity Family Feud and $100,000 Pyramid where celebrity guests pop on for an hour and leave behind a few laughs. After all, it’s a formula that worked for Mark Goodson and Bill Todman back in the 80s. Why mess with what works?
With that said, there’s something that’s been frustrating about the 2022 summer programming slate. Even if the tried and trues are still producing quality works, the newbies are somewhat disappointing, or at best have a limited shelf life. On NBC, Dancing With Myself takes an interesting idea and stretches it beyond practicality. Meanwhile, FOX continues to win bottom of the barrel status with I Can See Your Voice which would be intolerable at even 30 minutes. ABC meanwhile has fared a little better with Generation Gap, but even that is too reliant on obvious humor of two groups not knowing what that thing they’re looking at is. But hey, Kelly Ripa tries and does well enough.
It is why, maybe begrudgingly, I have to admit that The Final Straw is the winner of network’s best new game show this summer. Taking a page from Holey Moley or The Cube, the show’s biggest appeal in every trailer was the sports star producer branching out into a capital-W Wacky premise show. In this case, it’s Peyton Manning whose name splashes across the screen as Ke$ha’s “Timber” plays in the background. On the one hand, it’s a delightful commercial that feels removed of pretension you’d find in something like The Chase. You don’t need to know the capitals of the world. All you need is a good strategy and a teammate who knows how to keep things balanced.
The Final Straw is ingenious in the sense that it’s just a glorified version of Jenga. The fact that this premise hasn’t been done lately is surprising given how many shows are designed for maximum carnage. The appeal of this show is watching things topple for an hour, and if that’s what you want… this show delivers in spades. There may be more entertaining shows where everything falls apart, but rarely do you get to see this level of ingenuity put into something that lasts so briefly.
Before going further, credit should be given to the designers of the various stacks in this show. Of the four rounds, three of them are theme-based. This means that the contestant is likely to get something like a 50’s diner or kid’s playroom and they’ll have to pull out objects that correlate to it. There is something appealing about an interior camera reflecting the craft of various objects that don’t get the contestant’s attention. Each of the levels in the stack is beautifully detailed with something that could be admired. In reference to the 50’s diner set, there are plenty of great small details in the chairs and soda fountains that make you want to stop and appreciate it. That’s far from the point, but if there is one reason to watch it, this is it. By the end, there’s something heartbreaking about watching everything tumble because of how clearly it breaks, reducing chances of reusability. How much effort goes into making it? Probably not enough to grow emotionally attached to the process.
With that said, is everything else up to par? Again, this is one of the best shows to not take seriously because of how disposable the whole premise is. When watching it initially, I believed that it would be a fun theme park attraction where guests play every hour for a gawking crowd. As a TV show, I was less intrigued but that could simply be because of the self-awareness of needing to fill time and create something with repeated appeal. Having seen two episodes, it does get fun once it finds a rhythm, but those who rated it an appallingly low 2.8/10 on IMDb aren’t entirely wrong if judging off of initial impression. It’s a good show, but it really lacks a consistency that would really amp up its accessibility.
This is because the show in itself isn’t discussed in a way that’s appealing. Outside of the initial rules that involve contestants pulling oddities out until something falls, not a lot is known about the stakes of the show. There are aspects that are explored throughout such as a distractor that could impact your opponent’s success (such as being blindfolded). There are also traps within the stacks that impair the contestant’s chances of succeeding, but little has been seen to fully alter the success. According to the first episode, there’s a rumor that if one plays their cards right they can have a guy in a panda bear suit really wreak havoc. But still… what is there besides the obvious of pulling out objects and watching them fall?
To be fair, going deep on each of the stacks, which would be six total per episode, would be tedious. However, I feel like something is missed for those who want to become more invested in the show. While each contestant brings with them a colorful personality, there is no revelation in the stakes that make the proceeding competition all that enthralling. Once one knows the strategy, it becomes more interesting, but still, The Final Straw is based on the premise of pulling objects out and hoping that it doesn’t fall over. What are they doing to make it more interesting?
There are the aforementioned obstacles in the stacks. There are small things that keep this from being a done deal. However, the way that the series is filmed makes every stack a tad too impersonal, meaning that the audience doesn’t get to be involved with the strategy. There is no way to feel like you’re standing next to the contestants and telling them to pull this or that. While there’s something appealing about being forced to remove the piece you touch, there isn’t a sense of how everything is balanced simply because the camera can only focus on so much at one time. There is no sense of how this will shift something higher or lower outside of a brief wobble and reaction shots.
In all honesty, the tension of this series is not unlike that of The Cube. There is an appeal to slowing everything down and zooming in on somebody’s face. This is the show’s life or death. A margin of error could result in elimination. A major difference is that The Cube found a brilliant way to slow everything down by relying on parlor games that were time based or relied on precision that was distorted by rotating cameras. It could be considered goofy, but there was enough disbelief for the viewer that it kept you invested. Even the sincerity with which host Dwayne Wade reacted made a difference.
Compare that to The Final Straw. While Janelle James is an accomplished actress on TV series like Black Monday and Abbott Elementary, her calculated nature makes it difficult to fully buy into the tension. At least in the early run, her connection to the contestants doesn’t feel natural and her ad-libs are tame but also predictable in ways that don’t improve the show. At most, her tenseness when the stacks begin to wobble is appealing, but she hasn’t quite mastered the chemistry that a host needs. The good news is that the second episode was a lot stronger than the first, but outside of her exposition, she is the weak link to the series.
The four rounds start off in a conventional manner. As individual segments, it could be entertaining to notice the spectacle and enjoy the strategy of the contestants. In that regard, the show remains accessible. I’ve always believed that the best game shows are ones that the home audience can imagine them playing rather easily. This is a great example of it, but I don’t believe there’s any way for them to strategize since a lot of the optics are obfuscated. There is no chance to hear about the roadblocks to victory or take a peek at a corner that they could say “I think they would’ve won if they went over there.” There’s not enough interactivity with the camera that makes the show work, and it’s in part because the show poorly explains the architectural hurdles of the stacks.
I’ll quickly run down the format of the show. Two teams compete in Round 1. Another two teams play in Round 2. The winners of Round 1 and Round 2 play each other in Round 3 where that winner gets to compete in Round 4. For the first 45 minutes of airing anyway, the show is a lot of the same. If they have decent personalities on the show then everything will go according to plan. The commercial breaks will be the perfect cliffhangers. If not, it’s just more of the same. There’s very few ways to build momentum because the challenges do not get harder. They remain of similar difficulty for those three rounds, and it’s not enough.
BUT… I’d be lying if I didn’t at least give credit to Round 4, a.k.a. Mega Stack. It is where The Final Straw becomes one of the best watches of summer game shows. The catch is simple. Like the other rounds, one has to remove objects from one stack. However, there’s a new level of difficulty to it. Along with a timer, it’s broken up into five rounds where the cash prize builds from $10,000 to $250,000. Add that to what’s been acquired throughout the previous rounds, and it becomes appetizing to see how far someone could push themselves. It’s also interesting that the most transparent in appearance is also the most exciting to watch, if just because it allows the viewer to strategize with them.
If only it were that simple. Even if each Mega Stack round requires the contestant to pull out fewer pieces, the difficulty clearly rises. Along with the timer, certain pieces (including bottom pieces to extend the time) must be pulled to qualify. While the contestant gets to determine how far they go, there is something addictive to pushing the limits as far as possible. In fact, the first episode features players who would’ve won $250,000 had they completed the round but chose to play it safe. Their hypothetical run reveals the trickiness of determining the stack’s sturdiness. If anything, Mega Stack reveals how plausible it is to win with a calculated set-up, and it’s something that the rest of the series needs.
Another strange obstacle is this background plot involving Peyton Manning. In the first episode, it isn’t revealed until the closing credits that he’s the panda. There’s not a lot else to suggest that he’s the same actor in various scenes throughout the show and in fact adds little to the show’s enjoyment. Unlike Holey Moley or The Cube, Manning’s involvement feels limited and isn’t the result of any prize winning. It doesn’t fully make sense other than he’s a popular name who can get viewers. Will the show develop something greater with him? One could hope because unless he does something raucous in a panda suit, it’s hard to know what any of this is for.
With all of this said, The Final Straw is the type of novelty that I enjoy. Even if it’s far from the best programming I’ve seen this summer – The Chase, Holey Moley, Beat Shazam! being the reliables – it definitely offers a little flavor to the network line-up. I don’t know that it’ll be one that I watch a lot, but there’s enough there that it fulfills the role of a basic game show. It’s one you can tune in and out of without feeling lost when returning. There is a fun fantasy in the premise and the spectacle is top notch. It’s far from the best use of the premise, but it’s not totally disposable either. It’s somewhere in the middle, working as ephemera. It’s exactly what a summer game show is designed to be. Whereas shows like I Can See Your Voice are rooted in convoluted rules that eat up too much of the show, there’s something refreshing in The Final Straw’s simplicity. It gets to the point. The point could be clearer, but otherwise it does exactly what it sets out to do and who can be mad about that?
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