Wednesday, April 8, 2020

Inside MTV Reality: The Challenge WRAP - The Total Madness Premiere

BY DC CUEVA                      
■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB

Hello again and welcome back... there is finally some normalcy being restored in our world - the MTV beat that is - as The Challenge has returned to give us something to take our mind off of what's been a manic first few months of 2020, and as far as you all got to enjoy it last week it is off to a red-hot start. The fittingly-titled Total Madness premiered last week with familiar faces to MTV fans and new ones that those who are part of the new ViacomMTV regime know about competing together in the first act of the new season.

We had a treacherous first challenge where a champion got to pick up from where he left off in the War of the Worlds II final, a standard practice for any new season in rookies facing off in the first elimination, and a new place for the players to live in unlike any other. But what left us talking at night's end last week was an unlikely alliance of two of the biggest figures in this program for a decade, and a man who marked twenty-five seasons hosting this show by handing down the biggest twist he's ever laid on the Challengers... quite an opening salvo to this thirty-fifth season.

Something we have not been able to do in a while on here has been a traditional, original write-up recap of episodes of The Challenge, which are offered differently from our SocialPulse diaries which cover the social media view of the shows. And after we got to dust these off for Siesta Key during the winter offseason and with this spring not being as busy as in recent years, the WRAP is back for this Challenge... and after the jump, the top moments from last week to prepare you for tonight's second episode. See you shortly.


 THINGS TO KNOW 
THE PREMIERE ▪ "Mad World"

● INTO THE WAR ZONE: We begin with the first challenge, but as it was last season and unlike previous seasons before that luckily this doesn't double as an opening purge elimination. The players compete in a hybrid of endurance, upper-body strength and a test of their math skills while also having to encounter tanks that would eliminate the slower players, and the men & women compete in separate heats to determine just who wins immunity. For the men, Rogan picks up where he left off in the WOTW2 final to finish first while most of the big name women get eliminated early which clears the way for Jenny to rule for them... but what was it like to compete on that battlefield? Ask Bear...




● BUNKER LIFE: Whether you watch just The Challenge or the whole MTV Reality suite, you're accustomed to lavish houses for your favorites to call home... that's not the case here. For what the competitors have to put up this time around, it is in a totally different atmosphere in the Czech Republic: a bunker that held anti-aircraft missiles from World War II, and when the host nation was Czechoslovakia and when it was aligned with the Soviet Union during the Cold War. There are just college-sized dorm rooms and school-aged bathrooms, but some familiar features in pool table, couches, pool, kitchen and weights to not see the players go stir crazy as those around the hotstove feared. Still, ask Bananas and you'll know how brutal it might be to be competing in this place...




● UNHOLY ALLIANCE: During Champs vs. Pros, we featured an In-Depth on the rivalry of Bananas & Wes after their only elimination battle (albeit, an exhibition one)... but we could never envision then that we'd see them join up -- but then again there's Maury. If you remember last year's Movie & TV Awards, they walked the red carpet together after their early exits on War of the Worlds 2 (which was filming last summer & the same weekend that I won $2,000 in Reno), and as the 6-time champ told USA Today's For The Win that it was them being in the limo with Laurel that being older and more smarter than those who are now joining them for this, then it's time to just suck it up and work together. And for what happened there in the bunker, see for yourself...






● ROOKIE vs. ROOKIE: As for the game itself, something that's standard in any first act of a new Challenge is of those who've done two or more of these agreeing that those who are in their first one should compete to advance to next week -- and in this case, two more weeks as they alternate guy and girl elimination weeks. For here, everyone concurs that two of the male rookies here should face off in the Purgatory... and as it turns out, the two guys exempted from my Total Madness Newbies post, Asaf and Jay. They face off in a hybrid of American Gladiators' Hang Tough with a circus trapeze bar to see who can outlast one another in a best-of-3, and the Survivor alum outlasted an AYTO/Dance star & competitor from an overseas version of Ninja Warrior... and it comes as bad news to Nany, who got the season's first hookup with Israel's biggest reality star.




● THE TWIST: Something that might be lost in this show giving sports fans something to watch in this uncertain time is that Total Madness marks TJ Lavin's 25th season hosting this shindig - it's a fact I noted in my preview and the big man of course gave me a thanks on social media beforehand. Well, it's safe to say that it's not officially a Challenge until TJ decides to lay one on the players: if you have at least one successful trip into the elimination chamber, you'll become eligible to compete in the final when we get to the summertime. Again, check it out below...




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 WHAT'S TO COME... 

As I got to write up top, this is the first actual write-up recap of a Challenge episode that I've been able to do on here since the early part of Final Reckoning in summer 2018 (remember that?). In fact, the last time I got to do this was Episode 3 of that long affair back in late July, around the same time that when Season 2 of Floribama Shore was in full swing. And this was before Season 7 of Are You The One? was about to premiere, and I was preparing for my 2018 DC Vegas trip too.
   Enough of trying to go back in time: as we are pressed for time around here, this is just a little recap to get myself back into the swing of things with actually writing on the episodes instead of just bringing you the 'Pulse each week. And while I always look to this site as a supplement to what you get from other sites and shows that cover this world, the spring schedule is not as packed as in past cycles with just Total Madness on my mind... hence, these recaps are back for this season.
● What we plan to do here with our own Challenge WRAP is, as we usually do with our recaps, is to look at the Things to Know and the key moments of every episode in chronological order like what you've seen above, including embedded clips.
● With the FORUM, we're looking to bring on past alumni, webcast hosts, bloggers and fans to get their thoughts on the episodes and the season as it goes along, and I'll also have my thoughts too. If you're interested in joining me for these Q&A's, follow me and/or slip into my DM's @DC408Dxtr on Twitter & Instagram and let's make it happen.
● At certain times during the season as we have done throughout our Challenge coverage, we will step into the Strategy Room to look at where the game stands, especially late in the season later on once we inch closer to the final come summertime (and hopefully when things get back to normal).
● Some of these WRAP's will end with smaller, bite-sized versions of our signature ExtraTime original series to punctuate these recaps (the medium-sized and more longer pieces will always appear on their own so you don't have to scroll down).
● And the final part of this WRAP will have links to all available webcasts and certain online articles of interest to MTV Reality fans... that will start next week when I do have more time on my hand to do these recaps, as I do now during this uncertain time.

With that in mind, be sure to bookmark this site for our uniquely different look at MTV Reality and this Challenge, and to like, comment, share and subscribe so you don't miss any of my posts and to help tell a friend about what we do around here. In fact, I'm working on one post covering one of the events that have been pushed back by the panic going on, and that should be up after tonight's episode as the thing a friend on mine on Instagram calls, "the endless weekend."
   Of course, the Pulse for this week's episode will be up over the Easter weekend... and also as we mark this holiday in a different way than we have in years past, I'll be uploading the last three videos of #DCVegas X on my YouTube channel starting Good Friday at YouTube.com/DC408Dxtr and continuing to Easter Sunday. See you back here later tonight, and be safe.

- I AM DC
#DCBLOG
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