[This is gonna take a while…skip to the link if you want to get to my point.]
All right…
I can accept that this is essentially a trumped-up lottery with absolutely no skill or knowledge of any kind coming into play (something almost unheard of in game shows, even those that are largely a matter of chance).
I can accept that the producers deliberately target dumb, emotional contestants who can overreact on cue and have at least one sufficiently maudlin personal story.
I can accept that Howie Mandell is about a thousand times more annoying than Regis Philbin ever was, and you hardly ever hear about it.
I can accept the idea of hiring an entire squad of semipermanent vaguely glamorous gals to do less work than Vanna White. IMO they don’t need that many, but hey, it’s their money.
I can accept the truly overwhelming amount of filler from start to finish, including frequent repetitions of the staggeringly obvious. (“Okay, the $750,000 is still on the board! It’s good that you still have the $750,000! You do not want to eliminate the $750,000! Because that will reduce the next offer!”)
I can accept someone who’s the friggin’ definition of a neutral party cast as a WWE-style megaheel, and I can even accept the premise that he’s trying to make the contestants win as little as possible, with the little questions of why and how remaining conveinently unaddressed. Hell, I can even accept an online trash-talking “blog” (more corny than offensive).
I can accept all the brazen hypocricy, especially any issue re. “greed” (Look, sometimes taking the deal was the right call, sometimes playing to the bitter end is. It’s a coin flip, dammit; no one choice is right all the time.), and I can also accept the constant unbelievably crass use of 20/20 retrospect to ridicule contestants who made what turned out to be the worse choice (and Mandell is the biggest jerk in this regard, bar none).
I can even accept the stupid “Million Dollar Mission” (still not resolved as of this week, but will probably be over soon), which, in addition to screaming “shark jump”, is nothing but a ham-handed means of overcoming one of the biggest flaws of this show, i.e. no one with two brain cells is going to even GO FOR the ultimate prize barring unbelievably good luck.
But this…ah, go see for yourself. Click on the Wynnetta Williams tab.
http://www.nbc.com/Deal_or_No_Deal/video/#mea=165111
Ooh, ooh, she really screwed up, threw away 885 grand, what a loser, har har har har hyuk huk. (Man, can you believe that reaction to the case opening? It’s like someone got shot or something.)
Just a few little details, however. You know what you actually have to do to claim your case? First, you gotta keep playing. You don’t get to cash out with four goddam cases still in the field. Keep no-dealing, sweating it out one case in a time, until there’s just one left besides the one you, uh, “protected”. Then you get Duh Bankuh’s final offer. Turn this down…and you have a choice. Take what’s in your case, or…take what’s in the last unopened case in the field.
The contestant always, always, ALWAYS has this choice. Therefore, what the freak “his/her” case is is utterly irrelevant. If the million hasn’t been opened, it makes no difference whatsoever which case it’s is in; either way it’s a 50/50 shot at wedded bliss or bloody death.
And it’s especially irrelevant in this case, because the contestant HADN’T EVEN REACHED THE POINT WHERE SHE COULD TAKE ANY GODDAM RAZZAFRACKIN FERSHLUGGINER CASE!! I don’t give a flying crap what her gut said or how sure she was, I don’t care if she had a frickin’ divine omen telling her to take her case. Until she goes the distance, until it comes down to one and one, that case is locked, bolted, barred, sealed in a safe sealed in a lead box, and buried under 20 feet of concrete.
That this many DonD contestants and fans can still be so damn ignorant of the rules is just sad. That because of this ignorance, whether or not the big money wound up in temporary storage dictates whether or not the contestant (and whoever advised her to take the deal) gets raked over the coals is execrable.
Even worse than getting kids involved (I can barely accept that…).
P.S.: And had she gone the distance, Howie would’ve had no choice but to remind everyone that either case was selectable, she’d have taken her half million & change, and the consensus would’ve been that it was absolutely the correct decision. When it rains, it pours.
P.P.S.: The only way the Million Dollar Mission will end is with at least two millions still on the board and all lower values eliminated. Nothing else. (Especially since the extra millions replace the highest values, effectively eliminating any chance of a reasonable gamble at the end.)