The CHA$E is on at SCI FI Channel

In 1987, Arnold Schwarzenegger starred in a scifi film called The Running Man. Set in a post apocalyptical world, The Running Man is a government sponsored TV series that gives death row prisoners a chance to escape their sentence — literally. The players are released on to a “game board”, a cordoned off section of the city, and they must make their way to the finish line without getting caught by one of several hunters on their trail.

This November, SCI FI Channel presents CHA$E, a game show where the players are released on into a designated section of the city and must make their way to the finish line without getting caught by one of several hunters on their trail.

The only difference — no one dies in CHA$E. (And you can guess what my teenage son had to say about that!)

In the first episode, the contestants are released on to the “game board” at the Los Angeles Harbor, which is a maze of warehouses, docks and ships. They’re given a map and a phone and they have a gizmo strapped to their backs, which comes into play later on. The episode runs in real time (sort of), so they have 60 minutes to make it to the finish line. The trick is, they don’t know where the finish line is when they start. They have to accomplish a series of tasks and are then given the location at the last minute. Because of this, there’s an element of luck to the game — it’s not always the smartest, fastest who wins. If one guy happens to be near the finish line when time is called and the others aren’t, then he’s going to win.

Throughout the game, the players are given a series of tasks to perform. Some take teamwork and some are every-man-for-himself. For some tasks the players are rewarded with tools that will help them avoid the hunters, such as invisibility glasses and deflectors. Strategy comes into play here since many of them can only be used once.

The hunters are men and women decked in out suits and ties moving about like Terminators at a business conference. They’re played as robots who will run if they have to, but generally they wander the game board using their robo-vision to spot the prey. For a player to be eliminated, he must be physically tagged by a hunter. First one to make it over the finish line after the designated time takes home the prize. Then they start all over with new contestants and new location, week after week.

On the upside, the show has all of those typical reality competition show moments we’ve grown to love; the whiner, the backstabber, the internal squabbling, the tension. Add to that, the Blair Witch breathless talking while running scenario and you’ve almost got the makings of something really intriguing.

Almost.

Where the show falls short is with the hunters. People who will be rooting for them to win, so why not give these guys some personality. I had hoped for hunters in the style of Running Man’s stalkers — larger than life, themed villains such as you have on American Gladiators or WWE. Instead, they went with these cookie-cutter, Matrixy hunters that hardly seem like a threat at all. My son thought it would be more effective if they used paintball or laser tag equipment in order to “kill” the players. The tagging is just so schoolyard.

I also found the prize awarding to be very confusing. There’s a flat prize amount for crossing the finish line (I think) but there are also amounts of money hidden on the game board. But only the person who crosses the line first actually gets to keep that additional money — if they were the one who found it. Is all of that really necessary? What happened to the winner wins, everyone else loses? Done.

Overall, I liked it and I’d watch it again. And the fact that it was something my son actually sat down to watch with me ranks it pretty high in my TV Guide. I do think my enjoyment will be short-lived, though. With a new crop of contestants every week, it’s not like I’ll get attached to any of them as you do with Survivor or America’s Next Top Model.

If you ask me, the real stars of this show are the camera men who have to chase these contestants over miles of game board. It was obviously hot that day and the contestants aren’t even lugging cameras around with them. Maybe they can do like they do on Project Runway where the model who is assigned to the winning designer also gets a prize, because I’d say these cameramen are working hard for their money!

CHA$E premieres on November 11 at 10:00 pm on SCI FI Channel.

CHA$E — “The Harbor” Episode 101 –  SCI FI Channel Photo