007: Road to a Million
Contents |
Host
The Controller (Brian Cox)
Broadcast
72 Films and MGM Alternative in collaboration with EON Productions for Amazon Prime Video, 10 November 2023 (8 episodes in 1 series)
Synopsis
Nine couples are tasked to grab cases that are secured in a series of James Bond themed stunts, each case contains a question with multiple choice answers, if they get it right, they bank a stack of cash, if they get it wrong, they take home the winnings they've won up to that point. If they get all ten correct, they win a life changing sum of £1,000,000.
Level 1
The first level is set in the Scottish Highlands where each couple is dropped off to a nearby old fashioned red phone box and they will be instructed to find their first question in a case containing three answer that are smoke bombs that correspond to the question, if they choose the correct answer, the smoke goes green and they bank £5,000
The second question, if they get the first correct, is held in a less cold part of Scotland and that is either in a house or a garage where an old fashioned audio or VHS cassette tape contains a question. Three other audio or VHS cassette tapes have answers and they will be told if the answer they have chosen is right for £10,000.
Level 2
The second level is set in either Italy or Turkey, the third question worth £25,000 is up against a time limit to get to a specific location and the case is held in either a stunt or they have to do a dare, which corresponds to the question.
The fourth question is worth £50,000. Up against a time limit again, but the location is longer to get to and there is less time to do it in.
Level 3
The third level goes to either Brazil or Chile where they are told to find a case where they thought would contain a question, but instead it contains items to get to their next area. Along the way, they are given a phone, which contains a code to a combination and a destination on where to get their next case containing question five that is worth £100,000.
Level 4
The fourth level takes them to Jamaica where they will be told to go to a location that will lead them to their next area where the case is at and contains the sixth question worth £200,000.
It's tuxedos, casinos and a couple of vodka martinis for the remaining surviving couples who got this far and to answer question seven, which is worth £300,000.
Level 5
The fifth level takes them to the cold alps of Switzerland where they are given coordinates to their location and rescue a case that's filled with explosives and they are timed as well. Avoid exploding it will give them an item and coordinates to another location that holds a bag of a map, which shows them to yet another location and free a case covered in ice that contains the eighth question worth £500,000, but this time it has a multiple choice of five answers.
Questions 9 and 10 are worth £700,000 and £1,000,000, but no couple has got this far.
Worth Bonding?
The show is a good mix of The Mole with its action/adventure reality format, Eggheads with contestants talking through the multiple choice answers and Who Wants to be a Millionaire? with its long amount of wait time to find out if the contestants got the question right. But the structure on how they show the couples adventure is all over the place and at a couple of points, a waste of time.
First of all, we don't get introduced to all nine couples at the start of the series, we get two. The second episode starts us off by introducing us to our third and fourth couples, who are searching for their third question. Huh? And then we get a flashback of both couples in Scotland on how they got there. What was the point of that? We already know they're gonna get the questions right so the tension is lost there. The fifth couple introduced about five minutes into the third episode got a better introduction, which was at the start of their game, same goes with the sixth couple that were introduced in episode four, well, they started at question two rather than the first, so a bit of dodgy skipping there. So, we're halfway into the series now and there's three couples left to introduce, so what does the show do? Introduce the seventh couple on the third question, but they don't get a flashback or get a introduction to who they are and they get eliminated, so they're out before we know who they are. The eighth couple only got 30 seconds of screen time as they were eliminated on the first question and the ninth couple were introduced in question four, but we do get to know a bit more about them in episode six.
So, why have nine couples if you're going to just cram in to introduce briefly the latter third halfway into the series? Five or six couples sounds about right for an eight episode run, not nine.
On the positive side, they have not simplified the stunts on the show, the contestants experience it just like tthe James Bond movies, but they do get safety gear so that they are safe and sound. Quite a ballsy move considering there's £1,000,000 on the line. Mind you, Squid Game: The Challenge came out the same month and year as this show with a lot more contestants and a bigger prize pot.
The Mastermind behind these ordeals is The Controller played by Brian Cox, who acts more like The Banker from Deal or No Deal than he does a James Bond villain, but he's still good nevertheless.
All in all, an action packed reality show that knows what it wants to be by the quality and content of the stunts, but either cut down the amount of couples taking part in the next series (if they do another one) or just extended the episode run to give all nine couples the proper introductions they should have.
Could this have worked into ITV's Saturday night schedule considering they hold the television broadcast rights to the movies? Who knows.
Theme music
Sam Thompson
Web links
Amazon Prime Video programme page
