007: Road to a Million

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.

Each level contains two questions. The first level is set in the Scottish Highlands where all nine couples are dropped off to a nearby old fashioned red phone box and instructed to find their first question in a case containing a multiple-choice question with three possible answers, each having an associated smoke bomb. 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.

Couples that have completed the first level are sent to either Italy or Turkey - they don't get to choose - for the second level, where the third question is worth £25,000. Contestants are up against a time limit to get to a specific location and complete a stunt or dare which corresponds to the question.

The fourth question is worth £50,000. Up against a time limit again, but the location takes longer to get to and there is less time to do it in.

For the surviving couples, it's off to South America for level three: either Brazil or Chile where they are told to find a case - but when they do find it, it contains not a question, but items to get them to their next area. Along the way, they are given a phone, which contains a code to a combination and a destination for the case containing question five which is worth £100,000.

The fourth level takes the remaining couples to Jamaica where they are told to go to a location that will lead them to the case with the sixth question worth £200,000.

After that, they get fitted into some tuxedos and dresses where they are sent to a swanky casino with a couple of complimentary vodka martinis and answer question seven, which is worth £300,000.

The fifth level takes them to the cold alps of Switzerland where they are given coordinates to their location and need to rescue a case that's filled with explosives, against the clock. Stop it exploding, and it will yield an item which shows them to yet another location where they must free a case covered in ice that contains the eighth question worth £500,000 - this time having a multiple choice of five answers.

Questions 9 and 10 are worth £700,000 and £1,000,000, but no couple got this far.

A show to Bond with?

The show is a good mix of Race Across the World with its reality travel style format, Treasure Hunt with its case locations based on The Controller's clues, Don't Try This at Home! with its action/adventure style stunt challenges and Who Wants to be a Millionaire? with its possible choice answers to questions and long wait times with the Turnabout spheres making a comeback from retirement. 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 briefly get introduced to all nine couples at the start of the series, but two of them get a proper introduction filled with interviews and backstories. 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 at the start of 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 an introduction and they get eliminated, so they're out before we even know who they are. The eighth couple only got 30 seconds of screen time as they were eliminated on the first question, which is a shame because the second couple got the exact same result in the first episode, but they had a full introduction into who they are. The ninth and final 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 the latter third halfway into the series to introduce briefly? 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 the 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.

All eight episodes were released simultaneously on the streaming service Amazon Prime Video. Could this have worked as a weekly series into ITV's Saturday night schedule considering they hold the television broadcast rights to the movies? Who knows.

The Controller will return...

Two months before the first series was released, a second series was commissioned. To improve the show's structure, we hope they either cut down the number of couples taking part or extend the episode run to give all nine couples the proper introductions they and we deserve. Ooh, let's suggest one better, have the structure in a kind of Knightmare style format where we just focus on just one couple's journey until they either win the jackpot or get eliminated and then we get introduced to the next couple and see how their adventure goes.

Theme music

Sam Thompson

Web links

Amazon Prime Video programme page

Wikipedia entry

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