Michael Bay can’t leave well enough alone. Having set back cinema for years with the overblown pile of crud “Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen,” and currently gearing up for “Transformers 3,” he must have thought to himself, “I’m really mucking up Hollywood. I guess it’s time to ruin television.” Mercifully Bay is keeping his hands off of comedy or dramatic narratives; instead he plans to create a reality show that will apparently reinvent the genre. Its title: “One Way Out.” We just got chills.
Bay will be teaming up with the likes of Magical Elves’ Dan Cutforth and Jane Lipsitz, the producers behind “Top Chef,” Bravo’s “Project Runway,” and “Last Comic Standing.” Comparisons to “Amazing Race” and “Survivor” are rolling in, the safest shows to attach to as they’ve set the precedent for adventure reality TV. “One Way Out” has been pitched as a “game with no rules,” which is quite an oxymoron, and in Bay’s words it will incorporate “unique twists, death-defying challenges and stunning visuals.” It sounds like they’re striving for the most extreme reality show they can muster, with a capital X.
Contestants are set to have hidden agendas, with their personal histories revealed at the series’ bombastic climax. The show will take place all over the world, leading Cutforth to claim “the intimidating locations will allow a true primal test of endure to unfold.” All of this information leads us to believe the show will be quite a thrill ride for fans of betrayal heavy, high stakes reality television, and it probably will defy the standards of the medium. For Bay bigger is almost always better, and with the sprawling scale and buzz statements like “… showing just how far people will go when they are stripped of their bare necessities” this is sure to be epic.
Unfortunately for Bay and the Elves the idea of humans being stretched to their limits and paraded about on television doesn’t really appeal to us. We’d prefer some more news on “Boardwalk Empire” or the “Mildred Pierce” mini-series; nice, thick dramas by directors who we know produce quality with whatever they do. While “One Way Out” will be amusing to poke fun at, and taken aback by, it isn’t something we’re looking forward to. — Eric T. Voigt