After watching it again to be able to get a clear opinion, I will say this- ABC has been, for the most part, great when it comes to reviving classic game shows.
That being said, this...was a mess.
First, the positives: they didn't tinker much with the format. Still three games to build up sweep time, the Big Sweep, and the Bonus Sweep. The set looks gorgeous, though perhaps a little too much like that grocery store nobody can afford to actually shop at (more on that later). They're clearly trying to bring the show into the 21st century, which I can never fault anyone for.
The new games were fine, too (though did we need to see one of them basically twice in an hour?), but suffered from pacing issues.
Unfortunately, the show (much like the Weakest Link revival) suffers from questionable to poor production decisions.
First off the bat, what the hell happened to the theme song? All of the other revivals have used remastered versions of their original theme songs... but they went and replaced the theme song with a Salt -N-Pepa song. Wouldn't it have been cheaper to just use the original theme song as opposed to license Push It? Additionally, all of the other cues used during the show sounded like stock music a five year old banged out on a keyboard in about five minutes. They can do better.
I'm sorry, but Leslie Jones is not funny, not talented, and not good at her job. She's just... annoying. Sure she may have been a superfan of the show, but that doesn't mean she's a good host. She did alright explaining the rules and keeping the game moving to an extent, but the constant interjecting of jokes and side bits is time that could have been better spent elsewhere (more on that later as well).
Is it just me, or did the Big Sweep seem like half of it was edited out? There was so much editing it felt like it ran way shorter than it was supposed to... and since the Big Sweep is the part of the show that everyone looks forward to, this isn't where you want to edit stuff out! Definitely not a fan of the coffee and flower bonuses, not necessarily because they rely on someone else to get done in a timely manner, but because it's quite obvious that the extras they cast as the store employees were told to look as inept as possible... which is a massive insult to us retail workers who have been on the front lines and dealing with the worst of consumerism during this pandemic. Leslie added nothing to the proceedings, either... I much prefer the announcer providing play-by-play in post after it's all edited together to tell more of a coherent story.
Another minor nitpick... they either need to speed up the money increasing in the graphic during the Big Sweep reveal... Leslie read the totals before the graphic even showed the final amount.
Honestly, while it's nice that they increased the budget to fit primetime, it cost the show a lot of its charm. Sweep was always a low-budget cable show, and that's what helped make the show what it was... the thrill of watching ordinary people run through the supermarket grabbing whatever they could get their hands on was the best part of the show. Who doesn't want to do that? This version lost that low-budget charm which causes the whole thing to feel off.
