This show is a loose spinoff of Ellen's talk show and Ellen's Game of Games, and it takes some inspiration from them - games involve putting the contestants into painful/annoying/humiliating situations (one game has contestants pelted by lots of snow if they guess a wrong answer; another game has contestants pied in the face if the opposing team scores a point.)
Now, I don't like Ellen's Game of Games, but it's hard to deny that that show has a clear voice and thing it's trying to do. I only watched one episode of Family Game Fight, but it's really hard for me to puzzle out what this show is trying to be about. In Ellen's Game of Games, the contestants screaming at the host is the point; here it seems like the hosts are more concerned with each other than anything else going on. They banter (terribly), they make jokes about each other that barely rise above "Take my wife... please!" In a good game show, the banter is about the contestants and the game's content. Family Feud hosts will react to contestant's ridiculous answers emotionally and get to know a bit about the families for instance.
None of that happens here. There are elaborate sets brought out to play 3 minutes of actual game; the sets are aggressively themed and no two themes interact or intersect. The games played are tired word games, which don't have anything to do with the sets. They're not bad games but they contribute to the feeling that this show doesn't really have anything to say, and there's this overall feeling of ludonarrative dissonance where the show doesn't really establish its "world" and internal logic. There's a weird sports aesthetic on the scoreboard that never comes up in the games.
The most confusing thing to me is that sometimes the contestants aren't even involved. The episode I watched opened with the hosts playing a game with each other, with essentially no contestant involvement: the contestants had to guess how well the hosts would do, and that's it. What's the fun of a game show where the contestants aren't the ones playing the game?
Worst of all, I don't even get the feeling that the hosts are having fun. They do not interact like normal people interact, which is ridiculous because the closest thing this show has to a conceit is that they're a married couple. It feels like they know they're on the job and have to act in a heightened way. Even though I'm familiar with both their acting work, I don't know why I should care about them in the context of this show.
If I were director of this show, my notes page would be looooong. I think the biggest change I would make is, focus on the game first. You can keep references to the hosts being a couple but the core fantasy of a game show is the contestants winning money through skill at games, and this show obfuscates that fantasy and distracts from it at every turn.
Now, I don't like Ellen's Game of Games, but it's hard to deny that that show has a clear voice and thing it's trying to do. I only watched one episode of Family Game Fight, but it's really hard for me to puzzle out what this show is trying to be about. In Ellen's Game of Games, the contestants screaming at the host is the point; here it seems like the hosts are more concerned with each other than anything else going on. They banter (terribly), they make jokes about each other that barely rise above "Take my wife... please!" In a good game show, the banter is about the contestants and the game's content. Family Feud hosts will react to contestant's ridiculous answers emotionally and get to know a bit about the families for instance.
None of that happens here. There are elaborate sets brought out to play 3 minutes of actual game; the sets are aggressively themed and no two themes interact or intersect. The games played are tired word games, which don't have anything to do with the sets. They're not bad games but they contribute to the feeling that this show doesn't really have anything to say, and there's this overall feeling of ludonarrative dissonance where the show doesn't really establish its "world" and internal logic. There's a weird sports aesthetic on the scoreboard that never comes up in the games.
The most confusing thing to me is that sometimes the contestants aren't even involved. The episode I watched opened with the hosts playing a game with each other, with essentially no contestant involvement: the contestants had to guess how well the hosts would do, and that's it. What's the fun of a game show where the contestants aren't the ones playing the game?
Worst of all, I don't even get the feeling that the hosts are having fun. They do not interact like normal people interact, which is ridiculous because the closest thing this show has to a conceit is that they're a married couple. It feels like they know they're on the job and have to act in a heightened way. Even though I'm familiar with both their acting work, I don't know why I should care about them in the context of this show.
If I were director of this show, my notes page would be looooong. I think the biggest change I would make is, focus on the game first. You can keep references to the hosts being a couple but the core fantasy of a game show is the contestants winning money through skill at games, and this show obfuscates that fantasy and distracts from it at every turn.