This blog was originally published on elkharttruth.com on May 9, 2014.
I was bored one night, so I went to Hulu and found “Hollywood Game Night.”
I had heard about the show on Facebook, but I wasn’t sure what I was getting myself into.
After one episode, I was hooked.
It’s a kooky show. It’s a game show. It’s a celebrity-filled show. But most of all, it’s super fun to watch.
The premise of the show is this: Jane Lynch (“Glee“) plays host and emcee. There are two teams made up of three celebrities and one civilian on each side. Each segment focuses on a game.
The civilian on the winning team then picks a celebrity to play in the bonus round, “celebrity name game.” If the civilian gets 10 names correct, they win $25,000. If they get less than 10 correct, they win $1,000 for each correct answer. And, to top it off, the celebrity whom the civilian picks wins $10,000 or $1,000 for each correct answer, which then is donated to the charity of his or her choice.
Some games are simple, some are challenging, some are … odd.
In the game Timeline, for example, one celebrity, with the help of his or her team, has to arrange six pictures in chronological order. This game usually involves lots of yelling as the group shouts out suggestions for what pictures to swap.
An odd game is Celebrity Fusion in which two players from each team is shown a picture of two celebrities with their features fused together. The two celebrities in the picture share a common name. For example, Steven Tyler Perry could be a correct answer. Because traits of both celebrities are fused together, the picture looks … well, odd.
Each episode is titled based on the theme or a celebrity on the episode. For example, the season 2 episode “How I Met Your Buzzer” featured Cobie Smulders, who played Robin on “How I Met Your Mother.”
The fun is not only in the games but in the celebrities’ antics. Many episodes feature at least two people who are co-stars, dating, married or friends, so trash talking or crying foul happens almost every episode.
I think it’s worth a watch, but let me know what you think.
“Hollywood Game Night“ airs Thursdays on NBC, and you can watch full episodes online.
