Review: Floor is Lava, Netflix

Review by Dave Massey twitter.com/BrumHour

I’ve been desperate to see new and original content this past twelve weeks since the start of lock-down, and whilst I wait for Dark: Season 3, The Umbrella Academy: Season 2 and whatever this Eurovision Song Contest movie is, I have discovered Floor Is Lava which arrived globally on Netflix on 19th June.

A new half-hour (or so) show based on a children’s game where there is only one rule, DON’T TOUCH THE GROUND.

Random Groups

Imagine The Crystal Maze meets Tomb Raider, CITV’s Knightmare and 1980’s The Adventure Game but with only one room to tackle. Each episode three teams of three faces the task of getting to the other side.

The teams seem to be as randomly named as the groups on BBC’s Only Connect. You know this is American as three episodes in and we’ve already had “Priests” and “Church youth group leaders” as groups, but I’m expecting “dog walkers”, “pregnant women”, “nail technicians” and “furloughed actors” to be groups in the 2021 season.

The set seems to be a CGI layout for showing the audience the routes the teams can take but then when we see the room for real it retains some of this lighting palette with neon LEDs down lighting each piece of furniture.

Rutledge

Our host Rutledge Wood, has a name that sounds like a British railway station and must be known for something as he says confidently “The winner will have the chance to meet me, Rutledge Wood” and win $10k, since he only appears on the screen for the first and last 30 seconds and just provides mildly amusing voice over I’m left none the wiser. Can I just get the money please?

There seems to be far less health and safety than in a British game show and the teams just seem to wear whatever they put on that morning. The smash their faces on chairs, tables, “rocks” and we see the action replayed from at least five different angles whilst Rutledge makes wincing noises. Shouldn’t they be wearing padding or helmets?

The other thing that lets you know this is produced in a different culture is the lack of waiting to see if the other teams finished despite them not beating the time. No dragging them to meet Rutledge for him to say “sorry team you came second, oh well you got to meet me.”

I didn’t expect to like this as much as I did and watched three episodes straight through.

Check out Floor is Lava on Netflix here: https://www.netflix.com/title/81006858

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Find Dave more regularly at brumhour.co.uk

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