by Wesley
Home >> Alla Tu
“Euros, euros, dubidu, si no los quieres, ¡allá tú!â€? So sing the boxes who, I promise, will give you nightmares! At first I thought the show was silly: Jesús Vázquez rambling and talking on the phone with an invisible banker and a bunch of crazy people from various provinces of Spain, opening boxes at random, hoping not to open the one that’s worth €600,000 until the very end. So far, that box has never been won. But there’s something more. You start to feel like these people are your family. Take Sonia from Lleida or Oscar from Málaga. I’m ready to take a trip to go visit them! You see them everyday, happy at the beginning, nervous at the end, waiting for the day when they will answer the question correctly and get chosen to open boxes.
Some are too prudent and give up too soon, taking home half of what their box was worth, like the lady who looked like Rosa MarÃa Sardá (I forgot her name) from Ã?lava the other day. Others let avarice get the best of them and keep gambling. The other day Vicky from Madrid won a light-up pin because she chose to stick with her box until the end. Sometimes the contestants are lucky and I get to go make dinner with a warm, fuzzy feeling, like when Pascual from Navarra got his €60,000!
The banker calls and offers the contestants money to stop playing. They usually say “no� the first few times and then start to doubt. As a viewer, I never want them to stop. “Keep playing, keep playing,� I shout from my sofa. As a contestant, though, I suppose I would stop as soon as I saw anything more than €1000. Who knows? The fact is that you see the contestant stressing out on that swivel chair and feel their pain. Vicariously I have won and lost thousands of euros since I started watching.
I’m hooked; I’ll admit it. I don’t know what it is but I like the show. I’m fairly sure that it’s not in the least bit random and that every cent that goes out of there is counted for but it’s fun. No hard questions, no wheel to spin, no love to be found, just boxes.
Any one of these days you may turn on the T.V. and see Wesley from Gipuzkoa. But I doubt it. The casting directors would send me home calling me “soso…�
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Posted on http://www.weeklyletter.com at 2006-04-06 12:36:00 +0200
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There are two boxes left: €1000 and €120,000. The banker has offered you €50,000 to stop playing. Considering that you have to share half of what you win with a home viewer, would you....
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Spanish television is so bad! How can you watch it?
How diplomatic you are! You should have said “most” Spanish television.
Yeah, I think that a lot of Spanish programs aren’t that bad. I’ve never really watched “Allá tú”, but I sure am/was a fan of gameshows like “Pasapalabra”, “Cifras y letras”, “Saber y ganar” or “El tiempo es oro”. They are/were good, educational programs!
P.S. I think the best thing about “Allá tú” is Jesús Vázquez. Wapo!
Hello,
I think TV is a great invention !!!!
I think we don’t get silly from watching dumb programs but, on the other hand, TV really absorbs us when we watch it.
I usually watch TV when I want to be distracted from work or anything else, I watch it as a get-away.
When I want to watch something I am really interested in I usually watch it on the DVD player, so that I’m not tided to any fixed time when the program or the movie is on.
Wesley! ...you should go to that contest, may be they want to introduce a soso for next season programs.
Best regards,
Cristina
My wife gave me a ten-minute sermon on the virtues of this particular program…and the worst part is that she actually convinced me! I found myself caring about whether the idiot who was playing was going to make the right decision or not…I feel like punching the screen several times out of frustration after they make a wrong decision.
Of course, my desire to punch the TV screen is certainly not limited to game shows that’s for sure…...Maybe they need to invent the interactive TV that actually listens to you when you say something…that way Beckham can alleviate his obsessive, compulsive behaviour.
Great article Wes! I really enjoyed it! Keep ‘em coming!
I see no evil in game shows and contest shows (including dancing contest shows. I hereby admit that Monday evenings, for me, are for MIRA QUIÉN BAILA). They’re fun and relaxing, they can give your family a nice, fun, laughing, bonding moment, they can be instructive. Some are high-quality. How stressful life would be if everything we did had to be edifying! What’s really bad are the gossip shows…though even here, a couple are in better taste than others. In any case, “bad TV” can do good things, such as get us thinking, activate our critical powers, reinforce our criteria, diversify our sense of humor…whatever.
Oh my…the gossip shows. They all talk at the same time. Drives me mad. No, no, no. It is then when I have millions of better things to do. Cleaning the oven, biting my nails, or even staring into space are better than THAT (and more edifying!)
As for Mira Quién Baila, I cannot speak and since dancing is of no interest to me whatsoever, I will have to stick to the boxes…
Back to “SQUARE” (in this case, ‘box’) ONE for you Wes!
I am with you about “Look who’s dancing!”... I really can not speak about it either, because every time I see that it’s on, I change the channel. I feel like I am back in Chicago watching TELEMUNDO Univision… I have never seen such a mindless group of clowns… dancing around, talking about themselves wearing these jumpers and skirts that look like something out of “Flash Dance,” .... Though I must admit, I agree with Gina aboout LOOK WHO’S DANCING – it is especially good to bring family together…now that no one would ever watch it!
I spend about twenty hours a week watching tv. What I most prefer to watch in tv are news, some sports like motocycling or Formula 1 and tv series. I’ve never participated in a game show which I don’t really enjoy except “Allá Tú” but is because I’m glad to see Jesús Vázquez every day.
That’s all for now. Good Night and good luck
In general, I don’t like the Spanish TV, only I watch some documentaries and films.
I don’t have ever seen this program, but I have to recognize that I know it, becuase sometimes I have been changing of channel and I have seen Jesús Vázquez with boxes, but I didn’t know the logical game.
Reading your article, I have understood it, but I’m not very fond of this kind of programms.
Please, if you go one day, don’t doubt to tell us, we can encourage you!!!
I don’t watch a lot of TV a week. I usually watch TV news or some serial. In this latter case I prefer to record serials on video. This has the advantage of deleting publicity. Currently I was watching serials like ER, House, Galactica (on cable-TV) or CSI Las Vegas. Of course, I watch sports on TV. Mainly I watch basketball or football matches. I’m not very interested in the rest of the programming.
I think I’d never participate in a game show. I think I could be even so “soso� as Wesley.
The best, best thing about “Mira quien baila” is that a lot of money is donated to charity. Who cares if you’re acting ridiculous if, every Monday, a lot of money can go to the bank accounts of the NGOs sponsored by the contestants? “Mira quien baila” is a very socially committed contest.
You’re right, Wesley. Look who’s dancing, look who’s talking. It’s a keen interest in dance, and in dancing, including ballroom dancing (why not?), that glues me at least to the action parts (ie, the actual dance numbers, not so much the chitchat judging parts, during which I revert to my good book-of-the-week) of “Mira quién baila.� I did ballet from childhood to early adulthood and one effect of this training is liking to connect classical ballet elements to the elements of other forms of dance and dancing, including ballroom. So, when I watch “Mira quién baila,� my critical eye is on every single applied “plié� and “chassé� and every single “arabesque� and “attitude,� and I play a game with myself that consists of guessing who of those “famosos,� likeable or not, has the logic of choreographed dance truly ingrained in his or her body and psyche through a combination of nature and nurture, and who of them simply gets away with a defective or too recently overstudied “pas de chat� or “pas de bourée� through sheer cheek or sex appeal. Three or four dance numbers suffice, I hardly ever watch the whole show, really. But I wanted to explain my particular approach to it. Thanks.
Choreographically,
Gina
I think that dancing is definitely something that a person is born with (ingrained in the body). I, for one, am incapable of it. I have tried and tried and it never worked. I suppose you can see this on “Look Who’s Dancing” on a regular basis.
I have always envied those who can dance; they make it look so easy.
Impossible!
Exaggerated. And are we ever going to mention all the children who watch a bit of TV but also DO read? The children who read not only Roald Dahl and Willy Wonka chocolate factories but also Stevenson and Dickens and Twain and name me more tell me more?
Oh man, as they say in Spanish: “Wow, gottcha!” (¡Qué pillada!)...
But I must say, most of Mr. Dahl’s comments seem to be geared towards younger people’s learning experience. On that score, I would have to agree. (I thought I was hearing the voice of my own father there for a second…who, incidentally, loves ‘good’ and ‘wholesome’ television programming.) One thing is for sure though… like my father, I bet anything you want that his children, grandchildren, nieces or nephews READ!
I had to read fifty pages before I was able to watch a half-hour of television (Thanks Pop!). Television these days can certainly not be equated to television twenty years ago. The “anything goes” attitude (especially on Spanish television…) is certainly mindless…with the exception of some newscasts, documentaries or debate shows (not gossip debate shows). And I would love to hear from anyone on the virtues of “children’s programming” .... it doesn’t exist in Europe!
Deficient children’s TV programming, wherever it exists… I think what’s interesting is what parents can actively and creatively do about it and in spite of it, and what LOTS of parents did, have done, and DO do.
And to listen to voices of experience.
a mi me gusto mucho cuando entre en alla tu porque sali con mucho pero q mucho dinero y no me lo pude gastar un besazo mui grade a mis conpis i al peresentador i a la banca por supuesto dew un besazo