DJariya

Synopsis:

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson welcomes nine strangers as they move into an upscale Panamanian penthouse together, each with hopes of being crowned "The Hero." With up to a million dollars at stake, the contestants quickly realize that this will be no ordinary contest, as they must climb and hang from skyscrapers, navigate dark underground bunkers and face tough moral dilemmas. In the end, there can only be one hero, and America will vote on the winner. In the War Room, a sudden change of heart shocks the group. Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson serves as mentor and motivator to the contestants.


8 episodes ordered by TNT.

Trailer:

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Johnson has been plugging the hell out of this show on his Facebook and Twitter feeds. He seems pretty passionate about this show. Even though it's a reality competition series, I love the guy so I will give it a whirl.

DRG

Where did he find the time to do this? Between the four films that came out earlier this year and his WWE commitments...

I'll definitely give it a shot as he's entertaining in everything and I usually enjoy action-based reality competitions (hell, I even kept watching that ridiculous Great Escape show, also on TNT).

DJariya

I know. With him filming Hercules in Hungary right now, I also wonder how the hell is Johnson going to participate in the results for the season finale since it's America's vote according to the promo.

fumanstan

Thanks for the reminder, the trailers for this have me interested because of all the crazy stuff people have to do. I'll probably give this a watch.

Navinabob

As insane as his acting schedule is, it still is nothing compared to what he did for years in Professional Wrestling. No off season and on the road working for about 240 to 300 days a year living out of hotels. At least in movies you can set some roots down and live on location for a few weeks or live near where you film.

My Other Self

I can never get enough Rock. I'll be tuning in for sure. I, like others, am just really surprised he's found time to fit this in to his schedule.

TheKing

One of the contestants (the one on the far right in the video screen) is Shawn Ricker, who just recently signed with the WWE. I don't know if this show helped, but it couldn't have hurt getting some exposure with The Rock.

DJariya

The Rock was cool. I liked all his on camera appearances. He live tweeted the East coast airing from Hungary when it was almost 2am over there. The guy is really passionate about this show to do that.

Some of the contestants were really annoying.

at that lady Patty and how she was afraid to climb that flight of stairs. I know she said she had a fear of heights, but that was pretty ridiculous.

I don't know if it's just me, but the contestant who did the last challenge Dr. Dave, he seemed like such a douchebag. I don't like how he talked and carried himself. Definitely didn't act like a 50-year old trauma surgeon. Surprised that he kept the $50K

That black chick Lydia annoyed the crap out of me.

So far I would say the most interesting contestants are Shaun the wrestler, Charles the cop, and Athena the cheerleader.

I'm not sure I quite understand the concept of the show yet. I saw some of the challenges were time-driven and of course there is that money/temptation thing. Although I don't think it's as lame as that Great Escape show from last summer.

There is only 7 more episodes left. I'll willing to see if next week clicks with me more. I do like how the show is shot.

fumanstan

I enjoyed it; I liked that the challenges are pretty tough (I don't watch a lot of reality TV, so I'm not sure how it compares), and I like the integrity part of the show about keeping the money or putting it in the pot. Seems like it should make for a fun dynamic for the remainder of the show.

I agree that a lot of the characters are pretty annoying. A lot of egos, and a couple of meatheads in Marty and Shaun. I think I like Charles, not only to see an asian guy but because he actually seemed respectable to the everyone else throughout the episode.

Evan Meadow

Oh the guy just signed with the WWE? I kept looking at him wondering if he was an ex WWE wrestler and I kept checking to see if he looked like Sean Stasiak or one of the guys who used to be with WCW first then later with WWE.

Loved how he told the guys at first he had a completely different job, then cut to him later giving a fellow contestant a suplex. Guess at some point he told them he was a wrestler.

Gotta love also at 8pm time (here in AZ) TNT's letting the word "shit" fly out of everyone's mouth.

As for the doc, I'll give him tons of respect because of the story he told about him taking down the gunman at the airport. Love how Shawn was like "That's got to be a BS story", cut to the a NY Post front page verifying the story was actually true. He's had to have watched that with egg on his face.

And of course the Rock's been promoting it, he and his ex-wife are two of the producers, so their money is behind it as well.

PhantomStranger

The set-up for the show has potential, but almost off the bat I thought it had wretched casting. Reality shows live and die by their casting. Why cast the older woman willing to cry at the drop of a hat, in a competition searching for the most heroic person? There were other problems with the cast.

I'll give it another episode or two, but this could easily be a train wreck.

DJariya

According to The Wrap, this show was shot over 3 weeks in Panama last year. Apparently it was a 24/7 shoot and The Rock stayed there the entire time.

mortalplague

I like some of this show however when you Call it the Hero and try to base it on whether or not someone will be selfish and take the money for themselves. That whole point is moot as they are all there inevitably for the money. So this show fails miserably in the Hero aspect however competition wise and enjoyment factor while watching i think are quite good.

Oh i was just thinking what if in they end when they announce the winner they are given one more option. Keep the money or donate it all.

PhantomStranger

I thought the reality show which aired after The Hero had a stronger cast of characters, though it was far more of an intense endurance challenge than I've seen on television.

Superman07

I take the Hero challange and surprise temptations subtract from the total? You could win and be told your million dollars is actually $450k since everybody was selfish?

argh923

It was shot earlier this year, in March. Rock broke some of his WWE commitments to do it. He's all about the dollar, has nothing to do with "passion".

DRG

I agree with this. I thought The Hero was okay, but I'm not 100% sold on the premise and the challenges weren't that exciting to watch even though they were taking place in exciting places. There seems to be a disconnect between the challenges and the 'strategic'/social game, and it was a bit too heavily weighted toward the latter.

72 Hours, on the other hand, had a nice blend of endurance and strategy. The creators made some smart decisions: allowing the teams to make hard choices about which supplies to take along, giving them coordinates but not a predetermined path to each goal... plus it looked legitimately tough.

DJariya

Just watched episode 2.

Liked it better than the 1st episode.

at Shaun taking the $35K and then spilling the beans later on. I totally agreed with what he said in that meeting. And I don't blame him for taking it. That kind of money is really hard to make in wrestling unless you're a top of the line star.

I think it's funny now everyone thinks he's a dick for taking the money.

and man, that welt that Darnell got on his head after the wrench smacked it was huge.

fumanstan

I went and watched episode 2 just now too. While I can understand why any of them might take the money (although I still think he's a dick), the crap about feeling like he was left out and treated badly all sounded pretty silly, just like the cheerleader already jumping to that excuse too. Unless they're leaving a lot of conversations on the cutting room floor, I didn't get that impression towards any of them. The interesting thing is I imagine this open the flood gates for more people to take the offers; get it while you can, right?

Both hero challenges have seemed impossible to do in 10 minutes.

Superman07

Yeah, I noticed how everybody has quickly turned on each other and started bitching.

Marty is starting to grate on me - he needs to check himself.

So far I think Darnell and cop are most rounded.

barelypure

Except if Shaun hadn't taken the money they would have had more time to complete the 8 block SUV push and Darnell would have had 20 minutes instead of 10 to open the box. He would have opened the box in less than 20 minutes and may not have the boo boo on his head.

fumanstan

Yup, I know. I just think it sucks that the Hero challenge seems impossible to do without the extra time.

TheHive08

I'm enjoying it so far. One question - does America start voting them off 1-by-1 soon? Or do we just pick a winner from the 9 at the end of the series?

DJariya

Solid episode. I think the show is getting alot more entertaining.

at the whole meltdown in the penthouse on Athena. I'm fine with her taking the money to help her brother, but she should have been more up front about it.

Glad that Darnell took the money at the end. He's actually becoming a very likeable hero.

alfredog1976

This is definitely getting better.

Not sure why on the 3 team snake measuring challenge, Athena (or one of the guys) just didn't start inputing numbers (say + and/or - 10) from the initial size they calculated (unless you have a max number of fails, which I doubt since it's timed anyway).