Judging A Book By Its Cover

With final exams complete, I have belatedly managed to catch the first five episodes of NBC's new game show, Identity. The premise of the show is simple: the contestant is shown twelve individuals standing on stage and needs to match them to their identities. Identities include such descriptions as "celebrity impersonator," "professional bull rider," "major league umpire," "concert violinist," "preacher's son," and "Tabitha from Bewitched." While the contestant gets two lifelines for assistance and one free miss, he really has no other way to quiz the strangers.

Therefore, the skill involved is effectively stereotyping what certain types of people look like and applying those stereotypes to the strangers you see on stage. In some cases, the contestant can definitively round things down. For instance, only the males onstage could possibly be a "preacher's son," and a stranger who is "57 years old" probably looks like 57 years old. For everyone else, the contestant is largely at the mercy of the show's producers. Yeah, the Japanese guy wearing a mawashi with his hair in a chonmage is probably a "sumo wrestler," but if the producers were feeling extremely devious, it wouldn't have to be. Similarly, the guy in a cowboy hat and chaps would seem like a likely candidate to be a "country/western singer," but you could throw an accountant into that outfit. And what the heck does a "blackjack dealer" look like?

Ultimately, Identity comes down to an educated guessing game. It does involve more brainpower than that psychological experiment in risk tolerance known as Deal Or No Deal, but as far as actual knowledge required, it does not even approach the likes of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire or even its unfortunate imitators Greed, The Chair, or The Chamber. It has also unfortunately imported some of the more annoying aspects of DOND, such as the host belaboring and second-guessing every decision, bringing family members onstage to convince the contestant to take the money and run, and the host faking out the contestant by throwing the show to commercial before revealing an answer over and over again.

Penn Jillette actually makes for a pleasant and effective master of ceremonies, developing a friendly rapport with the contestant with no need for the pomposity and contrived dramatics of the insufferable Howie Mandel. But when you boil the hour-long show down its essential elements, it consists of one or two contestants making up to a dozen educated guesses with a whole lot of filler. It's entertaining -- don't get me wrong -- but the pace is glacial and the amount of actual brainpower involved seems relatively minimal. It's worth watching on a slow night but it does not appear destined for the pantheon of classic game shows anytime soon. For a fast-paced intellectual challenge, I'll take Jeopardy! over Identity any time.