Editor's Note: MTV's Ultimate Parkour Challenge premieres tonight, Oct. 22 at 10 p.m. on MTV and will air repeatedly thereafter.
MTV has long been a youth-sucking goliath; it’s bloated corporate girth waddling to the trough of whatever cool new thing the kids are into before swallowing it whole and shitting out a processed log of television banality. When it comes to so-called “extreme sports,” MTV’s bastardization squad has been on the prowl since at least the early ’90s heyday of Dan Cortese and MTV Sports. The net’s latest bid to drain the lifeblood from an emerging trend, MTV’s Ultimate Parkour Challenge contains a checklist of MTV’s crimes against its audience: bland hosts, questionable music, whiplash editing and a “competition” with judging that stretches credibility. Despite it all (and to my great surprise), Parkour Challenge is a winner, thanks largely to the assembled crew of compelling daredevils willing to jump off a roof for your entertainment.
Read more about MTV's Ultimate Parkour Challenge — and check out some videos of the competitors — after the jump.
