So I finally got around to watching the first episode last night (after it aired last week). It looks like it's not airing this week, due to NFL stuff, but should be back to 8pm Thursdays after that.
I was expecting it to be terrible, but it's better than that.
I'm not going to say it's a great show either, since it is still a typical elimination-style reality show. But they actually put some money and effort into it, and have built it out to be a professional LARP of sorts.
They have creature effects, and other practical effects in the show, with monsters and creatures. The first episode has a large ogre like creature (or something) that you see briefly at the beginning. Plus they have a cast that populates the village inside the castle, so there's typical "medieval village" sort of stuff going on in the street.
The first elimination challenge had the "Paladins" divide up into four ballista teams, to shoot at obscured targets. One person on each team took a position in a tower overhead and did the spotting. They used an archery challenge, and then a vote, to figure out who to eliminate from the losing ballista team.
I'll keep watching and give it a chance.
