Carefully treading the line between being a show for skaters and casual viewers

The show isn’t without its flaws, but the research that went into it and the involvement of the the skateboarding community makes it redeemable, carefully treading the line between being a show for skaters as well as for casual viewers.

One More Try is teeming with homages to classic skateboarding challenges and activities like Game of SKATE, King of the Road and the Dime Glory-style pyramid drop-in. Even the English title of the show is a phrase you’d often hear chanted in skateparks. Almost every big name to have graced China’s skateboarding scene is given screen time so it’s like a big skater career fair while giving exposure to the young up-and-coming pro skaters from China.

Although some may view the involvement of celebrities as desecrating on the sanctity of skateboarding culture, there is no denying that this show has been life-changing for all parties involved. Throughout the three months of skating, traveling, and living together, they’ve all become one family. Nobody looking at Wang Yibo today would say he’s an amateur, having taken a serious passion in the sport and ingraining himself in the skate community in the years since the show’s airing. In addition, with Wang Luodan’s longboarding background and Cheng Xiao’s fearlessness and headstrong nature, it at least feels like the calibre of celebrities chosen and their compatibility for skateboarding were somewhat thought out. In other words, they don’t suck.

The show intended to respect skateboarding culture at heart, with the producers being receptive to feedback and changing the show format mid-airing to discard eliminations and altering the challenges as the show goes.

Minor drawbacks include inconsistent editing, missing captions and chronological errors, however this only affects the tiniest demography of viewers.

Also major props go to MC Jason Zhang (章兢) who wasn’t given much credit, but his charisma shone in the arena. Even Cheng Xiao couldn’t help imitating his body language. It’s rare to find a skater that can be so proficient in Mandarin and English and announcing, it’s like this show was actually made for him. I wish he was given more screen time.

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