Hello fellow TV watchers. Or at least people who are interested in knowing what's going on in the land of TV. Some reality shows are wrapping up and some are just getting into the swing. Such is the ebb and flow of competition reality shows. I love that they do have beginnings and endings. Maybe one reason I don't care for voyeuristic shows is the feeling that they are never ending. Whenever I watch one, I'm always wishing someone would get eliminated. Oh well. On to the shows.
The Amazing Race went to Indonesia. All but the Monster truck couple team took the same flight. Sometimes that's a help and sometimes it's a mistake. It's interesting to note, they commented that they didn't know if they were ahead of everybody or behind everybody. We, the viewers, knew so it just made us feel bad for them. Luckily, everybody got to a stopping point w/ starting time tickets for the next day. The next morning, the teams had to do some kind of race w/ motorbikes vs. bulls pulling a human sled thing. Each team had to go one at a time so no getting ahead or falling behind there. I think the producers realized it wasn't a real contest because we only saw 1 race and then the rest of the teams just showing up at the end of it to get their clue. The roadblock had 1 member of the team pedaling a kid's ride to make it go while creating balloon animals and art cuz a lot of the balloons turned out to be hat types and that's not animals. I think the people who pedaled the merry go rounds had the advantage because they didn't have to get off the machine to give the balloon art to the next child. So when they had given each child a balloon art thing, they could move on. It was just as hard as it looked and the order of the racing teams really changed in this task. The one tall and one short men's team really fell behind because he just couldn't get the knack of those balloons. So the Sri Lankan twins and the young white couple were first out of the gate and the detour had the choice of hauling long ice blocks or setting up a fish display. The twins were the only team of the day to pick the fish and I have to say, they were impressive keeping an eye out for details and special instructions. The rest of the teams found difficulty in just finding the place w/ the detour clue. Once again, in a foreign country, make sure you have a taksi guy w/ a cell phone. 3 teams found themselves very lost and the Monster truck couple didn't take it well. I wonder what that taksi guy did to keep them in it? The finish mat happened to be right outside the market where the fish stand was and where the ice was to be delivered. The twins hit the finish mat first and they were hilarious and fun to watch. Surprisingly, the tall/short men's team who left the roadblock last were not the last to hit the finish mat. Wow! It really does prove you should never give up in this game. The young white couple couldn't overcome their bad taksi luck. No not that young white couple, the other one. It's early in the season and at this point, I'm just waiting for a few people to be weeded out so I can keep them straight.
The Food Network is having it's annual Halloween Wars competition. They take teams consisting of one pumpkin carving artist, one sugar artist and one cake artist. I'm not sure how these teams are created but some you look at and go, "They're going to kill it." and others you just hope they don't embarrass themselves. This season, the team of Ruccolo, Garcia and their pumpkin guy seem to be the shoe-ins. Richard Ruccolo has never lost a competition he's entered. Last year he did that ultimate cake competition, dropped his cake, got the boot, won his way back into the competiton and won the whole thing. How impressive is that? I love how calm he works too and he still bangs out beautiful work. The judges, I'm not too familiar w/ but I'm just grateful not to see that sour faced English lady. In this episode, Team Garcia ran away w/ the competiton winning both challenges. I knew the writing was on the wall for one team when they ended up w/ one heckuva ugly fat clown. It looked like Santa drunk at a Bar Mitzvah. Yep, the team got sent home. I don't think they were surprised either. The sugar guy was Dana. Hey, didn't he win the cake boss competition? What's going on? They're recycling contestants now?
Face Off had a really cute challenge. This time they only had one big one. The artists had to make Dr. Seuss characters from The Sleep Book. Is this an old book I never heard of or is this something from the archives of Dr. Seuss because I'm pretty sure he passed away? Since the characters were already drawn for the book, the artists didn't have to completely come up w/ the concept. The makeups were so cute w/ a lot of upturned noses, tufty hair and lotsa body fur. Roy made the whole body form and left his creature w/ a bare belly that looked a lot like a Buddha belly. It didn't seem too kid appealing to me. Laura covered her creature in black and white fur. Nicole's was a cute red thing to match her hair. The twin brother recreated the Grinch and Alana couldn't make her yellow puffball creature work. It didn't help that she started out with a feeling of failure at the very beginning. She was totally missing Rod. I didn't realize how much moral support he gave her as well as advice. The guest judge was Ron Howard's producing partner, Brian Grazer. He still has that signature frightened hair look. The artists should really ask him how he does that. Anyhoo, Nicole was declared the winner and Alana was sent home. I really think she looked exhausted and was probably ready to go home anyway. Bye! I'll miss...nothing actually. I hated her neon red hair and nose ring.
Survivor really focused on people making ousting plans and arguing. It was a little pointless since the blue team was still there. Yes, they're half the size of the other teams but they're still there. At least they showed people gathering food and cooking. On the red team, Johnathan took 2 guys to go fishing and they seemed to get quite chummy. The women of the tribe noticed. For some odd reason, I felt like all the men were speaking w/ forked tongues to each other. On the yellow team Lisa seems to be getting friendlier w/ her tribe. I don't know why they keep wanting to get rid of Skupin. He didn't win his season, he's a good worker and good in the challenges. What else does he have to do? I would also be all over that guy but I kind of have a thing for bald guys. Abi Maria showed her meangirl thing when she jumped all over her "friend" when the HII clue was found amongst the friend's spilled backpack contents. What they didn't know was, Peter just threw it on the pile and let the girl take the flack. What a turdy thing to do. Sometimes a big show of emotion can ruin your social game. At Blue team's camp, they were stating the obvious, "We need to win." No kidding! The game of the day consisted of each member carrying big balls milkmaid style over a rope obstacle and putting them into holders. They had to do one at a time. Then one person swung a ball on a rope to hit and break those balls. I was thinking, Hey! Blue team might actually have a shot at this. After all, w/ 3 teams, you don't have to win. You just have to not be the loser loser. This time the first prize was steaks and fixins. 2nd prize was fixins w/ no steaks. 3rd prize was no food and a trip to tribal council. Here's where it got unfair. Since the yellow and red teams had twice as many people as the blue tribe, they got to sit out any 3 players each. Oh come on! Give the Blue team a break. I think they should've either made all the players play or require at least 1 woman to play. I know that if all the players had to play the blue team members would've had to carry balls twice but they had heart and huge incentive to win. As it was, the yellow and red teams sat out all the ladies. OMG! At the beginning of the challenge, it seemed the red team found one of their men was kind of girly and fell way behind. In these games, you also need luck and once again, blue team didn't have it. The yellow team won the big prize and the blue team headed for tribal again. Poor Russell did not have the fortitude of Job and beseeched, berated and cried out to God for all the failure and unfairness of his Survivor life. Awww... it freaked out a lot of people including Jeff Probst. LOL! The red team traded their fixins prize for another tarp. With all the rain, who can blame them? Once again, we didn't get to see the tribes enjoying their prize. Too bad. I love to see starving people eat and it always makes people nicer to each other. At blue camp, Russell scrambled around looking for the HII. I loved the camera panning to it every 5 seconds. Too bad Russell didn't notice that. He was caught by the lone lady of the tribe. Let the 3 way conniving commence! It was predictable and amusing. What can I say? I got a kick out of it. At tribal, the Survivors were so tired and beat down Jeff had to drag stuff out of them. So we all wondered how the vote would go. Would the men vote for the lone woman? Would the 2 white people stick together? Would the older people vote out the younger? Would there be a 3 way tie? Well, Russell's luck ran out and he was voted out. Now he has even more complaints for God. As for his remaining tribe members, I think they're just fodder for the mill. If they join the other tribes or are mixed up in tribes, they're still gonners because they haven't been able to bond w/ the other players. I kind of feel sorry for them. Their only hope will be to win all the immunity challenges. Sigh...
The Challenge: Battle of the Seasons seemed to focus on the fatty Eric and his new found love from the Brooklyn team. Knight seemed to want to stir the pot by throwing peoples' laundry in the pool and generally messing w/ it. The girls were not amused. I'm not sure if he was drunk but it didn't seem so. I'm thinking he might be a natural douchebag. There were a few shots of Alton and Sarah but not much so maybe they're doing a really good job of being clandestine. Too bad cuz they're such a cute couple. For once, Trishelle hasn't latched onto a guy but the season is early. There was some fighting, shouting, hooking up and general drunkenness but what else is new? For the team challenge, it was a strength and endurance thing. Half the team was up on a platform holding onto a rope that had a large wood box on the end. The other half of the team gathered large rocks to put in other teams' boxes. Meanwhile, the people holding onto the rope had to keep the box from touching the ground. Eric proved he does have some muscle but it must all be in his legs. The other teams didn't give team Fresh Meat a break at all and filled their box first. Oh come on! It's not like Camilla can carry 2 rocks at once. Eric's rope started around his waist and he held that box of rocks up for a long time but when it came to armstrength, it was over. I loved the look of utter disgust he gave to everyone else. Being out first gave Fresh Meat an automatic place in the Arena. Oy! Team Cancun outlasted everyone and won the day. I wonder if it says anything about how strong their alliance is? Anyway, here's the part that pissed me off. The show wasted the rest of the hour showing more drunkenness, shouting, fighting and hooking up instead of the Arena. Ack! I hate that! It looks like they're shifting the sequence of the show and now the arena eliminations will start the shows. Ugh. I can't wait to see the arena because it's going to be Devyn and not Chet against Camilla and Eric and the game will be mental. Hmmm...
Project Runway was 1 show away from the finale and I have to say, it was the biggest waste of time since the finale when Mondo lost and wretched Gretch won w/ her granola collection. The 4 designers were sent home w/ time and money to do their final collections w/ the reminder from Heidi that not all of them would make it to fashion week. Oh Liar! We all know that the top 8 or so designers all get to show their collections at fashion week to throw off anyone who might notice who's who on the show. Tim Gunn proceeded to his usual visits. Christopher made a print from his mother's x-rays. Someone else has already done this and Christopher's was less cutting edge and more creepy. Also, all the clothes he's made are varying shades of black and mud. Tim also points out his love of sweetheart necklines. He encourages him to keep on working. Dmitry has lost his job and home but not heart. His designs looked quite skimpy w/ a lot of see through material and some tops that only a flatchested woman could wear. Note to Dmitry; wearing underwear as clothes was so 80's that Seinfeld made fun of it. His collection also seems to be a lot of black and white. Fabio made a bohemian resort collection w/ pastels. Tim questions the pants and asks if they can be made out of organza. I have to admit I was asking, "What's organza exactly?" I was questioning the Frankenstein's monster boots. Fred Gwynn would be so proud. I noticed the designers doing the blogs really loved this collection. Okay. Finally, Mellissa showed she's run out of original ideas. Her designs look like remakes of stuff she's done during the season. The difference is, everything is black and white. Ok! Of course each visit also has Tim meeting various people or seeing the area. The designers then come back together in a really nice place in New York. After a clinking of champagne glasses, they went to the workroom to do finishing touches on their looks. They had to pick their 3 best looks for the judges to see. Here's where it got really funny. They didn't do that. 2 designers actually admitted they didn't show their best looks. Really? Why are you holding back? It's like when they say, "I could've done better." Well why didn't you? Why are you holding back now? Then the judges pissed me off. Nobody was eliminated. Oh come on. You have 1 job to judge who's the worst and kick them off. If you can't, then I say, bring on new judges. These are worn out. So everybody hugged it out when they found they were all going to fashion week. Whatever.
A new show I found is Arrow. OMG, it's quite cool and filmed in a dark way like the last seasons of Smallville. It was the pilot episode so it established the backstory and origin of the superhero. It had a quick pace but not so quick we couldn't keep up. I've always felt that Green Arrow always was pissed off at something and now we know why. He survived a shipwreck that involved his Father, chick of the day, and others. It didn't turn out to be a Gilligan's Island thing because he was the lone survivor. He was on the island a really long time. I think his friend ticked off about 8 superbowls he missed. On the island was where he honed his archery and acrobatics. When he returned, he found his mother remarried, his girlfriend pissed off and his friends untrustworthy. Hmmm...Let the vigilanteism commence! All I can say is, I was wanting more archery and less running around. I'm hoping that in subsequent episodes, they have the 'giving the bad guy his due' thing more. In this time of tense times and nutballs coming out of the woodwork, this is a great show for something that we know we can never do. We want to see bad guys get what they deserve. God knows the police take forever cuz they have to be sensitive and PC. The courts hand down light sentences and too many bad guys don't get what they deserve and are laughing about it in their cells. It's frustrating and we want justice! We want to live vicariously through this superhero. So I hope the producers keep him mean and green and don't make him a huggable character.
Well, that's it for this week. What did you think about the shows? Do you hate non-eliminations as much as I do? Keep watching and until then, stay tuned.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment