Who's Here to Play?

Hello fellow TV watchers.  I'm so sorry I haven't kept up weekly but instead, weakly.  I chose the title of the post because I noticed people on the competition reality shows have noticed from past seasons that any show of bad behavior will be edited to make them the villain.  Therefore, everybody is trying to be sweet, good and friendly.  The problem is, they forget it's a competition.  Where's the fierce competitiveness that people respect?  Why do they feel the need to be friends w/ fellow competitors?  It's not like they're going to be moving in next door or forcing each other to be put on Christmas card lists.  Jeez.

The Next Iron Chef: Redemption has been really fun to watch.  They have come up w/ original challenges and the chefs are quite competitive.  They have a chairman's challenge and then the 2 or 3 people on the bottom have to cook against each other w/ a secret ingredient.  The only thing about the show is, they seemed to have run out of fresh competitors.  Truth be told, I'm kind of sick and tired of seeing some of these people lose over and over.  Really?  Are they that desperate for this job?  Are these chefs not giants in their field?  Really?  I gotta look at Spike Mendelson's ugly mug again?  I'm really rooting for Chef Liz Falkner.  She is so cool and would be great to see in kitchen stadium.  I do love seeing a chef refuse to share an ingredient.  Most of the time there's plenty but the chefs just don't want to use up time hunting for it if they can just use some of their neighbor's.  Because they're all on the same level, they also encroach on each other's territory, moving pots and pans around and turning burners high and low.  That's when it gets funny because you know they do that to their sous chefs.  They've all competed before so they should know to keep a close eye on their own stuff.  Marcelle seems to have matured or they're not editing the show to make him seem annoying.  So far, it's been a really good season.  I'm already sick of seeing Donatella Arpaia again and again but I can't get enough of Simon Majumdar.  He is so cool and sexy w/ his accent and bald head. 

The Amazing Race has been in Russia.  While in Russia, they had challenges that took place in libraries, university, athletic centers and theatres.  You can tell it must be really cold outside cuz they're keeping everybody inside most of the time.  The twins, Chippendales guys and the white couple seem to not like the other white couple and connive against them.  Awww...the unliked white couple girl cries a lot about it too.   The long hair lawyer/rockers really ran into bad luck w/ their cab driver leaving w/ their bags that had 1 guy's passport.  That's the kiss of death in this game.  The unliked couple buddied up w/ the goat farmers who really lagged behind until the white couple missed their flight and found themselves w/ the goat farmers.  It got weird cuz all of a sudden, they weren't so competitive anymore and actually decided to wait for the guys to finish their tasks.  That was dumb because time means everything in this race.  In the next leg, they got u-turned.  The group of 3 teams had a really great plan.  Those twins are soooo smart.  The first team would u-turn the unliked couple and then the next team would u-turn that first team to use up the double u-turn.  If the unliked couple hadn't ran the race parallel w/ the goat farmers, they would've had time to complete both parts of the detour but nope the goat farmers finally hit the mat before them.  The wussy part was, they felt bad that they had to leave their friends behind.  Awww...WTF?  Are you in the game or what?  I'm loving those Chippendale's guys more and more each week.  They're hilarious and fun.  I had no idea one had a bum ankle in the race so they're not whiners either.  Go dudes!

Chef Race UK vs USA has finally landed on the East Coast.  They're down to 2 guys on each team.  I love that the most hated chefs are still in it but that's the way nature works too.  The predator willing to take down everybody else eats best.  The show has become predictable.  They edit and comment to make one team seem like they're going to win the first challenge and the other team wins.  Then at the cook-off, they edit it so the judges rave about one guy and sound like they're giving a bad critique to the other and then the guy w/ the bad review wins and the guy they seemed to like goes home.  Now all I do is roll my eyes and correctly predict the outcome.  I'm still giving the edge to the US team and I think Cody will win it because of the homefield advantage, his great palate and his competitiveness.  I love the crabby English guy.  He's not there to make friends.  He's there to cook and win.  You go Dude!

On Survivor, we have the group w/ the jury members.  People are finding it's not a good idea to turn on your own people.  Jeff tried to oust Jonathan and found himself booted.  The Yellow tribe booted RC and are now finding themselves on the bottom of the ladder.  Pete and Abi Maria are getting their come-uppance.  Each week Lisa declares she's not good at this game.  Ha!  She's great and plays the innocent girl very well.  I'm glad to see Michael Skupin playing smart.  He plays low key and flips when he needs to.  He and Lisa went to Jonathan first to make an end alliance.  He said he wanted to wait and see.  Wow!  Really?  He lost a great opportunity there because Mike and Lisa then went to Malcolm and Denise to make the end alliance.  I think they really just wanted Malcolm but Denise was there.  There seems to be a funny pattern.  The person voted out has always had the luxury challenge prize the day before.  Meanwhile, Carter sits around like the retarded doofus he looks like.  The Ponderosa scenes are just as fun to watch w/ RC not shy about showing her animosity toward her old tribe mates.  You go Girl!

The Challenge: Battle of the Seasons has finally gotten more exciting.  Team Brooklyn finally realized Sarah couldn't do everything herself and have become the power team.  I love Sarah, she's nice, personable, funny, fun and has that gung ho attitude but is still nice about it.  She's gracious losing or winning.  They've played smart too.  They had a puzzle that had to be replicated at another area quite a rough distance away.  They were the only team to put it together while they had the solution in sight and then transported the pieces in order.  The funny part was, there were extra pieces so the teams who just took off w/ all the pieces were quite confused at the other end.  Alton seems to have forgotten how these challenges  are.  You live w/ everybody, compete and then kick them off one by one.  He complains about living w/ the people and wants to go home but his team keeps him there.  It seems when the teams get cut in half, it's not long before the other half goes too.  Team San Diego keeps putting up the same guy to compete in the Arena and he's not liking it.  I can't wait for him to give his teammates the big finger.  You go Dude!

Top Chef: Seattle has a great bunch of chefs.  They've also brought back 3 vets and one is Stefan.  He's just as brashy big ego as ever.  I love it.  I just think he's totally sexy.  Maybe it's that Swedish accent too.  I like that the vets are proving they're not as great as people think.  They landed in the bottom their first week but they do show their experience in the quickfires.  The other male chefs seem to be too nice.  The women are tough and don't want to seem pansy.  The cooking seems to be pretty good too because the bottom dishes have to be nitpicked.  The newbies better take a lesson from the vets and stop helping each other and concentrate on doing their dishes the best.  I've seen some real kitchens.  I want to hear some cursing people!

Project Runway Allstars had a crazy USA Today promotional episode.  The designers had to do a look based on a picture from...oh who the crap cares?  This was the lamest premise I've seen on the show.  The designers didn't know if they had to incorporate the colors in the photo, the theme, or the feeling?  Oy.  I have to say, the designers just put their heads down and did the task as best they could.  Once again, Casanova was robbed.  Althea made pants that had a crazy crotch.  They were perfect for a drag queen to hide his weenie in the folds.  Kayne seems to have lost his sight because he turns out some seriously ugly stuff.  But...this time, Andre ran out of luck.  Anthony Ryan won again and I didn't really see anything special in his look.  Oh well, what do I know? 

Top Model had their finale.  This time they had 3 girls in the final runway.  That was weird and made the final judging long and crowded.  I loved that none of the girls really liked each other much.  The final fashion show was really weird w/ clothes that looked like aged grave cloths or iguana skins.  Ick.  Then they showed the final photoshoots at the final runway show.  I loved the fight ugly Cutrone had w/ the photographer.  She was imploring people, "Tell him not to treat me that way."  He was standing right there too.  Hilarious!  Leila had a mighty fall on the runway and then literally stumbled right off the runway.  Double hilarious!!!  Laura stumped down the runway and Kiara had a great walk.  I've never seen so much crying backstage.  Yeesh.  I loved seeing John James.  He's gotten older but it's nice to see actors are human and don't always age glamorously.  In the end, the judging was stupid as usual but Laura won.  Huh?  What do I know?  Oh yeah, she was the tallest girl.

The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders:  Making the Team finally ended their season.  The last few episodes were kind of boring cuz the competition was over.  After that, it was just a love fest.  Ick.  The last episode had the girls trying to be real cheerleaders w/ a show w/ stunting and that kind of choreography.  Oh!  I see.  The DCC are dancers and not really cheerleaders.

Redneck Island continues to be hilarious.  The really funny thing is, they seem to be the most competitive but I think these people truly need the money and don't hide that fact.  The games always seem to have a dangerous ouch factor.  I loved the rednecks in liederhosen trying to carry glasses of beer across a slippery surface.  There was much hitting of rumps and banging of heads on the ground.  It was very cringeworthy but funny.  None of the competitors complained or hesitated in the game.  I'm very proud to see the rednecks voting smartly.  They target anyone they think isn't really in the game or weak.  Right now, that's the way to go.  While you're in big teams, vote off your weakest links.  I like that they vote off the people who whine, "I miss my family and want to go home."  Yeesh.  They didn't think they'd be away from their family?  Do they realize they'll go home when the game is over?  Bye, ya big wussbags.

Well, that's about it.  The Christmas season is here.  Lifetime and Hallmark always have great Christmas movies.  I especially love the ones based on A Christmas Carol or It's a Wonderful Life.  This season seems to be more about romance which is kind of sappy and icky.  Oh well.  Happy Holidays anyway.  Until next time people, stay tuned.