03/04/07 - Reality Roundup
Just a quick few notes on last night’s realitytv shows…
Deal or No Deal: Yes, we’ve given in & started watching DoND. We held out as long as we could, but that Howie Mandel is not to be denied. And it’s not really that bad of a show, for a big old fluffy pile of empty game show calories & all. (Note: My favorite DoND model? #14, Pilar - rowr!) It was a nice convergence last night, what with them bringing on WWE wrestlers John Cena & Bobby Lashley (good guys/faces), and Randy Orton & Edge (bad guys/heels). It made for a nice episode, as the contestant was the good kind of crazy, not the annoying kind they so often get on the show.
TAR:All-Star: The good? Dave & Mary are gone, Romber finished first again, and my Blondes didn’t have to pay a price for being, well, blonde. The bad? Schmirna are still on my tv for another week! Seriously, I don’t know if I can handle another week of their drama — Charla, at least, is tough. Delusional, but tough. Mirna, though, is just flat out crazy. Afraid of fish? Check! Afraid of going to check for a key by herself? Check! Hypocritically trying to bogart Teri’s session with the airline clerk? Check! Truth be told, I would’ve preferred to see Dave & Mary stay in the race than these whack-jobs. The Guidos had better get their act together, because they are just running a really sloppy race thus far. Cha3 were, as always, fabu, and I just about died laughing when Danny made the observational comment about Charla falling in love at the finish mat…
The Apprentice 6: A double-firing is always good, especially when the Donald gets his sensibilities offended like he did with Derek’s “white trash” faux-pas. Sometimes, like Bradford in season 2, someone really is just so stupid they need to be fired for it, even when they’ve been (or promise to be) an otherwise stellar candidate. The rest of the episode was more or less pedestrian, but two things did stand out for me. First, seeing the old fogeys at the Lexus dealership reminded me of a certain Lexus-driving couple I know (right big sis? 
). Jenn & Kinetic made a really bad miscalculation about the demographic associated with the Lexus 460 type of crowd — they’re older and wanting luxury & pampering. They’re not really your prototypical go-kart driving crowd. Second, I found Randal’s constant interrupting of the Donald during the boardroom to be just hi-frickin-larious. Honestly, I think that added to his Trumpness’ general level of crankiness. The looks that the Donald had on his face made me think that he wouldn’t have minded firing Randal! Trump just pegged the unintentional comedy meter… 
So, it was a good night.
Tonight, though, will be even better, with two of my scripted favorites — Heroes & How I Met Your Mother!
-ghp
TAR:All-Star - Delusions of normalcy
I’ve held off on writing anything about the latest all-star installment of The Amazing Race. Why? Well, mainly to see how things shake down, given the somewhat strong impressions that each team created during their first stints on TAR. I had ideas going in on what I would like & dislike about each team, but I didn’t want that to (overly) color what I wrote, so I decided to wait until after the second episode, which aired last night.
I find TAR to be about the most interesting and enjoyable of the realitytv shows. For example, it has an integrity that The Apprentice doesn’t. It’s not as angsty, clique-y, or manipulative as Survivor, and it’s nowhere near as all-consuming as American Idol. It’s not perfect, but it’s darned entertaining to watch, especially when teams know that — as Rob pointed out last night — running against the course is the main point, not running against the other teams.
That all said, my three favorite teams are: Rob & Amber (aka Romber), Dustin & Kandace (aka the/my Blondes), and Danny & Oswald (aka, Team Cha-Cha-Cha or Cha3). I would quite happy if any of these three won. They’re all strong, smart racing teams, who understand the main purpose of the race. Cha3 is great because they bring a genuine niceness & laugh-out-loud snarky sense of humor (”I must’ve been a man in a previous life!) to the race. Romber is, well, Romber — they psychological sense they inject into the race is hugely fascinating, and they are funny to boot. I just like watching them, and I don’t find their status as realitytv royalty to be problematic (like so many folks seem to…). My Blondes are almost as good as Romber in terms of understanding the advantage of psychology in the race, and they race smart & hard. And they look good, too… 
The next group are teams that I respect and don’t mind seeing on my tv: Terri & Ian, Joe & Bill (aka Team Guido), and Eric & Danielle (aka Team Mashup). Terri & Ian are a love-or-hate-em team, and I like them. They race hard, but they don’t whine about other teams being “not nice” or “unfair.” Ian is brusque, but neither gives, nor asks for any quarter — and I respect that. The Guidos are a good team and I respect how they race. I could do without some of their more “life-partnerish” stuff (but that’s probably just because I find the more “Birdcagey” gayness of Cha3 to be more tolerable…). Team Mashup is interesting because they are the one new team, and while I liked the Double-Ds far more than the Frat Boys in TAR:9, I think that as Team Mashup, they work well together.
Joyce & Uchenna get their own mention, as a team that isn’t all that annoying/offensive, while still being one that I don’t like or respect all that much. I find their just-barely-under-the-surface tension & unhappiness to be sad, and I don’t like to be genuinely sad when watching realitytv. That they’re subjecting their relationship to another round of “This race will make or break this floundering relationship.” is sad. Oh yeah, and I find them somewhat annoying. I’d rather have seen Chip & Kim.
The final two teams left in the race fall into the “Get them the hell off my tv! 
” category: David & Mary (aka Kentucky/KY) and Charla & Mirna (aka Shmirna). KY is annoying mainly because I can’t stand Mary. She’s a shrew, a defeatist, a self-deluded elitest of the trailer-park, and purveyor of fine whines & double-standards. Other than that, she might be ok now that she’s gotten her teeth fixed. 
In a way, it was fun to see KY gravitate to the final team, only to turn on them shortly after feeling dissed. Shmirna truly are what many mistakenly accuse Romber of being: deluded realitytv whores. They were almost endearingly annoying in their original season; now, however, they have fully crossed the line into delusion & darned-near psychotic drama. It was bad enough last night that they fought with my Blondes, or that so much drama was generated by dragging the step-stool at the detour (”I’m bleeeeeeeding!”), but to add the scarily psycho behavior with the cab driver and the hella-delusional holier-than-thou busting on the Blondes (Raging about morals, plastic surgery, & purity of heart? Seriously? Really? Yikes!), well that was just off the charts wacko. And it’s even scarier that they meant it seriously.
As for the eliminated teams, it was too bad to see Jill & John Vito eliminated first - that was just bad luck for them, because they looked to be a pretty good contender. Kevin & Drew’s elimination last night was neither surprising nor unwelcome. It was pretty obvious that Drew was not up to the rigors of the race, and contrary to his contention last night, he seemed to have pretty clearly given up (albeit not in a bad way, if you know what I mean…). What’s surprising is that the producers didn’t know about Drew’s frailties beforehand — the race would’ve been better served if a more physically ready/capable team had been included, say Kris & Jon or even (shudder) the Hippies.
I think that this is going to end up being a very entertaining installment of TAR, despite what many critics are saying. I like what the producers did, by going with a good mix of personalities rather than just by going with top finishers. This was a lesson that the Survivor producers either didn’t learn, or chose to ignore when they put together their all-star edition.
I’m more than happy to just sit back & enjoy the fun of watching some old favorites race & interact…
-ghp
TAR:11 - All-Star teams announced
CBS has finally announced the lineup of 11 teams participating in the upcoming All-Star 11th edition of The Amazing Race :
- Kevin & Drew (TAR:1)
- Joe & Bill (TAR:1) — Team Guido!!
- Ozwald & Danny (TAR:2)
- John Vito & Jill (TAR:3)
- Teri & Ian (TAR:3)
- Charla & Mirna (TAR:5) — Chmirna!
- Rob & Amber (TAR:7) — Romber!
- Joyce & Uchenna (TAR:7)
- Eric & Danielle (TAR:9, on separate teams)
- David & Mary (TAR:10) — Team Kentucky
- Dustin & Kandice (TAR:10) — The Blondes!!!
This is a pretty good lineup, all things considered. It’s not top-heavy with winners (only Joyce & Uchenna actually won their race), but it is a very good mix of personalities. It’s hard to go wrong with the Guidos, Romber, Teri & Ian, Kevin & Drew, Danny & Ozwald, KY, & my, er…, the Blondes. The most glaring omissions that I can think of off the top of my head are The Clowns & The Hippies. An interesting team is Eric & Danielle, both of whom were in TAR:9, but on separate teams — Eric partnered with Jeremy (aka the Fratboys), and Danielle with Dani (aka team Double-D). It turns out that they’ve been dating for the past year… (see TVSquad for more info)
If any reality show can make an all-star edition work, it’s TAR!
-ghp
TAR:10 - Nice guys finish last
Go Blondes go! They’re cute, smart, perky, & determined, even while retaining the (endearing) ditzyness that is so stereotypical of blonde beauty queens.
Please, please, PLEASE — would someone PLEASE get KarLyn off of my tv! Before that happens, though, let me say this to them: Who are bigger idiots, the team who drives too slow & asks for directions too much, or the team that follows them bitching about it the whole time? These girls are the biggest hypocrites, and the most disingenuous & annoying team that this race has seen in a loooong time. There have been dysfunctional teams. There have been annoying teams. There have been stupid teams. There have been manipulative teams. But rarely has there ever been a team that is as ugly (as in the opposite of “inner beauty” — they ain’t attractive, but that’s not my point here…) as KarLyn.
They bug the crap out of me. Really. They do.
The Chos were no great shakes. I mean, they seem like genuinely nice guys & good people. Not too bright in terms of the actual purpose of the race (you know, to win it & all…), but nice nonetheless. I didn’t really like the implicit self-righteousness on the Philimination-mat (you really can’t make that kind of statement without it sounding like you think you’re better than the other racers), but I’d still rather them have beaten out their BackPack “alliancemates”.
I just hope that the previews for next week are a purposeful misdirection by the producers, as they seem to promise bad things for the Blondes…
-ghp
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