Territorial Bloggings

With apologies to Dean Wormer for replacing “drunk” with “lazy” in the title of this post, I think it sums up Billy quite nicely.

I really wanted the title to be “S:13 – Be careful what you wish for...” in honor of Ozzy getting his ass voted off for having been dumb enough to throw a challenge — you never, NEVER, purposely throw a challenge, because it always, ALWAYS, comes back to bite you — but he got really lucky that Billy is a complete & utter moron. Ozzy, however, is not quite the great player that he seems to think he is. The game will knock him down & out soon enough. I just hope that Cristina doesn’t get taken out in the process, as she is currently my favorite player & preferred winner.

Perhaps it was just good, persuasive, editing, but I really think that Cristina & Cece were on board to get rid of the oh-so-arrogant Ozzy – right up until Billy self-destructed in a fit of delusional babbling at tribal council. “Love at first sight”? Oh my… That was truly one of the more shockingly bizaare moments in Survivor history — it would actually make more sense if it comes out now that Billy was an actor and/or trying to get out of the game in a way that no one has ever tried before. If it’s truly on the up-and-up, however, it’s really just sad.

In the other tribes, there really wasn’t all that much going on, I don’t think. Hiki was lucky that Aito (voluntarily) imploded at the immunity challenge, and it was nice to see them get a break. Raro, was pretty quiet, other than Adam demonstrating that he’s both lazy and not too smart. Puka got some good coverage. I don’t think that Cao Boi’s seemingly annoying behavior was/is all that significant, especially as long as they keep away from tribal council. Yul has proven that he’s a very strong contender, especially now that he has the hidden immunity.

In all, an entertaining installment — a bit strange, but entertaining nonetheless.

Let’s hope they keep it up!

-ghp

The king of realitytv is back for a 13th installment – Survivor: Cook Islands (aka S:13).

Yay!

Let me start out by clearly stating that the controversial “social experiment” of initially splitting folks up based on ethnicity doesn’t bother me at all. I thought that it would be an interesting spin on things, and the first episode bore that out. It’s not controversial, at least among people capable of rational thought – which is probably why the PC Police on the left got so bent out of shape. A more important thing to note is this: as a result of the need to have four equally represented ethnic groups, the producers had to recruit participants. This is interesting because (as has been reported) it has resulted in (IIRC) a majority of participants who really aren’t familiar with the game of Survivor and how it’s played. That really hasn’t happened since the first three seasons, and it’ll be very interesting to see how it will play out.

The first episode struck me as being atypically “mature” & well formed. Usually the first episode has a very disjointed & hectic feel to it. Either the producers did an exceptional job of editing, and/or this is an exceptional group/cast. I tend to think that it’s a bit of both, leaning a little more towards the editing.

That said, this does seem like an enjoyable cast. No psychos like Shane, to be sure, but Cao Boi definitely has some potential in terms of entertainment value (his riff on the “old country” & removal of Brad’s “bad wind”/migraine was priceless!). I think that Ozzy could be a formidable player, along with Nick (if he can keep the three ladies happy & survive until a merge/twist of some sort).

No one did anything that was horrifically stupid or shockingly annoying (shades of Cirie’s fear of a leaf), although I must say that Jessica (aka Flicka, aka the-new-Courtney) didn’t help herself by letting the chickens (including Jonathan’s pilfered piece of poultry) escape. Billy looks like he’s well on his way to annoying the bejeebers out of his Latino compatriots, and Sekou certainly didn’t do anything to keep a low profile among the city dweller, er black, tribe.

At this point, my least favorite tribe is the white tribe, although Jessica’s exclamation that they were the “whiteys” was a chuckle-worthy moment. Parvati is probably the early favorite of mine to emerge from that group.

Finally, it was quite obvious that Probst is more than willing to stir the pot, what with his various pointed observations, like about how the black tribe made their decision to send Jonathan to Exile Island (btw, Exile Island looks absofreakinlutely brutal this season — it makes last season’s version look like a spa resort in comparison, if you ask me…).

In the end, Sekou’s fate was sealed when the black tribe couldn’t get their puzzle boat put together quickly enough in the immunity challenge. They worked together horribly, and then paid the price by not being able to make up the deficit. Sekou had the misfortune of being in a tribe with 2 men & 3 women, and being the more bombastic of the 2 men to boot. Thus, it didn’t really surprise me that he got voted out.

Let’s hope the quality continues nest week. At the very least, though, the fact that the preview showed a tribe contemplating throwing a challenge (in episode 2!) should mean that things will be interesting to watch…

-ghp
(btw, if you or your kids are Veggie Tales fans, then you should “get” the title of this post…)

What a great week it’s been for fans of good reality tv (and, no, that’s not an oxymoronic statement, thankyewverymuch! )!

A brief recap:

• Monday – The Apprentice — Roxanne shines, Lee leads well, & Andrea gets the ziggy that her disagreeable personality has deserved all season long…
• Tuesday – American Idol — Good performances, Kat’s yellow dress, a decent theme, good celebs, and the weakest member of the top 6 gives the worst performance…
• Wednesday – American Idol — A 30 min. results show, a Frenchie that looks like my Hammie, and Pickler gets sent packing, yielding the best top 5 ever…
• Wednesday – The Amazing Race — Interesting locales, the Frat Boys return to their barely latent homo tendencies, the Hippies & MoJo get snarky, & the whiny, annoying old folks get elimnated…
• Thursday – Survivor — Terry wins another immunity & Cirie emerges with one of the best late/end-game strategic gambits that I’ve ever seen, cementing herself as being the only member of Casaya that is truly worthy of beating Terry based solely on merit…

Yup, a good week!

-ghp

This has been a rather odd installment of Survivor.

• The whole Exile Island thing has been interesting. It’s introduced some interesting strategic elements into the game, but they are not yet fully formed — I hope that the concept is kept around for at least one or two more installments so that it has time to develop.
• I think Shane & Courtney might just be the same nutjob, but with different plumbing — mayhaps we should call them Shortney! . They’re both raving loons with raging insecurities & massively overinflated senses of self-importance (as contradictory as that might sound…). And they’re so needy that it’s almost painful to watch. The ways in which they reacted during the reward challenge were priceless. Their shock at hearing & seeing how the tribe perceived them was such fun to watch, as were the reactions of the rest of the tribe. There were too many fun little interactions to list, but it was certainly one of the most entertaining challenges to watch in quite a while.
• Casaya is starting to implode. The anticipation of watching them crumble as they needed to start eating their own was the only thing that made the boring middle-game worth enduring. Now that we’re starting to see the payoff, it’ll be great fun.
• Bruce’s departure was too bad, in that you never like to see someone leave because of medical reasons. I’m sure that in the coming days, many folks will harken back to Mike Skupin’s departure from the Outback (S:2). While Bruce’s departure is certainly sad, don’t think for a moment that it’s anywhere near as significant as Mike’s in terms of being a pivotal moment in altering the course of the game. Bruce’s departure comes during the endgame, when his usefulness as a pawn was rapidly coming to a close. There’s no way he’d get taken to the finals, because he’s quite possibly the one person who is nice/respected enough to carry the final vote against any/all comers (Cirie’s the only one close to that level of likability, while Terry might carry a level of fear/respect, albeit one that’s tempered by a jealousy-induced backlash…). Also, Bruce wasn’t strong enough to win his way into the finals. IOW, he wasn’t going to win the game. Thus, his (perhaps) untimely departure isn’t game-shaking. Skupin’s was. It came pre-merge, at a time when his tribe was physically, mentally, & emotionally dominating the other tribe, and it allowed the tribes to merge with equal numbers. This, then, allowed Colby & Tina’s tribe to take advantage of the stupidity of Kimmie in order to get Varner voted out. I will always believe that if Mike doesn’t fall into the fire, someone from his tribe (likely him) wins. Thus, Mike’s departure was a huge pivotal moment & game altering development.
• Terry is now significantly closer to getting into the finals. He got immunity without having to either win it or spend his trump card. He also will benefit from the departure of one of the only reasonable adults on the tribe. Granted, he does lose the leverage of possibly/probably flipping Bruce from enemy to ally, but I don’t think that such a course was ever going to be Terry’s best/easiest strategy for success. All he needs to do is to sit back & watch Casaya implode — because you know that they will, given the shall we say unstable personalities that are still in the mix.

I think we’re in for a very entertaining endgame, and I for one am looking forward to watching it play out…

-ghp

As I’ve been remiss in writing about Survivor the past few weeks, and I haven’t even mentioned The Apprentice or The Amazing Race 9, I figured I’d just whip off a short posting with some observations about what’s been happening on these shows…

Survivor:

• We’ve now reached the point where I want Shane to stay, if only because morbid curiosity has kicked in, and I want to see just how psycho he can really get…
• God help me, but I’m actually starting to enjoy Cirie & how she’s playing the game strategically…
• Exile Island turned out to be a very interesting twist last night, what with Sally getting sent there instead of heading to certain elimination at tribal council (and kudos to Casaya for recognizing the proper strategic move!)…
• Not only that, but her banishment might just give Sally the opening needed to really go far in the game, post-merge…
• It was too bad to see Dan sent home, but I must say that I was impressed with both his attitude, as well as with the overall mature attitude of all 4 guys in dealing with a bad circumstance…
• No new episodes for 3 weeks is not a good thing…

The Apprentice:

• It’s an interesting group so far, and the first two episodes have been quite enjoyable…
• Ivanka, while certainly being no Carolyn, was surprisingly focused & intelligent…
• Bill has an awesome edge to his comments & insights, and I think I actually prefer him to George…
• Tarek is a pompous ass, and he must be removed from my TV at the earliest moment possible…
• Brent, while certainly a wildcard (social-skills-wise), was completely in the right in his battle with Stacy…
• Roxanne is a player! I like her attitude, and I think she could go far…
• Lenny is awesome. I just hope that (as I read elsewhere) that the situation arises to get him to say the words “moose and squirrel”!

The Amazing Race 9:

• It’s great to see them back where they belong — going to foreign countries with teams of two…
• My favorite team is Dave & Lori — They’re such cute nerds! I find them hugely entertaining, sweetly sincere, and just adorable to watch & root for…
• Teams MoJo & Boricua are current favorites if only because they’re smart, entertaining, and have very, very cute girls (Monica & Desiree, to be precise… )…
• Team In-The-Closet (Eric & Jeremy) is sooo annoying — I mean, come on, could they be any more blatant in their over-the-top hetero-horndog behavior that seems to be nothing more than a dead giveaway to some painfully obvious homoerotic tendencies (ewww, why did I just type that? )…

And, finally,

Skating with Celebrities:

• I enjoyed this show far more than I ever thought I would — it was pure cheez, but it was good cheez …
• The right 2 teams were in the finals (John/Jillian & Lloyd/Kristy)…
• The wrong team won — My take on the competition as a whole, and on the finals in particular, is that John & Jillian far outclassed everyone else, technically and artistically.
• Lloyd & Kristy certainly did improve quite a bit, but not enough, IMO, to legitimately beat out John & Jillian…
• Jillian was far superior to Kristy…
• Lloyd was superior to John…
• In the end, I think that Lloyd being better than John was the significant thing…
• I’m disgusted by what happened with Lloyd & Kristy outside of the show, and that certainly tainted my reaction to what happened in the finals…
• Oh yeah, and Jillian is quite possibly the prototypical “guy’s girl” — hot, into sports, well spoken, hot, athletic, and well you know, hot…

-ghp

There’s something about this season of Survivor that I just don’t like all that much. There are some personalities (“characters” if you will) on Casaya that I just plain don’t like — I mean, come on, when Cirie is emerging as the best strategic player, if not the most likable on a tribe, then that tribe is just plain sad. And with the remaining folks that I do like on La Mina acting like strategic dolts, well, it’s getting increasingly difficult for me to care. Using sophistry to justify hanging Dan out to dry was not a good choice on the part of Terry. Austin’s young & stupid, so I’ll cut him some slack, but Terry should’ve known better.

At least Terry showed some intelligent qualities in finding the hidden immunity talisman on Exile Island, as well as in deciding to not tell anyone. So at least he’s got that going for him (sort of like Carl Spackler & the Dali Lama… ).

Mayhaps (a nice Southern colloquialism) it’s due to the start of AI:5, or the fact that we’ve been watching Survivor repeats on OLN. — but this edition of Survivor just isn’t grabbing me. Guatamala did, but Exile Island just hasn’t done it yet. It’s been very interesting watching the repeats, because I’ve been able to watch a little more dispassionately than I did the first time, and some of the strategic performances have been even better than I thought. Conversely, some folks, a few winners in particular, really didn’t deserve to win (the best example is Matthew vs. Jenna in the Amazon — Matthew’s game was really quite underrated, even though Cesternino still did the best job…). Rob Mariano’s performance in All-Stars was undeniably good, and I maintain more than ever that he deserved to win. But, as I am wont to do, I digress…

Hopefully things will get better, and I’ll care about this season more, but if it doesn’t – no biggie. There’s always AI:5, and next week The Amazing Race 9 (TAR:9 hereafter) starts up!

-ghp

Technorati Tags: survivor

Live from the Akron/Copley, OH metroplex (yup, I’m on a Territorial Roadtrip!), a quick entry, with a few observations (Survivor sometimes gets a bit tedious to recap, at least for me…):

Shane, at the risk of stating the obvious, is an absolute raving nutjob (I mean, when you make Aras, Courtney, & Cirie look normal, stable, & well-adjusted — wow!)

Bruce was, I thought, really tempting the gods of foreshadowing with his “they love me, they really love me!” commentary. He’s lucky for him that all it got him was another visit to Exile Island…

Life sucks for Sally, now that she has no alliance-mate and the tribe is suffering greatly from her having lost the spear…

CBS could easily make tons of $$$ if they decided to sell un-pixelated versions of the combat challenge video…

La Mina is still in a better position, game-wise, than Casaya; however, things could turn on a dime & for some reason I have a feeling that things are going to change soon…

It’s a shame that Misty is gone, because she was this installment’s prettiest & smartest woman…

-ghp

Technorati Tags: survivor

First off, a shout-out to all you (CCF) nurses out there — y’all must be so proud of your fellow ‘angel in white’, the ever robust Cirie! (Oh, I am so going to pay for that remark next week… )

So, what is it about this particular location (Panama/Pearl Islands) that seems to be breed folks who are even more manic & willing to quit than anywhere else Survivor’s been? I mean, really, first Osten (S:7 – Pearl Islands), then Sue & Jenna (S:8 – All-Stars), and now Shane, who just might be the most unstable castaway ever! I know that folks in the Amazon (S:6) were worried about Matthew, what with all his machete-sharpening & ‘helter-skelter’ facial expressions, but, wow! — Shane is really raising the bar in terms of making us wonder if we’re going to see our first clock-tower like psychotic break. If I were Mark Burnett, I think I’d stay away from Panama for a good while after this…

I liked the overall arc of this episode, as the use of the pick’em & Exile Island were both quite good (although, I must state that the schoolyard pick’ems I grew up with were never quite like this one — they were more like the one in S:5 – Thailand, where a captain made all of the choices…). The challenges were good, and we got some reasonable character development.

Of primary significance, however, is quite obviously the two new tribes:

La Mina — currently, my tribe of choice. I was glad to see the Dan & Terry proto-alliance kept together, and I think Misty is a strong addition as well. This tribe seems nicely constructed, stable, & quite functional; hopefully it’ll stay that way (although I must admit that Sally losing the spear so ineptly could portend some future conflict…).

Casaya — Well, they seem to have self-selected a tribe consisting of the Manson-family reject & master alliance architect (Shane — btw, “34 going on 12″? That’s an insult to 12 year-olds everywhere…), both touchy-feely nut-jobs (Aras the “psychic firestarter” & Courtney “mother-earth turtle-lover”), and the two most moronic mature matrons (Melinda & Cirie)! In a rational world, these yo-yos would have no chance & no hope. Survivor, however, is hardly a rational world, so I guess we’ll have to wait & see. (but, nah, they still don’t have a chance as long as they keep Master Detox around & calling the shots!)

Strategically, I can’t say that Casaya dropped the ball when they voted off Melinda (though I think Cirie would’ve been a better choice…), as replacing one of the “older” women with Bruce is definitely a trade up in terms of making them more physically capable during a phase of the game where team strength is of primary importance. Even so, if it were up to me, I think I would’ve leaned in the direction of taking the chance of getting rid of Shane, if only for the collective sanity & emotional well being of the tribe. Swapping Shane for Bruce would’ve been darned close to a wash physically, and it was a reasonably close enough finish in the challenges to make it worth the risk.

All in all, a good episode, and another step along the way to what looks like will be a strong & entertaining edition of the king of realitytv.

-ghp

Technorati Tags: survivor

Ahhhh, the start of another season of Survivor! The twelfth edition of the venerable Grande Dame of realitytv emanates from the same group of islands in Panama that showcased the 7th (Pearl Islands) & 8th (All-Stars) editions. This time things will be brimming over with so many chunks of game-twisty goodness that the producers didn’t even try to hide the first several twists from being talked about before the show started – to wit: Exile Island & the super-charged immunity idol hidden thereon, starting with 4 tribes divided by age & sex (older men, older women, younger men, younger women), and a “schoolyard pick’em” style tribal restructuring into 2 tribes at the end of the 2nd episode.

The Good: I like the major shakeup that Exile Island & the hidden immunity idol is going to cause in terms of game strategy. Suddenly, not being included in tribal interactions for a few days/nights isn’t all that bad a thing, when you can come out of it with an immunity idol that can be used after voting is done! This just puts a whole new spin on things, and I think it’ll make for some very interesting bluffing (as we’ve already seen in action by Misty) & rethinking of how blocs/alliances might go about voting. I also like, for the most part, the cast, as there seems to be an interesting mix of personalities.

The Bad: The three remaining older women are, quite frankly, morons. That these three, who seemingly cannot provide much of anything for themselves (and, indeed, one of which is AFRAID OF FREAKIN’ LEAVES!!! ), let their voting strategy be dictated by the one who’s afraid of leaves and who has no chance of ever helping them win a challenge (physical or mental)? Well, it’s just too bad that things are getting shaken up by the pick’em restructuring, because I’d really like to see them get oh-so-deservedly knocked off. Well, that’s a touch overstated — I’d like to see Cirie & Melinda get voted off. I kinda like Ruth-Marie thus far, and would give her the benefit of the doubt by chalking up her vote for Tina as being a moment of temporary strategic insanity…

My only other significant observation: How big of a moron do you have to be to not stop smoking well before you leave to embark on the whole Survivor experience? I mean, come on Shane! How can you set yourself up to go through the nicotine DTs during the first few days of your time on the island? Loser.

Right now, my favorites are (in alphabetical order): Dan, Misty, Ruth-Marie, & Terry.

-ghp

I haven’t written about the Fall TV season’s reality shows. I’ve enjoyed them all, but I just haven’t felt the need to express my opinions about what was happening. That was in spite of the fact that there was a whole lot of good & fun to watch stuff happening on Survivor: Guatemala, The Amazing Race: Family Edition, and The Apprentice 4. There were people/teams to love (the Linzes & Bransens on TAR), and villains aplenty (the Weavers on TAR, Judd on Survivor, and Alla on The Apprentice). Just nothing that made me feel like writing.

That continued through the finales of Survivor, where Danni’s win was a deserved one (even though I think Stephenie played a slightly better game), and TAR where the Linzes were fabulously deserving winners (though I would’ve been quite ok with the Bransens winning – just so long as the horridly hypocritical Weavers didn’t win!). In fact, I was looking forward to a relatively easy/pleasant viewing of the Apprentice finale last night, mainly because both Randal and Rebecca were such likable & worth finalists.

Little did I know that the Apprentice finale would be the one that caused me to finally write…

At this point, let me defer to one of my favorite reality recappers, over at Reality News Online, Betsy Wasser, who concluded her recap of the finale thusly:

Randal is hired.

Randal jumps out of his chair in triumph and goes to shake hands with the other candidates. But wait! There’s more! Trump asks Randal to sit back down, and the music stops just in time, leading me to believe Trump had this trick up his sleeve before this moment. This would be the point that many of my readers predicted. In a season marked by multiple firings, Trump will end with a multiple hiring, offering a job to Rebecca as well.

Trump says that he’s thinking about hiring Rebecca too, and wants Randal’s opinion. Randal says that while she’s good, the name of the show is The Apprentice, not The Apprentii, so there should be only one. Okay, Trump says. He was thinking about hiring Rebecca, but now he won’t. Randal continues to celebrate as the credits roll.

What the hell was that? Randal has been saying all along that Rebecca is a worthy oppontent, and that he respects her and thinks she’s talented. But he doesn’t want Trump to give her a job. Not because she’s not good enough, but because he doesn’t want to share the glory? And Trump decides to take the advice from someone who has worked for him for less time than it takes to pour a cup of coffee? That’s pitiful. This doesn’t have to be a zero sum “I win, you lose” game for Randal. He’d still have the job he wanted, and he’d still be Trump’s first choice, but Rebecca would have a great opportunity as well. Yet Randal refuses to share even a little bit of the glory. In that very quick moment, I was no longer able to feel as happy for Randal. This really ended things on a sour note, and I’m disappointed.

I agree. I was aghast at how selfishly & gracelessly Randal handled that opportunity. IMO, he took all the goodwill that he had banked over the course of the season, including his rep as a truly nice guy, and flushed it right down the crapper. He acted like a selfish, cutthroat, arrogant prick.

He had already won. Trump made the choice — Randal was the best. The first choice got job of his choice. He was then given an opportunity to be gracious — in a way that would have only burnished his status, and IN NO WAY would’ve EVER diminished his status as the “Apprentice.”

If the goal of the show/job-interview was truly to get to work for Trump, then Randal achieved that goal. Now, if the goal is to hog all the glory to yourself, no matter how classlessly you have to act to do it… well, then I guess Randal achieved that goal too. During a process in which Randal had consistently raised himself above the fray, he ultimately sullied his accomplishment by lowering himself to Alla’s petty, vindictive level.

And that’s sad.

-ghp