End of the Season Thoughts - 2009

Some good & bad in the previous season of unscripted television. This is based on what I watched.

The good:

The Amazing Race - the tweaks helped keep the show fresh. Good locations, some humorous challenges and a great winning team in the spring edition. Nice job!

Survivor - The fall edition had the oldest winner in the 16 seasons. That made it worth it. The show needs some better twists than exile island and hidden immunity idols which never seem to work. The elimination challenges have become puzzle games - rather boring. But this is still a class act all the way. As we head towards season 20, this show still has good moments.

Top Chef - of the competition work-based shows, this one stands out. Well-produced, good casting and great challenges. Top Chef actually has made an impact in the culinary industry. Also give credit to judges who know their stuff.

The Next Foodnetwork Star - not as good as Top Chef, but very entertaining. In some ways this is more difficult because of the mix of culinary skills with television & entertainment value. The judges have a harder time because the stakes are rather serious - a television show to the winner. I'm not sure the process provides the correct result; but I find fascinating to watch.

American Idol - yes AI. There are a lot of things wrong with American Idol including its inability to get the show in the allotted time slot. But this season's race between Adam and Danny ending with a showdown between Adam & Kris gave the competition some excitement. It also marked some maturity by Fox, Idol and the American public when Adam's sexual orientation didn't seem to be a big deal.

The bad:

Big Brother - unwatchable, poorly executed, silly, stupid, vapid. It's nothing more than high school social scene which most of us want to forget.

Dancing with the Stars - I'm not crazy about celebrity shows anyways, but what makes this show unwatchable (at least without the help of a DVR) is the filler. Lots of filler. Way too much filler.

Make me a Supermodel - I actually like this show. But the judging seems way to arbitrary to me, as does the mentoring by the hosts. It's sort of hilarious hearing the judges talk about "bringing it" to the catwalk! But most of all the pick of the winner. Here's a case where I feel the producers wanted a good story rather than the correct result. There was a clear favorite whom suddenly in the final was eliminated first. It didn't make sense to me and ruined the season.

Hell's Kitchen - this is certainly not Top Chef. Chef Gordan Ramsey may be a world-class chef and restaurateur, but I can't understand his foul-mouth and over-the-top behavior, which seems very unprofessional - even if it is good television. Also the casting seems designed to find contestants that are way over their head as far as the skills needed to win.

I'm a Celebrity - Get me out of Here! - currently running. This show failed when it was on ABC during the heyday of Survivor. It's no better now. But you have to be stunned by how low they had to go to cast it. When you get the wife of a disgraced politician who needs the money - you really are at the bottom of the food chain.

The ugly:

The Celebrity Apprentice - as noted above I'm not a fan of celebrity anything. Why bother. But this season of Trump's self-indulgent, dishonest, product-placement schlock fest hit an all-time low. Hard to imagine that it could be worse than the last incarnation of this self-serving show that NBC should be embarrassed to put on. But oh yes. This hit a new low. First we have Andrew Dice Clay and Dennis Rodman. Why would you have either of these people on a show connected with charity? But there they were. Thankfully Clay was gone quickly. What i particularly enjoyed about him was his total self-delusion as to that he is the "greatest stand-up comedian of all-time." Yeah, sure. Rodman with his eratic behavior, violent outbursts and on-camera inbreation should have be tossed early as well. But no - he was allowed to continue on until some of the others wanted to put him directly into rehab.

But it was the Rivers women that made Omerosa look like a polite, reasonable and responsible person. That really takes some doing. I won't recount all that went on, however Joan Rivers was the leader in the name calling. It was amusing to see daughter Melissa storm off the set when she got fired. Melting down in the most unprofessional manner and showing why she & Joan probably got tossed from their various gigs on the red carpet. Joan used language in attacking Annie Duke that was unacceptable. Personal, mean-spirited and nasty beyond anything that should be on network television Joan Rivers was rewarded by Trump with a win and a check for her charity at the end.

As a poker player continually insulated by Rivers' slurs about poker players I have to say I'm stunned that Trump didn't defend his casino customers and instead seemed to think that Annie Duke, was the aggressive one. What a joke. The fix was obviously in from the moment that Rivers returned after quitting the show.

NBC wake up! This is not the man you want as a business partner. And shame on Mark Burnett who is really better than this.

Slow Week for Reality Shows

Not much has happened in the last week or so. On Survivor we had another medical elimination. Has Survivor gotten more dangerous in the last few years? I don't understand why they would allow some one's injury to become life threatening. When a cast member gets a puncture wound it seems to me to be reasonable to treat it with disinfectant or whatever rather than let it become infected to the point that the guy could lose his leg. But what do I know?

The sad part was that Joe's medical emergency killed what could have been a very interesting tribal council. We shall see if tonight proves better.

Over at The Amazing Race the season continues to have a rather sick sense of humor as it come to challenges. The detour was hilarious and disgusting at the same time. Who dreams up these things? Either spend time trying to fit dentures into people's mouths or go on a taxi ride with transvestites. As a cast member you had to have a great sense of adventure and humor. Everyone acquitted themselves well here.

But we did see what was the second longest time penalty ever given on TAR. A four hour one given to our brothers team (the height challenged stunt men) for bartering personal possessions for payment of a taxi ride. Guess you can't to that. It sort of makes sense although I'm not sure exactly when this rule went into effect, I'm guessing around the time they eliminated the non-elimination leg penalty of taking all your possessions away from you. We also had another new one to me, you can't check in at the pit stop without your travel documents. That seems fair and reasonable. Did the contestants know that?

By the way do you know the longest time penalty ever given? I believe it's from season 1 when they gave team Quido a half day penalty for not taking the proper train. There might be a close runner-up for the four hour penalty when Rob & Amber were given a multi-hour penalty for refusing to continue doing a road block. (Eating some disgusting food).

I have to mention The Celebrity Apprentice, although briefly. I continue to watch because I'm a huge fan of Annie Duke, a professional poker player that has always been a class act as far as I'm concerned. There seems to be a battle between her and Joan Rivers, and to some degree Rivers' daughter Melissa. Rivers has crossed the line from being a competitor as well as mother-hen to her daughter to a truly nasty old lady. She has taken what seemed as a very slight misunderstanding with Duke and turned it into something that is out of control. What's interesting is that Joan Rivers has gone out of her way to say very, very demeaning remarks about Annie Duke's character. While Duke hasn't returned the fire at least on camera, Rivers and her daughter continue the onslaught. I wonder how all concerned will feel after this airs.

Rivers probably doesn't care and when she said that poker players are inherently liars and dishonest I found that very offensive. Cross me off as a fan of hers.

Competition Food Shows - Chopped!

After the demise of NBC's The Chopping Block, we can appreciate how difficult it is to create a good competition food show. It takes several things: good hosts & judges, great contestants, a simple and easy-to-understand structure, and high-quality production values. Bravo's Top Chef certainly delivers all the way around. Top Chef has become an influence in the restaurant industry just as American Idol has become somewhat of a player in the music industry.

I think The Chopping Block failed in the most important aspects. First of all - it wasn't original. It is a rip-off of the British series Last Restaurant Standing. It also took aspects of Top Chef's most popular elimination challenge - restaurant wars. This is not necessarily a deal breaker, but when you add a "host" who was so laid back that he tended to be boring or worse, incomprehensible, with a badly cast group of contestants - there is a toxic mix that made the show rather a dreary experience.

Marco White was just too much of a downer. He may have been the guy who made Gordan Ramsey cry, but he displayed little more than a sullen personality in the three episodes that were aired. The casting was wrong - the teams selected didn't really seem to have what it would take to run a restaurant in New York.

I also think a mistake was made in using a different critic as a judge for each challenge. While Top Chef has a guest judge each episode, they keep the core judges the same. This allows us to get to know the judges, what they like and dislike and makes them personalities that we enjoy. The Chopping Block basically used people that were in and out and we had no idea of exactly what they were doing. It made the process more detached and seemingly arbitrary - always a bad thing for this sort of show. (One only has to look at the Celebrity Apprentice to get an idea of how arbitrary eliminations create craziness.)

It's a shame this show failed because the concept is not all bad and it would make a nice summer unscripted show if executed properly. We probably won't get another chance at it, instead getting more of Ramsey's Hell's Kitchen, not high on my list of entertainment. It also makes me respect the efforts of those associated with Top Chef and another less glamorous show, The Next Food Network Star.

The announcement of Top Chef Masters on Bravo this summer points out that you can take from other concepts and possibly fashion a great new show. Masters looks like a cross between Top Chef, and Iron Chef America with a bit of Celebrity Aprrentice thrown in. Starting June 10, 2009 it might prove to be the perfect summer show!

Shame!

Well this week's The Celebrity Apprentice hit a new low for that series, and that's saying something. The task, running a luxury hotel, was probably the most difficult task ever done on the show. Definitely didn't look like fun. The "guests" were some of the most demanding and obnoxious types you could imagine. I'm sure that their behavior was scripted by the producers to create maximum grief and chaos for each team. I find it difficult to believe that a high-end hotel would allow someone to bring their dog into a suite. But what do I know?

The problem wasn't the task or even the teams. The problem was Dennis Rodman - a train wreck waiting to implode. He didn't disappoint. As project manager he went down in flames. But it's the reason he failed that brings this episode into an all-time cringe inducing disaster. Rodman obviously has a drinking problem. It had been evident in earlier episodes where he was downing ever-increasing amounts of booze.

This time he gets smashed on camera and becomes totally incoherent and out of control. In what has to be one of the most uncomfortable moments on competition unscripted television, Trump and fellow cast mates do what amounts to an intervention. Telling Rodman he has a problem. Ok, was it real? If felt real and uncomfortable for all concerned.

That's not my gripe. Why in heaven's name did the producers cast Rodman to begin with? It would not have taken much research to know he had a serious problem. Shame on you. If you didn't know you're incompetent. If you did know and thought it would make interesting television you're scum.

What's Been Happening? - Not That Much

We seem to have hit a mid-season lull in several shows, most notably, Survivor and The Amazing Race. The last couple of weeks haven't shown much excitement in either show. Survivor suffers from the tendency of both tribes sort of hunker down getting ready for the merge. The only interesting item was that Taj gave the individual immunity idol she found to her new alliance partner Stephen.

I can't understand that move. I would never give up possession of the idol, particularly not before the jury portion of the game. Your so-called alliance could easily get you voted out and you have little recourse. Stephen seems to understand that, so we will have to see if this works out for Taj.

A good twist about now would definitely help shake up things before the merge, but I'm not optimistic. The NCAA basketball tournament always forces a break in the season, this year CBS seems worried about post-break viewing as evidenced by the number of commercials telling fans when and what time it will appear. Although the idea that a "clips" show is a new episode is laughable at best.

Over at TAR the good news is that the legs have gone to very interesting locations. The idea of traveling on the trans-Siberian railroad was great. The scenery has been spectacular and there have been more whimsical challenges this season than before. The run through town in your underwear in -4 degree weather was hilarious.

There just hasn't been much drama. Everybody is behaving rather well, there haven't been any disastrous decisions. We have had the first of two, or is it three, non-elimination legs. The now used speed bump was in play the following leg and I think the flight attendants might not have been eliminated if they had not had to do the speed bump. The stunt men made a clearly wrong choice in the detour. Never, ever, pick the task that involving searching for an object if the other choice is at all doable. It looks like it almost cost them the race.

Both shows have been holding their own in the ratings as there seems to have been a general surge in ratings for established unscripted shows. (The Celebrity Apprentice seems to be the exception. More on that later.)

Survivor: What Happened?

It's not a good thing when three days after Survivor airs I can't remember what happened. I think there were some challenges and someone got voted out. I don't remember exactly why, something to do with a poor performance during the immunity challenge. Yawn.

The tribes do seem to be playing the game as they are paying attention to who goes to Exile Island and why. That might make for something more interesting as we approach the merge. Survivor has just been renewed for seasons 19 & 20, making it the longest running reality competition show currently on network television.

In most recent seasons the game only got interesting after the merge. Let's hope that holds true this season.

A Few Thoughts About Celebrities & Reality TV

Bad idea. Why is it necessary to have third or fourth tier celebrities on unscripted competition shows? The Apprentice wasn't such a bad concept until Trump & the producers made it into one giant product placement. Then to resurrect it they decided to bring in celebrities to compete for charity. First of all, I don't like the charity angle at all. While some money is raised for charity let's not forget that Trump, the network and others are making significant money off of this show. So it's really not about charity. I guess the most interesting thing about this show is how poorly some of these entertainment types behave.

The Apprentice casting is particularly suspect. Andrew Dice Clay? Dennis Rodman? Really? The best part of Clay's brief appearance on the show was his claim to be the most famous comedian around. Hah! That was the funniest thing he said in the two hours on the show. Rodman's behavior makes you question the sanity of allowing him on the show in the first place. He obviously has no interest in the concept of the show other than continue his brand of total self-centered freak show. Who cares about watching these celebrities put the squeeze on their friends for dollars. As a poker play, I happen to love Annie Duke, but that's not enough reason to care about the outcome.

Dancing with the Stars is another matter all together. The concept of this show is to take minor celebrities and see if they can dance at a decent level. This show seemed charming the first season, and ok the second. Now it seems tired and bloated. Some people can dance, and others can't. Is that entertainment? I'm not sure. Would the show work with regular people rather than stars dancing? It might be worth a try - but I'm guessing, probably not.

Mark Burnett, the producer of Surivor and The Apprentice was once asked if he would put celebrities on Survivor since there had been some interest in that concept. He indicated that he thought that would kill the show. Agreed. But about that time I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here, a hit in Britain, was imported for a summer run on ABC. It was terrible. But now NBC has announced another try at it.

My response is get the celebrities out of unscripted competition shows. They get enough exposure.

Survivor: Don't Get Sick!

I'm late with last week's Survivor comments partly because I didn't watch the show live. For years, at least through season 15 I sat down every Thursday evening turned off the phone and spent 60 minutes in front of the set. Not any more. The DVR (the greatest invention since electricity) and the sameness of structure of the show has lessened my interest.

In Survivor getting sick means almost certain elimination. I'm amazed that more people haven't gotten seriously ill over the last nine years. We have seen injuries, emotional melt-downs and some quitters, but only a few people actually got sick. Unfortunately Jerry could not handle it out there. And in true Survivor fashion the tribe decided that the one unforgivable sin in the game is to be physically incapacitated. So out he goes - even if they all liked him and had someone else in mind.

Not much more to comment on in episode 3. The only thing that interests me is the strategy of sending the same people to Exile Island. I guess one line of thinking is to make sure you only have to deal with one person potentially having the hidden immunity idol. Makes it easier to force it out later in the game. That never seems to have worked in the past. But we shall see.

Of more interest is the possibility of a cross tribe alliance this early in the game. I don't remember any such attempt previously until tribes were scrambled before the merge. The twist of having two people from opposite tribes at Exile Island might make for a very different game.

That would get me back in front of the tube live on Thursdays.

The Amazing Race - My Brother's Keeper

The Amazing Race is not just about the roadblocks, detours and route information. What makes it compelling is seeing how two people work as a team under very stressful conditions. In past seasons we have seen some truly psycho personalities at work. Who can forget Johnathan hitting his wife? Recently the producers seem to have moved away from the freak show giving us more stable people that sometimes have a melt down. That makes TAR a class act for reality television.

On leg 3 we saw two teams get some very bad breaks and both handled it rather well. Tammy & Victor had a rough day. First out of the pit stop they were way ahead when they were the only team to make a 3:40 flight only to have the flight turn return to the airport because of mechanical problems. Because of that they missed the next flight and had wait until the last flight of the day. Not once did we see them act out due to what certainly had to be a major disappointment.

But it only got worse for them the next day when Victor made a disastrous mistake following red & white markers rather than the standard red & yellow route markers even when Tammy told him he was wrong. Exactly how much time this cost them is hard to know, but it looked as if it would cost them the race. There was a bit of tension but it never broke out into a real battle. When they hit the pit stop Victor was visibly distraught even though they were not eliminated. You had to love this brother & sister team because Victor knows he was too dominant and Tammy wants to learn to speak up more when she feels she's right. Good for them. I like them.

The eliminated team was one that we had not seen much from so far. Unfortunately Brad and Victoria did something that TAR fans encourage: they gambled big at the airport. This older couple decided to try to make up some time by taking a connecting flight through Amsterdam that would have given them a several hour lead. This is a tactic you only want to take when you are near the bottom. As most regular travelers know, flights are never on time anymore.

And that is what happened to this team, they missed their connecting flight and were forced to stay overnight in Amsterdam putting them a good 1/2 day behind the rest of the racers. Yet they never went ballistic, there were no complaints. It's a shame to see them go, and for once TAR has no older team left in the race. CBS prides itself on the diversity of their reality show cast, but you can't always control the outcome.

I have a favorite team now. Let's see if I'm right. Amanda & Kris get my backing partly because they are from San Diego where I spent the previous 14 years before I moved to Arizona. Also because they are young, athletic, focused and were able to recover from a serious mistake by keeping cool.

Top Chef - Why would you do that?

Top Chef season 5 ended with a thud. The blog sphere seems outraged with the outcome, thinking the third best chef took the honors. Hosea was never a top performing through out the season, but he made the fewest mistakes in the final elimination challenge and won, by default.

Stefan, the favorite going in came in close second. Carla came in third.

My only comment: why do contestants do something incredibly stupid in the finale? Carla took advice from her sous chef, Casey, and went down in flames when she didn't cook her own style. What interests me is why Carla would have listened to Casey who notoriously chocked in the finale in season 4. This was not the time to lose your self-confidence.

I wonder if Stefan had watched previous seasons? Every time a chef decided to freeze a protein or used a frozen protein the results were not good. Yet he chose to do just that. Also it seems that having several options for a course never works out that well. Stefan decided to have a plate of various desserts. All of which might have be delightful, but when thrown together seemed out of date in presentation and selection. One great dessert, which Stefan certainly had the ability to pull off, might have won him the title.

I'm looking forward to the reunion show to hear some explanations of what went on. As I mentioned earlier, unscripted competition reality shows rise and fall based on their casting. Top Chef certainly is at the top of the food chain for what they do. I think they just got a bad crop this season. That's the luck of the draw. They can cook as evidenced by the results of the masked ball challenge.

One last thing. There has been general disdain for caterers in this competition. But the two "favorites" of the final three were caterers.

The Amazing Race - Oops Wrong Turn

Episode 2 of The Amazing Race was a repetition of the first episode: A very dramatic fear of heights roadblock coupled with a hilarious detour. I won't recount either other than to say again TAR gets credit for outstanding camera work within a beautiful setting. Who wouldn't want to fly off that hill and glide down from 6,000 feet over a stunning valley?

Unfortunately for our eliminated team, one team member took the wrong way down the hill and got lost - costing them the leg and the race. That's too bad because this team deserved to see the world a bit longer. But sentimentality doesn't win this reality competition. So Phil gave them "you're the last team to arrive. I'm sorry, you have been eliminated."

The detour featured two choices which were a bit deceiving. The one that at first seemed more difficult - an obstacle course race on a motorized device - turned out to be rather easy. The other was a classic TAR detour. Find one object among many. I hate this challenge it always seems to upend the race with good teams getting very unlucky. However this time I couldn't help laughing as the way to find the correct cake with the cherry filling was to throw it in the face of your teammate. Very funny.

It's nice to see a reality competition show that doesn't take itself too seriously even when the prize is a cool million dollars. It's also nice to see that CBS hasn't cheapened it up like NBC. You go on a CBS reality show and win and you get paid off very nicely.

Kitchen Hell - Fry Me a River

There is so much to say about Hell's Kitchen I don't know where to start. So I will give some random thoughts and spread comments over several blogs over a few weeks as the season progresses. There's a minor connection to this show and myself. The winner of season 1 of Hell's Kitchen briefly lived in Sierra Vista, AZ after the show aired when he burned out in Los Angeles and decided to take it easy in a small town where his parents currently live. He became the chef at the country club in our small community. I wanted to meet him and ask some of the questions below - but never got the chance. Darn.

• Is Gordon Ramsey really the foul-mouthed, obnoxious man who throws things in the kitchen, that you see in this series?
• Why are contestants selected that obviously don't have line experience?
• Why cook beef wellington, a dish that I have yet to see at any fine restaurant and would think that Ramsey does not serve at any of his restaurants?
• Most dinner services in Hell's Kitchen take at least an hour to get out the entrees, is that really acceptable?
• At what point does Ramsey's abuse cross the line into something unacceptable even for reality television?
• Why do so many chefs smoke? I would think it would ruin your palate.

Next time: the challenges - they seemed designed to humiliate rather than find a winner.

Survivor: Exile Island Buddies?

The second episode of Survivor really didn't have the much going for it. Exile island came into play, not my favorite twist, and since it's been in many previous seasons it's hard to call it a twist at all. One would expect the cast to expect it.

There was a twist to the twist. This season, as in the past, the winning tribe at a challenge picks someone from the losing tribe to go. However after that pick, the losing tribe picks someone from the winning tribe to go as well. Well that's interesting. Could make for some interesting strategy sessions.

A final twist to the twist is that when the two exiled survivors get to exile island (it didn't seem to be an island this season - rather a spot along a river) they must choose from two urns, one of which has a clue to the hidden immunity idol. One is empty. We will have to see how this plays out - if the two exiles decide to work together to find what seems to be two idols back at their camp. If both found idols that would make a very formidable team later in the game.

The rest of the episode was very standard, although no separate reward challenge. The elimination challenges are getting very physical, a trend I'm not crazy about. That definitely encourages elimination of the less athletic and physical early on.

A last thought: After someone was voted out at tribal council, Jeff Probst again commented on how they were blindsided. Nonsense! Just because someone wasn't expecting to go home doesn't mean they were blindsided. At this point in the game alliances are not that strong to consider actual betrayal. Probst should stop trying to amp up the results. We all know a good blindside when we see it.

Top Chef - Twist Me One More Time

If you love reality television, you have to love twists. The trick is to get a twist that makes sense and does not come completely out of left field. Top Chef pulled off one of the classics, bringing back eliminated contestants for one final shot.

The last three eliminated chefs were brought back for a quick fire challenge, the winner would move on to the elimination round against the four finalists. Wow, nicely done. The show's producers have done this at least once before in their other show, Project Runway. In that show, as I remember it, several eliminated designers who had previously won were brought back for one more elimination challenge. In both shows the resurrected cast members had to WIN the elimination challenge to move forward.

Survivor may have started this trend long before with the ghost tribe in Survivor Pearl Islands. At that time it was controversial because in Survivor cast members vote to eliminate others, not expecting them back. Remaining cast members and fans were rather upset about that twist.

But Top Chef made it work. We had five chefs competing for three spots in the finale. Jeff, who had won the quick fire, came close to winning the elimination challenge but was eliminated with fan favorite - and certainly the most charming chef, Fabio. Villain Stefan squeaked by and showed why he is the villain with a cocky attitude and a sub-par performance.

Carla continues her strong stretch run. I don't see her winning the whole thing, but it will be fun to watch next week.

A final comment, if the FoodNetwork or Bravo doesn't snatch up Fabio for something they are fools! He might not be the best chef, but neither is Paula Dean. This guy is camera friendly.

American Idol - bye, bye Tatiana

Hey, I thought American Idol was cutting the results shows down to 1/2 hour. Apparently not at least for now. So we got way too much filler including the cringe-inducing group number and a duet by season 7 finalists. That was one weird number. I liked Michael Johns previously but somehow he and Carly Smithson together turned into some bizarre over done lounge act.

AI keeps up the humiliating results formula. How awful to be eliminated and then sit there for another 45 minutes trying to smile. It looks like America got it almost right. The female pick was clearly the best. Danny looks like the front runner right now based on his ability and back story. The other guy was put through cause he's a nice guy. That's OK. I might have picked someone else - but no gripes so far.

Oh, one last thought - thank God they got rid of Tatiana, another week of her would be the equivalent of water-boarding.

American Idol - Three Weeks of Hell

American Idol has moved into the live performance rounds with the top 36. From what I saw and heard tonight it will be a very long three weeks until we get down to the top 12. What a dreary, long, and at times wince inducing two hours that should have been done in 90 minutes at most.

One change that would certainly help is getting rid of parents, love ones, friends, etc. who have to smile bravely to the camera and Ryan Seacrest after Simon Cowell had taken a hatchet to their hope for fame and fortune. The DVR comes in handy here so you can fast forward past the awkward moments. Unfortunately if you decide to listen to the singing most of it was terrible.

One, perhaps two singers were memorable and perhaps two more were passable. That makes you wonder if the audition process really works. Perhaps it's nerves that trips up performers that might be better than they showed tonight.

1 out of 12 is 8.5% success rate. Nothing more needs to be said.

The Amazing Race - Cheese Wiz

I'm delighted that The Amazing Race (from now on referred to as TAR) is back for another edition on Sunday nights. It is probably the best produced of the competition reality shows and that's why it continues to win Emmys. This season can see some cosmetic tweaks to make the show a bit more exciting. Unfortunately, Direct TV decided last night to periodically scramble both the picture and sound so viewing wasn't optimal.

There are new graphics, new title sequence and some streamlining of the actual race. No long driving sequences getting from the start to the first airport. Also it seems as reported elsewhere that we will not be seeing much action in the airports. It does get a bit boring watching everyone get airline tickets.

Viewers are also getting more of the travelogue aspect of this unique show. We saw quite a bit of the beautiful scenery in Switzerland last night. Leg 1 was a typical TAR leg incorporating two trademarks of the show.

First up was the fear of heights roadblock. The first challenge of the race. And they put it right out there with a bungee jump off a dam that looked truly terrifying to me. What I enjoyed about this task was the great camera work, seeing the jump from numerous angles that gave you a real feeling for the heights involved. Very, very good start.

Then on to a task that was TAR at it's silliest and best. It sounded simple, and looked, well not that hard. Go up a hill and carry down 200 pounds of cheese in 50 pound rounds. Apparently a steep, wet hill, high altittude, and very flimsy wood carriers made for a hilarious if not stressful physical challenge. I loved watching these large cheese wheels careen down the hill at ever faster speeds, crashing into anything in their way.

One issue that this task brings up is that we are not made aware of exactly what the rules are for a particular task. It seemed the task was to go up the hill and using the wooden carriers, carry down the cheese. That's not how it went. With some teams sliding down the hill with their cheese to others carrying it or chasing after runaway cheese! It would have been nice to know what they were allowed to do.

The 11 teams seem like a good cross section of humanity and no one stands out as a pyscho competitive nut - yet. One team got eliminated which is always heart breaking so early in the race. I have a favorite - but I'm waiting at least one more leg to commit.

A good start to a class act for reality competition. To get maximum enjoyment out of TAR, watch it with others and laugh, comment, and root for a team - it makes it all much better.

Top Chef - Final Four - Yawn

I love Top Chef. I really do, and I know nothing about food. In fact I'm a very picky unsophisticated eater. Most of what they make on that show I wouldn't touch, even in a Survivor food challenge. But among what I call the job competition shows, Top Chef stands out way above the rest. It is the one show that seems to have had some impact on the industry it showcases. Well I guess you would have to add American Idol to that list, but that's another story.

Unfortunately a truism of reality shows is that the show is only as good as the cast. Sometimes the people competing turn out to be duds. Season 5 of Top Chef features a cast that, on paper, should have been great. But a combination of challenges that didn't seem to work with a cast that never really stepped it up, we are now down to the finals with four chefs that haven't left much of an impression.

This season we didn't even get a lot of drama or a real villain. You can't call Stefan a villain, the guy's a sweet heart. Egotistical - yeah - but why shouldn't he be? Think back to previous seasons Stephan doesn't even rate in the top 5 of nasty ***holes.

I don't have a favorite now the Jamie is gone. That's a bad sign, but I will pick Carla just because it's so perverse to do so. Let's hope we get some good cooking at the finals.

Survivor: Off to a good start

The 18th edition of Survivor is off and running. First, let's talk about names and I don't mean the names of the cast members. As the series has aged names have become more obscure and more difficult to pronounce. Explain "Tocantins" to me? Much worse are the tribe names Jalapao & Timbira (I had to go to a recap site Reality News Online to get spelling). Tribe members should not have to take lessons to learn how to pronounce their tribe's name. What happened to names like Survivor Africa, or Survivor Pear Islands? I see next year's edition Survivor Baluchistan, that will make a great t-shirt.

On to the first episode. I am a fan of twists and trying to keep the show fresh, which after so many seasons is getting to be a big chore. Usually the twists don't work - I'm still not a fan of exile island. But I will give the producers props for the first twist right out of the start. What looked like a brutal and rather cruel vote-off eliminating one player from each tribe before the game even started-turned out to be a brilliant study in group prejudice.

I was sure that the oldest or weakest would get the cut and sure enough the one clearly older woman got picked as well as someone (a younger women) who looked sick. This was all done without anyone even knowing each other's names. I have big issues with casting only one or perhaps two players in the 50s. Just think back to season one, would Rudy even get a chance now?

I'm guessing that the current cast had not seen season 17 where Bob, the oldest survivor ever to win, proved that age isn't a disadvantage in the game.

But the twist proved much more interesting when Probst clarified the remark that the two voted-off tribe members would not be making the journey. What he meant (ha!) was that they would not be making the 4 hour trek to each tribe's location instead they would be helicoptered in to the site. Score one for the producers. Now each tribe had to deal with a member who clearly felt screwed.

A final study in psychology occurred when each of the voted-off survivors had an immediate choice when they landed at their new home: search for a hidden immunity idol or work on building shelter for their tribe who were hours away. Here I think the show got very lucky - one survivor opted to search (rather ineffectively I thought) for the idol while the other decided to work hard to build shelter to impress those that had already signed her death warrant.

The rest of episode one was pretty standard. An immunity challenge that had three parts - none of which I found interesting. Then the scheming starts in the losing tribe and someone gets voted off. No big surprises here.

Not a bad start for the season. But I find myself wanting to skip a lot of silly bitching and just letting them vote.

I'm Back!

After a long absence, I have decided to take another shot at blogging. Since both Survivor and The Amazing Race are starting up this week, it seemed like a good time to get back in the swing of things.

A few things to set the tone:

• This is a not a recap site. There are plenty of them, if you don't have a DVR (I got one last August, it's the best invention since - well the VCR) then go to the recap sites, I will not waste your time with endless recaps.
• I'm rather snarky about my comments. I like un-scripted (reality) television, but come on, some of it is so stupid that it makes your teeth ache. When I like something I will tell you, and when I don't - that will be much more interesting reading.
• I don't cover everything. Well who does? Shows that interest me tend to be "quality" shows. I use the term quality loosely here. I watch regularly Survivor, Top Chef, Project Runway (if it ever airs again!), The Amazing Race, and a few others that might show up soon. I watch on occasion when it moves me - The Apprentice (more on that later), American Idol (if that counts), any or all of the Housewives on Bravo, and my all time favorite bottom-of-the-barrel guilty pleasure favorite Big Brother.
• I'm lazy. I blog when I feel like it. Don't expect a posting immediately after an episode. I will try to be time-relevant. Hopefully getting something up before the next episode of a show. My goal is not to be first - instead to be significantly better than most, if not all.

I would like to hear from you because this gets real boring if no one reads or comments.