Tony's Take: Top Shot Season 1

I asked Tony to begin his journey by posting his thoughts on Season 1 of Top Shot. He decided to write a short novel instead.

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Howdy Doo TCG readers!  In this installment of “Tony kills time between Tuesdays” I’ll be sharing my thoughts from Season 1 of the show.  If you’re looking for a thorough recap for each episode, I apologize in advance for ruining your Friday.  That’s not what you’re getting.  I don’t even think I’m going to mention the names of each contestant.  Luckily for you, the bios are still up on History’s website.  If you have Netflix, I’d be mowing through this season.  Seriously, it’s like exercise.  There’s time for it, no matter how busy you claim to be.  What are you doing still reading this?  Go watch the season.  It was more entertaining than I’ll ever be.

Instead of a show by show run-down I’m just going to give major recognition to the guys (and potentially lady… read on to find out) who I cheered for the hardest.

My 3 Heroes

Kelly Bachand stood out right away as a guy I was going to attach my skis to.  Who is this kid?  A 22 year old college student?  What am I?  I’m something similar!  The major difference between us is that I can’t shoot feathers off a peacock from the other side of town, but screw it I’ll overlook that because that’s just how we roll here at TCG headquarters.  The first episode Kelly was thrown to the lions in a rifle competition (his specialty).  His red team lost and the only people who competed for the team were Mike Seeklander and Andre Robinson.  Mike was billed as being one of his team’s best shooters, but his underwhelming performance sent him to the elimination challenge against Kelly.  I’ll give the red team the benefit of the doubt here because Andre didn’t perform poorly, Mike wanted to face Kelly (respectfully viewing him as the best rifle competitor) and it is only natural to make the youngest competitor prove his worth to the team.  However, after Kelly absolutely smoked Mike (I spit at your crosswinds!) that should have been it.  He should have been considered a worthy competitor just like everybody else.  Unfortunately, he was immediately treated like a child by Bill (parenthetical sidenote: I have to believe the editing had a lot to do with the portrayal of Kelly as a mild-mannered, thoughtful, well-spoken young man.  He apparently told an insurmountable insult to Bill off-camera, and Pete mentioned Kelly has talked himself into more eliminations than anyone.  So the question of the season to me: Was Kelly actually a jerk?) and sent to elimination two more times despite being one of the most consistent performers with every weapon on the red team.  He was met with another elimination scenario when he and Blake were the final two in the first green-jersey competition.  There was just something endearing about a mild-mannered kid knocking off all these world-class giants, then going home and reading a book.  By the end of his run I couldn’t tell if I was cheering for him or simply living vicariously through him.  Whatever magical thing it was that he did, good job by you Kelly.

Blake Miguez was another immediate favorite of mine.  The unfortunate subplot with the red team losing almost every week was that we got to know the red team’s members a lot better than the blue team’s.  For example, did you know Blake is also an attorney and has experience as the executive of an offshore marine transportation company?  This is something I did not learn in the nine weeks he was in the competition, but I learned it from reading a one-paragraph bio online.  There were several reasons why Blake was one of my favorites.  The most obvious reason being his nickname “The Blazin Cajun.”  The other reason is basically every moment of the infamous “Rat Fink” episode.  The entire blue team is scheming in a bedroom, but what were Blake and J.J. doing?  Playing darts and lifting weights like champions.  That was just an awesome moment, and I can’t explain why I found it as funny as I did.  When Blake and Kelly were going head to head in the Shortest Fuse competition, I was legitimately stunned and a little bit hurt that Blake was eliminated.  I was really looking forward to Blake at least getting some more airtime in the later episodes, but he just never made it.  Like all great artists Blake left us right when the world was excited to see him unleash some pistol magic on the world.  Cheers Blake, we hardly knew ye.

J.J. Racaza was the third guy I found myself cheering for every episode.  Searching for a trend, I apparently love young competitors who have impressive competition resumes.  I normally love an underdog, and J.J. seemed to be the most feared competitor from week 1.  However, J.J. also provided a lot more to the show than just great shooting.  He had the coolest name out of all the competitors in the three seasons I’ve watched (Racaza?  Awesome.  Also I just found out his real first name is Simon.  I don’t know where the “J.J.” comes from, but I always appreciate when people go by unexplainable initials).  Secondly, I just liked his attitude.  Other competitors might have thought he was the guy to beat, but he never really gave off that impression.  He just seemed like he was happy to be there, even though he was clearly there to win it all.  As seen with Kelly, I really enjoyed how J.J. was able to pick anything up and immediately be one of the best with it.  Longbow?  No problem.  Throwing knives?  Enjoy the elimination challenge red team.  I also grouped him in with Blake as the guys that seemed to be the most fun to be around.  Yes, this is entirely related to the 4 second clip where they’re just having a good time outside while the blue team tries to stab them both in the back.  Needless to say, I was pretty giddy when he and Blake were experts for Season 2’s pistol shooting contest.

Iain Harrison would have made the list if I expanded it to four.  Yes, it is almost entirely because he’s British on a show overwhelmed by Americans.  Okay, he’s a really likeable guy as well, but being British definitely adds bonus points.  Unfortunately Iain couldn’t beat out the other three gents on my list.  Cheer up though Iain, you’ve got $100,000 and a Top Shot trophy that nobody else has from that season.  Did you get a trophy?  I don’t remember a trophy.  I have to assume there’s a trophy though.  If there wasn’t you can take 50 bucks from your winnings and go to a trophy manufacturing person and build your own Top Shot trophy and customize it with your design and make it the perfect size to fit your mantle… Do you have a mantle?

3 Zany Moments That Made Me Wonder "What The Hell’s Going On During This Episode?"

Rat Fink: This was the most confused I’ve been in a while.  I’ve already mentioned that my three favorite contestants were three guys who directly or indirectly pushed the action in this episode.  First of all, is it common language to use the phrase “Rat Fink?”  I know that if I was upset I wouldn’t be that creative in my insults.  I’d probably have just used a bunch of words that are apparently going to get edited out of this segment.  Nouns, adjectives, maybe even an adverb or two.  But I wouldn’t have come up with “Rat Fink.”

Second of all, Adam, is that really the way things were in the Marines?  Like would you be planning which of your buddies to stab in the back because you were worried they’d get the position that you, and three others wanted?  It’s a legitimate question, I’ve never been in the military.  I like to believe it’s a little bit different, just as I like to believe that Caleb telling J.J. and Blake that others were plotting against them was a lot more courageous than what Adam did… even if Caleb was only in the coast guard.  So many things about Adam’s actions in this episode befuddled me.  I understand scheming against strong competition, but why bring up military experience in the talking head?  And why write out messages on the pool table?  And is “Act your size” really the comeback you’re going to go with when somebody says you’re being immature?  Has the whole world gone mad, or is it just me?  Whatever the case, I really enjoyed this episode.  It was the turning point for me where I started cheering a lot more vehemently for J.J. and Blake.

Ex-Wife: What the hell did Kelly say?  What was the context of “Was she really that bad?”  Was she really that bad?  When Bill started hating Kelly I was very legitimately confused by it.  It led me to believe that Bill would hate me if I was a contestant.  Then I realized I didn’t do anything wrong, and I got mad at Bill for hating me even though he’s never met me.  Then I remembered he probably doesn’t hate me, and I’m not actually Kelly even though I’m living through him.  This was just a strange episode.  I couldn’t tell if the anger was really that palpable between the two, or if it was just manufactured to spice the show up a little bit.  They even edited out the farewell handshake between these two, so that means it was either water under the bridge, or they got into a fistfight and had to be separated while Kelly was yelling crude obscenities at Bill.  We may never know.  I do believe a blurb on the last episode claimed Kelly had been a guest on Bill’s radio show after the season, so they must have cleared the air.  Then again, I didn’t hear that episode of the radio show, so Bill might have invited Kelly on to yell angrily at him.  I’m ready to move on if you are.

Iain Nearly Eliminated Himself?:  A forgotten about story early on in the season was Iain volunteering to go to the elimination challenge against Jim in the first challenge the Blue Team lost.  The season was four episodes in, so Iain was a known commodity as an excellent shooter, and the blue team seemed to have no problem with what they were doing, despite ragging on the red team for eliminating their best shooter the first week.  Luckily Iain had a perfect run in the elimination challenge, and Jim got unlucky with two swinging plates that were seemingly swinging in unison.  Jim hit both plates and got eliminated, but he shot the plate he was aiming for.  If he’d have had a luckier draw, he would have forced a tiebreaker which either man could have won.  I didn’t believe at the time Iain had done anything to merit going to the elimination round, and I didn’t feel the blue team explained their strategy.  They simply made it sound like Iain wanted more practice.  Obviously you win the Top Shot competition by beating the other 15 competitors, but there isn’t a shooter in the world who could eliminate every member in every event, and I think the contestants have to be smart enough to know that.  I was confused, and still find it interesting.  The closest Iain came to being eliminated was by being the first member of his team eliminated.  It could have changed the tide of the entire show, and perhaps swung a little more power to the red team.  Alas, here we are and Iain is $100,000 richer than I am, so I probably shouldn’t question his strategy. 

That’s pretty much it for me.  I’d be remiss not to mention my hopes that Tara is recovering wonderfully from the tragic loss of her father.  I was going to mention it above in the polarizing moments of the season, but I’m too corny of a writer to make any long condolences sound sincere.  So I’ll tiptoe around a sensitive area while just saying I’m a big fan of Tara Poremba as a shooter and a person.

I’ll be back soon with my thoughts on Season 2, so start watching that season immediately after you finish Season 1. 

Godspeed fellow Top Shot fans.  Godspeed.

Follow Tony on Twitter @thREALtonybader

Tony's Take: Meeting the Man Himself

Be prepared, because this blog is about to get a whole lot more interesting. My friend Tony has decided to contribute a few of his thoughts after watching Top Shot. I'll be posting his takes over the next couple of days, and hopefully he'll join us for the rest of Season 4. As you'll soon find out, Tony has a bit of a different writing style than I do, but diversity is the spice of life. (Please don't be offended)

Greetorials fellow internauts!  For those who read this blog frequently, you know me as Chris’s friend Tony.  He introduced me earlier as a guy who did not watch the show, then later mentioned me in a post as a guy who used to not watch the show, but now watches the show.  As soon as I watched the first episode of the first season I was hooked.  I plowed through seasons 1 and 2 in about five days on Netflix, and I caught up on Season 4 in one night.  I still haven’t seen season 3, so don’t spoil it for me.   

Seriously… don’t. 

I don’t know much about guns or hatchets, but I do know one thing: A person who knows their way around a firing range is automatically the bee’s knees as far as I’m concerned.

You may be wondering “Hey Tony, if you don’t know anything about guns, why do you like watching Top Shot?”   

Well, kind anonymous reader, it’s a very simple answer.  You don’t need to know about guns to know about competitive chaos, and that’s what this show thrives on (with doses of welcomed comedy sprinkled throughout).  The characters are almost always entertaining, and for whatever inexplicable reason, I automatically latch on to the hopes and dreams of certain contestants from the first time I see them talking.  These are all reasons that have nothing to do with the elite levels of shooting skill that are displayed (you don’t need to be a rocket surgeon to know that the center of the target is better than the hill in the background). 

I don’t know if Chris has mentioned it on this blog, but he’s the editor of our school’s newspaper.  I’ve been begging him to give me 500 words to unleash an unedited fury upon the world.  He always responds with dumb answers like “Fill out an application,” or “No.” 

Luckily (for me, not you my fair readers) Chris has given me an opportunity to contribute to this blog almost completely unedited.  So I’ll start by immediately testing the boundaries:

F---.

Now that I’ve got that out of my system, Chris wants me to give my thoughts on seasons one and two, followed by season four up to this point.  From that point we’ll see what happens.  Maybe I become a recurring character on this blog.  Maybe I disappear.  Maybe I change Chris’s password, take it for myself and ride this tweetmobile to superstardom in the blogosphere.  Who knows? All I know is you won’t want to miss it.   

Check back tomorrow for a super-rewind as I share my thoughts from season one.

Follow Tony on Twitter @thREALtonybader

Top Shot Analysis: "Trick Shot Shoot Off"

Another roller coaster episode leaves blue team a man down as the contestants enter into what will most likely be the final team challenge of the season.

While last week focused on the implosion of the red team, this week saw blue team relapse into its self-destructive pattern.

For the third week in a row the meat of this episode was not in the challenges, but in the team interactions. Let's get the challenges out of the way first.

The Challenges
While trick shot challenges are always fun, this one was a bit of a snooze for me. The shots were challenging yes, but not terribly exciting to watch. Terry Vaughan's errant final shot on the soda bottles was probably the coolest, which is not to slight any of the other competitors, but in terms of pure entertainment value, that was the best.

I like that teams were forced to pick who would shoot what, because it adds an extra dimension of strategy, but it may have been better if there had been one more gun to throw into the mix. And is it just me or did this challenge just feel wrong without a revolver in the mix?

The elimination challenge again was fine, but it just emphasized what has been a fairly static season so far. What I mean to say is moving targets have not been the factor they seemed to be in season's past. The challenges just seemed too straightforward in this episode, although I did like that the William Bethards and Dylan Fletcher had to master two different pistols for this challenge.

The Contestants
To begin, I want to examine William Bethards, Mr. Hey Diddle Diddle. The practice session was rough for blue team, but there is one thing I don't understand that goes beyond his boastfulness. This is a shooting competition show, which is to say, contestants are there to shoot. We are always shown how jealous contestants are of those who are sent to elimination and get to shoot really cool weapons. The point I am trying to make is that if I was sent there to shoot, I would want to be shooting every weapon they put in front of me, regardless of whether I had shot it before, or if I was going to end up shooting it in the team challenge or not. The contestants always say this is a once in a lifetime experience, so why wouldn't Bethards want to take full advantage of it?

People are going to boast about their skill, and no, it isn't ever really a good idea to tell the expert how good of a shot you are, but what we are seeing, especially in the last two episodes, is how emotion is starting to creep into this contest. It's been there before, Greg Littlejohn came right out and said he didn't like Colin Gallagher, but last week and this week we have really seen it come into play and effect eliminations.

Where Bethards goes from here is hard to say, the guy can shoot no doubt, but if he makes it through to the individual portion of the contest, I'll be curious to see how (or if) he meshes with the remaining red team members.

Switching over from Bethards to his opponent in the elimination challenge, Dylan Fletcher, I have to admit, the guy won me over in the end. I've been hardest on Fletcher and his pal Littlejohn in these posts, but I can admit when I'm wrong. I made a lot of jokes about Fletcher, calling him Gun Fauxeri earlier in the season, but that's not really who he is, he's Uncle Joey from Full House, and I don't mean that in a bad way. (To complete the analogy, Littlejohn is Danny Tanner, Vaughan is Uncle Jessie, Kyle Supter is Michelle, Chee Kwan is Stephanie, and Gabby Franco is D.J.) He's just a guy trying to diffuse a tense situation by using a goofy voice, and mostly I think he was just trying to have some fun. I wish he could have stuck around for a few more episodes, but alas he left too soon.

Checking in on red team the most exciting thing to happen was Chee Kwan's new hat. Apparently Papa Bear told him to stop jacking his swag. (I wish that conversation was real) More importantly though, Kwan was pumped because he was finally going to get his chance to prove himself to his teammates...except his teammates proved themselves to him first, and Bethards proved that a gentle breeze can take down a big man with a gun. I hate to say it, but I do not want Kwan to win this competition, and it's terrible because it's through no fault of his own. Kwan simply has not participated in enough challenges this season to make me comfortable with the idea of him claiming the top prize. Blue team sat him for two challenges, and his own team's success, and blue team's failures inadvertently sat him for the trick shot challenge. You could see the frustration on his face when Colby told him he didn't even need to shoot this time around. It's a problem I brought up earlier with the B.A.R. challenge, contestants need to be able to participate in challenges. This is the ideal, but in reality this is likely too difficult to see happen.

We got to view a different side of Terry Vaughan this week. Vaughan finally started to get angry with his teammates. The guy has laughed off most of his frustration this season, so it was refreshing to see him start to get steamed up over Bethards' attitude.

Finally, who edited that episode, and how much is Greg Littlejohn paying them? Now, I know it's not fair to take it out on him, but man, how did last night turn into the Littlejohn show? He was almost the only blue team member featured in the one-on-one's during the team challenge. I mean somebody else on blue team had to have had something to say. Step your game up History.

What do you think? Did anyone else have a change of heart about Fletcher? Did I miss anything on my Full House analogy? And will Kwan have another new hat next week?

Follow me on Twitter @cswiets

Top Shot Recap: S4 E7 "Trick Shot Shoot Off"

Trick shooting makes its triumphant return to Top Shot, but as the contestants continue to dwindle, the tensions in the house continue to rise.

This week kicked off with blue team surprised that Chris Cheng had outed Tim Trefren in the elimination challenge, before everyone headed off to practice.

The Remington M1911 pistol and the Volquartsen Rutger 10/22 rifle were this week's featured weapons, but the real treat was Colby revealing that this would be the trick shot challenge.

Red team got to practice first and seemed pretty confident coming out that they would have a good chance at winning this challenge. Then in comes the blue team, who were starting to tire of William Bethards constant boasting of his skills. Despite coming off of two wins, blue team was a mess during their practice session. Their pistol shooting was fine, but Bethards insisted that he would be shooting pistols in the challenge, and it was therefore pointless to practice with the rifle. This rubbed his teammates the wrong way, especially when they all struggled to get a handle on the rifle. Bethards finally relented and showed he had the skills to back up his talk by nailing the targets with the rifle.

However, when blue team went back to the house to strategize for the challenge, Bethards boasting in practice became a point of contention for the rest of his teammates. Terry Vaughan called him out for not being a team player, while Bethards argued back that the rest of his teammates had backed down from the rifle because they couldn't handle it.

With five shooters, the challenge featured five different stations. At the first station, contestants would have three chances with the Remington to shoot a bowling pin straight back between two pins on either side of it. Each clean hit was worth a point. Chris Cheng continued his strong run this season, going three for three on his run. Augie Malekovich hit two for three on his turn, putting blue behind from the get-go.

The second station featured a similar set up, except this time the contestant had to hit the lead pin and knock it back into one, or both of the pins on either side of it. Each knock down was worth a point. Kyle Sumpter went two for three for red, while Greg Littlejohn only managed to hit on one of his attempts.

The third station featured three soda bottles with openers rigged to their caps. Using the Volquartsen rifle, contestants had three chances to open the bottle; each clean hit was worth a point. Terry Vaughan went first for blue, missing on his first shot, nailing the second, and demolishing the bottle in spectacular fashion on his third. Gabby Franco shot for red, and after missing her first two shots, nailed the third.

The fourth station brought back the Remington pistol. Down range there were two buckets placed ontop of each other. The contestant would have to shoot the bottom bucket first, which would then launch the second bucket in the air. Contestants would only score a point if they hit the bucket in midair; again three chances worth one point apiece. Gary Shank made it look easy, going three-for-three on his run. Dylan Fletcher showed how truly difficult this challenge was though, bringing up a goose egg on his turn.

The final station featured four gumballs placed atop golf tees, sitting 75 feet downrange. Contestants would use the Volquartsen rifle to hit the targets, but each gumball was worth three points. Bethards took up the rifle at the request of his teammates, but only managed to hit one target. With red team still in the lead at that point, there was no point in Chee Kwan shooting.

Blue team went back to the house, and Fletcher nominated himself before the team even got started talking. However, he also pulled a Tim Trefren by calling out who he wanted to shoot against, which was Bethards. The rest of the team seemed ok with this, and that's how it went down on the range, but not without incident.
While most contestants pick up the gun and focus on hitting their target (because no one wants to be the contestant who misses on the nomination range), Bethards took the shot one handed, and drilled the center of Fletcher's target, a stunt that didn't help his standing among the rest of his teammates.

At the elimination practice they found out they would be shooting two more kinds of pistols: the SIG Sauer P229 and the Browning Buck Mark. From the practice, it was pretty clear that Bethards was going in with the advantage, but Fletcher's practice wasn't bad, and it's always hard to say what will happen in a elimination challenge.

What happened was more bowling pins, this time ten of them, set up like at a bowling alley but on four descending tiers. The contestants wouldn't simply be shooting the pins though. Each pin had had the top sawed off, and placed back on top. Using the Browning, contestants would first shoot the tops off of all of their pins. Once they did that they would switch to the SIG and hit the bottoms. Each hit was worth a point, but no points would be awarded if they hit the bottoms first. They had two minutes to complete the challenge.

The challenge started off fairly tight, with Fletcher keeping pace with Bethards up to five hits, and both contestants losing a pin to an errant shot. However, Bethards pulled away and finished the rest of his run clean with a total of 18 points. Since contestants had two minutes to complete the challenge and time had not run out on the clock, Fletcher still had a chance to come back and tie, but another errant shot hit the bottom of a pin, and sent him packing.

Hey diddle diddle is still in the building, but have his showboating ways painted a target on his back? What do you think of Bethards newest portrayal as the cockiest guy in the room? Hit the comments and let me know.

I'll be breaking down all the good stuff tomorrow in my analysis of this episode.

Follow me on Twitter @cswiets

Top Tweets Vol. 7: In which Chee gets a new hat and still doesn't get to shoot

Another solid episode of Top Shot, and while I can't wait to dig into what went down, I'm going to restrain myself, and stick with tweets for now, because it's late, I'm tired and like many of you I need to get up and work tomorrow morning (not to mention the fact I'm writing in a serious run-on).


Tweets this week took a pretty sharp downwards turn from last week, but here's what I was able to muster up:

• Colby continues to hint at an all-star season, but at this point I would settle for any guarantee that Top Shot is going to be back for a fifth season.

• There are some parts of the show Colby doesn't see until the episodes airs, like the contestants practice sessions with the experts.

• He's feeling Chee Kwan's pain of being robbed out of participating in challenges. The guy hasn't had the chance to shoot in three out of seven team challenges.

• The scope on the Volquartsen Ruger 10/22 rifle is a Trijicon 3X9.

That's it for this week's edition. Colby blamed part of the problem on being at the ranch (I can't figure out if he means his ranch or the ranch where they shoot the show) and having a bad internet connection.

There is a lot to discuss with this episode. My recap will be up sometime tomorrow afternoon, my analysis will follow on Thursday, Friday is still up in the air, and Saturday will be another Talkin' 'bout, but I'm not sure who it will feature yet. Suggestions are always welcome.

Stay up to date with my latest posts by following me on Twitter @cswiets

Predicting the Top Shot

Personally, I feel a little silly to make predictions about things that have already happened. 


Over the weekend the Top Shot Facebook page posed the question about who viewers thought was going to win the entire competition. Right now the show is at the half way point in terms of episodes, although not in terms of the actual competition.

With over 80 people responding,  the results are somewhat surprising. Now, I don't have exact numbers, because some people responded with more than one person they were rooting for, but here is a rough idea. 


Gabby Franco is by far the front runner of fan support, which I found surprising and encouraging. Franco hasn't really gotten as much screen time as some of her fellow red team members, which often can make or break the fan support. However, Top Shot viewers are not your average television viewer. They pay attention, and when people consistently perform, like Franco has been, they begin to garner a following. In addition people really seem anxious to have a female contestant win the whole thing.

Chee Kwan is in second, which again I find a little surprising because the guy has been sat for two out of six team challenges. I was talking to my friend Tony about this. He surmised that both red and blue know Chee can shoot, which is why he has had to ride the pine, but also why he has been kept out of eliminations. It's this idea that apparently fans are aware of as well.

Sitting in the middle of the pack are Chris Cheng, Augie Malekovich, and Terry Vaughan, which seems about right. I guess I'm a little surprised Vaughan and Cheng aren't sitting a little higher since both seem to have developed strong fan followings on Twitter and Facebook.

The dark horse this season seems to be William Bethards. I've been thinking Bethards has been flying under his team's radar this season and that it is eventually going to catch up with him. However, my opinion changed when I saw this video Bethards posted on his Twitter account last night.

The guy has some serious skill this competition has failed to emphasize. I'll be curious to see what happens tonight.

The only contestant to receive no votes was Dylan Fletcher. Now, I've made my feelings about Fletcher pretty clear, at least in terms of how he is, but that doesn't mean the guy can't shoot. He been a consistent shooter for blue, and has gotten a fair amount of screen time to help build up a fan base. I've criticized Fletcher for his enthusiasm to be in elimination challenges, but maybe I've been too hard on Fletcher. Maybe what he's saying isn't all that different from what Kwan was saying last week, he just wants a chance to prove himself.

The bottom line is this show isn't American Idol and it doesn't happen live. The contestant don't need to the fans to like them to keep them in the competition. 

Tune in tonight to see what happens. History has been touting that one of teams fall apart during the challenge, any guesses on who it will be? Will blue relapse to their losing ways, or will red continue to struggle after losing the heart of their team, Tim Trefren?

Top Tweets will be up later, recap tomorrow, and analysis on Friday.

Follow me on Twitter @cswiets

Talkin' 'bout Gabby Franco

Beauty and skill

I continue my quest to repay those who have helped spread the news about this blog. Right after Chris Cheng started following me on twitter, Gabby Franco did the same.

Franco has been flying under the radar for most of the season, but that doesn't mean she hasn't been doing her part. She's been a consistent performer, and (at least as far as we've been allowed to see) her name hasn't ever been brought for consideration at elimination meetings. And while I don't mean to jinx her (which I can't really since this was filmed back in August), she could very well be the first woman to make it to the individual portion of the this contest since Season 1's Tara Poremba.

I think it would be cool to see a female contestant make it to the final three for the call-your-shot challenge, and Franco might just be the right woman for the job.

If you want to learn more about Franco or show your support for her this season, there are a couple of places you can go.

Follow her on Twitter @GabbyFrancoTS4

Like her on Facebook by following this link: https://www.facebook.com/gabbyfrancotopshot

She has her own website: http://gabbyfranco.com/

And that website has a blog where Frnaco has been walking readers through Season 4 from her perspective. Click the link that follows, or click the link I recently installed as part of my blog roll on the left column: http://gabbyfranco.com/blog/

That's it for this week's edition. Next week I'm bouncing back to blue team, but it's either going to be Augie Malekovich, because he wife started following me, or Dylan Fletcher, for sharing his inside perspective on episode 6 in the comments.

Follow me on Twitter (especially if you are a contestant, past or current, and would like to be featured) @cswiets

Top Shot Analysis: S4 E6 "Blast from the Past"

[Note: Blue team member, Dylan Fletcher was kind enough to provide some extra insight into this week's episode, specifically what was left on the editing room floor. However, I try and write both recaps and the analysis strictly from what is shown in each episode, and as I wrote this before Fletcher offered his comments, I decided not to change anything. I do highly recommend going back to my recap of "Blast for the Past"  and reading the comments he left if you want a better idea of what happened in the episode.]

Believe it or not we are already halfway through this season, and my what a season it has been. We've had crazy weapons, some crazy challenges, and some slightly crazy contestant behavior.

Enter "Blast from the Past" which only could have been better if a past contestant had shown up to really hammer home the title. I want to spend a little time on the challenges, because the bulk of this episode dealt with the contestants, whose actions, for once, were actually intriguing, instead of oddly fascinating.

The Challenges
One of the complaints I read on the internet the other night was that while the weapons were fun, the challenges were a bit of a snooze. I would have to agree with this for the most part. Neither one featured any fast paced shooting, instead relying on the tension of the back and forth nature of the challenges to hold the audience attention. This was something that worked better on the bag gun challenge than the atlatl.(Also, question, is it atl-atl? Or at-latl?)

My other major gripe with the bag gun challenge is that if the contestants are shooting a big, loud gun, I want them to be hitting a big loud target. I just wasn't getting the same excitement seeing the aluminum shells make a hole in the target board that I would have had there been a large explosion when they hit their mark. 

The atlatl was a fun primitive weapon to have featured. The slo-mo featured during the practice and challenge was amazing because the flex on those darts was ridiculous. I have to say though I would have much preferred to see the atlatl in a team challenge rather than the individual, you know there would have been some frustrated contestants. And (again not to harp but I can't resist) can you imagine how funny it would have been to see Greg Littlejohn standing in his throwing pose making those crazy faces, while his team agonizes behind him? Would have been priceless.

I also want to discuss team strategy in this challenge for a second, because I'm not really sure what blue team was thinking on this challenge. If we are talking in terms of pure stature of the contestants, blue team is made up of a lot of big guys. Red team is made up of four small guys, Gabby Franco, and Tim Trefren. Trefren was the only big guy on the team, so why sit Chee Kwan? This is a challenge with a cannon, what possible advantage could Kwan have given his team by participating? When red team fumbled with adjusting the cannon during one of their shots because no one was on the back to lift, it was Trefren who hustled back to do it. Now it doesn't really matter because blue team won anyway, but think how much harder would this challenge have been for red if they hadn't had Trefren to help with the heavy lifting. Sitting contestants isn't going to be an issue after the next few episodes, but after Tim was sent home, red better hope there aren't any more team challenges that require heavy lifting.


The Contestants
I'm going to again skip the Top and Not-so-Top shots this week. Blue team had pretty limited screen time this week, which I guess is one of the disadvantages of winning a challenge, but I'm sure they are okay with it. I'm also going avoid Top and Not-Top teams, because the real discussion lies with the red team.

As I've said repeatedly, I've been impressed with how even the teams have been this season. Minus the shotgun challenge, there haven't been any real blow outs, and the accuracy with the Bag Gun just showed how talented this season's contestants are. But more than that I've been impressed with the respect the two teams have shown each other. Clearly there is a divide between them, which is bound to happen when you are forced to live in the same house as the people you are competing with, but no one has really been shown getting into each other's faces. Plus despite the early clique problem on blue and the little tiff between Trefren and Cheng (which I am about to get to) the infighting among team's this season has been pretty minimal. It's a testament to what separates this show from anything else on TV to have these contestants act with civility and respect, instead of trash-talking and back-stabbing.

With that said let's get into the meat of this episode which was the whirlwind elimination process red team went through. As I pointed out in my recap, red team decided they needed to do elimination based on past performance, a decision I agree with, even if it isn't entirely fair. If anyone had completely missed the target this would have been easy, but everyone hit and helped walk it in to give red team a fighting chance in this challenge.

So where do you begin when placed in a situation like this, where you have to take the cumulative performances of the competition to make a decision? I wonder what would have happened had Kwan spoken up before Cheng decided to go on his rundown of successes and failures of his teammates? I suspect there might have been two very different people in the elimination challenge.

Regarding Cheng, I honestly believe the guy was trying to be fair, but he made three huge missteps in going about it. First, never put yourself in that position in Top Shot, even if you are on good terms with your teammates, setting up a situation where you list off people's flaws is never going to end well. Second, he didn't leave any room for discussion (at least from what the cameras showed). After losing a team challenge there has to be discussion, not just one person talking, because that person talking is then more or less screwed. Third and final, Cheng went through his exemplary record this season, which was pretty much the nail in the coffin. yeah the guy has performed well, but if you can't criticize yourself, don't put yourself in the position to criticize others.

Now, regarding Trefren. I have to say that leg shaking made me pretty nervous. I was surprised at how upset Trefren was, and how obstinate he was in going after Cheng. Gary Shank I think had the best perspective on this, placing blame of Cheng for putting himself in that position, and Trefren for perhaps overreacting a little to Cheng's comments.

The problem is that two people had to go to elimination, and it wasn't going to be easy, as proved by what happened on the elimination range. Red team (and blue for the most part) has been consistently open with who they were voting for and then sticking to that decision at the range. Then along comes Kyle Sumpter.

Sumpter is red team's leader, and is always looking out for the team. Did he make the right call by switching the vote to Trefren? Maybe. I have to think that Trefren would put the team needs ahead of his own vendetta if Cheng had come back from elimination against Kwan. At the same time there was a problem with an easy and simple solution, and Sumpter decided to take it.

The look on Kwan and Cheng's faces when he hit Trefren's target was just awesome, I mean the camera just seemed to linger on them and their "What?" expressions forever. I think Kwan did have a point though when he said he needed to prove his worth to the team, and if they had simply gone back to the previous challenge, where Kwan failed with the rope, and Trefren failed to hit his shot with the flintlock, that might have been the simplest solution.

I was sad to see Trefren go, he and Terry Vaughan have been my favorites this season. We'll just have to wait and see what happens next week when the traditional exhibition shoot-off takes place.

What did you think of last night's episode? We you as surprised as I was about Sumpter's switch up? And why do you think blue team sat Kwan? hit the comments and let me know.

Friday Surprise coming tomorrow and a new edition of Talkin' 'bout on Saturday (promise).

Stay up to date with the latest posts by following me on Twitter: @cswiets

How to get your friends to watch Top Shot

You may recall I mentioned my friend Tony at the end of my last Top Tweets post. He told me if I mentioned him on the blog he would start watching. Well last night at around 12:30 a.m. we fired up Netflix and watched the first episode of Season 1. I then went to bed. He messaged me on Facebook at 3:30 p.m this afternoon telling me he had finished the first season and was starting in on the second!

Colby has been tweeting that Top Shot needs more viewers to stay alive for a fifth season. Get your friends together and start watching. There are plenty of different way to do it. Netflix has the first two seasons available for instant streaming, as does the Top Shot website on History. The Top Shot website also has all of Season 4 as does Hulu (as of this writing). Not sure where to find Season 3 right now, but if anyone knows hit the comments. So get a friend to sit down with you and watch one episode, the rest should take care of itself.

Hopefully, I can convince Tony to do a little guest post on how he has enjoyed the show as a first time viewer, and I'll keep you updated if he starts watching along for the rest of Season 4.

Follow me on Twitter @cswiets

Top Shot Recap: S4 E6 "Blast from the Past"

Last night's episode was one for the books, big guns and big twists combined for a hell of a treat.

The time back at the house was limited as Tim Trefren nailed up Iggy Keyes' target without too much of a speech, because, well, he isn't a member of the blue team (or Kyle Sumpter). Then it was off to the range, where the team's found out they would be shooting the behemoth 3.2'' Bag Gun, a cannon used in in the Spanish-American war.

Blue team practiced first and walked through the steps involved in loading the weapon, which are complicated, to say the least. While blue team walked through the prep, the red team walked through the firing, which included a 4.3 lb. aluminum shell. If I thought it was hard in past week's to see which team had an advantage after the practice, this week was practically impossible.

This week's challenge was a straight-forward closest to the bullseye shoot-off. Team's would trade off shots, each team member would have a chance to aim the cannon with the help of their teammates and fire a shot, everyone of course, but Chee Kwan. For reason's unexplained, blue decided to sit Kwan for the challenge, and unlike week's past where red team members have coached their teammates from the sidelines, there wasn't much for Kwan to help with since each team member had a specific responsibility.

The shots started out wide, with both teams hitting the target board, but none of the rings on their first fires. But then they started to dial it in, inching closer to the center mark. In the end, it was one of the closest finishes of the season with red team hitting 7.65 inches outside the center, and blue team winning the challenge with a hit at 7.5 inches outside the center.

This led to a very tense meeting among the red team. Nobody completely botched their shot. The early shooters may have been off the mark, but the later shooters had the advantage of dialing in their shot based on their other teammates' shots. It was decided they would have to decide based on past performance, which is always dicey on Top Shot. Chris Cheng took it upon himself to refresh people's memories as to their successes and failures in the past challenges, but as he talked, the camera focused in on the twitching leg of Tim Trefren.

When Cheng finished his run through, Trefren called him out for criticizing everyone but himself, and, despite having just been sent to elimination after the last challenge, Trefren said he wanted to go toe-to-toe with Cheng to settle their dispute. Chee Kwan chimed in that he was frustrated after sitting out two challenges, and wanted to prove his worth to his teammates by going to elimination with Cheng. This was met by general consensus by the rest of the team, except Trefren, but he was going to vote for Cheng regardless, so it didn't really matter.

But then they went to the range, and my confidence in the red team's resolution to vote for Cheng and Kwan was so strong that I half expected them to simply tell Colby who they were nominating and not even bother with the shooting. However, this is Top Shot, and on Top Shot, there's shooting. The first two votes went to Cheng and Kwan, but then it was Sumpter's, ole Papa Bear himself, turn to shoot.

And he voted for Tim Trefren.

Sumpter is all about keeping red team together despite their losses. He viewed the riff between Cheng and Trefren as a threat to the red team's ability to perform effectively. The rest of red team seemed to agree as it was Cheng and Trefen who ultimately ended up in elimination.

At the practice they discovered they would be shooting the atlatl, a primitive spear-chucking weapon that has been around for over 3,000 years. It was a weapon Trefren had some experience with with his hunting background, but one Cheng had never even seen before. Both struggled in practice with Trefren overpowering his shots and Cheng grounding them into the dust.

The elimination challenge featured three targets at progressively further distances and increasing point values. The challenge started out tight but after Cheng opened up his lead to 20 points, Trefren realized that even with his two remaining darts he wouldn't be able to catchup, and the challenge was over.

Trefren goes home and the team's even out for the first time since week three.

There are only two more episodes before we get to the green jerseys, and next week it's my favorite time of the year as trick shooting returns.

Check back tomorrow for my full analysis this episode where I really dig into the Trefren and Cheng debacle.

Stay up to date with my latest posts by following me on Twitter: @cswiets

Top Tweets Vol. 6: Welcome to the Atl(atl)

Man. What an awesome episode. I had a feeling I might have been jumping the gun a little the other week  when I said this is my favorite season, but I think those qualms are being laid to rest. I'll go into this more when I do my analysis later this week.

Also, quick side note, I apologize for skipping out on posts this weekend. Spring break mayhem once again intervened, but I'm back at school to push through seven more weeks of academia before getting tossed out into the real world. Which is just a long way of saying that posting should be pretty regular for the rest of the season.

After a few dull weeks, Colby finally busted out some good tidbits about the behind the scenes action of this episode. Here are some of his top tweets:

• If you need some shells for your 3.2" Bag Gun, you can follow in the footsteps of Top Shot and special order them from Billet Aluminum.

• Tonight's expert for the bag gun, Rick Pohlers, hit the bullseye on his first test firing.

• Colby, unfortunately, did not get an opportunity to fire the cannon.

• According to Colby the Bag Gun had the loudest and largest concussion of any weapon to yet be featured on the show.

• In the team challenge, the bag gun was reset after each shot so neither team would have an unfair advantage.

• Although not shown on the air, there was a time limit placed on the team's to prep, load and fire the Bag Gun.

• Not really anything that provides any additional insight but here is my favorite question and response of the night (paraphrased): Tweeter: Why is it always so windy? Colby: Because it is.

• I've seen a lot of people asking about what contestants put in their backpacks on the Top Shot Facebook page, and Colby was able to provide an answer: "Backpacks:Eye/ear pro, water, layers, alt. footwear. You never know what the challenge will require or what the weather will do. Be prepared"

• I, like many viewers, was confused when the camera seemed to show Chris Cheng's atlatl dart hit the four ring, but was counted as six. The United States Practical Shooters Association (USPSA) rules state that if a hit breaks the plane of two rings, the higher ring is scored. Thank you to Stephen Ramsey of Ramsey Marketing for clarifying.

All in all, a pretty good batch of info this week. Stay tuned for my recap tomorrow and my analysis on Thursday.

Also, my friend Tony said he would start watching the show if I mentioned him in this post. So there, mentioned, start watching.

Stay up to date on my latest posts by following me on Twitter: @cswiets

Top Shot Analysis: S4 E5 "Swing into Action"

The fifth episode of the fourth season offered a lot of good (lack of bandanas) and a few things that weren't so great (an episode title lacking alliteration, I would have gone with "Flintlock Frenzy"). 

Let's dive right in shall we? I have jobs to apply for (p.s. if anyone wants to hire me, I graduate in May, resume available upon request).

The Challenges

I have to hand it to Colby on that misdirect for the team challenge. I can only imagine what the contestants were thinking the challenge would be like after he gave them all that Revolutionary War background. 

The Kentucky flintlock also featured one of the most complicated loading mechanisms ever seen on Top Shot. The surprising thing about the team challenge was that while the practice led me to believe that once again the challenge would all come down to how well team's could load the weapon, that didn't turn out to be the case. 

The first obstacle was the challenge itself. It was painful to see Chee Kwan hit that platform time after time, I couldn't help but think this guy had a deprived childhood. 

Top Shot is supposed to be fun and this challenge certainly fulfilled that aspect of the show, at least at the beginning. The fun quickly faded from both teams, first as Kwan failed to cross to the other platform, and then when Littlejohn couldn't take his shot. 

I think that disappointed me most though, was the lack of dropped ball jokes that were made. There was such a rich opportunity for humor here that either the contestants didn't take advantage of, or the producers decided to edit out. Either way it is a shame. 

The elimination challenge was also a little disappointing. I know Top Shot likes to contrast old and modern, but seeing two pistol elimination challenges in a row was a little boring. However, Top Shot makes up for that in how they form the challenges. I was excited to see that it would be up to Trefren and Keyes to keep pace with the moving window to shoot their targets. 

I have to admit that I wasn't too upset to see Keyes go, I had a feeling that he had kind of been coasting on his team's success the past couple of weeks. That is why it is almost better for teams not to get on a winning streak. Sure, that team may end up with more members, but they also hang onto the weak members of their team. As we saw this week, this can lead to the critical shooters being forced to sit out and puts pressure on the weaker ones to deliver. 

The Contestants

I'm going to abandon the contestant formula this week and speak solely about the teams. No character really stuck out, and there really isn't any point in harping on Littlejohn again.

Top Team: Red

Despite their failures in the team challenge, red is still proving to be the team that knows how to play this game, and how to play it well. I give big props to Gary Shank for his coaching ability in this challenge. His calm and steady instruction kept his team on point throughout the challenge, and with a weapon that had so many steps to go through before actually firing it, his instruction proved vital to keeping this contest close. He possesses a special talent of giving instruction without letting frustration seep into his tone. In addition red team had all three of their biggest failures step up to the plate for elimination. It had to be a tough choice for red team in who to send this week, and while I'm a big fan of Trefren (who I think Kwan accurately described as the "heart" of the read team), I think it was the right choice to send him this week.

Not-So-Top Team: Blue

While blue team won this challenge, they are far from being the cohesive whole they need to be to make it to the individual stage of this contest. Let's disregard Littlejohn's freeze up for the moment and look at the other four members of the blue team. While red team had Gary Shank shouting every loading instruction to every member of his team who picked up the flintlock, blue team never picked up  this strategy. The only thing they thought to do was to try and keep themselves calm by telling Littlejohn to keep calm. It took Littlejohn picking up and setting down the pistol three times to reset himself before Augie finally asked him if he had fully-cocked the pistol. Blue team is going to have to amp their support of each other if they are going to make it through the next challenge. 

What do you think? How did the teams stack up to you? Hit the comments and let me know.

No post tomorrow as I'm off to visit the exotic locale of Sheboygan, Wis. I'll be back Friday with a surprise post.

Stay up to date by following me on Twitter @csiwets

Top Shot Recap: S4 E5 "Swing Into Action"

This week's episode toned down the drama (a bit) but kept the stakes high in the competition.

Not much to talk about at the house before the episode really kicked off this time around, except that the contestant seem to be adding their own personal touch to nailing the targets to the wall this season. Each target has an accompanying memento. After assuring everyone that Colin Gallagher left with "his head held high" Gregory Littlejohn placed a shell from the Smith & Wesson M&P 40 on the target.

On the practice range, Colby informed the contestants they would be getting a blast from the past in the form of the Kentucky flintlock pistol, a weapon used throughout the Revolutionary War. Red team got to practice first and had the advantage of Gary Shank, who had previous experience with black powder weapons. Tim Trefren, whose main experience is with rifles, had a little trouble getting a handle on the flintlock.

Blue team also had a few troubles when they came up to give it a try. Littlejohn had trouble figuring out the trigger, which both teams commented on being incredibly stiff. William Bethards also had difficulty aiming the flintlock, and had his ball fall out on one occasion.

The contestants were thrown for a loop in the team challenge, as Colby left out one important detail when explaining the background of the the Kentucky flintlock, namely it's use by pirates.

The teams were set up on two platforms. One at a time each team member would swing across a gap on a rope to another platform. They would then have to load the flintlock and fire it at a jug filled with sand. If a contestant failed to reach the other platform, they would have to drop down, climb back up the platform and try again until they were able to reach the other side. First team to hit all five targets would win.

Blue team decided to take out the leadership on red by sitting Kyle Sumpter and Shank, but much like last week when they sat Trefren, Shank was still able to be a strong supporting player by coaching his teammates through the challenge. However red team got to a rough start when Chee Kwan failed to make it onto the platform and had to start over.

Meanwhile, blue team got off to solid start nailing their first three targets. Then they stumbled when Littlejohn stepped up to the stage. Littlejohn froze up, with a look of anguish not only on his face, but on those of his teammates. Red team looked to take advantage of the hold up they had been anticipating, but Iggy Keyes missed his target, as did Tim Trefren, and Keyes also missed on his second time around. Littlejohn, finally got his shot off and hit his target. Blue team finished up and took advantage of the lost time red team just couldn't make up, going five for five to win the challenge.

Back at the house red team members Keyes, Kwan, and Trefren all offered themselves up for elimination. Keyes and Trefren for being the only members to miss their shot, and Kwan for setting the setting the tone for what turned out to be a jumbled performance by the red team. At the elimination range though, red team seemed to settle on voting for poor shooting performance, rather than someone's ability to swing on a rope, nominating Trefren and Keyes to duke it out.

At the practice they found they would be shooting a much more modern pistol, the Heckler & Koch USP Tactical. Trefren was visibly concerned at having to shoot another pistol, but Keyes seemed more than happy to take up the challenge. However during the practice, which featured them shooting through a small circular window, there didn't seem to be a great advantage to either contestant.

The challenge featured the contestants shooting through a moving window. However, in a Top Shot twist, the contestants would not be on a moving platform, they would have to move along with the window as it went down the course.

In a rare moment on Top Shot, both contestants went through the course and hit the same amount of targets using the same amount of rounds (more on this aspect in the analysis). Trefren and Keyes both hit only eight out of twenty targets. However on the second go around, Trefren smoked the course, hitting eighteen out of twenty targets, while Keyes once again only managed to hit eight.

Iggy shuffled his way out of the competition, and the teams now stand at 6-5.

What did you think of last night's episode? Hit the comments and let me know.

Stay tuned for my analysis as there is a lot I want to discuss about this episode.

Follow me on Twitter @cswiets

Top Tweets Vol. 5: Danger! Danger, Colby Donaldson!

I was not able to watch Top Shot when it aired as I originally planned tonight, however all was not lost. Since I am at home for spring break (for now) I am not at the mercy of campus cable, or History's sporadic online episode posting schedule. So thanks to the magic of Time Warner Cable, I was able to watch tonight's episode about 12 hours earlier than I normally do.

The tweets this week are not only a little disappointing, they are also a little disheartening. We had a great episode, one free of any talk of bandanas, but Colby got an onslaught of repetitive tweets asking the same questions he is asked every week.

But, once again, I managed to pull out a few gems:

• In a bit of distressing news, Colby seemed to imply that viewership needs to get a bump or Season 5 of Top Shot could be in jeopardy. He followed it up with a small ray of hope that Season 5 could be an all-star season, but I'm not convinced this is the answer to Top Shot's ratings problems. Read my full thoughts on an all-star season here.

• Colby is not in favor of doing a season featuring contestants with little shooting experience. (I am still undecided)

• He is also not big on the idea of using the Dillon Aero Minigun in a challenge, nor was he a big fan of contestants throwing rocks. (Which oddly has been a major criticism I've been coming across on the web this past week.)

• I don't often quote Colby's tweets word for word, but this time I will make an exception. This was posted in regards to Augie's response to  Littlejohn's troubles in the team challenge: "Half Cock?"

Are you as concerned as I am about the future of the show? Hit the comments and let me know.

I'll try and get my recap up before noon tomorrow, and might even throw up my analysis tomorrow as well since I don't think I will have time on Thursday.

Stay up to date on my latest posts by following me on Twitter @cswiets

Hey Look Over There!

I have a new feature on the blog. Take a look over to the left and you will see I have installed a blogroll. These blogs are not all specifically dedicated to Top Shot as this one is, but they all comment on the show in some form or the other, plus they give more insight than I ever could about weapons.

Now, because of the limitations of Blogger, I could not arrange these in the order I would like them to appear. Nonetheless, here is the rundown of what you can find over on the left.

First up is the OutdoorLife blog The Gun Shots. Red team, contestant Tim Trefren blogs weekly for them recapping episodes, providing added insight into what went down in the episodes, and some basic shooting tips.

The NRABlog features a lot more about shooting than it does about Top Shot, but editor Lars Dalseide recaps episodes weekly, taking a much more journalistic approach.

HausofGuns takes a less traditional approach to the recap as well, setting up their recap in more of a live commentary. The blog also features occasional interviews with past contestants.

Finally, Terry Vaughan's TV Empowers blog provides some much needed insight into the dynamics of the blue team. He recently posted a YouTube video with his reaction to "Crossbow Crossfire" in place of his written recaps, and reveals the real answer to this season's biggest question, "Why is everyone wearing bandanas?"

So if you just can't get enough Top Shot, there are a few more places you can check out. And while I'm good, I'd never discourage someone from finding another opinion.

Follow me on Twitter @cswiets

Talkin' 'bout Chris Cheng

Sorry for the delay here folks, I now I promised this yesterday but as much as I did not want it to, spring break got in the way.  I spent my time yesterday driving and enjoying the wonderful spring weather in Madison, Wis., and was unable to throw up this post.

The good news is I am back at home base, which means not only will I be able to watch Top Shot when it airs, but I'll be watching it in 52 glorious inches of high definition.

I'll take this guy over Hugh Jackman any day of the week.

This week, I'm focusing on red team member Chris "Van Helsing" Cheng. Cheng dominated the crossbow challenge this week, and has slowly been getting more screen time as the weeks go on. Bestowed with a new nickname and some new confidence, Cheng is starting to break out as one of the competitor's to watch this season.

Cheng started following me on Twitter this week, and so I'm returning the favor by doing a little cross promoting.

You can follow Cheng on Twitter @TopShotChris

And you can show your support by liking his Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/TopShotChris

Cheng also hosts weekly recaps and Q&A's for episodes that he records and posts on YouTube. You can check out his channel here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/TopShotChris

That's it for this edition of Talk' 'bout. Watch Cheng and the rest of the red team on this week's episode of Top Shot on Tuesday 10/9 c.

Come back tomorrow for a little Monday bonus.

Follow me on Twitter @cswiets

Friday Surprise: Home or the Range?

One of the many questions Colby was asking over Twitter during this week's episode is whether viewers thought the cameras should show more of what goes on at the house, or if more time on the show should be spent focusing on the range. Based on the responses Colby was getting and retweeting, I thought I would take a look at how well Top Shot divides its screen time between the two locales, and how the show would change if there was more or less emphasis placed on either.

 I would argue Top Shot, right now, is serving a happy medium between the time spent at the house and that spent on the range. I realize it is a bit of a cop-out to not really criticize the show, but let's look at the structure of the show. Episodes always begin back at the house, but this time is brief. It shows the contestants nailing the targets to the wall and maybe a little time with the team that lost the previous challenge as they discuss how they can rebound in the next challenge. Then its off to the range for a little banter with Colby, and then practicing with that week's weapon. There's a brief visit back at the house as the teams gear up for the challenge, then its off to shooting again. As, I'm writing this, even I'm getting a little bored, so I'm going to assume you know the rest without me picking through it.

What I'm trying to say is the show has a good balance between seeing what happens in the house and what happens on the range. The house portions of the show are necessary for the audience to gain a better understanding of the team dynamics. And even for the parts that end up being shown from the house, there is still so much that is cut out. I'm thinking specifically of Season 2 where we didn't find out until the epilogue episode about the secret alliance that had been in place for the majority of the season, and that there was an  awesome Nerf gun showdown that went on in the house. This shows that there really isn't anything being shown in the house bits that isn't critical to helping the audience understand the progression of the contest.

Think of it this way: In the current season the main theme has been the fractured blue team. If the house portions of the show were cut out, it would be a lot harder to understand why the blue team was having a hard time pulling themselves together. If the only vantage the audience was shown was the practice and the challenge there would be a pretty big disconnect that the audience would have to reconcile. Blue team is full of talented shooters, and on the practice range they have shown their prowess in being able to adapt to different weapons. However there is a big difference between a practice session and pressure filled challenges, which is where things have been falling apart for the blue team. The time spent at the house helps give a better understanding for why the are not functioning as a team, and more importantly helps the audience better understand the decision making process among contestants when teams are sent to the elimination range.

At the same time cutting down on the time spent showing the shooting would be disingenuous to the shows nature. This is a competition show, and while it is good to see how the competitors operate, cutting back on the competition parts would sacrifice what most of the audience is tuning in for. I for one, cannot get enough exploding targets, fast paced shooting, and close contests that often get "All tied up!"

In addition we also have enough cutaways to the one-on-ones with contestants that help give a better idea for how they feel about the challenges, their performance, and the performances of their teammates.

Overall, Top Shot continues to hold its competition and its contestants in the highest integrity. It is the rare reality show that has not fully succumb to the temptation of focusing solely on the drama between the contestants. Instead, it keeps the drama where it belongs, on the intense competition displayed each week.

So what do you like more, home, or the range? Hit the comments and let me know.

Come back tomorrow for this week's edition of Talkin' 'bout.

Follow me on Twitter @cswiets