Top Shot Analysis: S5 E1 "Best of the Best"

Did anyone watch Arrested Development last weekend? I would guess the audience overlap is probably pretty slim, but I felt some similar feelings watching that as I did watching the season premiere of Top Shot. The longer something goes away the higher the expectations are, and in some cases those expectations simply cannot be met.

I was very excited for the start of this season. While I thought it was maybe a little too early for an All Star season of the show, if that's what it needed to do to survive, I was happy to watch. But with the new rules, the show has sloughed off some of the pieces that made it so great.

I'm getting back in the grove of things, and usually I like to take this spot to discuss team strategy, but since there are no more teams and because there was a lot going on in the first episode of the season, I'm going to take it bit by bit and give a few thoughts about the show's new format. Starting from the top then:

No Teams
While it makes sense on paper, it's hard to justify this in practice. Sure, no one wants to go back to relying on teammates to deliver in this kind of competition, but the team aspect is part of what makes the show interesting. It's like the producers are forgetting they are making a television show. A show needs a story, and a story needs conflict. They're trying so hard to cut down on the drama, and I think ultimately it's going to backfire in these early episodes. Putting two teams under one roof is something no other reality competition show does. It doesn't need to be the main focus of the show, and it never has been, but those little bits of drama made the show be more than just shooting. Now it's as though I'm watching an Olympic shooting match, and I don't mean that in a good way.

The Boat
I'm a little confused why the winner gets a boat. I've always wanted to see a challenge on the water, but I don't know how much duck hunting these guys are doing. Why wouldn't you give them a gun and year's worth of ammo or something? It's a cool boat, don't get me wrong, I'm just struggling to see why that's more incentive than prize money or say a shooting contract?

The First Challenge
I enjoyed the bits and pieces from previous seasons cobbled together, but it did make it feel a bit like a clip show. Part of the reason I love this show is seeing the inventive ways shooters are tested with different kinds of weapons. This could very quickly feel repetitive, and repetition is boring.

The other issue with not having teams is it is going to make these early challenges incredibly drawn out. I mean, compare this opening challenge to last season's where contestants went head to head doing rapid fire shooting at a line of targets. It was exhilarating to watch. This challenge it seemed like we were lucky to see someone shoot all three targets without it being edited down. If the producers don't seem to care about the challenge why should we?

The Champions
Not entirely sure what purpose those guys served by being there. It was almost entirely fan service. I mean they didn't even practice with the contestants. All they provided was some additional commentary. And was I the only one who felt that Iain Harrison kind of got the shaft in that regard? Chris Reed, Chris Cheng and Dustin Ellermann all seemed to get way more screen time.

The Proving Ground
This is another area that I hope sees some improvement in the weeks to come. I like the idea of one shot, all in all done, but man that was the antithesis of suspense. Too many people, too little action, too simple a task. Without voting there's no element of surprise to be had in these proceedings. Whether or not someone hits the bulls eye just doesn't have the same viewing intensity as seeing whether or not someone turns on their teammate.

The great thing about the nomination range was that it was almost always obvious who one of the contestants going to elimination would be. The thrill came with seeing who that second person was going to end up being. But again, that's all gone now.

The Elimination Challenge
This is where the excitement of the show is going to live. The group challenges in these early episodes are going to feel like waiting in line at the amusement park and the elimination challenge is going to be the ride at the end. The fatal flaw with eliminating teams is that you need to show 16 (now 15) shooters each making a run at the challenge into the first 20 minutes or so of the program. That's with gratuitous slow motion shots and contestant cutaway commentary. There's just no good way to pace that out no matter how you edit it (at least from what I've seen so far, and yes I am aware these are some very early judgements).

What do you think? Are you all for the less drama more skill? Or would you rather have a few more people butting heads? Leave your thoughts on the start of Season 5 in the comments below.

Top Shot Recap: S5 E1 "Best of the Best"

Dust off the cobwebs and unlock the safety, Top Shot is back. The All Star season kicked off last night to what I would call mixed results, but I'll get to that in my analysis post tomorrow.

The episode wasted no time getting to the shooting, bringing all the contestants onto the range where Colby laid down the new ground rules. No teams. No nomination range. Obstacles and weapons from past seasons will be combined into an unholy mismatch of new challenges. And there's a boat!

The first challenge found contestants crawling upside down along a length of rope while explosions were going off, and firing the SVT-40 at a target 125 yards down range. Then they moved on to climbing up a log and firing the LaRue Tactical Optimized Battle Rifle. This was followed by climbing under barbed wire with more explosions and shooting the FN FAL rifle from an unstable platform.

The eight fastest finishers would be safe. The bottom eight would face off to determine the bottom two up for elimination. Colby and some of the other competitors seemed to be really hammering home the idea that there would be less drama and more skill based competition this year. Tomorrow I'm going to delve into whether or not that's going to be a good thing.

Gary Quesenberry, my man, went first. It's never easy to be the person who has to set the pace in these kind of challenges. There's no benchmark, and there's no advantage of seeing where other people stumbled. Gary had a rough time and ended up with the slowest time. I'm not going to go through all sixteen contestants, but Kelly Bachand smoked the course with a time of one minute 26 seconds and won himself a pretty pair of binoculars.

The players safe were: Kelly, Alex Charvat, Blake Miguez, Chris Cerino, Jamie Franks, Joe Serafini, Peter Palma and Phil Morden.

The players facing elimination were: Gary, Greg Littlejohn, Gabby Franco, Chee Kwan, Kyle Sumpter, William Bethards, Brian Zins and Adam Benson. (Note all five Season 4 competitors ended up on the chopping block.)

There was a quick stop at what is apparently a new house on the same ranch (although I couldn't tell the difference) that was decked out with photos and weapons from previous seasons. It was perhaps the least amount of time the show has ever spent in the house.

The action then moved to the much hyped "Proving Ground" which was ultimately a little boring. The  eight contestants in jeopardy have one shot with a Colt Peacemaker Revolver. The two furthest from the center of the bulls eye face each other in elimination.

If I was depressed after Gary went through his initial run, I was devastated to see he was going to the elimination challenge in the first episode. He was going up against Littlejohn and it was only as the show started to play clips from the last season that I remembered that Littlejohn was the runner up in Season 4 and had very nearly been the winner.

The weapon of choice for the season's first elimination challenge? The Milkor grenade launcher, a weapon that cost Littlejohn the title in Season 4, but one the Gary had never even laid hands on before. The Sawman made a triumphant return to get the guys in shape with the launcher and then it was off to one of the best elimination challenges ever.

Are the grenade launchers a little cheap in that it's kind of pandering to the audience? Sure. Do I mind? Not in the least. The great thing about the grenade launchers is everything about them makes it such a rich viewing experience. From the "thonk" sound it makes when fired, to the graceful trajectory of the projectile as it makes its way to the mark, to the massive explosion when it finds the target. Every time I expect to be hit by the blast sitting in my living room.

The twist this time is that the competitors had four targets to hit instead of the normal three. Gary started off strong but slowed down when the smoke obscured his field of vision allowing Littlejohn to catch up. But Gary kept his cool and was able to pull out the win when Littlejohn lost time for a reload.

The first two challenges may have been a bit of a drag in terms of pacing, but I have to say this elimination challenge had me on my feet shouting at the TV. I can't think of a better way to start the season than with grenade launchers and saying bye bye to Littlejohn.

There was a lot going on in this episode, so come back tomorrow when I break it all down and discuss what the kind of effect the new rules will have on the overall quality of the show.

Follow me on Twitter @cswiets.

All-Star Cast Analysis: Season 4 and Champions

I got a little tied up with a few things outside of the blog. My apologies.

Here we sit, on the eve of a season I was never sure we would see. And as such I find myself returning to familiar territory. I have to say I'm surprised there are five contestants from Season 4. It seems like it would be difficult to do this (or any reality competition show) back to back. However like every season so far there are some highlights and low-lights, so let's take a look at who came back to the ranch.

Season 4

William Bethards
Not very excited for Mr. Hey Diddle Diddle, but we'll see if he can spend a little less time yapping and little more time hitting his mark.

Gabby Franco
An excellent choice and someone I am very excited to see some back. Gabby is rarely without a smile on her face and I think it would be awesome to see her go up against the best and come out the winner. 

Chee Kwan
His biggest downfalls seem to come with the obstacles that are incorporated into the challenges, rather than the shooting itself. If he can keeps his nerves in check when Colby throws a curveball, he should do just fine.

Gregory Littlejohn
My only question is: Who gets the friendship bandana this time around?

Kyle Sumpter
The guy who is so earnest it hurts. I can't really hold anything against Sumpter. He's a strong shooter, a great leader and genuinely a nice guy. But I do have trouble watching his one on one interviews.

I would rather see: Terry Vaughn, Dylan Fletcher and Tim Trefren. I think I've made my feelings about Vaughn pretty clear, so no need to be redundant. Fletcher I only started to like at the end, so I would have liked the chance to root for him from the start. Had Trefren not gone up against Chris Cheng in that elimination challenge I think he could have very easily made it to the individual portion of the contest. 

But wait there's more...

Since tomorrow is the premiere I'm going to double down on one other post I had planned but wasn't able to get to.

The one noticeable factor missing from the cast roster is the lack of champions. Iain Harrison, Chris Reed, Dustin Ellermann and Chris Cheng are nowhere to be found. I look at this two ways:

Glass half-full:
The promos already have shown the inclusion of Dustin and Chris during one of the challenges, so it isn't like they are going to be entirely absent from the proceedings. The argument can be made that these guys have already proven their talent as shooters and don't need go through it again. It also might look bad if one of the champions got knocked out early.

Glass half-empty:
This is an all-star season that is missing its four fiercest competitors. It's hard to claim being an all-star champion without beating at least one previous winner.

I wish I could tell you I have a good plan for posting tweets, recaps and analysis of each episode, but I still don't have cable. So if anyone knows someone at History Channel or Pilgrim Studios, ask them if they could send me screeners. I would really appreciate it. Otherwise I plan on getting up early Thursday and seeing what my streaming options are. Follow me on Twitter @cswiets for updates.

What are you most looking forward to in tomorrow's premiere? 

All-Star Cast Analysis: Season 3

As I look at Season 3's contestants, it reminds me of white bread. Nothing to complain about, but nothing to get too excited about either. Season 3 is memorable for all of the wrong reasons. Chief among them Jake Zweig, who walked out of the contest allowing Mike Hughes the opportunity to come back in and tarnish the integrity of the competition (in my opinion). While the right man came out champion, the show was unwittingly sucked into a dramatic plot that it had the good fortune to avoid up until that point. None of the contestants returning to the all-star season are a part of that drama, but that means their names aren't as instantly familiar. So let's get reacquainted.

Season 3

Alex Charvat
I'm glad to see Charvat back because he was put into a contest he shouldn't have found himself in. He had to go up against Mike Hughes who was allowed to reenter the competition after Zweig's departure. I've agued this point before and I'll do it again, if a contestant is eliminated in this show, they should stay out. Top Shot isn't about second chances (although I guess this season that's what it's all going to be about); it's about proving the contestants have what it takes, and if they don't, they lose. Charvat gets to try again and hopefully not get jerked around by technicalities. 

Phil Morden
Morden lost his elimination challenge because he fumbled a clip. That's what did him in, and in Top Shot, that's all it takes. He's back to show it's going to take more than small mistake to take him out of this competition. In his Season 5 video, he claims the experience taught him to slow down a little, but the contestant who is quick, cool and accurate is taking home the prize, and that might mean it's not Morden.

Gary Quesenberry
So I lied a little bit up at the top. My excitement over this knows no bounds. If there is one person I am automatically throwing my support behind it's Quesenberry. I would have loved to see him go all the way in Season 3. Now he's back and it may be weird, but I'm most excited to see who he makes friends with in the house. I almost named this blog after Quesenberry, that's how much I enjoy him on this show. It's going to be a real treat to see him go up against some of the series best shooters.

I would rather see: Jarrett Grimes, maybe? Truth be told, this is a pretty fair selection and I'm not dying to see Hughes or any other Season 3 contestants get another shot at the title. 

Tomorrow, I set my sights on the five returning contestants of Season 4. I'm excited about two, dreading two others, and aggressively indifferent about the fifth. Come back to find out who's who.

All-Star Cast Analysis: Season 2

A normal season of Top Shot has sixteen contestants. I was hoping for this season that would mean four contestants from each season, but unfortunately that did not turn out to be the case. Seasons 1 and 4 are each represented with five contestants, while Seasons 2 and 3 each shore up three. This distribution could prove interesting when it comes to seeing where loyalties lie as numbers begin to dwindle. Today I'll walk through what to expect from the Season 2 contestants.

Season 2

Jamie Franks
Unjustly maligned by his fellow competitors in Season 2, it will be interesting to see how Franks fits into the dynamic of this all-star cast. His performance could go one of two ways based on the perception his new competition has of him. He will either gel with the rest of the cast, easing his stress and improving his performance, or his experience with elimination challenges will paint a target on his back to get him out early. Either way I expect to see a very different Jamie Franks than the one of Season 2.

Joe Serafini
Serafini has a laid back personality that embodies everything this show should be about. He just wants to come out and test his mettle through some shooting contests. Although, this personality though may lend itself better to team play than individual competition. Finishing fourth in Season 2 means he's no slouch when it comes to shooting, but this season leaves a lot of questions about how the lone wolf approach is going to affect contestants' mental games.

Brian Zins
Zins was put in a tough spot during the Season 2 finale. He had to sit by and watch as the person he believed he would be going up against in the final contest decided to change the game and let Chris Reed take his spot (more or less, I could debate what really happened in that challenge forever if I had to, but I'm going to try and stay focused on the present). Zins gets to wipe the slate clean and begin working his way up from the bottom again. Whether or not he has what it takes to get to reach the final stage again remains to be seen.

I would rather see: George Reinas and Jay Lim. Part of the issue with this all-star season is the lack of personality. This is a television show, and shows need characters. Not only were Jay and George great shots, they made the show fun to watch each week. Keep an eye on how this season is edited, and compare the personalities from the contestants' original season to the current one. 

Come back tomorrow for a look at who is showing up from Season 3. 

All-Star Cast Analysis: Season 1

It's been a long off season, but it's time to get back to work. The premiere date is set for Wednesday, May 29. The cast has been announced, and Colby has returned to Twitter. The only question left is: What's going to happen? What exactly does the All-Star Season have in store? From the few promos I've watched, it certainly looks interesting, especially since everyone seems to be wearing green jerseys. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's start simple by taking a look at the cast. Over the next couple of days I'll break down the cast by the season they hail from. I'll take a look at their strengths, weaknesses and overall likability. I'm still planning out where to go from there, but if you have any suggestions let me know. 

Season 1

Kelly Bachand
Of the whole crop of Season 1 contestants, Kelly is the person I am most excited to see get another shot in this competition. Now, if you've been following the intermittent posts I've been putting up since Season 4 ended, Kelly's involvement in the All-Star season shouldn't come as much of a shock. That being said, Kelly is an awesome competitor and skilled shooter. He has a likable personality that lends itself to the show's skill over strategy style of play. Kelly was also pretty young when he first came on the show, and it'll be interesting to see how he has matured.

Adam Benson
Eliminated in the same challenge as Kelly, Adam is on the older end of the contestant spectrum, and as he says in his video, the physicality of some of the challenges can throw off his game. That seems to be a recurring factor in Top Shot and one that can ultimately be more difficult than hitting the target.

Chris Cerino
It's true what they say, no one remembers second place. Season 1 is going back a ways for me to remember, and while my friend Tony helped me get a little refresher last year, I no longer have the luxury of watching old episodes on Netflix. The good thing is, with a runner-up in the mix, the show is definitely putting its best foot forward trying to get the cream of the crop to duke it out.

Blake Miguez
While I'm not necessarily excited to see Blake return, I'm not indifferent either. Blake was a strong competitor, finishing behind Kelly and Adam in Season 1. He returned in Season 2 as a expert to show off the 2011 Razorcat race gun, one of the coolest weapons to ever be featured on the show. After watching his video for Season 5, History really seems to be playing up the Louisiana angle to tap into its Swamp People audience, which is weird since I don't really remember that being emphasized during his first go around. 

Peter Palma
Peter has a very teddy bear-like quality to him, which makes him a bit of a mystery to me. At first glance he might seem a little soft, but the man is a marine and finished fourth in Season 1 going up against three very tough shooters. Look for him to be the wild card this season. I don't want to make any bets, but I could see him going pretty far.

I would rather see 
J.J. Racaza and Tara Paremba instead of Blake and Adam (no offense to those guys). I would also include Iain Harrison, but I'll get to him in another post. J.J. was a more memorable number three than Chris was as a number two, and the guy is simply an amazing shooter. Tara was never fairly eliminated from the contest, and I believe could very easily have made it into the top eight. 

What do you think? Are you happy with the Season 1 All-Stars, or is History missing someone who deserved a spot? Hit the comments and let me know. 

Going to be a busy weekend for me, so I won't make any promises about when I'm posting next. Come back and take a look on Sunday afternoon or follow me on Twitter @cswiets for the latest posts.

Top Shot Season Five: Mark Your Calendars

Premiering over a year after the last season finale, Top Shot Season Five is officially set to air on Wednesday, May 29 at 10/9 CT. Since I just found this news out myself (courtesy of Jamie Franks) I'm just going to provide a quick list of the contestants. Come back tomorrow evening when I'll start diving into what to expect from this all-star season.

Season 1
Kelly Bachand
Adam Benson
Chris Cerino
Blake Miguez
Peter Palma

Season 2
Jamie Franks
Joe Serafini
Brian Zins

Season 3
Alex Charvat
Phil Morden
Gary Quesenberry (YES!)

Season 4
William Bethards
Gabby Franco
Chee Kwan
Gregory Littlejohn
Kyle Sumpter

Follow me on Twitter: @cswiets

Through Colby's Glasses: One Year Later

Just over a year ago, I made my first post on this blog. I started this blog for a few reasons. Number one is because I love Top Shot. I still think it's one of the best reality-competition shows out there. Also, I felt that it was a show that doesn't get a lot of press because it isn't a huge hit, so maybe I could give it a little grassroots support. I didn't have any expectations for what this blog might become when I started. I didn't expect contestants to reach out to me on social media and comment on this blog. I didn't expect History Channel to start following me on Twitter. I won't claim this blog has burned up the internet in anyway, but as of this posting I'm just shy of 30,000 views. I don't think that's too shabby for some kid in Wisconsin with too much time on his hands.

Of course that success (and yeah I'm going to call it a success) wouldn't have been possible without the support I've received, so I wanted to take a minute to thank those who helped me out. 

First, Carol Vaughn, Terry Vaughn's wife. She was the first person connected to Top Shot to follow me on Twitter and to really share this blog. That leads me to my second thank-you, Terry Vaughn. This guy was awesome to talk with and he retweeted links and even mentioned me in a few Follow Fridays. 

I wanted to give a big thank you to Chris Cheng. Like Terry, he really promoted this blog over his own Twitter, and even gave me some advice when I was looking for a job after I graduated. That's a class act right there.

Thanks to Dylan Fletcher, who promoted this blog even when I was not saying the nicest things about him on it, and who ultimately proved that I had made the wrong assumptions about him. Also he posted some awesome insights in the comments of some my recaps that gave me a better understanding of how the show works behind the scenes. 

Tim Trefren and I also had some good back an forth on Twitter, so thank you to him. 

Season one competitor Kelly Bachand posted some comments while we wait for Season 5 to get underway. Hopefully, we will continue to hear from him once the season actually premieres, whenever that may be.

Lastly, I would like to thank you for coming and reading this blog. When I started, I couldn't even find this blog in a Google search. Now it's the number one result when you search "top shot blog." I don't know when the next season is going to premiere, but I'll be ready to pick this up when it does. I still need to figure a few things out, like how I will watch it since I don't have cable, but I'm geared up nonetheless. 

I have some fun new ideas for the blog too. I recently did my first Storify which I think could be a fun way to do Top Tweets, and I might try and freshen up the layout a little for some more visual appeal. So thank you again to everyone who has shared this blog or just stopped by for a good read. There will be much more to come.

I thought I would leave you with a few stats from the first year of the blog. 

Top 5 Viewed Posts

1. Season 5 All-Stars: Cast Update

2. Top Shot Recap: S4E11 "Have Machine Gun Will Travel" 

3. Top Shot All-Stars: Season 4 Picks

4. Top 3: Theories on the "Proving Ground"

5. Top Tweets: Season 5 is Underway

Top 5 Search Terms

1. top shot season 5

2. top shot all stars

3. top shot all stars cast

4. top shot 2013

5. top shot season 5 start date

Top 5 Countries Reading This Blog

1. United States

2. United Kingdom

3. Canada

4. France

5. Germany

As always, leave your comments below, and follow me on Twitter @cswiets for the latest updates to this blog.

Top 3: Theories on the "Proving Ground"

Chris Cheng asks and I answer.

If you ever visit my other blog (which you should, it's not bad) you may know I do a semi-regular feature called "Top 3." I figured it would be a good fit here after Twitter blew up this afternoon (and by blew up I mean Chris Cheng and Dustin Ellerman tweeted about it) after this picture was posted online:

Still looking good Colby.

Now, this photo was originally posted by Season 1 competitor, Kelly Bachand. If you've been checking in with this blog regularly, you'll know Kelly recently posted comment on my Season 4 All-Star Picks post. All of which leads me to believe that we have pretty good confirmation of at least one contestant for Season 5.

This photo leaves a lot to speculate about. The language itself almost leads me to believe we might be in store for a very different season of Top Shot. I'm thinking radical format changes. It's a bold move, but one Top Shot needs to make if it wants to stay alive in the ratings.

(Sideshot: Here's a thing I don't understand, if a show like Duck Dynasty is beating a show like American Horror Story in the ratings, why isn't Top Shot doing better? I would think the audiences are similar.)

But as we need to wait another month or two (Or three? Or four? Seriously, History, gives us an air date) for Top Shot to return, I offer my top three guesses as to what the "Proving Ground" is.

1. A Brand New Format
The teaser above says there will be twelve episodes and three rounds. It doesn't specify whether those three rounds take place within each episode or over the course of the season. One guess would be that either the first third or the final third of the series will be dubbed the "Proving Ground." If it takes place in the first third of the series, imagine an elongated version of how teams were picked in Season 4. A single challenge where contestants play to stay and the losers are eliminated.

If it's in the final third of the season, I imagine a twist on what happens when the shooters don the green jerseys. Instead of continuing with a one-on-one elimination at the end of each episode, there would be a series of challenges where no one is eliminated. Each challenge has a points system which are tallied through the final challenge. The person sitting with the most points at the end of the final challenge takes the title.

2. A New Way of Doing Something Familiar
Consider this option a slight twist on the the normal elimination proceedings. The person with the most hits on their target still gets sent to elimination, but they get to choose who they get to face-off against. Hence the person sent to elimination gets to "prove" they belong in the competition. It wouldn't be radically different from the current elimination proceedings, but it might make for some interesting TV.
Sure, the voting on Top Shot has always been pretty easy to manipulate, but this way we could really get to see some personal vendettas among contestants get played out.

3. A Way to Bring Back Eliminated Contestants
This is my best guess, but the one I'm also hoping is not true. Survivor has used this tactic a few times (I think, when was the last time I watched Survivor? Oh yeah, when Colby was a contestant the first time around) and it works for that show because that game is all about manipulation and disturbing the status quo. On a show like Top Shot, though, it would feel cheap, not just for the players, but the audience as well. Top Shot contestants fight to be there every week. That title is earned through every challenge the contestants face, and watching someone get knocked out early, only to have the opportunity to jump back in towards the end, would feel undeserved.

I don't know about you, but I am excited. this is either going to ruin the show the completely or be an epic turning point that redefines the show.

Agree? Disagree? Share your theories on the "Proving Ground" in the comments.

Follow @cswiets

Season 5 All-Stars: Cast Update

Colby has been on the Twitters showing a few behind the scenes pics of upcoming challenges from the anticipated all-star season. Since he has confirmed filming I have been trying to figure out who will, and who will not, be appearing as part of the all-star cast based on past contestants' social media activity. Here is the best I can surmise of who will almost definitely NOT be a part of the all-star season.

I should also preface this list by saying most of my intel is heavy on Season 4 contestants because they seem to have the largest social media presence than contestants from other previous seasons.

Season 1

• J.J. Racaza

Season2

• Chris Reed
• Jay Lim

Season 3

• Dustin Ellerman
• Jake Zweig

Season 4

• Terry Vaughan
• Chris Cheng
• Chee Kwan
• Michelle Viscusi
• Gabby Franco
• Dylan Fletcher
• Tim Trefren - Could go either way. Colby says filming of the fifth season continues until October, but Trefren is leading a shooting class on October 6. Shooting could finish by then, but it would be a pretty quick turnaround.

This means there is a strong possibility that this all-star season will be free of any past champions. It also means some of the biggest personalities and skilled shooters from past seasons will be missing, which makes me a little nervous. Again, anything can happen, but my best guess says not to expect those listed above to appear. 

Hit the comments if you feel you know anything I don't about who will or will not be a part of the all-star season.

Top Tweets: Season Five is Underway

Last night Colby tweeted that the first challenge of Season 5 had been filmed. The accompanying picture confirmed what he had announced months ago that Season 5 would be an all-star competition featuring past contestants, but so far there is no indication of who those contestants might be. Not to mention, if the season has just begun filming, there is a strong likelihood it will not air until 2013. (Pray the Mayans aren't right)

Most reality shows cut off contestants from the outside world except in the case of family emergencies. Top Shot is no different. By examining the dates and nature of the tweets (and other social media outlets) from former Top Shot contestants, I've made a few guesses of who may or may not show up on the all-star season.

• Season 1 fan favorite J.J. Racaza was tweeting up through August 17. His previous tweets were a whirlwind of world travels and shooting competitions. Reasoning that the first challenge is actually taking place on the second or possibly even third day of filming, it's a pretty good guess that Racaza will not make another run at the title.

• Season 2's Jamie Franks stopped tweeting on August 12. That was about one week ago. This may be an indication that he put aside the social media to prepare for reentering the fray. However, he is also to be an infrequent tweeter, so this may just be another short hiatus.

• Season 2's Jay Lim is a pretty avid tweeter. A tweet from August 16 replied to a follower who wrote they would like to see him, Chris Reed, George Reinas, Racaza, and Gabby Franco return for the all-star season. Lim replied that these were "good choices ;)," which may be an indication of who will show up. Or it may mean he just liked the support, especially since he was still tweeting as of this morning. I wonder if History has even informed all past contestants of who has and who has not been selected to participate. This could mean some past contestants are unaware that a new season has even commenced filming.

• Season 3 winner Dustin Ellermann's backstory as a Christian camp director is widely known by fans of the show. Ellermann tweeted recently that he had ramped up camp, and even more recently that he was in California, the same state where Top Shot is filmed. This could be a strong indicator that Ellermann is back to defend his title.

• Season 4's Gabby Franco was tweeting up through August 17 as well, but her last tweet connected to a Facebook post saying that she would be out of town for a while. Could this mean she is on her way back to the range? Time will tell.

• Season 4's Michelle Viscusi tweeted this morning and has been frequently updating her Facebook fan page. This most likely means she will not be returning for Season 5.

• Season 4 winner Chris Cheng has just started his shooting contract with Bass Pro-Shops, and while Bass is a big supporter of the show, it is unlikely that Cheng would jump off the pro circuit so soon after he started. Not to mention the fact that he replied to one of my tweets just this morning.

There are a handful of other  Season 4 contestants with Twitter accounts who either haven't used them in a while or haven't posted anything that would indicate one way or another about their involvement with the all-star season. Fan favorites like Tim Trefren and Terry Vaughan are question marks, as are William Bethards and Gregory Littlejohn. In addition many contestants from earlier seasons have not connected with fans through social media in the same way that contestants from more recent seasons have. This makes deciphering who will be a part of the all-star season more difficult.

The real test will come in the following days. Now that Colby has revealed Season 5 is being filmed, any former contestant tweeting or using other social media (some contestants have favored Facebook pages for connecting with fans over Twitter) after that point can (almost certainly) be ruled out as a contender in the all-star season.

Keep checking this blog as I will try to keep a running list of former contestants that can be ruled out as participants.

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Top Shot All-Stars: Season 4 Picks

It's official. There will be a Season 5, and that season will (hopefully) feature the best of the last four seasons to see who is the ultimate Top Shot. At the beginning of Season 4, when this was still in the rumor stage, I posted who I would pick from the first three seasons to participate in an all-star challenge. Now that Season 4 has been completed, and we know for certain there will be an all-star season, I present my picks for who should come back.

Givens:
Chris Cheng - As with all my picks, this wouldn't be much to watch if we didn't have all four winners in the mix. This is probably going to be incredibly difficult to do, especially since a recent article with Season 3 winner Dustin Ellerman stated he would be busy this summer running his camp. Regardless, we got to have the Chenger, he battled his way through some incredibly talented contestants and came out on top.

Terry Vaughan - Forget the fact he didn't make it to the individual level, and that he was eliminated by Littlejohn, this guy has personality that makes the show come alive. Plus, if we get Iain Harrison, double the Brits is sure to equal double the fun.

Gabby Franco - You can't have an all-star season without the best female contestant in the show's history. Franco has already taken to her twitter account to start gathering support. Franco was an impressive contestant and had great chemistry with her teammates. I'd love to see how she fares against the best from the first three seasons.

Wild Card:
Tim Trefren/Chee Kwan -Bit of a cop-out here to pick two but I have good reasoning. Trefren was a master hunter and if he hadn;t gotten upset with Cheng and forced himself into that elimination challenge, I'm confident he would have made it at least to the indivdual stage of the compeition. That being said Chee was a skilled shooter, and putting him back in the house with Gabby is something I think most viewers could get behind.

There you have it. Put your picks in the comments, and hit up Colby on Twitter with who you would like to see come back for Season 5.

More thoughts on the all-star season to come, and I'll be picking up my Season 4 slack very soon.

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Top Tweets Vol. 10: Ch-Ch-Ch-Chenger!

Wow, can you say behind the ball much? Sorry for the delay here, I'm already behind, graduating from college is apparently a lot of work.

A pretty good finale (Best ever? Debate in the comments until I put up my analysis) and thankfully another stellar winner to add to the likes of Iain Harrison, Chris Reed, and Dustin Ellerman. Chris Cheng continues the pattern of having a red team member named Chris win the even numbered seasons of Top Shot, and I couldn't be more pleased.

However, let's get to the real reason I'm here, to tell you what Mr. Colby Donaldson had to say about last night's finale:

• Colby is big fan of the Winchester '73 rifle

•  Gary Shank made his shot against Littlejohn in their first face-off on the dueling trees by 1/100 of second. This was one of the few times they have needed to use the super slo-mo cameras to determine whether or not a shot counted.

•  Colby was apparently at the Home Depot this past Saturday. Which one? I'll never tell. (mostly because I don't know)

•  The names in the ammo box are printed on shells from the Hummer shotgun challenge in Season 2. Top Shot is a green show.

•  Colby's suggestion for the shooters during the saloon challenge "Shotgun and barn door at 10 feet"

•  Colby believes he might have broken a record for the number of times he said "All tied up!" in a single episode. 

• And Colby promised to let everyone know about Season 5 as soon as he did (and then I will in turn also inform you).

That's all we got. I need to keep rolling so I can get my recap up tonight and find some time for my analysis.

What did you think of the finale? And what would you like from Season 5 of Top Shot (if there is one)? Hit the comments and let me know.

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It all comes down to this...

Ladies and Gentlemen, this is what it is all about.

Tonight it all comes down to four shooters and three high stakes challenges to win the title, the money and the contract.

Tonight's season finale is sure to be an intense episode. We have four contestants left. Two from red team, and two from blue, a testament to what I've been saying all season: This has been one of the most evenly matched seasons ever.

Two of these contestants, Chris Cheng and Greg Littlejohn, have, for better or worse, been pretty prominently featured this season. The other two, Augie Malekovich and Gary Shank, are still a little bit of a mystery. So the real question is who will win?

I hate to disappoint, but I'm not going to make any guesses, I just want to enjoy the ride. I'm pulling for the Chenger, but if Top Shot's Facebook page is to be believed, the final challenge will come down to the final seconds, so don't expect a blow out like Season 3.

What I do want to write about is my posting schedule for the week. Just because the show is going to be over doesn't mean this blog is going to stop. Here's what I have in store for the next week or two:

• The Final Top Tweets post will be up tonight after Behind the Bullet
• Finale recap will be up tomorrow
• Finale analysis will be up Thursday
• Behind the Bullet recap/analysis will be up Friday
• My Season 4 All-star picks will be up on Monday
• My full analysis of Season 4 will be up next Tuesday
• And a post about what I want from Season 5 will be up somewhere between next Wednesday and Friday 

That's my plan and I will try and stick to it as best I can. Follow along with Colby tonight on Twitter @Colby_Donaldson to see his reaction and remember to stick around for "Behind the Bullet" airing right after the finale.

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Top Shot Analysis: S4 E11 "Have Machine Gun Will Travel"

After I made several complaints about lackluster challenges last week, Top Shot bounced back, kind of. It is an episode that I sure left a lot of viewers with conflicted feelings, so call me Dr. Swietlik as I sort through the issues at hand.

The Challenges
I won't spend too much time talking about the individual challenge. I think we can all agree it was pretty good. A good weapon on a good course with a good twist. Not to mention it forced contestants to work on ammo conservation as well as hitting moving targets. I also liked that this challenge had grouped exploding targets; I could be wrong, but that might be a Top Shot first.

So let's talk elimination. How important is memory in a shooting challenge? Colby mentioned during his live tweet of this episode that the individual challenge wanted to discourage contestants from spraying and praying, and I believe a similar idea was at work here. By making the contestants focus on specific targets they had to make their shots count, especially if they didn't want any deductions on their scores.

(Quick thought, is it feasible to think that they could have shot all 30 targets in the time alotted? Because then they would have had the same score and it would have come down to who used fewer bullets.)

Like I said I'm conflicted about this challenge. I like the rope part, I'm always a fan of some good rope climbing, but memorization seemed a little gimmicky, even for this show. It was like someone just took a bunch of different ideas for a challenge and threw them in a blender.

The one thing I really liked about this challenge was the shaving cream target. How the hell has it taken four seasons for someone to think of that? I mean that was maybe my favorite part of the night because not only was the camera work cool, but you could see shaving cream on all the other targets too.

Now one of the reason's for this challenge (and other seemingly lackluster ones this season) may be the tight production schedule of the show. We have to remember that Season 3 and Season 4 were filmed back to back. This could put a pretty big strain not only on the budget of the show, but on the creative team that designs the challenges. So, if there is a Season 5, the challenge engineers will have had a nice long break to recharge their creative juices.

The Contestants
Did you ever think it would come to this? Because I certainly didn't. Greg Littlejohn has made it into the final four of the competition. I'm going to be very upset if he ends up winning this thing, and right now, I would put him and Chris Cheng in the final two.

Augie Malekovich finally got to shine a little in this episode. Augie has had some great moments this season, but none that have had any real impact on the game. That was, until this episode. His showed there was some unresolved tension between him and the rest of the red team. This is how the game should be played, especially at this stage of the competition. It's important to shake things up to keep the contestants on guard. Malekovich becoming a wild card  is a great new strategy to implement at this stage of the game.

Think of it this way, anyone who is too out of control in the beginning of the season paints a target on their back. There needs to be a certain amount of line towing in those early stages to establish some camaraderie. However at this point, where the bottom three performers are already picked out, the wild card can shoot whoever they want without feeling guilty about it.

Plus it's always fun to see someone do something on this show just for the hell of it.

That's really all I have this week. Kyle's gone, I'm happy. Now if we could just solve this Littlejohn problem...

What did you think of the challenges? And who do you think will take it all in next week's finale?

Follow @cswiets

Top Shot Recap: S4 E11 "Have Machine Gun Will Travel"

Sorry if it seems like I'm slacking on my posting schedule here, but school keeps getting in the way.

Let's skip the pleasantries and dive right in.

On the practice range (nothing interesting happened in the opening two minutes, so I'm skipping straight to the shooting) Colby stood in front of the contestants with a big grin and big tarp. Under the tarp was a M1919 Browning machine gun, a classic weapon of WWII. It was a weapon that none of the contestants had shot before, though Greg Littlejohn had the advantage of previous experience with belt fed machine guns due to his time in the military. With the help and welcome return of Craig "The Sawman" Sawyer, the rest of the group worked on trying to figure out the gun and playing with the trigger without spending too much ammo.

At the challenge the contestants were faced with...nothing, just the bench, which meant they were in for a surprise. That was when an M2A1 Halftrack came barreling down the road with the Browning strapped to its back.  Contestants would jump on the Halftrack and have the opportunity to shoot at 15 different targets as they went down the road. The catch, they only had 100 bullets. The top two shooters were safe while the bottom three were up for elimination.

Gary Shank was up first (and isn't he always?) and quickly found out how little time it takes to go through 100 bullets, hitting only four targets. Littlejohn was up next and his experience shined through, hitting eight out of the 15 and ending up with the best score of the night. He was followed by Kyle Sumpter who struggled, but did better than Shank, hitting five targets. Chris Cheng continued to show he had the ability to master anything Colby puts in his hands, hitting six targets, for the second best score of the night (spoiler alert if you can do the math and didn't watch last night). Augie Malekovich was last to go, and after a strong start lost his rhythm, tying Sumpter with five targets.

I'm not really sure why, but the contestants keep having team meeting despite not being a team. There has been more team meeting footage this season than any other I would hazard to guess. It sounded like it was going to be Malekovich and Shank duking it out, but once again, things didn't go according to plan on the range.

Littlejohn hit Shank's target and all three remaining red team members hit Malekovich's. Then it was Malekovich's turn, and it turns out ole Augie had a little bone to pick with the red team. He decided he was going to hit Kyle's target because if he was going to go to elimination, he was going to throw a little chaos at the red team. So with a tie for the second contestant to go to elimination, Shank and Sumpter had to go to a shoot-off. Shank went first, hitting just below the bullseye to the left. Sumpter got up to shoot and clipped Shank's mark, but was just outside.

Sumpter and Malekovich would face off using the FN PS90 carbine. In perhaps the oddest twist of the season, this challenge was not so much focused on shooting as it was on memory....and rope climbing. Apparently this was a recreation of some kind of Marine exercise, but it was still a little odd (more on this tomorrow). Each contestant would have a box filled with ten items. They needed to open the box look at the items, close the box, climb across 20 feet of rope, then pick up the PS90 and shoot the 10 targets in their box without hitting the other twenty they were set amongst (I'll admit, that was pretty poorly worded). They had to to all of that in 75 seconds. They could go back as often as they wanted to look at the box, but with only 75 seconds, they would need to budget their time. This was a hard challenge to follow as it required the viewer to also memorize the items in the box to figure out who was winning. As it always is in Top Shot, points were awarded for proper hits, and points were deducted for decoy hits.

When the contest was over, Sumpter had clearly hit more objects than Malekovich but it all came down to the final count. Malekovich had hit five targets from his box, while Kyle had hit three. Malekovich hit only one decoy bringing his count down to four but securing the win. (Sumpter hit four decoys bringing his score down to negative one)

So one part of my prayers have been answered as Sumpter is sent packing and I can look forward to one Sumpter free episode this episode.

What did you think of last night's challenges? Are you glad that Papa Bear was sent back to his cave, or did you think he still had some fight left in him? Hit the comments and let me know.

Come back tomorrow for my analysis of tonight's episode.

Follow @cswiets

Top Tweets Vol. 9: This Is What Dreams Are Made Of

After being noticeably absent from last week's proceedings (and letting me waste a perfectly good post title) Colby returned to the tweet waves for the second to last episode of the (series?) season. Colby was clearly more reserved than he has been all season. He restricted most of his comments to thanks you's for people welcoming him back, and small insights into what was happening in the episode. I'm not sure whether to take that as a good sign or a bad sign, so we'll just have to take it as it is and cross our fingers.

Here's the best of what Colby had to offer tonight:

• Colby apparently really enjoys being able to reveal the guns to shooters by pulling off a tarp, and, well, who can blame him?

• This episode marked a rare time on Top Shot where the shooters were allowed to see their competition practice (although no reason was given as to why).

• He mentions that his fluorescent shirt this evening was to make sure he didn't catch a stray round from one of the contestants.

• Shooters were only allowed 100 rounds for this challenge because they wanted to avoid the shooters relying on "spraying and praying."

• The house is less than two miles from the shooting field.

• If anyone ever wondered why Colby is always shouting during the challenges, it is so he doesn't have to do as much voice over work in post.

• The slo-mo cams shoot at 40,000 frames per second. Just to give you a little perspective on how ridiculous that is: A movie is shot at 26 frames per-second and Peter Jackson is shooting his new "Hobbit" film at 48 frames per second.

• The exploding targets are 100 percent designed and constructed by the show's pyrotechnic team.

• The closest Colby gets to commenting on another season is when he answers a question saying that thousands of people apply to Top Shot every season.

That will do for tonight. We are closing in the the finish line, and I can only be grateful for two things: that Chris Cheng is still in the competition and that the season ends before my finals exams.

Hit the comments and let me know your initial reaction to  tonight's episode.

Come back tomorrow for my recap and Thursday for my analysis. I might even throw up a post on Friday looking at the final four.

Follow @cswiets

Top Shot Analysis: S4 E10 "SWAT Throwdown"

Here are some fun facts about 1995:

• Busiest hurricane season on record
• Denver International Airport opened
• Mississippi becomes the last state to ratify the 13th amendment (seriously)
• Salt Lake City selected to host the 2002 Winter Olympics
• The final original Calvin and Hobbes comic strip is published
• And most importantly, this was the last time Augie Malekovich had done any rappelling before this week's challenge.

Now, I have, already, unfortunately, admitted in the recap that I did not pay as close attention to this episode as I may have liked, but I persevere.

The Challenges
I think we are coming to an unfortunate realization as we head towards the conclusion of this season. The challenges this season have been a little lame. They don't look so bad on their own, and the shotgun episode will remain one of my all time favorites, but compared to previous seasons there just isn't as much imagination at play.

Take for instance the second team challenge, the traditional obstacle course. The contestants run under some barbed wire, then get into a ditch and start shooting. This is a steep decline from Season 1 which involved four different shooting stations with two different rifles going through four different sets of obstacles. Part of this could be blamed on the physically demanding Season 2, which took out a couple of contestants simply because their bodies couldn't handle it.

But think of what else has been missing from this season that has been a staple in season's past. There has been no challenges involving a zipline, an element involved in some form or another in each of the three previous seasons. There was also no carnival style shootout with a revolver and no upside down shooting.

Now is some of that gimmicky? Yes, certainly, but that's why I like the show, because it really does test these contestants under a wide range of conditions. (Even if they are not always practical)

Getting back to this week. The rappelling challenge was fine, but hyped up more than I think it deserved to be. My real issue was with the elimination challenge. First of all the Mossberg "Chainsaw" Shotgun is my least favorite weapon because it fails to live up to its own name. A chainsaw shotgun sounds like something out of a zombie video game, and I would expect it to be awesome. However, the only reason this thing is called "Chainsaw" is because of its handle on the barrel, which could possibly be the worst reason for naming something ever.

Also I want to compare this challenge to Season 3's similarly SWAT inspired episode which featured the Cornershot in the elimination challenge. I bring this up to illustrate how uninspired this challenge was. If I want to see contestants shooting at doors, I want to see them blowing them down, not nicking the side to enter the room. This challenge was so simplistic, open the door shoot the targets, repeat two times. While the Season 3 challenge just had shooters utilizing the Cornershot at a variety of stations, the fact they had to orient themselves at each one by using the camera added a great dimension of tension that this challenge seemed to lack.

The Contestants
No big blow ups this week on the contestant front, drama was kept to a minimum now that Greg Littlejohn seems to be the only real ego left in the house, here are just a few snippets then:

Already hit on Malekovich's 1995 comment, so I'll skip that.

Chee Kwan Hat Watch: No hat this week as I mentioned in my recap, but he did get to wear a helmet, so that was fun.

Last week I mentioned how I was delighted that Kyle Sumpter was kept at bay for ten whole minutes before getting any screen time. Guess who didn't even need to wait ten seconds before having their voice heard this week?

Chris Cheng is pretty much this season's Dustin Ellerman, there I said it.

Finally, the one thing I did want to comment on a little was Kwan being sent home by Gary Shank. Tony and I were watching this and we both were rooting for Kwan to win. Nothing against Shank, but the show just has not done a good job familiarizing him with the audience. He and Augie are still a bit of a mystery to me. I still like Shank, and think he's certainly proved he has some serious skills; however, what I am trying to say is that while I did not want see either men leave -

[Quick break, why is it, whenever they have an even number of shooters, and an even number of contestants, that they never seem to try and distribute the vote evenly? I just don't get why they didn't put two bullets in each person's target, then go to a shoot off. This is really my roundabout way of saying I wish Littlejohn had gone home.]

- but I would have been less sad to see Shank go than I was to see Kwan go.

Final fun fact, while I was writing this post History Channel started following me on Twitter, which is either A) Good or B) Bad. If I get sued I'll let you know, unless they issue a cease and desist, in which case I won't. I'll take it as an endorsement(ish) for now.

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Top Shot Recap: S4 E10 "SWAT Throwdown"

Ok a few things before diving in here.
1. I am incredibly distracted at the moment, papers, tests, girlfriend, job hunting, and graduation are all culminating in a perfect storm, so I apologize in advance for being late and missing a few details (also I don't mean to make my problems your problems, so double apology there).
2. No Top Tweets again, but this time an explanation. Colby gave one tweet on Tuesday, informing his followers (the one problem with Twitter is how cult-y I have to sound when I refer to it) that he was not allowed to participate because of comments he made the previous week. I'm not precisely sure what could have gotten him into trouble, most of his tweets were simply about trying to help save the show and were in no way critical of History as far as I could tell.
3. I was very disappointed I was unable to do a Top Tweets because I had a very good title (Top Tweets Vol. 9: Last time I did this, it was 1995).

Anyway...
Chris Cheng nails up William Bethards target (did anyone else notice how they finally made the targets green for the contestants who make it to individual stage of the competition? Also, did I talk about this already?) and Greg Littlejohn talks about how he was surprised Cheng was able to take him down.

This week's theme was Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) and the individual challenge would feature the FN Five-seven pistol, which holds a twenty round clip. This would be the first challenge this season where contestants would have to holster the pistol. Much of the practice was spent working on drawing the pistol out of the holster smoothy and working on firing quickly without forsaking accuracy.

The challenge was the biggest this season in terms of staging (I am convinced they had their budget significantly reduced for this season just by looking at some rather simplistic challenges). Contestants would climb to the top of a faux three-story building and rappel down one level at a time. At each level there were two windows. Contestants would take the pistol out of the holster and fire at three jars down range. Once hitting all three they would re-holster the pistol, move to the next window, unholster and fire at another three targets. Once hitting all six targets on the level, the could proceed to the next one. The top three shooters who completed the challenge in the fastest time were safe, while the bottom three were up for nomination.

This week, as a special treat, I actually have the correct order and times for each contestant. Littlejohn went first, shooting his targets in 1 minute 32 seconds. He was followed by Chee Kwan (sans hat), who had a brief panic attack and tried to recover, shooting in 1 minute 42 seconds. Kyle Sumpter proved himself to be a skilled lawman, taking out his targets in 1 minute 21 seconds. Gary Shank was up next, falling between Kwan and Littlejohn at 1 minute 36 seconds. Cheng, who said in practice he had never used this weapon before, smoked the course in an astounding 1 minute 17 seconds (Bias much? Yes, yes I am). Augie Malekovich was the last to go, hitting his marks in a respectable 1 minute 23 seconds, and keeping him out of elimination.

A brief pow-wow at the house revealed that performance based Sumpter might be having a change of heart, telling Augie he would have a hard time shooting either of his fellow red team members. Kwan made it known that he was still looking for another opportunity to prove himself after having the worst time on the course.

At the nomination range Chee and Shank split the votes as Sumpter decided that, after talking with Chee, he would shoot his target.

The elimination challenge would carry on with the SWAT theme, and also be the second challenge this season to feature two different weapons in the same challenge: the Mossberg 500 "Chainsaw" Shotgun and the FN FS2000 rifle. At the practice range contestants also were made aware that for this challenge they would be outfitted with protective tactical gear.

The elimination challenge was a three stage course. Contestants would begin by using the Mossberg to breach a door, then take the FS2000 and shoot three targets. There were three doors to breach and three groups of targets to shoot at progressively farther distances. Shank took the charge and blasted through the course in an amazing 56 seconds. Kwan followed but did not have an aggressive start, and his failure to breach the final door on his first attempt left him the dust, completing the course in 1 minute 13 seconds.

Shank proves he is just as lethal with old guns as he is with modern ones, while Kwan goes off to the other side of the hill to (hopefully) find Gabby Franco...

What did you think of this week's episode? How much trouble do you think Colby is really in? And who do think will win now that we are down to the final five?

Fingers crossed that the analysis will be up Thursday afternoon, if not Friday for sure.

Follow @cswiets

Tony's Take: Top Shot Season 2

Tony continues to work his way through Top Shot on Netflix, this time sharing his thoughts on Season 2.

What it is, yo?  I’d first like to wish the happiest of Mondays to TCG’s legions of readers around the globe.  Then I’d like to bring four hours of pain to your early-afternoon reading time. I’ve never been a believer in Monday being a hard day. Monday Night Raw is on Mondays. Monday Night Football is on Mondays. Domino’s has that sweet three-topping carryout deal for $8 on Mondays. On top of that it’s easy to carry on a conversation without giving a crap just by asking what that person did over their weekend. It’s the easiest day of the week in my book. However, since I started watching Season 4 of Top Shot I’ve noticed my left eye starts twitching and I interject nervous laughter and panic screams into conversation by about 3 p.m. on Mondays. I’ve got a Top Shot jones worse than Charles Barkley in Space Jam. I have to assume I’m not the only one who feels that way, so here’s hoping this post will calm your symptoms a little bit so you can be a functional member of society for another 24 hours.

Similar to my critically acclaimed Season 1 recap, this Season 2 recap just goes over my favorite contestants and what I viewed to be the key moments of the season.

My 3 Heroes

Jay Lim seemed to be the star of Season 2 immediately. On first impression everything about him made me want to cheer for him in this competition. The competitors all seemed to be elite military shooters (who ended up dominating the season… spoiler alert) or elite competitive shooters. Then in walks Jay Lim – golf instructor. It wasn’t until later on in the season that I realized he was also an Olympic qualifier as an archer. However, by that point he seemed to be already established as the underdog. This season essentially boiled down to military vs. civilians, and the perceived tension between Jay and George seemed to be the most tangible example of the chasm. It is very clear that Jay is an instructor, as he gave willing advice on nearly every weapon whenever his team was practicing. Unfortunately that seemed to rub people in the house the wrong way, leading to an exceptionally entertaining conversation between Jay and the Red Team’s Chris Reed (“You just tried to tell Gunny how to butter his toast”). It seemed like Jay was always on the chopping block for one reason or another, but he showed his versatility coming through time and time again. He ended up being the last civilian remaining amongst a cast filled with highly trained military members. I still haven’t seen Season 3 yet, but of Seasons 1, 2 and 4 Jay has to be the most intriguing (and polarizing) character of the bunch.  He was the face of Season 2, and even though he finished 7 out of 16, there is no way the season would have been as entertaining without him.

George Reinas was the contestant that appeared to get the short end of the stick when the show’s editing came into play. He is definitely the most outspoken contestant I’ve seen, and his willingness to put his opinions bluntly gave the show some talking heads that may have rubbed fans the wrong way. Despite George seemingly trying to play the role of the villain on the show it was apparent that he got along with most of the house members, and especially his teammates. For some weird reason I always am intrigued by the characters’ farewells to their teammates when they get eliminated from the show. The interaction between one member who just suffered a humbling blow to their ego and another member who is one step closer to victory is some real-life drama that is best left unscripted. While most characters shake hands softly and exchange two word pleasantries, George seemed to master the 5-second bear hug despite never having to even consider what life would be like after elimination. There was just something interesting about the sympathy he showed the other members of the household, and that finally shone through when he blew the shot to let Chris Reed stay alive in the competition. On top of that all, if you don’t think that hitting the first shot from 1,000 yards away is the most bad-ass thing caught on camera then you can shut up.

Chris Reed is everything right with the competition, and everything wrong with the show. There’s something inspiring about a guy winning when he seems like he just climbed out of a deer stand and wandered onto the show. There’s something heart-warming about the $100,000 prize going toward his daughter’s education. However, we never heard that Chris Reed required brain surgery not too long ago.  Even after hearing it I’m still a little hazy towards the details of his situation. That seems like a detail that might be important enough to mention sometime in the first 10 episodes. If the producers of the show knew Chris Reed won before the first episode aired, perhaps it’s a wise idea to involve his activities in the house in some aspect over the course of the season so the fans can start rooting for him before the last episode. I understood he was a calm, likable presence in the house but it wasn’t really until George threw away his chance at victory just so Chris would win that we realized how beloved Chris is. He was largely ignored during the season. This leads to the biggest problem I have with the show. When half the show is dedicated to the losing team’s process for choosing who they eliminate, the characters who are the early fan-favorites are inherently going to be eliminated within the first five episodes.  The same thing occurred during Season 4. The blue team seemed to have my favorite personalities, but after Terry and Dylan were eliminated I’m down to about two shooters who I’m cheering for to win just because the red team is such a mystery to me. I don’t know how to fix this problem, but I guess the point is that Chris Reed was an amazing contestant and Top Shot blew their ability to have him receive the most exposure.

3 Zany Moments That Made Me Wonder What The Hell’s Going On?

Tommy Gun: This moment wasn’t necessarily important in terms of the progress of the season. It was an early challenge between two contestants whom I never really believed had any chance at winning the competition. However the imagery of Athena holding that huge frickin’ gun was worth the price of admission. It was also something of a sad practice. There’s no way she could handle that thing. There’s no way I could handle that thing. This world class shooter looked like a child when shooting that ridiculous thing. I’ve cheered every season for the women to compete valiantly, but it’s challenges like this one that just make the competition seem to be unfairly skewed against women. The gun looked to be about half her size, and it was apparent that she’d be eliminated when she struggled to simply grip the gun. While it was extremely entertaining watching her spray all over the course and pray to precisely hit the target in a perfect line, it was also sort of painful to watch. It was apparent that for a female contestant to perform admirably in that challenge she’d have to be built like Chyna from Degeneration X in the 1990s. (second pro wrestling reference of the day. Note it!)

The Entirety of the Third Episode: I wouldn’t question a person’s toughness for dropping out or forfeiting based on injury for any sport. I especially wouldn’t do it when talking about people who can shoot a gun sufficiently. However, I was really confused when John quit the way that he did. He put his team at a huge disadvantage by walking away before the competition. I understand he wouldn’t be able to move the way History Channel wanted him to (which leads me to believe there was some outside pressure for him to formally quit rather than sabotage the competition), but if I’m in his shoes why not just talk with the team and basically plan on losing. He could have walked through the competition, and missed his shots in the elimination challenge to make sure he was the only red member eliminated. Instead he put a teammate at risk by quitting before, putting the team at a disadvantage.   The team would have certainly lost too if Jermaine didn’t do the most boneheaded thing I’ve seen in the show’s history.

Jermaine’s gaffe really deserves its own paragraph. I’ve done a lot of really dumb things in my life. I’m not going to claim to be intelligent. I just don’t understand how Jermaine could have done it twice in a matter of minutes. Jermaine was supposed to wait with the gun after hitting the target in order for his teammates to take the gun from him and go to the next station.  Instead he ran off with the gun himself. He couldn’t hear his teammates yelling at him to come back, so he wasted what seemed to be 20 seconds just running with the gun on his own. That would be understandable if he didn’t do it again 5 minutes later. My memory is a little hazy, but if I recall correctly he wasn’t even involved in the action the second time it happened. One of the stupidest sports moments in NFL history is when Jim Marshall returned a fumble to the wrong endzone for a safety for the other team. Jermaine made a mistake of similar magnitude the first time around, but the second time would have been like if Jim Marshall ran off the sidelines to intercept a pass and return it to the wrong endzone in the next quarter. He wasted near a minute of time total, and considering the competition came down to the wire at the end there is almost no doubt the blue team would have won without that mistake. It would have changed the course of the show. Blue team would have been up seven contestants to five, which means the blue team would have had to rattle off five straight victories in order to have the same resulting individual competitors. Because Jermaine was one of the stronger shooters in the competition, it seems unlikely that the red team would have achieved that. In an alternate universe Jay Lim may well have been the most unlikely winner of Top Shot ever, and the only difference could have been Jermaine’s critical error on this episode

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GEORGE PULLED THE SHOT: This was the most shocking moment of the entire series to me. I don’t even know what to say about it anymore, so I’ll just keep it short. I knew George was a good guy, but I’d have never thought he would do something that drastic. He was the strongest shooter all season and with his long distance skill he had a very clear advantage when it got to the final seven-station challenge. Instead he chose to just punt it so Chris would win. Bravo to George for making a huge decision based on what he thought was right, but it seemed insane at the time and the shock still hasn’t worn off.

Season 2 was my favorite so far, and I left out a lot of really good action and really good contestants. In the time it took to read this blog post you probably could have just watched the entire season on Netflix. Oh well, some people require words to learn I guess. I don’t really know any concluding sentiments to end this post with, so I’m just going to stop typing and hope it’s sufficient.

And so it is, follow Tony on Twitter @thREALtonybader