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.
Showing posts with label Analysis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Analysis. Show all posts
Friday, May 31, 2013
Thursday, April 26, 2012
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
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
Thursday, April 19, 2012
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.
Follow @cswiets
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.
Follow @cswiets
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Top Shot Analysis: S4 E9 "The Longest Shot"
This may very well have been the best opening episode for the individual competition in four seasons of Top Shot. There was so much crammed into this episode, but I want to keep it brief this week, because I'm pressed for time and unfortunately need to put my energies to use elsewhere today. Of course I say that now, but an hour from now I'll probably have another long winded post, so let's begin and see where this goes.
The Challenges
The long shots are always fun to watch. Season 2's thousand yard challenge is still a testament to how talented some of the shooters that have been on this show are. It is these contests that can also often make or break a contestant, those who can manipulate and utilize the scope succeed while those who can't suffer the consequences.
The camera work on this challenge was superb. The side angle shots were impressive and there were a few times when I thought for sure it was going to be a hit only to have the bullet zoom past the opposite side of the target. It also gave a real sense of just how far 1500 yards is and how long it takes a bullet to travel. I can only imagine what was going through the shooters heads as they waited to see either that puff of dirt signaling a miss or the intense explosion that followed a hit.
I loved having George and Kelly back, although it definitely seemed like Kelly was taking a backseat to George. Top Shot is great because it is one of the few reality shows where they can bring in past contestants and have it make sense with the rest of the structure of the show.
I have conflicted feelings about the automatic elimination of Gabby Franco. On the one hand, we all know that the second half of the competition takes less time than the first half (in terms of episodes), and that means contestants get shown the door quickly. On the other hand though, I have a hard time with the show not giving contestants a fighting chance in the competition. Yes, Franco was the worst with the Accuracy International, but she had been stellar everywhere else this season, and I think had she had the opportunity to go to an elimination challenge, she would have shot her way back out.
(Sidenote: Not to pat myself on the back, because I was sorry to see her go, but I did predict last week that Franco would not win the title.)
The elimination challenge was equally fun. But let's talk about the new nomination tie-breaking rule for a minute. Finally, something that makes sense. I've said that in terms of reality TV, Top Shot is still fairly young, so it took a while for it to move beyond the simple pulling a name out of a hat trick that it has used for ties in previous seasons. This makes a sense. A simple challenge with a familiar weapon, one bullet, one target, and we still keep the show focused on accuracy as opposed to luck of the draw. In the words of Terry Vaughan, bloody brilliant.
Now the elimination challenge was smart because the contestants went from a bolt action, long range rifle to a shorter range lever action. The head to head challenge and fast paced shooting, in addition to the closer targets brought the contestants and viewers closer to the action.
The three ring targets were also really cool, and that opening shot with the black shirts demonstrating the challenge and the bullet flying in between the rings was awesome. That is what Top Shot is about.
I said it in the recap, and I will say it again, I have no idea how Chris Cheng won that challenge, but I am happy as hell that he did. Probably the tightest race of the season, but Bethards started out with such a strong lead that it was almost like, ok let's just wrap this up, Cheng is done, let's not draw it out. But the competition kept going and Bethards started to screw up, and that's what I love waiting for on Top Shot. No matter how close it seems, there is always that potential for a mistake, you can flick the safety on by accident, or the gun can jam, or you lose control of the lever action and fire more shots than you intend to. That's what makes this show exciting, and it's what makes Cheng's victory so rewarding. Not only did he come from behind, but he took out a guy who was being disrespectful to his fellow competitors and the contest itself.
The Contestants
Greg Littlejohn - I am scared to say, I might be turning the corner on him. I'm not a fan and I still don't really like him very much. However, my level of dislike is slowly wearing away. I'm not sure what it is, but his personality is certainly not coming on as strong as it was earlier this season, and it makes him a much more likable competitor.
Also congrats to the producers of Top Shot for going ten whole minutes before giving Kyle Sumpter any screen time. More of that would be welcome.
I loved the big wide grin the broke out on Augie Malekovich's face when Cheng shot Bethards' target. Augie is still a bit of a mystery to me, but these little bursts of personality are always welcome.
One more little item before getting to this week's hot button issue. I loved seeing Cheng get riled up in this episode. He's been portrayed as a pretty cool customer for most of the season, very calculated and level headed, which are all fine traits. But I love when those kind of contestants show they have a little fire in them. It's what turns them from being a likable contestant, to the one you want to root for.
Now, let's discuss the only other thing really worth discussing: Gabby Franco and Chee Kwan. Where did this come from and why could we not have been shown it sooner? It's so frustrating to be given this little side story only to have it be abruptly taken away by Franco's elimination. I know there has been a lot going on this season, but even if there had been a small taste of the progressing relationship between the two it would have made the emotional impact of this episode far greater.
Now you may be asking what is the difference between this relationship and the one I so derided earlier this season between Dylan Fletcher and Michelle Viscusi? The answer is given by Kwan, who said in his one-on-one that maybe "in a different time, in a different place" he could see having a relationship with Franco. That is man who is focused on the task at hand, he's there to shoot, and more importantly he is there to win.
There are only three episodes left and it's anyone's guess what's around the next bend.
Hit the comments and let me know your thoughts.
Follow @cswiets
The Challenges
The long shots are always fun to watch. Season 2's thousand yard challenge is still a testament to how talented some of the shooters that have been on this show are. It is these contests that can also often make or break a contestant, those who can manipulate and utilize the scope succeed while those who can't suffer the consequences.
The camera work on this challenge was superb. The side angle shots were impressive and there were a few times when I thought for sure it was going to be a hit only to have the bullet zoom past the opposite side of the target. It also gave a real sense of just how far 1500 yards is and how long it takes a bullet to travel. I can only imagine what was going through the shooters heads as they waited to see either that puff of dirt signaling a miss or the intense explosion that followed a hit.
I loved having George and Kelly back, although it definitely seemed like Kelly was taking a backseat to George. Top Shot is great because it is one of the few reality shows where they can bring in past contestants and have it make sense with the rest of the structure of the show.
I have conflicted feelings about the automatic elimination of Gabby Franco. On the one hand, we all know that the second half of the competition takes less time than the first half (in terms of episodes), and that means contestants get shown the door quickly. On the other hand though, I have a hard time with the show not giving contestants a fighting chance in the competition. Yes, Franco was the worst with the Accuracy International, but she had been stellar everywhere else this season, and I think had she had the opportunity to go to an elimination challenge, she would have shot her way back out.
(Sidenote: Not to pat myself on the back, because I was sorry to see her go, but I did predict last week that Franco would not win the title.)
The elimination challenge was equally fun. But let's talk about the new nomination tie-breaking rule for a minute. Finally, something that makes sense. I've said that in terms of reality TV, Top Shot is still fairly young, so it took a while for it to move beyond the simple pulling a name out of a hat trick that it has used for ties in previous seasons. This makes a sense. A simple challenge with a familiar weapon, one bullet, one target, and we still keep the show focused on accuracy as opposed to luck of the draw. In the words of Terry Vaughan, bloody brilliant.
Now the elimination challenge was smart because the contestants went from a bolt action, long range rifle to a shorter range lever action. The head to head challenge and fast paced shooting, in addition to the closer targets brought the contestants and viewers closer to the action.
The three ring targets were also really cool, and that opening shot with the black shirts demonstrating the challenge and the bullet flying in between the rings was awesome. That is what Top Shot is about.
I said it in the recap, and I will say it again, I have no idea how Chris Cheng won that challenge, but I am happy as hell that he did. Probably the tightest race of the season, but Bethards started out with such a strong lead that it was almost like, ok let's just wrap this up, Cheng is done, let's not draw it out. But the competition kept going and Bethards started to screw up, and that's what I love waiting for on Top Shot. No matter how close it seems, there is always that potential for a mistake, you can flick the safety on by accident, or the gun can jam, or you lose control of the lever action and fire more shots than you intend to. That's what makes this show exciting, and it's what makes Cheng's victory so rewarding. Not only did he come from behind, but he took out a guy who was being disrespectful to his fellow competitors and the contest itself.
The Contestants
Greg Littlejohn - I am scared to say, I might be turning the corner on him. I'm not a fan and I still don't really like him very much. However, my level of dislike is slowly wearing away. I'm not sure what it is, but his personality is certainly not coming on as strong as it was earlier this season, and it makes him a much more likable competitor.
Also congrats to the producers of Top Shot for going ten whole minutes before giving Kyle Sumpter any screen time. More of that would be welcome.
I loved the big wide grin the broke out on Augie Malekovich's face when Cheng shot Bethards' target. Augie is still a bit of a mystery to me, but these little bursts of personality are always welcome.
One more little item before getting to this week's hot button issue. I loved seeing Cheng get riled up in this episode. He's been portrayed as a pretty cool customer for most of the season, very calculated and level headed, which are all fine traits. But I love when those kind of contestants show they have a little fire in them. It's what turns them from being a likable contestant, to the one you want to root for.
Now, let's discuss the only other thing really worth discussing: Gabby Franco and Chee Kwan. Where did this come from and why could we not have been shown it sooner? It's so frustrating to be given this little side story only to have it be abruptly taken away by Franco's elimination. I know there has been a lot going on this season, but even if there had been a small taste of the progressing relationship between the two it would have made the emotional impact of this episode far greater.
Now you may be asking what is the difference between this relationship and the one I so derided earlier this season between Dylan Fletcher and Michelle Viscusi? The answer is given by Kwan, who said in his one-on-one that maybe "in a different time, in a different place" he could see having a relationship with Franco. That is man who is focused on the task at hand, he's there to shoot, and more importantly he is there to win.
There are only three episodes left and it's anyone's guess what's around the next bend.
Hit the comments and let me know your thoughts.
Follow @cswiets
Thursday, April 5, 2012
Top Shot Analysis: S4 E8 "The Mad Minute"
I don't share a lot about my personal life in these posts, mainly because this isn't that type of blog, but I've dropped in a few pieces here and there just to let you, the reader, get a little better idea of who I am. I say this only because Tuesday was a bad day for me. I worked, I took a test, I got a test back I didn't do very well on, I got lost on the back country roads of northern Wisconsin in car that was dying with a phone I was meaning to get replaced. The one thing I was looking forward to was relaxing and watching Top Shot at the end of what had turned out to be a very long day. However, I should have know that luck was not on my side on Tuesday, and even Top Shot decided to lay it on me by kicking out my man for Season 4, Terry Vaughan.
I've invested a lot into this season of Top Shot, writing posts, watching episodes, sending tweets, and interacting with contestants (notice how money is nowhere on this list, blogging is free, welcome to America, you're welcome), so it was pretty devastating to see Terry Vaughan get sent home on Tuesday. I don't think I've been this devastated since J.J. Racaza was sent home in Season 1. (I'm crossing my fingers this isn't coming across too stalker-y, I realize this is just a TV show, and that Vaughan is still alive and well.)
Anyway let's dig into the episode, because while I do want to spend a good chunk of this post talking about Vaughan, there are a few other areas to address.
The Challenges
Speed shooting is always a fun part of this competition but one that is often difficult to execute effectively. Speed often comes at the cost of accuracy, which is a difficult idea to rationalize when the show is called Top Shot. The team challenge was good, if again, a little boring. I will admit I was as surprised as the contestants seemed to be when the targets started to move, it was a nice twist on a simple challenge. I always enjoy when the teams are forced to face off against one another. Yes it may make the outcome more obvious, but it's almost always more exciting to watch than having teams take turns.
I was a little curious about blue team's decision to sit Gabby Franco. During the practice she struggled with the amount of trigger pressure on the Webley. I was watching with my friend Tony and I said if they were smart they would go back to the house and start telling blue team how good Franco was with the revolver. Now, the episode didn't show this, but I wonder if that might have been what happened. To me it would have made more sense to sit someone like Kyle Sumpter or Gary Shank who would most likely have more experience with revolvers than their teammates.
I don't think teamwork has ever been shown to be more important than it has in Season 4. Sure, the past seasons have had strong teams, but red team this season is just flat out ridiculous. These guys (and girl) have their act together. On the other hand, blue team just couldn't quite catch on, and didn't seem to want to (I can talk about the teams in past tense as we know next week the competition moves on to the individual stage.) I don't think we've ever seen a team work so poorly together, and I think the reason for that is the lack of a team leader. I haven't always been a fan of teams who have appointed (or in some cases succumbed to) leaders. Most of the time the leader believes they know best in all aspects of the competition, take Jay Lim from Season 2 or Jake Zweig from Season 3. Both jumped at the chance to fill the leadership gap they saw on their teams, and in both cases, that leadership painted targets on their back. This season however, Kyle Sumpter is presenting a different kind of leadership. He said early this season that the leadership for red comes from each of the individuals that comprise the team, and while that might seem trite, I challenge you to tell me that hasn't been the case. While Sumpter may be the leader (and I feel I should note the guy's personality still rubs me the wrong way) he is a team leader, he isn't out there for his own ego. Take for example this last episode where he told Gary that he would shoot a full chamber with the Webley and then pass it on to the next person. He wasn't telling Gary how he should shoot the Webley, he was managing his team for a successful practice. A good leader also knows when to step aside and let someone else take the reigns, which is why Tim Trefren and Gary Shank were calling the shots in the challenges that complimented their respective expertise.
Contrast these actions with blue team, who were a mess from start to finish. There were times when a team member would step up and give a little pep-talk, but there just wasn't the same level of communication going on like there was on the red team. However, there is another way to look at this. While red team has been playing a team game, the blue team members have been playing this as an individual competition from the start, and now that it's green jersey time, those three remaining shooters on blue have made it to part of the game they have been ready to play. The question now is whether or not red team can turn off that camaraderie that helped them succeed as the competition becomes every man (and woman) for themselves.
What was I talking about? Challenges right.
The "Mad Minute" was a pretty good challenge. I liked that it had real roots in history, and translated well in terms or action and tension. I wish I could have filmed the manic conversation between Tony and I as we waited for Colby to give the results. Here's a brief transcript:
"How many shots did he take?"
"I think he took more than Greg."
"No, he had to have taken less shots."
"But Greg shot slower didn't he?"
"But Terry got jammed up a little."
"Tie I think it's a tie."
"Terry can't go home."
"Littlejohn can't beat him, not like this."
And so on...
It was a fun challenge to watch, and I don't think I breathed for the entire minute Vaughan was shooting. I would definitely be up for more military style challenges in the future.
The Contestants
As I mentioned in my recap there was on odd moment in "The Mad Minute" where the cameras cut away from the blue team meeting and focused on the red team enjoying another victory. It was the rare moment this season where red team has been portrayed in a negative light, and I wasn't really sure what the purpose was for showing it, or what the purpose was for Kyle Sumpter talking about it. Yes, one of the advantages of winning is that you don't need to worry about the consequences of losing. It just seemed a little mean-spirited and against what this show is about.
In my new favorite side game, What hat will Chee wear today? Kwan reverted back to Kyle Sumpter doppelganger hat, after trying out a baseball cap last week.
Finally, it is time to say goodbye to Terry Vaughan. I've been a strong supporter of Vaughan this season, and I was pretty crushed to see him go. I was more upset that he was outed by Littlejohn, and further upset when he was beaten by a technicality rather than a poor performance. I really wanted Vaughan to go up against Bethards in the elimination because despite his poor attitude, Bethards is a strong shot, and I could have lived with Vaughan being outed by a superior shooter. I have a hard time living with the fact he was outed by someone like Littlejohn. Take away his off-putting personality for a moment and we are still left with a shooter that has been sent to elimination three times and has won two of those because he didn't take as many shots as the contestant he was shooting against. The other time he almost gave a up a strong lead by struggling to close out the challenge against Colin Gallagher.
I don't want it to seem like I'm pissing and moaning about Vaughan losing. I don't want it to sound like I am saying his elimination was unfair. A lot of people have been hitting up Twitter to voice their complaints that Vaughan should have won because the point of the contest seemed to be to take the most shots, which he did. However, I disagree. There needs to be a level of consistency throughout the challenges, and if they would have changed for this one contest, I think there would have been just as many people complaining about that.
What I am saying was that Vaughan was a lot of fun to have on the program. He was a strong shooter, a likeable personality, and someone who was clearly there to have fun, without being annoying about it. he played the game clean and straight, owning up to his mistakes, without being afraid to call other people out for their own. he was a contestant that embodied all the things that make this competition great, and honestly now that he's gone, I'm not sure who to throw my support behind for the rest of this competition.
Come back tomorrow when I talk about who I will throw my support behind for the rest of the season.
Hit the comments with your take on "The Mad Minute" and who you think is going to take the title.
Follow @cswiets
I've invested a lot into this season of Top Shot, writing posts, watching episodes, sending tweets, and interacting with contestants (notice how money is nowhere on this list, blogging is free, welcome to America, you're welcome), so it was pretty devastating to see Terry Vaughan get sent home on Tuesday. I don't think I've been this devastated since J.J. Racaza was sent home in Season 1. (I'm crossing my fingers this isn't coming across too stalker-y, I realize this is just a TV show, and that Vaughan is still alive and well.)
Anyway let's dig into the episode, because while I do want to spend a good chunk of this post talking about Vaughan, there are a few other areas to address.
The Challenges
Speed shooting is always a fun part of this competition but one that is often difficult to execute effectively. Speed often comes at the cost of accuracy, which is a difficult idea to rationalize when the show is called Top Shot. The team challenge was good, if again, a little boring. I will admit I was as surprised as the contestants seemed to be when the targets started to move, it was a nice twist on a simple challenge. I always enjoy when the teams are forced to face off against one another. Yes it may make the outcome more obvious, but it's almost always more exciting to watch than having teams take turns.
I was a little curious about blue team's decision to sit Gabby Franco. During the practice she struggled with the amount of trigger pressure on the Webley. I was watching with my friend Tony and I said if they were smart they would go back to the house and start telling blue team how good Franco was with the revolver. Now, the episode didn't show this, but I wonder if that might have been what happened. To me it would have made more sense to sit someone like Kyle Sumpter or Gary Shank who would most likely have more experience with revolvers than their teammates.
I don't think teamwork has ever been shown to be more important than it has in Season 4. Sure, the past seasons have had strong teams, but red team this season is just flat out ridiculous. These guys (and girl) have their act together. On the other hand, blue team just couldn't quite catch on, and didn't seem to want to (I can talk about the teams in past tense as we know next week the competition moves on to the individual stage.) I don't think we've ever seen a team work so poorly together, and I think the reason for that is the lack of a team leader. I haven't always been a fan of teams who have appointed (or in some cases succumbed to) leaders. Most of the time the leader believes they know best in all aspects of the competition, take Jay Lim from Season 2 or Jake Zweig from Season 3. Both jumped at the chance to fill the leadership gap they saw on their teams, and in both cases, that leadership painted targets on their back. This season however, Kyle Sumpter is presenting a different kind of leadership. He said early this season that the leadership for red comes from each of the individuals that comprise the team, and while that might seem trite, I challenge you to tell me that hasn't been the case. While Sumpter may be the leader (and I feel I should note the guy's personality still rubs me the wrong way) he is a team leader, he isn't out there for his own ego. Take for example this last episode where he told Gary that he would shoot a full chamber with the Webley and then pass it on to the next person. He wasn't telling Gary how he should shoot the Webley, he was managing his team for a successful practice. A good leader also knows when to step aside and let someone else take the reigns, which is why Tim Trefren and Gary Shank were calling the shots in the challenges that complimented their respective expertise.
Contrast these actions with blue team, who were a mess from start to finish. There were times when a team member would step up and give a little pep-talk, but there just wasn't the same level of communication going on like there was on the red team. However, there is another way to look at this. While red team has been playing a team game, the blue team members have been playing this as an individual competition from the start, and now that it's green jersey time, those three remaining shooters on blue have made it to part of the game they have been ready to play. The question now is whether or not red team can turn off that camaraderie that helped them succeed as the competition becomes every man (and woman) for themselves.
What was I talking about? Challenges right.
The "Mad Minute" was a pretty good challenge. I liked that it had real roots in history, and translated well in terms or action and tension. I wish I could have filmed the manic conversation between Tony and I as we waited for Colby to give the results. Here's a brief transcript:
"How many shots did he take?"
"I think he took more than Greg."
"No, he had to have taken less shots."
"But Greg shot slower didn't he?"
"But Terry got jammed up a little."
"Tie I think it's a tie."
"Terry can't go home."
"Littlejohn can't beat him, not like this."
And so on...
It was a fun challenge to watch, and I don't think I breathed for the entire minute Vaughan was shooting. I would definitely be up for more military style challenges in the future.
The Contestants
As I mentioned in my recap there was on odd moment in "The Mad Minute" where the cameras cut away from the blue team meeting and focused on the red team enjoying another victory. It was the rare moment this season where red team has been portrayed in a negative light, and I wasn't really sure what the purpose was for showing it, or what the purpose was for Kyle Sumpter talking about it. Yes, one of the advantages of winning is that you don't need to worry about the consequences of losing. It just seemed a little mean-spirited and against what this show is about.
In my new favorite side game, What hat will Chee wear today? Kwan reverted back to Kyle Sumpter doppelganger hat, after trying out a baseball cap last week.
Finally, it is time to say goodbye to Terry Vaughan. I've been a strong supporter of Vaughan this season, and I was pretty crushed to see him go. I was more upset that he was outed by Littlejohn, and further upset when he was beaten by a technicality rather than a poor performance. I really wanted Vaughan to go up against Bethards in the elimination because despite his poor attitude, Bethards is a strong shot, and I could have lived with Vaughan being outed by a superior shooter. I have a hard time living with the fact he was outed by someone like Littlejohn. Take away his off-putting personality for a moment and we are still left with a shooter that has been sent to elimination three times and has won two of those because he didn't take as many shots as the contestant he was shooting against. The other time he almost gave a up a strong lead by struggling to close out the challenge against Colin Gallagher.
I don't want it to seem like I'm pissing and moaning about Vaughan losing. I don't want it to sound like I am saying his elimination was unfair. A lot of people have been hitting up Twitter to voice their complaints that Vaughan should have won because the point of the contest seemed to be to take the most shots, which he did. However, I disagree. There needs to be a level of consistency throughout the challenges, and if they would have changed for this one contest, I think there would have been just as many people complaining about that.
What I am saying was that Vaughan was a lot of fun to have on the program. He was a strong shooter, a likeable personality, and someone who was clearly there to have fun, without being annoying about it. he played the game clean and straight, owning up to his mistakes, without being afraid to call other people out for their own. he was a contestant that embodied all the things that make this competition great, and honestly now that he's gone, I'm not sure who to throw my support behind for the rest of this competition.
Come back tomorrow when I talk about who I will throw my support behind for the rest of the season.
Hit the comments with your take on "The Mad Minute" and who you think is going to take the title.
Follow @cswiets
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
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
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
Thursday, March 22, 2012
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
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
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
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
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Top Shot Analysis: S4 E4 "Crossbow Crossfire"
There was a lot happening both on and off the range in this week's episode. The contestants stepped away from guns to try their hand at crossbows and blue team looked like they were going to take a step away from being petty to actually work as a team, only to trick everyone, including themselves.
There is a fair amount to talk about with this episode, but I just want to start with a question.
Is anyone else really starting to dig this season?
Perhaps it's because I'm blogging this season, or perhaps it's because I've been able to interact with some of the contestants thanks to Twitter, but as the season wears on, I just find a bigger grin on my face with each passing episode. Who would have thought there would be more to stay tuned in for after we were treated to grenade launchers in the second episode? But this season continues to impress with compelling contestants, thrilling challenges, and exciting weapons.
Anyway onto the episode.
The Challenges
I have to say I was glad to see the BowTech StrykeZone 350 crossbow in this episode. Now, I'll never tire of guns, exploding targets, or contestants with ridiculous looking earguards (seriously though, safety first) but the thing I like about Top Shot is that it has always been about more than being able to shoot a gun. I like when they bring in the primitive weapons, but I love when they bring in modern day versions of ancient weapons. If History Channel was once the channel where "History comes alive" (that was there slogan once, right?) it is certainly demonstrated when Top Shot brings in these modern day incarnations.
I was surprised to see that the contestants practiced on a stationary target and were then put into a challenge with a rotating one. Usually the contestants practice with a simple moving target to get the feel for how to shoot the weapon at a moving target, and are then faced with more complex moving target in the actual challenge. However there were a lot of comparisons being made between shooting a rifle and shooting the crossbow, so if there was an understanding that the contestants had basic rifle skills, this may explain the reason behind this decision.
The challenges this season continue to impress with their complex staging that continues to emphasize the importance of team strategy as well as team shooting. This challenge posed the question of whether to send your better shooters out early and get out to an early lead, or save them for when they had an opportunity to score more points.
The initial 3-0 lead blue team took had me questioning red teams strategy, but while blue team kept repeating the mantra "slow is smooth, smooth is fast" red team seemed to be the ones taking it to heart. Red team is continuing to perhaps be one of the most cohesive teams in Top Shot history, without being obnoxious about it.
The elimination challenge looked surprisingly difficult. Now, I'm not saying other elimination challenges are easy, but I think I would have gotten incredibly frustrated trying to nail that tiny balloon at the top of the pendulum. The nice thing about this challenge is it continued to demonstrate the importance of consistency in these challenges. Anyone can get a lucky run going, but if a shooter perseveres and finds a pace that works for them, they can always catch up and make things interesting.
I would take this opportunity to harp on Littlejohn for his inability to hit his final target and allow Gallagher to catch up with him, but that was a visibly difficult shot to make. We know that elimination challenges are filmed over the course of the day with practice in the morning and the challenge in the afternoon. In this episode it was clear to see the sun was setting and the shadows at the top of the wall were obscuring that final balloon for Littlejohn. That's already a difficult shot to make with the low clearance and small target size, and the poor lighting only added to the difficulty.
The design of these challenges and the contestants skill level have kept these challenges close and exciting to watch this season.
The Contestants
I want to talk in broader terms for minute before getting into specific contestants. As I wrote above, red team is cruising this season, they have three out of four wins and are only down one team member. They have a group with diverse backgrounds, and their overall teamwork is astounding.
However, contrast this with blue team. A team that has become sorely divided. I wanted to dig into blue team a little here, but the more I thought about the more sympathetic I became. The audience gets a week digest everything that has happened between episodes. It is easy to think that these guys should be able to turn themselves around the next time we tune into the show. But that isn't how it really works is it? These guys are on a tight schedule, which doesn't allow them a lot of time to work on team building. Last season we saw a completely different blue team, one that won the first challenge and wanted to keep winning. They did those crazy practices in the backyard of the house, which were laughable, but even the members of the team who thought they were silly, admitted they were good for building team unity. And they were right.
This season of Top Shot has shown just how critical focus is to this game, and just how a far a team can fall when they don't have it. Going back to my initial point I can only imagine how hard it is for a team to try and wash their hands of the bad feelings left over from a loss and try and turn their attitudes around in just three days (or less). Vaughan can give all the speeches he wants (and props to him for doing what needed to be done) and his team can nod along and agree with him as much as they want, but if they don't actually commit to what he's trying to preach, they are going to continue to struggle in this competition.
Now for this week's Top and Not-so-Top Shots.
Not-so-Top Shots:
Gregory Littlejohn, Mr. Friendship bracelet himself. The thing about Littlejohn is, I'm starting to come around to him. Not in a, "This guy is pretty cool" way, but more in a "I'm am completely fascinated by this guy" way. Littlejohn is, for better or worse, becoming this season's standout character. Season 2 had the irritable coaching of Jay Lim, which quickly faded when he had no one else to coach. Season 3 had the irritable coaching and mind games of Jake Zweig. Littlejohn is neither of these things. He isn't someone who is trying to dominate the way his team is run, and he isn't someone who is sullying the unspoken honor of this competition through manipulation (unless he is, in which case, he's a genius). He's simply a guy who likes to have his friends around him. I have a theory that every reality show has a character that is representative of the kid no one wanted to play with during grade school. On Jersey Shore, it's The Situation. On Deadliest Catch, it's Captain Keith. I think Littlejohn is Top Shot's version of this character. These people suddenly find themselves forced into social situations, and it overwhelms them. It can go two ways, the person pushes the people they are surrounded by away (The Situation) or they bring them uncomfortably close (Littlejohn). Colby has tweeted his own confusion as to Littlejohn's ability to put this tremendous amount of weight on relationships with people he has know for less than two weeks. It was also evident by Colby's dazed expression over what has become know as the "friendship bracelet ceremony". He just couldn't seem to understand how Littlejohn and Gallagher had become so close, and Gallagher seemed to be right there with Colby.
Back tracking a little, Littlejohn is also have a clear problem with nerves in this competition, and his inability to knock an arrow allowed the red team to regain their composure and lead themselves to a win. From the preview of next week's episode, this doesn't look like a problem that is going away anytime soon, but Littlejohn might.
Oh, and how about his closing comment about how that blue team better realize that they shouldn't send him to elimination if they don't want to send someone else home? HELLO? LITTLEJOHN? If your team is headed to elimination, someone is going home regardless if they nominate you or not. C'mon man.
I'm also going to throw up Gun Fauxeri for again saying he wanted to be in the elimination challenge. No you don't.
Top Shots:
Augie Malekovich finally started to speak up in this episode. I was beginning to forget this guy was here. He gets marks for expressing the confusion I think most of us were feeling during the bracelet ceremony. He also had the line of the night with his "31 year-old man giving a 36 year-old man a friendship bracelet" outrage.
Also speaking up this episode, Iggy Keyes and Gary Shank. Keyes is starting to finally look more comfortable in front of the camera, while Shank, like Augie, was a guy I had all but forgotten about. I hope we continue to see a little more from all three of these guys as the season continues.
That's it for this analysis. Let me know your thoughts on friendship bracelets and the like in the comments.
Come back tomorrow for the Friday Surprise addressing a question Colby raised on Twitter during this weeks episode.
Follow me on Twitter @cswiets
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Top Shot Analysis: S4 E3 "Shotgun Showdown"
"Shotgun Showdown" may be the best episode of the season so far, which I know isn't saying a lot three episodes into the season. This episode gave us some amazing weapons, some cool challenges, and a little bit more insight into how the contestants are playing this game.
Once again, I'll break it down by challenges and contestants, and this week there's plenty to talk about in both categories.
The Challenges
This week's team challenge (dubbed "Double Tap Challenge" thank you Wikipedia) featured two kinds of shotguns, firing two kinds of ammunition. The Benelli M4, one mean looking gun, and the Benelli Vinci, a gun that looks as beautiful as it sounds. (Seriously, I'm not the kind of person who calls inanimate objects sexy, but that gun was damn sexy.)
Once again, I'll break it down by challenges and contestants, and this week there's plenty to talk about in both categories.
The Challenges
This week's team challenge (dubbed "Double Tap Challenge" thank you Wikipedia) featured two kinds of shotguns, firing two kinds of ammunition. The Benelli M4, one mean looking gun, and the Benelli Vinci, a gun that looks as beautiful as it sounds. (Seriously, I'm not the kind of person who calls inanimate objects sexy, but that gun was damn sexy.)
Top Shot continues to experiment with how to do challenges, which is keeping things fresh this season. I don't think we've seen a challenge set up quite the way this one was.
I loved the two step process of this challenge and the fact contestants only scored points for the clay targets. It added a lot of tension to the challenge knowing that the moving target had to be hit before any points could be score. This wasn't too much of a problem for the red team who demonstrated incredible rhythm in this challenge, but blue team could not get it together, missing critical shots on the moving and clay targets.
I was initially worried the time limit on this challenge might prevent contestants in the back of the line the opportunity to shoot both weapons. I didn't want to see an issue like the one we ran into last week where Iggy didn't get a chance to even participate in the challenge. However, this didn't turn out to be a problem and, again with red team, we were able to see the speed at which this challenge could be executed. On the other hand, with blue team, we could see how detrimental taking your time with this challenge could be to your overall score.
This challenge also demonstrated that last weeks shouting chaos on blue team at the end of the team challenge was just the tip of the iceberg. We saw the complete collapse of this team not only in the house, but on the practice range, and most importantly in the team challenge. I've never heard a team be so quiet out of what seemed to be genre disinterest, rather than intense focus, in a challenge.
The elimination challenge ("Horse Race"), as I mentioned in my recap, had the feel of a carnival game. I wish I understood physics more to understand how they came up with a challenge where shooting they target could actually hurt the contestants progress. This challenge was all about precision, specifically timing your shots. The timing aspect is a skill heavily emphasized in this episode, and one that displayed the proficiency of the shooters. While Viscusi panicked and started firing off rounds willy-nilly, Vaughan was able to find a slow and steady pace to rock the wheel down the track and stay in the competition.
The Contestants
As the number of contestants slowly starts to dwindle, we are starting to see more of how each one is playing the game. Gregory Littlejohn started the episode showing how fractured the blue team had become over the course of two challenges. The nomination discussion between the blue teams members was particularly revealing.
Now I don't intend for this part of the blog to become repetitive, but at this point in the show there are still too many contestants to give fair screen time to. I'll do my best to keep my thoughts fresh.
So once again I'll break down my Top and Not-so-Top Shots from this episode.
Not-so-Top Shots:
Michelle Viscusi proved that not only could she not handle the Benelli, but also that her vocabulary did not extend beyond the phrase "kick ass". Part of blame could be placed on how the show is edited (which in my opinion was spectacular for this episode), but she must not have said to much else if that was all they showed.
Gregory Littlejohn broke down and continued his slide to the bottom of my favorite shooters list. Not only did he show his disregard for the integrity of this competition by telling the rest of his team he would not vote for his friends (a claim Colby openly mocked on Twitter during the episode), but he also broke down discussing his decision to vote for Vaughan, even though Vaughan was ALREADY VOTED INTO THE DAMN CHALLENGE! (again, props to the editors for drawing this out, because it was hilarious) However, I will give credit where credit is due to Littlejohn for responding to the red teams wish of"good luck" with a brief "Thanks." He saved his entire team from looking like complete dicks.
I'd mention Gun Fauxeri again, but there isn't much new I can say, the guy is just too cocky to be likable.
On to the good, although I should take this point to mention the contestants for the most part didn't really do anything to win me over or tick me off, so I apologize if this section is a little shorter than usual.
Top Shots:
Let's start with the welcome return of Season 2 winner Chris Reed. Granted this is kind of a cheat since he isn't a constant but from his joking with Colby, to his instruction on the Benelli, to his congratulatory talk with red team after their win, he was a welcome presence on the show.
I'm also starting to come around on Kyle Sumpter. He has a slightly robotic personality that reminds me of Mitt Romney, but he's proving himself to be a strong team leader.
While I don't mean for this to become a Terry Vaughan cheering section, I can't fail to mention him once again. This week he continued to display his levelheadedness when discussing his teams complicated dynamics. In addition he demonstrated his ability to overcome his weaknesses by mastering the Nova and pulling out a win in the elimination challenge.
Sideshots
Just few stray observations I wanted to comment on quickly, mostly involving the fashion being displayed in this week's episode.
Is this the first time the women are wearing different style polos than the men? I always thought all the contestants wore polos with buttons, but Viscusi and Franco were both wearing buttonless ones that just had a shallow-V.
Why was everyone wearing bandanas on their wrists? I can't imagine it helps with shooting, but who knows? Colby commented on Twitter that they were friendship bracelets, but contestants on both teams were wearing them. I'll be curious to see if they pop up next week.
The other thing about Kyle Sumpter that is winning me over? Those sweet hats he and Chee Kwan are wearing during the practice sessions. Love it.
That's it for "Shotgun Showdown," next week we move away from firearms and into crossbows.
Come back tomorrow for my surprise mystery post dealing with one aspect of this season of Top Shot I have overlooked.
Follow me on Twitter @cswiets
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Top Shot Analysis: S4 E2 "Into the Trenches"
Last week I spent a fair amount of words breaking down the challenges, and touched briefly on my first impressions of the contestants.
(Sidenote: I keep wanting to write characters instead of contestants, mostly because I'm trying to analyze this first and foremost as a television program.)
This time around I think it is going to go the other way, but we'll see. That's half the fun. At this point, I don't even know how much I'm going to say.
The Challenges
The first challenge was the first one of the season to feature a physical component, and also the first to feature Top Shot's second favorite set piece (the first being exploding targets) barbed-wire. I liked this challenge because it shows the gradual complexity that Top Shot employs in its challenges. Week one, we stand and shoot at targets with a revolver. Week two, we run, crawl under barbed-wire and shoot an automatic rifle.
The other thing I enjoyed about this challenge, especially coming right after Episode One, was how different it is to shoot an automatic weapon. Several contestants mentioned they were unfamiliar or had never even shot an automatic weapon before. The difference really shone through in the practice range. Taking one shot at a time and aiming each shot, is not the same as setting up a shot and letting loose a spray of bullets, and it showed on the practice targets.
When the challenges get more physical it can put extra strain on the contestants. This was evident in one of the first episodes of Season 2 where contestants were forced to run to a shooting platform and shoot around pool balls. This led to several injuries by the more out of shape contestants. Since then, the physical aspect of the challenges have helped to add extra tension by creating potential confusion among the contestants on what their next step was supposed to be.
In this challenge however (and I really should start paying more attention to the clever names that appear on the title cards, my goal for next weeks posts) the real anxiety was not getting to where the gun was, but what happened once you got there. The challenge featured typical Top Shot fare, exploding targets placed down range. However with the B.A.R. you needed someone to help spot your shot, which isn't a problem until you're whole team is shouting advice in the trench with you.
Again this episode helped highlight another aspect I have never thought about for this show. These early team challenges must be awful for the contestants. Not only are you often pitted against someone shooting nearby, not only do you have Colby yelling about every hit, miss or close call, but you also have your entire team shouting advice to you. I can't imagine trying to decipher what they were saying, much less putting that advice to use. (I'll talk about this aspect of the challenge more down in Contestant portion.)
The only issue I had with this challenge is that not every member of red team had an opportunity to actually shoot. It didn't seem to be an issue this time around for elimination, but I would hate to see someone thrown under the bus because they didn't have an opportunity to shoot because another team member wasn't fast enough completing their portion of the challenge.
There isn't much to say about the elimination challenge, except, oh wait, EFFing GRENADE LAUNCHERS! This season is really bringing the heat in terms of weapons. It was a fairly straightforward challenge, but I liked the fact that they were forced to load the weapon before they could begin the challenge. This seemed to be a key point emphasized in the practice and it really did determine who stayed and who went home. Top Shot is more than just hitting targets, its making sure the contestant with the best understanding of the weapon comes out on top.
Outside of that, I'd say the audience got exactly what they wanted. Cool weapons and some seriously sick explosions. (I mean really, was it just me, or were those some of the best explosions we've seen on Top Shot?)
(Sidenote: I keep wanting to write characters instead of contestants, mostly because I'm trying to analyze this first and foremost as a television program.)
This time around I think it is going to go the other way, but we'll see. That's half the fun. At this point, I don't even know how much I'm going to say.
The Challenges
The first challenge was the first one of the season to feature a physical component, and also the first to feature Top Shot's second favorite set piece (the first being exploding targets) barbed-wire. I liked this challenge because it shows the gradual complexity that Top Shot employs in its challenges. Week one, we stand and shoot at targets with a revolver. Week two, we run, crawl under barbed-wire and shoot an automatic rifle.
The other thing I enjoyed about this challenge, especially coming right after Episode One, was how different it is to shoot an automatic weapon. Several contestants mentioned they were unfamiliar or had never even shot an automatic weapon before. The difference really shone through in the practice range. Taking one shot at a time and aiming each shot, is not the same as setting up a shot and letting loose a spray of bullets, and it showed on the practice targets.
When the challenges get more physical it can put extra strain on the contestants. This was evident in one of the first episodes of Season 2 where contestants were forced to run to a shooting platform and shoot around pool balls. This led to several injuries by the more out of shape contestants. Since then, the physical aspect of the challenges have helped to add extra tension by creating potential confusion among the contestants on what their next step was supposed to be.
In this challenge however (and I really should start paying more attention to the clever names that appear on the title cards, my goal for next weeks posts) the real anxiety was not getting to where the gun was, but what happened once you got there. The challenge featured typical Top Shot fare, exploding targets placed down range. However with the B.A.R. you needed someone to help spot your shot, which isn't a problem until you're whole team is shouting advice in the trench with you.
Again this episode helped highlight another aspect I have never thought about for this show. These early team challenges must be awful for the contestants. Not only are you often pitted against someone shooting nearby, not only do you have Colby yelling about every hit, miss or close call, but you also have your entire team shouting advice to you. I can't imagine trying to decipher what they were saying, much less putting that advice to use. (I'll talk about this aspect of the challenge more down in Contestant portion.)
The only issue I had with this challenge is that not every member of red team had an opportunity to actually shoot. It didn't seem to be an issue this time around for elimination, but I would hate to see someone thrown under the bus because they didn't have an opportunity to shoot because another team member wasn't fast enough completing their portion of the challenge.
There isn't much to say about the elimination challenge, except, oh wait, EFFing GRENADE LAUNCHERS! This season is really bringing the heat in terms of weapons. It was a fairly straightforward challenge, but I liked the fact that they were forced to load the weapon before they could begin the challenge. This seemed to be a key point emphasized in the practice and it really did determine who stayed and who went home. Top Shot is more than just hitting targets, its making sure the contestant with the best understanding of the weapon comes out on top.
Outside of that, I'd say the audience got exactly what they wanted. Cool weapons and some seriously sick explosions. (I mean really, was it just me, or were those some of the best explosions we've seen on Top Shot?)
Before the episode started, Colby tweeted a question asking if anyone thought one team really looked stronger than the other. Right now, I think it's too soon to tell. Both teams seem pretty evenly matched. They each have a few standouts, a couple in the middle, and as these first two episodes proved, they don't have anyone who is immune to choking.
The Contestants
I'm going to more firmly establish a format for this section of the post, but will try and follow how I talked about contestants last week. Here are my Top and Not-so-Top-Shots
Let's get the ugly out of the way first.
Not-So-Top-Shots:
Let's start with Colin Gallagher, whose personality is already rubbing his teammates the wrong way. The little screen time he had did not do much to improve his imagine. That being said, he has two things going for him. One, he hasn't tried to be a leader, which hurt Jay Lim in Season 2. Two, the guy can clearly shoot, which can often (though not always) offset a disagreeable personality in this competition.
Gun Fauxeri (Dylan Fletcher) and Michelle Viscusi showed some weird flirtation that just didn't seem to belong in the house. This isn't Survivor, where contestants are roaming around in their underwear. This is Top Shot, people came to play. You can make friends, in fact I'd say it's almost expected in this competition, but you didn't come to fall in love. Not to mention the creepy nine year age difference (and the fact that I may have just developed a small crush on Viscusi).
Gregory Littlejohn continued to show of his cocky side from the minute he reentered the house after elimination last night.
Finally, I'm still not a huge fan of Kyle "Papa Bear" Sumpter. He still dominated most of the one-on-one camera time for some reason, and part of that is because he was in the elimination, but really this guy just doesn't have too much to say that I'm interested in.
On a more positive note...
Top-Shots:
I want to start with William Bethards. If you read last week's edition of this post you'll know I wasn't the deacon's biggest fan. This week though he seemed like a different person, more toned down and focused. I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and blame his personality in the first episode on jitters due to starting the competition.
Chee Kwan gave perhaps one of the most honest and funniest reactions to being benched we've ever seen on Top Shot. He was clearly upset about not being in the team challenge, but still managed to keep it light-hearted. Reactions like that really let the audience know who came to play, and who just wants to get the money, and Chee came to play.
I'm also liking Tim Trefren. Trefren didn't get a lot of screen time, and while Sumpter has declared himself red team leader, Trefren has made it clear that he's ready to fill those shoes should he be asked to do so.
And last, but not least, the Toppest of Shots goes to Terry Vaughan. Vaughan had his entire team yelling in his ear about where he should be shooting, he kept cool under pressure and brought home the win for Blue. In addition his one-on-one reaction was great, displaying all the traits that make Top Shot contestants so different from any other reality show contestants. He was honest about what happened but was also able to laugh it off.
However, I also must disclose this is not my only reason for choosing him. In my Top Tweets post form earlier in the week I stated I would not be following any of the current contestants, a rule I had to break. Yesterday, Vaughan's wife followed me, and Vaughan himself soon after. I had a very nice exchange with Vaughan over twitter, and can say he is exactly the standup guy he has thus far presented himself as on the show. I really appreciate the supporting words he and his wife gave me about this blog, and their help in promoting it to their own followers.
That's a wrap on episode 2, hit the comments to let me know what you thought of this week's episode. Remember you can catch up on History's website or Hulu anytime.
I'll try and post my ideas about what an all-star season of Top Shot would look like in the next day or two, and will post a little more about Terry Vaughan over the weekend.
Follow me on Twitter: @cswiets
Monday, February 20, 2012
Top Shot Analysis: S4 E1 "Sweating Bullets"
I already gave my recap of the first episode of Season 4 which can be viewed below. In the Analysis of the episode, I'll break down two things: How successful the challenges were at providing entertainment and tension, and the contestants and their motivations.
The Challenges
The first episode of season four started out more or less how we might have expected it to. There were not any guns that were terribly exciting, there were too many cast members in the competition to really get a feel for their personalities, and Colby was still Colby in all of his glory.
Let's look at the challenges first.
The opening target test to play your way into the competition was a fun diversion from the norm. Being in Season 4 and not Season 20, Top Shot still has some room to play around to find out what works and what doesn't without seeming gimmicky.
While I enjoyed the ranking system that was then divided by even and odds, I am still torn about sending two contestants home right off the bat. On the one hand it is a way to keep the game interesting, and weed out the weak links early. These early challenges on Top Shot work on the basic skill level of the contestants, testing their ability to perform with a basic weapon in a straightforward challenge. Shooting a rifle at a target X amount of yards away is about as basic as it gets in Top Shot. Forrest and Buckland proved not only could they not perform with the M14 but also that they could not withstand the pressure of the competition.
However, I was kind of hoping to see the contestant field expanded this season. One, it would probably give us more episodes of Top Shot, and who doesn't want that. More so though, I would be interested to see what happens when they add a few more bodies to that house, I bet tensions would rise a little more quickly and personalities would clash a bit sooner.
As I mentioned in my recap, I liked the fluidity of this opening challenge as well. With Season 2, we didn't know who we're going to be the captains, but once we did the teams formed quickly. In Season 3 we saw the teams unfold in each head to head matchup. But here we saw the teams continue to change based on the performance of each contestant.
(Sidenote: does anyone else think its a little silly for the first two guys to go through and shake very ones hand after losing? I'm all about good sportsmanship, but there certainly seems something hollow about doing this after only knowing each other for one challenge. Not to mention the fact they don't have the camaraderie that comes from doing the team challenges.)
The team challenge was maybe the most frustrating challenge to ever appear on the show. There have often been challenges where a single contestant chokes and simply cannot make the shot. However, I don't think that there has ever been a challenge that has been so difficult for every contestant.
This may have been the first challenge where contestants were forced to make a perfect run on multiple shots to complete the challenge. In the past, the challenge has been that contestants have a clip only loaded with enough bullets to make a perfect run before they are forced to reload by hand, but never where they had to make a perfect run or the targets would be reset.
This being Top Shot, if we start the competition with rifle shooting, we move on to pistol shooting. Again I think this is smart in terms of keeping the competition interesting and fair.
The progressively smaller targets also forced the teams to strategize immediately and pick out each others strengths and weaknesses based solely on their reputations as shooters. To me this is the most interesting aspect of the early episodes because the contestants make assumptions about each other that often turn out to be wrong. Usually this involves the amateur contestants being sent to elimination challenges simply for their amateur status and forced to prove themselves to their teammates.
For the most part, I think the teams are pretty fairly matched, this challenge was by no means a blowout, but I'll be interested to see how the teams fare when the challenges get more physically demanding, like in next weeks obstacle course.
The elimination challenge took an interesting turn that followed in Season 3's footsteps. I was surprised last season when the first elimination challenged involved shooting from a moving stagecoach. Season 2 waited until the contestants made it to the green jersey phase before allowing them to shoot from the back of a Humvee. And here I was surprised again when the contestants were asked to shoot from a sidecar of a WWII motorcycle.
I enjoyed Colby's explanation of the challenge, stating that in the elimination challenge at least, they try and recreate the conditions under which the the weapon was being used. While an old dirt road on a cattle ranch is not the same as the narrow roads of Europe, the terrain could not have made the shooting easy.
It also shows the skill of the contestants that they were so evenly matched, with Littlejohn only winning because he used fewer bullets. This is a fair way to play, but man I wish Melloni had sent him home.
Overall I would say this first episode brought basic yet fun challenges that brought together everything I love about Top Shot, lots of shooting, lots of slo-mo, exploding targets, and a whole lot of Colby.
The Contestants
Now it would be unreasonable to go through each contestant this early in the competition, besides I already did an initial breakdown before episode one premiered. So instead I'll just go through some observations from the first episode.
There are several contestants who didn't make the best first impression with me. Number one being William Bethards, who didn't get a lot of screen time, but what time he did get was spent mugging and trying to come up with catch phrases.
Next up we got Kyle Sumpter, who for some reason dominated the first half of the program with his one on one interviews. The guy is trying to be the Quesenberry of this season, but his energy is off-putting.
As I couldn't hold back from mentioning in the recap, I also am not a fan of Gun Fauxeri (Dylan Fletcher). You never want to be in an elimination. Period. You can ooh and aah at the challenge all you want, but you never outright say you would rather have the potential of going home than staying in the competition.
Finally, on my not-so-top-shot list is Gregory Littlejohn, who took his camera time to inform the audience that his name was ironic because he's a big guy. But I can forgive him for that, we've heard a lot worse come out of some the contestants mouths. No, what I didn't like was how he got progressively...let's say nastier, as the episode went on. He started out fairly likable but got too defensive when he was on the chopping block and was too quick to pounce on Frank Melloni. Credit where credit is due, he did nominate himself due to his poor performance, and he said he would go in and shoot his way out, which he did.
But he's got some work to do to win me back.
As for those I liked, well, it was a tough episode to gauge the rest of the contestants because the ones I mentioned were most prominently featured. However, I will go ahead and pick out two.
First, for general likability, let's go with Brit Terry Vaughan, who seemed easy going, intrigued, and ready to play the game. I'll leave it at that.
Second, let's take a closer look at female contestant Michelle Viscusi. She's the youngest contestant now that Forrest is out, but she may have pulled off the smartest move in Top Shot with nobody noticing. At the nomination range Littlejohn was already pretty clearly in the challenge, but Melloni only had one vote. The women on Top Shot on almost automatically in danger of being nominated in the early episodes simply based on their gender, which is unfortunate, but the way the game works. I think Viscusi recognized this and decided instead of wasting her vote by putting another bullet in Littlejohn's target, she'd make sure she was protected in case anyone of her teammates was feeling particularly sexist. It was a smart move and as I said, rather unannounced. I'm excited to see what she brings in the weeks ahead.
That's a wrap on episode one, I'll try and get a quick History Lesson post up about last weeks guns sometime tomorrow. Remember new episode at 10/9 central and repeated immediately afterwards.
Follow the man himself @Colby_Donaldson, and myself @cswiets.
The Challenges
The first episode of season four started out more or less how we might have expected it to. There were not any guns that were terribly exciting, there were too many cast members in the competition to really get a feel for their personalities, and Colby was still Colby in all of his glory.
Let's look at the challenges first.
The opening target test to play your way into the competition was a fun diversion from the norm. Being in Season 4 and not Season 20, Top Shot still has some room to play around to find out what works and what doesn't without seeming gimmicky.
While I enjoyed the ranking system that was then divided by even and odds, I am still torn about sending two contestants home right off the bat. On the one hand it is a way to keep the game interesting, and weed out the weak links early. These early challenges on Top Shot work on the basic skill level of the contestants, testing their ability to perform with a basic weapon in a straightforward challenge. Shooting a rifle at a target X amount of yards away is about as basic as it gets in Top Shot. Forrest and Buckland proved not only could they not perform with the M14 but also that they could not withstand the pressure of the competition.
However, I was kind of hoping to see the contestant field expanded this season. One, it would probably give us more episodes of Top Shot, and who doesn't want that. More so though, I would be interested to see what happens when they add a few more bodies to that house, I bet tensions would rise a little more quickly and personalities would clash a bit sooner.
As I mentioned in my recap, I liked the fluidity of this opening challenge as well. With Season 2, we didn't know who we're going to be the captains, but once we did the teams formed quickly. In Season 3 we saw the teams unfold in each head to head matchup. But here we saw the teams continue to change based on the performance of each contestant.
(Sidenote: does anyone else think its a little silly for the first two guys to go through and shake very ones hand after losing? I'm all about good sportsmanship, but there certainly seems something hollow about doing this after only knowing each other for one challenge. Not to mention the fact they don't have the camaraderie that comes from doing the team challenges.)
The team challenge was maybe the most frustrating challenge to ever appear on the show. There have often been challenges where a single contestant chokes and simply cannot make the shot. However, I don't think that there has ever been a challenge that has been so difficult for every contestant.
This may have been the first challenge where contestants were forced to make a perfect run on multiple shots to complete the challenge. In the past, the challenge has been that contestants have a clip only loaded with enough bullets to make a perfect run before they are forced to reload by hand, but never where they had to make a perfect run or the targets would be reset.
This being Top Shot, if we start the competition with rifle shooting, we move on to pistol shooting. Again I think this is smart in terms of keeping the competition interesting and fair.
The progressively smaller targets also forced the teams to strategize immediately and pick out each others strengths and weaknesses based solely on their reputations as shooters. To me this is the most interesting aspect of the early episodes because the contestants make assumptions about each other that often turn out to be wrong. Usually this involves the amateur contestants being sent to elimination challenges simply for their amateur status and forced to prove themselves to their teammates.
For the most part, I think the teams are pretty fairly matched, this challenge was by no means a blowout, but I'll be interested to see how the teams fare when the challenges get more physically demanding, like in next weeks obstacle course.
The elimination challenge took an interesting turn that followed in Season 3's footsteps. I was surprised last season when the first elimination challenged involved shooting from a moving stagecoach. Season 2 waited until the contestants made it to the green jersey phase before allowing them to shoot from the back of a Humvee. And here I was surprised again when the contestants were asked to shoot from a sidecar of a WWII motorcycle.
I enjoyed Colby's explanation of the challenge, stating that in the elimination challenge at least, they try and recreate the conditions under which the the weapon was being used. While an old dirt road on a cattle ranch is not the same as the narrow roads of Europe, the terrain could not have made the shooting easy.
It also shows the skill of the contestants that they were so evenly matched, with Littlejohn only winning because he used fewer bullets. This is a fair way to play, but man I wish Melloni had sent him home.
Overall I would say this first episode brought basic yet fun challenges that brought together everything I love about Top Shot, lots of shooting, lots of slo-mo, exploding targets, and a whole lot of Colby.
The Contestants
Now it would be unreasonable to go through each contestant this early in the competition, besides I already did an initial breakdown before episode one premiered. So instead I'll just go through some observations from the first episode.
There are several contestants who didn't make the best first impression with me. Number one being William Bethards, who didn't get a lot of screen time, but what time he did get was spent mugging and trying to come up with catch phrases.
Next up we got Kyle Sumpter, who for some reason dominated the first half of the program with his one on one interviews. The guy is trying to be the Quesenberry of this season, but his energy is off-putting.
As I couldn't hold back from mentioning in the recap, I also am not a fan of Gun Fauxeri (Dylan Fletcher). You never want to be in an elimination. Period. You can ooh and aah at the challenge all you want, but you never outright say you would rather have the potential of going home than staying in the competition.
Finally, on my not-so-top-shot list is Gregory Littlejohn, who took his camera time to inform the audience that his name was ironic because he's a big guy. But I can forgive him for that, we've heard a lot worse come out of some the contestants mouths. No, what I didn't like was how he got progressively...let's say nastier, as the episode went on. He started out fairly likable but got too defensive when he was on the chopping block and was too quick to pounce on Frank Melloni. Credit where credit is due, he did nominate himself due to his poor performance, and he said he would go in and shoot his way out, which he did.
But he's got some work to do to win me back.
As for those I liked, well, it was a tough episode to gauge the rest of the contestants because the ones I mentioned were most prominently featured. However, I will go ahead and pick out two.
First, for general likability, let's go with Brit Terry Vaughan, who seemed easy going, intrigued, and ready to play the game. I'll leave it at that.
Second, let's take a closer look at female contestant Michelle Viscusi. She's the youngest contestant now that Forrest is out, but she may have pulled off the smartest move in Top Shot with nobody noticing. At the nomination range Littlejohn was already pretty clearly in the challenge, but Melloni only had one vote. The women on Top Shot on almost automatically in danger of being nominated in the early episodes simply based on their gender, which is unfortunate, but the way the game works. I think Viscusi recognized this and decided instead of wasting her vote by putting another bullet in Littlejohn's target, she'd make sure she was protected in case anyone of her teammates was feeling particularly sexist. It was a smart move and as I said, rather unannounced. I'm excited to see what she brings in the weeks ahead.
That's a wrap on episode one, I'll try and get a quick History Lesson post up about last weeks guns sometime tomorrow. Remember new episode at 10/9 central and repeated immediately afterwards.
Follow the man himself @Colby_Donaldson, and myself @cswiets.
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