I got a little tied up with a few things outside of the blog. My apologies.
Here we sit, on the eve of a season I was never sure we would see. And as such I find myself returning to familiar territory. I have to say I'm surprised there are five contestants from Season 4. It seems like it would be difficult to do this (or any reality competition show) back to back. However like every season so far there are some highlights and low-lights, so let's take a look at who came back to the ranch.
Season 4
William Bethards
Not very excited for Mr. Hey Diddle Diddle, but we'll see if he can spend a little less time yapping and little more time hitting his mark.
Gabby Franco
An excellent choice and someone I am very excited to see some back. Gabby is rarely without a smile on her face and I think it would be awesome to see her go up against the best and come out the winner.
Chee Kwan
His biggest downfalls seem to come with the obstacles that are incorporated into the challenges, rather than the shooting itself. If he can keeps his nerves in check when Colby throws a curveball, he should do just fine.
Gregory Littlejohn
My only question is: Who gets the friendship bandana this time around?
Kyle Sumpter
The guy who is so earnest it hurts. I can't really hold anything against Sumpter. He's a strong shooter, a great leader and genuinely a nice guy. But I do have trouble watching his one on one interviews.
I would rather see: Terry Vaughn, Dylan Fletcher and Tim Trefren. I think I've made my feelings about Vaughn pretty clear, so no need to be redundant. Fletcher I only started to like at the end, so I would have liked the chance to root for him from the start. Had Trefren not gone up against Chris Cheng in that elimination challenge I think he could have very easily made it to the individual portion of the contest.
But wait there's more...
Since tomorrow is the premiere I'm going to double down on one other post I had planned but wasn't able to get to.
The one noticeable factor missing from the cast roster is the lack of champions. Iain Harrison, Chris Reed, Dustin Ellermann and Chris Cheng are nowhere to be found. I look at this two ways:
Glass half-full:
The promos already have shown the inclusion of Dustin and Chris during one of the challenges, so it isn't like they are going to be entirely absent from the proceedings. The argument can be made that these guys have already proven their talent as shooters and don't need go through it again. It also might look bad if one of the champions got knocked out early.
Glass half-empty:
This is an all-star season that is missing its four fiercest competitors. It's hard to claim being an all-star champion without beating at least one previous winner.
I wish I could tell you I have a good plan for posting tweets, recaps and analysis of each episode, but I still don't have cable. So if anyone knows someone at History Channel or Pilgrim Studios, ask them if they could send me screeners. I would really appreciate it. Otherwise I plan on getting up early Thursday and seeing what my streaming options are. Follow me on Twitter @cswiets for updates.
What are you most looking forward to in tomorrow's premiere?
Showing posts with label Kyle Sumpter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kyle Sumpter. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
Top Shot Season Five: Mark Your Calendars
Premiering over a year after the last season finale, Top Shot Season Five is officially set to air on Wednesday, May 29 at 10/9 CT. Since I just found this news out myself (courtesy of Jamie Franks) I'm just going to provide a quick list of the contestants. Come back tomorrow evening when I'll start diving into what to expect from this all-star season.
Season 1
Kelly Bachand
Adam Benson
Chris Cerino
Blake Miguez
Peter Palma
Season 2
Jamie Franks
Joe Serafini
Brian Zins
Season 3
Alex Charvat
Phil Morden
Gary Quesenberry (YES!)
Season 4
William Bethards
Gabby Franco
Chee Kwan
Gregory Littlejohn
Kyle Sumpter
Follow me on Twitter: @cswiets
Season 1
Kelly Bachand
Adam Benson
Chris Cerino
Blake Miguez
Peter Palma
Season 2
Jamie Franks
Joe Serafini
Brian Zins
Season 3
Alex Charvat
Phil Morden
Gary Quesenberry (YES!)
Season 4
William Bethards
Gabby Franco
Chee Kwan
Gregory Littlejohn
Kyle Sumpter
Follow me on Twitter: @cswiets
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
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Top Shot Recap: S4 E11 "Have Machine Gun Will Travel"
Sorry if it seems like I'm slacking on my posting schedule here, but school keeps getting in the way.
Let's skip the pleasantries and dive right in.
On the practice range (nothing interesting happened in the opening two minutes, so I'm skipping straight to the shooting) Colby stood in front of the contestants with a big grin and big tarp. Under the tarp was a M1919 Browning machine gun, a classic weapon of WWII. It was a weapon that none of the contestants had shot before, though Greg Littlejohn had the advantage of previous experience with belt fed machine guns due to his time in the military. With the help and welcome return of Craig "The Sawman" Sawyer, the rest of the group worked on trying to figure out the gun and playing with the trigger without spending too much ammo.
At the challenge the contestants were faced with...nothing, just the bench, which meant they were in for a surprise. That was when an M2A1 Halftrack came barreling down the road with the Browning strapped to its back. Contestants would jump on the Halftrack and have the opportunity to shoot at 15 different targets as they went down the road. The catch, they only had 100 bullets. The top two shooters were safe while the bottom three were up for elimination.
Gary Shank was up first (and isn't he always?) and quickly found out how little time it takes to go through 100 bullets, hitting only four targets. Littlejohn was up next and his experience shined through, hitting eight out of the 15 and ending up with the best score of the night. He was followed by Kyle Sumpter who struggled, but did better than Shank, hitting five targets. Chris Cheng continued to show he had the ability to master anything Colby puts in his hands, hitting six targets, for the second best score of the night (spoiler alert if you can do the math and didn't watch last night). Augie Malekovich was last to go, and after a strong start lost his rhythm, tying Sumpter with five targets.
I'm not really sure why, but the contestants keep having team meeting despite not being a team. There has been more team meeting footage this season than any other I would hazard to guess. It sounded like it was going to be Malekovich and Shank duking it out, but once again, things didn't go according to plan on the range.
Littlejohn hit Shank's target and all three remaining red team members hit Malekovich's. Then it was Malekovich's turn, and it turns out ole Augie had a little bone to pick with the red team. He decided he was going to hit Kyle's target because if he was going to go to elimination, he was going to throw a little chaos at the red team. So with a tie for the second contestant to go to elimination, Shank and Sumpter had to go to a shoot-off. Shank went first, hitting just below the bullseye to the left. Sumpter got up to shoot and clipped Shank's mark, but was just outside.
Sumpter and Malekovich would face off using the FN PS90 carbine. In perhaps the oddest twist of the season, this challenge was not so much focused on shooting as it was on memory....and rope climbing. Apparently this was a recreation of some kind of Marine exercise, but it was still a little odd (more on this tomorrow). Each contestant would have a box filled with ten items. They needed to open the box look at the items, close the box, climb across 20 feet of rope, then pick up the PS90 and shoot the 10 targets in their box without hitting the other twenty they were set amongst (I'll admit, that was pretty poorly worded). They had to to all of that in 75 seconds. They could go back as often as they wanted to look at the box, but with only 75 seconds, they would need to budget their time. This was a hard challenge to follow as it required the viewer to also memorize the items in the box to figure out who was winning. As it always is in Top Shot, points were awarded for proper hits, and points were deducted for decoy hits.
When the contest was over, Sumpter had clearly hit more objects than Malekovich but it all came down to the final count. Malekovich had hit five targets from his box, while Kyle had hit three. Malekovich hit only one decoy bringing his count down to four but securing the win. (Sumpter hit four decoys bringing his score down to negative one)
So one part of my prayers have been answered as Sumpter is sent packing and I can look forward to one Sumpter free episode this episode.
What did you think of last night's challenges? Are you glad that Papa Bear was sent back to his cave, or did you think he still had some fight left in him? Hit the comments and let me know.
Come back tomorrow for my analysis of tonight's episode.
Follow @cswiets
Let's skip the pleasantries and dive right in.
On the practice range (nothing interesting happened in the opening two minutes, so I'm skipping straight to the shooting) Colby stood in front of the contestants with a big grin and big tarp. Under the tarp was a M1919 Browning machine gun, a classic weapon of WWII. It was a weapon that none of the contestants had shot before, though Greg Littlejohn had the advantage of previous experience with belt fed machine guns due to his time in the military. With the help and welcome return of Craig "The Sawman" Sawyer, the rest of the group worked on trying to figure out the gun and playing with the trigger without spending too much ammo.
At the challenge the contestants were faced with...nothing, just the bench, which meant they were in for a surprise. That was when an M2A1 Halftrack came barreling down the road with the Browning strapped to its back. Contestants would jump on the Halftrack and have the opportunity to shoot at 15 different targets as they went down the road. The catch, they only had 100 bullets. The top two shooters were safe while the bottom three were up for elimination.
Gary Shank was up first (and isn't he always?) and quickly found out how little time it takes to go through 100 bullets, hitting only four targets. Littlejohn was up next and his experience shined through, hitting eight out of the 15 and ending up with the best score of the night. He was followed by Kyle Sumpter who struggled, but did better than Shank, hitting five targets. Chris Cheng continued to show he had the ability to master anything Colby puts in his hands, hitting six targets, for the second best score of the night (spoiler alert if you can do the math and didn't watch last night). Augie Malekovich was last to go, and after a strong start lost his rhythm, tying Sumpter with five targets.
I'm not really sure why, but the contestants keep having team meeting despite not being a team. There has been more team meeting footage this season than any other I would hazard to guess. It sounded like it was going to be Malekovich and Shank duking it out, but once again, things didn't go according to plan on the range.
Littlejohn hit Shank's target and all three remaining red team members hit Malekovich's. Then it was Malekovich's turn, and it turns out ole Augie had a little bone to pick with the red team. He decided he was going to hit Kyle's target because if he was going to go to elimination, he was going to throw a little chaos at the red team. So with a tie for the second contestant to go to elimination, Shank and Sumpter had to go to a shoot-off. Shank went first, hitting just below the bullseye to the left. Sumpter got up to shoot and clipped Shank's mark, but was just outside.
Sumpter and Malekovich would face off using the FN PS90 carbine. In perhaps the oddest twist of the season, this challenge was not so much focused on shooting as it was on memory....and rope climbing. Apparently this was a recreation of some kind of Marine exercise, but it was still a little odd (more on this tomorrow). Each contestant would have a box filled with ten items. They needed to open the box look at the items, close the box, climb across 20 feet of rope, then pick up the PS90 and shoot the 10 targets in their box without hitting the other twenty they were set amongst (I'll admit, that was pretty poorly worded). They had to to all of that in 75 seconds. They could go back as often as they wanted to look at the box, but with only 75 seconds, they would need to budget their time. This was a hard challenge to follow as it required the viewer to also memorize the items in the box to figure out who was winning. As it always is in Top Shot, points were awarded for proper hits, and points were deducted for decoy hits.
When the contest was over, Sumpter had clearly hit more objects than Malekovich but it all came down to the final count. Malekovich had hit five targets from his box, while Kyle had hit three. Malekovich hit only one decoy bringing his count down to four but securing the win. (Sumpter hit four decoys bringing his score down to negative one)
So one part of my prayers have been answered as Sumpter is sent packing and I can look forward to one Sumpter free episode this episode.
What did you think of last night's challenges? Are you glad that Papa Bear was sent back to his cave, or did you think he still had some fight left in him? Hit the comments and let me know.
Come back tomorrow for my analysis of tonight's episode.
Follow @cswiets
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
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Top Shot Recap: S4 E10 "SWAT Throwdown"
Ok a few things before diving in here.
1. I am incredibly distracted at the moment, papers, tests, girlfriend, job hunting, and graduation are all culminating in a perfect storm, so I apologize in advance for being late and missing a few details (also I don't mean to make my problems your problems, so double apology there).
2. No Top Tweets again, but this time an explanation. Colby gave one tweet on Tuesday, informing his followers (the one problem with Twitter is how cult-y I have to sound when I refer to it) that he was not allowed to participate because of comments he made the previous week. I'm not precisely sure what could have gotten him into trouble, most of his tweets were simply about trying to help save the show and were in no way critical of History as far as I could tell.
3. I was very disappointed I was unable to do a Top Tweets because I had a very good title (Top Tweets Vol. 9: Last time I did this, it was 1995).
Anyway...
Chris Cheng nails up William Bethards target (did anyone else notice how they finally made the targets green for the contestants who make it to individual stage of the competition? Also, did I talk about this already?) and Greg Littlejohn talks about how he was surprised Cheng was able to take him down.
This week's theme was Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) and the individual challenge would feature the FN Five-seven pistol, which holds a twenty round clip. This would be the first challenge this season where contestants would have to holster the pistol. Much of the practice was spent working on drawing the pistol out of the holster smoothy and working on firing quickly without forsaking accuracy.
The challenge was the biggest this season in terms of staging (I am convinced they had their budget significantly reduced for this season just by looking at some rather simplistic challenges). Contestants would climb to the top of a faux three-story building and rappel down one level at a time. At each level there were two windows. Contestants would take the pistol out of the holster and fire at three jars down range. Once hitting all three they would re-holster the pistol, move to the next window, unholster and fire at another three targets. Once hitting all six targets on the level, the could proceed to the next one. The top three shooters who completed the challenge in the fastest time were safe, while the bottom three were up for nomination.
This week, as a special treat, I actually have the correct order and times for each contestant. Littlejohn went first, shooting his targets in 1 minute 32 seconds. He was followed by Chee Kwan (sans hat), who had a brief panic attack and tried to recover, shooting in 1 minute 42 seconds. Kyle Sumpter proved himself to be a skilled lawman, taking out his targets in 1 minute 21 seconds. Gary Shank was up next, falling between Kwan and Littlejohn at 1 minute 36 seconds. Cheng, who said in practice he had never used this weapon before, smoked the course in an astounding 1 minute 17 seconds (Bias much? Yes, yes I am). Augie Malekovich was the last to go, hitting his marks in a respectable 1 minute 23 seconds, and keeping him out of elimination.
A brief pow-wow at the house revealed that performance based Sumpter might be having a change of heart, telling Augie he would have a hard time shooting either of his fellow red team members. Kwan made it known that he was still looking for another opportunity to prove himself after having the worst time on the course.
At the nomination range Chee and Shank split the votes as Sumpter decided that, after talking with Chee, he would shoot his target.
The elimination challenge would carry on with the SWAT theme, and also be the second challenge this season to feature two different weapons in the same challenge: the Mossberg 500 "Chainsaw" Shotgun and the FN FS2000 rifle. At the practice range contestants also were made aware that for this challenge they would be outfitted with protective tactical gear.
The elimination challenge was a three stage course. Contestants would begin by using the Mossberg to breach a door, then take the FS2000 and shoot three targets. There were three doors to breach and three groups of targets to shoot at progressively farther distances. Shank took the charge and blasted through the course in an amazing 56 seconds. Kwan followed but did not have an aggressive start, and his failure to breach the final door on his first attempt left him the dust, completing the course in 1 minute 13 seconds.
Shank proves he is just as lethal with old guns as he is with modern ones, while Kwan goes off to the other side of the hill to (hopefully) find Gabby Franco...
What did you think of this week's episode? How much trouble do you think Colby is really in? And who do think will win now that we are down to the final five?
Fingers crossed that the analysis will be up Thursday afternoon, if not Friday for sure.
Follow @cswiets
1. I am incredibly distracted at the moment, papers, tests, girlfriend, job hunting, and graduation are all culminating in a perfect storm, so I apologize in advance for being late and missing a few details (also I don't mean to make my problems your problems, so double apology there).
2. No Top Tweets again, but this time an explanation. Colby gave one tweet on Tuesday, informing his followers (the one problem with Twitter is how cult-y I have to sound when I refer to it) that he was not allowed to participate because of comments he made the previous week. I'm not precisely sure what could have gotten him into trouble, most of his tweets were simply about trying to help save the show and were in no way critical of History as far as I could tell.
3. I was very disappointed I was unable to do a Top Tweets because I had a very good title (Top Tweets Vol. 9: Last time I did this, it was 1995).
Anyway...
Chris Cheng nails up William Bethards target (did anyone else notice how they finally made the targets green for the contestants who make it to individual stage of the competition? Also, did I talk about this already?) and Greg Littlejohn talks about how he was surprised Cheng was able to take him down.
This week's theme was Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) and the individual challenge would feature the FN Five-seven pistol, which holds a twenty round clip. This would be the first challenge this season where contestants would have to holster the pistol. Much of the practice was spent working on drawing the pistol out of the holster smoothy and working on firing quickly without forsaking accuracy.
The challenge was the biggest this season in terms of staging (I am convinced they had their budget significantly reduced for this season just by looking at some rather simplistic challenges). Contestants would climb to the top of a faux three-story building and rappel down one level at a time. At each level there were two windows. Contestants would take the pistol out of the holster and fire at three jars down range. Once hitting all three they would re-holster the pistol, move to the next window, unholster and fire at another three targets. Once hitting all six targets on the level, the could proceed to the next one. The top three shooters who completed the challenge in the fastest time were safe, while the bottom three were up for nomination.
This week, as a special treat, I actually have the correct order and times for each contestant. Littlejohn went first, shooting his targets in 1 minute 32 seconds. He was followed by Chee Kwan (sans hat), who had a brief panic attack and tried to recover, shooting in 1 minute 42 seconds. Kyle Sumpter proved himself to be a skilled lawman, taking out his targets in 1 minute 21 seconds. Gary Shank was up next, falling between Kwan and Littlejohn at 1 minute 36 seconds. Cheng, who said in practice he had never used this weapon before, smoked the course in an astounding 1 minute 17 seconds (Bias much? Yes, yes I am). Augie Malekovich was the last to go, hitting his marks in a respectable 1 minute 23 seconds, and keeping him out of elimination.
A brief pow-wow at the house revealed that performance based Sumpter might be having a change of heart, telling Augie he would have a hard time shooting either of his fellow red team members. Kwan made it known that he was still looking for another opportunity to prove himself after having the worst time on the course.
At the nomination range Chee and Shank split the votes as Sumpter decided that, after talking with Chee, he would shoot his target.
The elimination challenge would carry on with the SWAT theme, and also be the second challenge this season to feature two different weapons in the same challenge: the Mossberg 500 "Chainsaw" Shotgun and the FN FS2000 rifle. At the practice range contestants also were made aware that for this challenge they would be outfitted with protective tactical gear.
The elimination challenge was a three stage course. Contestants would begin by using the Mossberg to breach a door, then take the FS2000 and shoot three targets. There were three doors to breach and three groups of targets to shoot at progressively farther distances. Shank took the charge and blasted through the course in an amazing 56 seconds. Kwan followed but did not have an aggressive start, and his failure to breach the final door on his first attempt left him the dust, completing the course in 1 minute 13 seconds.
Shank proves he is just as lethal with old guns as he is with modern ones, while Kwan goes off to the other side of the hill to (hopefully) find Gabby Franco...
What did you think of this week's episode? How much trouble do you think Colby is really in? And who do think will win now that we are down to the final five?
Fingers crossed that the analysis will be up Thursday afternoon, if not Friday for sure.
Follow @cswiets
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
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Top Shot Recap: S4 E9 "The Longest Shot"
I learned two things while watching last night's episode of Top Shot:
1. It is very important that if you are watching the encore episode that airs at 11/10 central, that you do not change the channel to History until 10:01 p.m., otherwise you end up seeing who was eliminated and ruining the entire episode.
2. While it is fun to watch Top Shot with a large group of friends, they sometimes talk over the contestants, making it difficult to follow everything that happened.
I bring this up because this recap, at least as I am planning it right now in my head as I simultaneously write this line, may be a little bare-bones. Not to worry, all the important stuff is here, but it probably isn't as in depth as either of us would like.
We begin, as we always do, with the return of Littlejohn and the nailing of poor Terry Vaughan's plaque on the bulls eye board (it still stings...), this time, thankfully, sans friendship speech.
This was followed by the reveal of this season's hidden plotline, the unexpected, but I would not say unwelcome, flirtatious relationship between Chee Kwan and Gabby Franco. Most of the focus this season has focused on red as a team, so there hasn't been much room for individual plot points, as there was with the divided blue team. It was an odd choice to throw in at this point of the competition, but I'll talk more about that tomorrow.
At the practice range Colby kept the surprises coming. Not only were the contestants informed that they had made it into the individual portion of the competition, they also found out they would be going from British weapons, to serious long range rifles, namely the Accuracy International AX338. To top it off, they would be helped by two of Top Shot's most famous riflemen, Season 1's Kelly Bachand, and Season 2's George Reinas. We also learned that Littlejohn and Reinas had been stationed in Iraq together for six months (fun facts are the best facts!). Franco seemed to have the best handle on the gun, shooting a tight row from the top of the target down to the bulls eye.
The first individual challenge would feature the longest shot in Top Shot history. Using the Accuracy International, contestants would fire at a thirty inch target, 1500 yards down range. It's a distance that is skewed by the cameras, until contestants started popping off shots. The wait between the trigger pull and seeing the dust cloud was excruciatingly long. Shooters would go up one by one; the shooter who took the longest amount of time to hit the target would be automatically eliminated, shooters 1-4 would be safe, and shooters 5-7 would be up for elimination.
It was a tough episode to gauge how well contestants were doing, the amount of time it took a shot to travel down range, coupled with the editing of the episode, pretty much made it impossible to know how a shooter did until Colby read off the time.
I won't go through who shot what exactly, you can watch that for yourself, if you haven't already, and just skip to the end. By the time it got down to the final three shooters, one thing was for certain, Chris Cheng was either going to be out of the contest or be up for elimination. Then Franco came up and lost whatever magic she had found on the range, taking well over two minutes to hit the target, and putting her at the bottom of the pile. Kwan was the final shooter, and as each contestant was asked to step away until it was their turn to shoot he had no idea where everyone else was in the challenge. He went up and took his shot, but in turn he eliminated Franco from the competition. There was an emotional goodbye between the two, with Kwan tearing up during his one-on-one.
With Franco gone, there was still a decision to make about who to nominate for elimination. The bottom three consisted of Cheng, Kyle Sumpter and William Bethards. It appeared as though Sumpter wanted to continue the team meeting strategy by deciding who would be in the challenge before the going to the nomination range. While he seemed pretty set on having himself and Cheng be in the elimination because they were the two worst shooters, Cheng wasn't convinced this was the best strategy.
The nomination range started out on an even keel with votes going to Cheng and Sumpter. Cheng then seemed to be feeling the influence of two his former teammates, namely Tim Trefren and Sumpter. Bethards made a few comments on the range that rubbed Cheng the wrong way, much in the same way his own comments had rubbed Trefren the wrong way. And much like Sumpter, who threw his teammates a curveball when he decided not to vote for Kwan to go up against Cheng in the atlatl challenge, Cheng decided he was going to throw his own curveball by voting for Bethards. Cheng was in with three votes, but his competitor was tied between Sumpter and Bethards with two votes apiece. This season implemented a new tie-breaking strategy. Instead of drawing a bullet out of an ammo box, the tied competitors would take aim at a target, the closest shot to the bulls eye would be safe from elimination. Bethards went first, and Mr. Hey Diddle Diddle couldn't quite hit the middle, shooting just above and to the right of the bulls eye, leaving just enough room for Sumpter to sneak in and stay out of the elimination challenge.
Bethards and Cheng were introduced to the Henry rifle...not much else to say really except more George and Kelly, woo!
The elimination challenge featured five targets placed at progressively farther distances down range. Each target had two metal rings and a center bulls eye. Using the Henry rifle, Cheng and Bethards would have to hit all three rings on each target before moving onto the next one, however they could hit the rings of the individual target in any order. Bethards got out to an early lead that he hung onto to for most of the challenge, with Cheng trying desperately to keep pace next to him. But then... something happened, and I'm not quite sure how to describe it because I don't really understand it. By all accounts, Bethards was going to run away with this challenge, but then he had trouble with the mechanics of the weapon, unintentionally shooting of two shots while he worked the lever of the rifle. This small error seemed enough to let Cheng regain his footing and tie up the challenge. In the end, a hard fought victory was handed over to Cheng, and Bethards was sent packing.
What did you think of last night's episode? How would you feel about a Top Shot style dating show where instead of roses, the bachelor or bachelorette shot the targets of the suitors they wanted to send home? Glad Bethards went home, or would you have rather seen Mr. Van Helsing get staked?
Come back tomorrow for my breakdown of "The Longest Shot" where we'll have some fun with the Kwan Franco flirtation.
Follow @cswiets
1. It is very important that if you are watching the encore episode that airs at 11/10 central, that you do not change the channel to History until 10:01 p.m., otherwise you end up seeing who was eliminated and ruining the entire episode.
2. While it is fun to watch Top Shot with a large group of friends, they sometimes talk over the contestants, making it difficult to follow everything that happened.
I bring this up because this recap, at least as I am planning it right now in my head as I simultaneously write this line, may be a little bare-bones. Not to worry, all the important stuff is here, but it probably isn't as in depth as either of us would like.
We begin, as we always do, with the return of Littlejohn and the nailing of poor Terry Vaughan's plaque on the bulls eye board (it still stings...), this time, thankfully, sans friendship speech.
This was followed by the reveal of this season's hidden plotline, the unexpected, but I would not say unwelcome, flirtatious relationship between Chee Kwan and Gabby Franco. Most of the focus this season has focused on red as a team, so there hasn't been much room for individual plot points, as there was with the divided blue team. It was an odd choice to throw in at this point of the competition, but I'll talk more about that tomorrow.
At the practice range Colby kept the surprises coming. Not only were the contestants informed that they had made it into the individual portion of the competition, they also found out they would be going from British weapons, to serious long range rifles, namely the Accuracy International AX338. To top it off, they would be helped by two of Top Shot's most famous riflemen, Season 1's Kelly Bachand, and Season 2's George Reinas. We also learned that Littlejohn and Reinas had been stationed in Iraq together for six months (fun facts are the best facts!). Franco seemed to have the best handle on the gun, shooting a tight row from the top of the target down to the bulls eye.
The first individual challenge would feature the longest shot in Top Shot history. Using the Accuracy International, contestants would fire at a thirty inch target, 1500 yards down range. It's a distance that is skewed by the cameras, until contestants started popping off shots. The wait between the trigger pull and seeing the dust cloud was excruciatingly long. Shooters would go up one by one; the shooter who took the longest amount of time to hit the target would be automatically eliminated, shooters 1-4 would be safe, and shooters 5-7 would be up for elimination.
It was a tough episode to gauge how well contestants were doing, the amount of time it took a shot to travel down range, coupled with the editing of the episode, pretty much made it impossible to know how a shooter did until Colby read off the time.
I won't go through who shot what exactly, you can watch that for yourself, if you haven't already, and just skip to the end. By the time it got down to the final three shooters, one thing was for certain, Chris Cheng was either going to be out of the contest or be up for elimination. Then Franco came up and lost whatever magic she had found on the range, taking well over two minutes to hit the target, and putting her at the bottom of the pile. Kwan was the final shooter, and as each contestant was asked to step away until it was their turn to shoot he had no idea where everyone else was in the challenge. He went up and took his shot, but in turn he eliminated Franco from the competition. There was an emotional goodbye between the two, with Kwan tearing up during his one-on-one.
With Franco gone, there was still a decision to make about who to nominate for elimination. The bottom three consisted of Cheng, Kyle Sumpter and William Bethards. It appeared as though Sumpter wanted to continue the team meeting strategy by deciding who would be in the challenge before the going to the nomination range. While he seemed pretty set on having himself and Cheng be in the elimination because they were the two worst shooters, Cheng wasn't convinced this was the best strategy.
The nomination range started out on an even keel with votes going to Cheng and Sumpter. Cheng then seemed to be feeling the influence of two his former teammates, namely Tim Trefren and Sumpter. Bethards made a few comments on the range that rubbed Cheng the wrong way, much in the same way his own comments had rubbed Trefren the wrong way. And much like Sumpter, who threw his teammates a curveball when he decided not to vote for Kwan to go up against Cheng in the atlatl challenge, Cheng decided he was going to throw his own curveball by voting for Bethards. Cheng was in with three votes, but his competitor was tied between Sumpter and Bethards with two votes apiece. This season implemented a new tie-breaking strategy. Instead of drawing a bullet out of an ammo box, the tied competitors would take aim at a target, the closest shot to the bulls eye would be safe from elimination. Bethards went first, and Mr. Hey Diddle Diddle couldn't quite hit the middle, shooting just above and to the right of the bulls eye, leaving just enough room for Sumpter to sneak in and stay out of the elimination challenge.
Bethards and Cheng were introduced to the Henry rifle...not much else to say really except more George and Kelly, woo!
The elimination challenge featured five targets placed at progressively farther distances down range. Each target had two metal rings and a center bulls eye. Using the Henry rifle, Cheng and Bethards would have to hit all three rings on each target before moving onto the next one, however they could hit the rings of the individual target in any order. Bethards got out to an early lead that he hung onto to for most of the challenge, with Cheng trying desperately to keep pace next to him. But then... something happened, and I'm not quite sure how to describe it because I don't really understand it. By all accounts, Bethards was going to run away with this challenge, but then he had trouble with the mechanics of the weapon, unintentionally shooting of two shots while he worked the lever of the rifle. This small error seemed enough to let Cheng regain his footing and tie up the challenge. In the end, a hard fought victory was handed over to Cheng, and Bethards was sent packing.
What did you think of last night's episode? How would you feel about a Top Shot style dating show where instead of roses, the bachelor or bachelorette shot the targets of the suitors they wanted to send home? Glad Bethards went home, or would you have rather seen Mr. Van Helsing get staked?
Come back tomorrow for my breakdown of "The Longest Shot" where we'll have some fun with the Kwan Franco flirtation.
Follow @cswiets
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Top Shot Recap: S4 E7 "Trick Shot Shoot Off"
Trick shooting makes its triumphant return to Top Shot, but as the contestants continue to dwindle, the tensions in the house continue to rise.
This week kicked off with blue team surprised that Chris Cheng had outed Tim Trefren in the elimination challenge, before everyone headed off to practice.
The Remington M1911 pistol and the Volquartsen Rutger 10/22 rifle were this week's featured weapons, but the real treat was Colby revealing that this would be the trick shot challenge.
Red team got to practice first and seemed pretty confident coming out that they would have a good chance at winning this challenge. Then in comes the blue team, who were starting to tire of William Bethards constant boasting of his skills. Despite coming off of two wins, blue team was a mess during their practice session. Their pistol shooting was fine, but Bethards insisted that he would be shooting pistols in the challenge, and it was therefore pointless to practice with the rifle. This rubbed his teammates the wrong way, especially when they all struggled to get a handle on the rifle. Bethards finally relented and showed he had the skills to back up his talk by nailing the targets with the rifle.
However, when blue team went back to the house to strategize for the challenge, Bethards boasting in practice became a point of contention for the rest of his teammates. Terry Vaughan called him out for not being a team player, while Bethards argued back that the rest of his teammates had backed down from the rifle because they couldn't handle it.
With five shooters, the challenge featured five different stations. At the first station, contestants would have three chances with the Remington to shoot a bowling pin straight back between two pins on either side of it. Each clean hit was worth a point. Chris Cheng continued his strong run this season, going three for three on his run. Augie Malekovich hit two for three on his turn, putting blue behind from the get-go.
The second station featured a similar set up, except this time the contestant had to hit the lead pin and knock it back into one, or both of the pins on either side of it. Each knock down was worth a point. Kyle Sumpter went two for three for red, while Greg Littlejohn only managed to hit on one of his attempts.
The third station featured three soda bottles with openers rigged to their caps. Using the Volquartsen rifle, contestants had three chances to open the bottle; each clean hit was worth a point. Terry Vaughan went first for blue, missing on his first shot, nailing the second, and demolishing the bottle in spectacular fashion on his third. Gabby Franco shot for red, and after missing her first two shots, nailed the third.
The fourth station brought back the Remington pistol. Down range there were two buckets placed ontop of each other. The contestant would have to shoot the bottom bucket first, which would then launch the second bucket in the air. Contestants would only score a point if they hit the bucket in midair; again three chances worth one point apiece. Gary Shank made it look easy, going three-for-three on his run. Dylan Fletcher showed how truly difficult this challenge was though, bringing up a goose egg on his turn.
The final station featured four gumballs placed atop golf tees, sitting 75 feet downrange. Contestants would use the Volquartsen rifle to hit the targets, but each gumball was worth three points. Bethards took up the rifle at the request of his teammates, but only managed to hit one target. With red team still in the lead at that point, there was no point in Chee Kwan shooting.
Blue team went back to the house, and Fletcher nominated himself before the team even got started talking. However, he also pulled a Tim Trefren by calling out who he wanted to shoot against, which was Bethards. The rest of the team seemed ok with this, and that's how it went down on the range, but not without incident.
While most contestants pick up the gun and focus on hitting their target (because no one wants to be the contestant who misses on the nomination range), Bethards took the shot one handed, and drilled the center of Fletcher's target, a stunt that didn't help his standing among the rest of his teammates.
At the elimination practice they found out they would be shooting two more kinds of pistols: the SIG Sauer P229 and the Browning Buck Mark. From the practice, it was pretty clear that Bethards was going in with the advantage, but Fletcher's practice wasn't bad, and it's always hard to say what will happen in a elimination challenge.
What happened was more bowling pins, this time ten of them, set up like at a bowling alley but on four descending tiers. The contestants wouldn't simply be shooting the pins though. Each pin had had the top sawed off, and placed back on top. Using the Browning, contestants would first shoot the tops off of all of their pins. Once they did that they would switch to the SIG and hit the bottoms. Each hit was worth a point, but no points would be awarded if they hit the bottoms first. They had two minutes to complete the challenge.
The challenge started off fairly tight, with Fletcher keeping pace with Bethards up to five hits, and both contestants losing a pin to an errant shot. However, Bethards pulled away and finished the rest of his run clean with a total of 18 points. Since contestants had two minutes to complete the challenge and time had not run out on the clock, Fletcher still had a chance to come back and tie, but another errant shot hit the bottom of a pin, and sent him packing.
Hey diddle diddle is still in the building, but have his showboating ways painted a target on his back? What do you think of Bethards newest portrayal as the cockiest guy in the room? Hit the comments and let me know.
I'll be breaking down all the good stuff tomorrow in my analysis of this episode.
Follow me on Twitter @cswiets
This week kicked off with blue team surprised that Chris Cheng had outed Tim Trefren in the elimination challenge, before everyone headed off to practice.
The Remington M1911 pistol and the Volquartsen Rutger 10/22 rifle were this week's featured weapons, but the real treat was Colby revealing that this would be the trick shot challenge.
Red team got to practice first and seemed pretty confident coming out that they would have a good chance at winning this challenge. Then in comes the blue team, who were starting to tire of William Bethards constant boasting of his skills. Despite coming off of two wins, blue team was a mess during their practice session. Their pistol shooting was fine, but Bethards insisted that he would be shooting pistols in the challenge, and it was therefore pointless to practice with the rifle. This rubbed his teammates the wrong way, especially when they all struggled to get a handle on the rifle. Bethards finally relented and showed he had the skills to back up his talk by nailing the targets with the rifle.
However, when blue team went back to the house to strategize for the challenge, Bethards boasting in practice became a point of contention for the rest of his teammates. Terry Vaughan called him out for not being a team player, while Bethards argued back that the rest of his teammates had backed down from the rifle because they couldn't handle it.
With five shooters, the challenge featured five different stations. At the first station, contestants would have three chances with the Remington to shoot a bowling pin straight back between two pins on either side of it. Each clean hit was worth a point. Chris Cheng continued his strong run this season, going three for three on his run. Augie Malekovich hit two for three on his turn, putting blue behind from the get-go.
The second station featured a similar set up, except this time the contestant had to hit the lead pin and knock it back into one, or both of the pins on either side of it. Each knock down was worth a point. Kyle Sumpter went two for three for red, while Greg Littlejohn only managed to hit on one of his attempts.
The third station featured three soda bottles with openers rigged to their caps. Using the Volquartsen rifle, contestants had three chances to open the bottle; each clean hit was worth a point. Terry Vaughan went first for blue, missing on his first shot, nailing the second, and demolishing the bottle in spectacular fashion on his third. Gabby Franco shot for red, and after missing her first two shots, nailed the third.
The fourth station brought back the Remington pistol. Down range there were two buckets placed ontop of each other. The contestant would have to shoot the bottom bucket first, which would then launch the second bucket in the air. Contestants would only score a point if they hit the bucket in midair; again three chances worth one point apiece. Gary Shank made it look easy, going three-for-three on his run. Dylan Fletcher showed how truly difficult this challenge was though, bringing up a goose egg on his turn.
The final station featured four gumballs placed atop golf tees, sitting 75 feet downrange. Contestants would use the Volquartsen rifle to hit the targets, but each gumball was worth three points. Bethards took up the rifle at the request of his teammates, but only managed to hit one target. With red team still in the lead at that point, there was no point in Chee Kwan shooting.
Blue team went back to the house, and Fletcher nominated himself before the team even got started talking. However, he also pulled a Tim Trefren by calling out who he wanted to shoot against, which was Bethards. The rest of the team seemed ok with this, and that's how it went down on the range, but not without incident.
While most contestants pick up the gun and focus on hitting their target (because no one wants to be the contestant who misses on the nomination range), Bethards took the shot one handed, and drilled the center of Fletcher's target, a stunt that didn't help his standing among the rest of his teammates.
At the elimination practice they found out they would be shooting two more kinds of pistols: the SIG Sauer P229 and the Browning Buck Mark. From the practice, it was pretty clear that Bethards was going in with the advantage, but Fletcher's practice wasn't bad, and it's always hard to say what will happen in a elimination challenge.
What happened was more bowling pins, this time ten of them, set up like at a bowling alley but on four descending tiers. The contestants wouldn't simply be shooting the pins though. Each pin had had the top sawed off, and placed back on top. Using the Browning, contestants would first shoot the tops off of all of their pins. Once they did that they would switch to the SIG and hit the bottoms. Each hit was worth a point, but no points would be awarded if they hit the bottoms first. They had two minutes to complete the challenge.
The challenge started off fairly tight, with Fletcher keeping pace with Bethards up to five hits, and both contestants losing a pin to an errant shot. However, Bethards pulled away and finished the rest of his run clean with a total of 18 points. Since contestants had two minutes to complete the challenge and time had not run out on the clock, Fletcher still had a chance to come back and tie, but another errant shot hit the bottom of a pin, and sent him packing.
Hey diddle diddle is still in the building, but have his showboating ways painted a target on his back? What do you think of Bethards newest portrayal as the cockiest guy in the room? Hit the comments and let me know.
I'll be breaking down all the good stuff tomorrow in my analysis of this episode.
Follow me on Twitter @cswiets
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
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
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