Top Shot All-Stars: Season 4 Picks

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• Colby is big fan of the Winchester '73 rifle

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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It all comes down to this...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Top Shot Analysis: S4 E10 "SWAT Throwdown"

Here are some fun facts about 1995:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Top Shot Recap: S4 E10 "SWAT Throwdown"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Follow @cswiets

Tony's Take: Top Shot Season 2

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

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

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

My 3 Heroes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

.

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

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

And so it is, follow Tony on Twitter @thREALtonybader

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

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

Top Tweets Vol. 8: Time to Band Together

Colby returned to the twittersphere tonight, and unfortunately it was not with good news. Top Shot seems to be in dire in straights and if we want this show to continue, we are going to need to put forth some serious fan support to keep it on the air. But I will get to all of that in a minute.

It was another stellar episode, and with Colby back, I can finally get back to these posts, which I really enjoy doing. Here's another round of solid tweets from this week's episode:

• Colby was very impressed by the shooters abilities with the Accuracy International.

• Practice for this weapon was determined by the number of rounds, not by how long each contestant spent with the rifle

• If anyone has ever wondered how long it takes to replace the exploding targets, Colby let us in on the details. It does take a while as the pyro team is kept behind the firing line until the target goes off, and then must travel all the way down range to replace it. 

• Apparently the Desert Eagle is high on most fans list for the gun they would like to see used in elimination if there is another season of Top Shot.

• During filming, Colby apparently sleeps on a sleeping bag in the garage adjacent to the house the contestants stay in (which does explain how easily he entered the house to announce the exit of Jake Zweig during Season 3...).

• Colby (like myself) believes the head to head challenges are always more fun to watch.

• I hate to end on a sour note, but Colby is urging fans to voice their support of the show, and why they feel it deserves another season. Start hounding @HistoryChannel on Twitter, and let them know why you love Top Shot. Hit them up once a day or once every hour, every little bit helps. The fan base may be small, but it is loyal. 

As I said, I do not want to end this on a sour note, so instead let's end with a ray of hope. There are numerous reality shows I watch, among them, Animal Planet's Whale Wars. Whale Wars ended its fourth season on August 12, 2011. It was not until December 27, 2011, that the fifth season was announced. So take solace in the fact that History may not make their decision right away on whether or not to cut Top Shot. Show your support, and keep this show alive. 

My recap will be up Wednesday afternoon, followed by my analysis on Thursday. Still hoping Tony or maybe someone else will have something to post for Friday. In the meantime, keep watching and keep shooting.

Follow @cswiets

Predicting the Winner: Part 2 - The Personality Factor

Two weeks ago I wrote a post about predicting the winner of this season of Top Shot. It is this topic I would like to revisit now that the competition has entered the individual portion, and my favorite contestant of this season has exited. Perhaps than this post would really be better titled as "Predicting My New Favorite Contestant" although I suppose that would put most of the pressure on you, so we re-title again, "Me Telling You My New Favorite Contestant." And while this may seem very simple, I assure you that I will walk through each contestant, and my thought process, diligently.

The problem I have right now is who to root for. I had one blue team member and one red team member I got behind pretty early in the season. Terry Vaughan pretty much had my support from the moment I read his bio and found out he was British. This was only reinforced when I watched him on the show and interacted with him and his wife through Twitter. Tim Trefren I also liked almost immediately based on his unique shooting background as a big game hunter. That, in addition to his likable personality, and ability to be a strong team player, drew me to him. Then, there was even a third person in the mix, in the form of Dylan Fletcher. While I started the season disliking Fletcher on almost the same level as Greg Littlejohn (though not quite), his personality won me over in "Trick Shot Shoot Off."I was willing to throw my support behind him if he could beat Bethards in elimination because it would have proved he could go toe-to-toe with some of the strongest shooters of this competition.

Alas, one by one, my favorites were taken down. It is also slightly ironic that each was there own worst enemy with Trefren calling out Chris Cheng, Fletcher calling out Bethards, and Vaughan nominating himself for elimination. So who am I left with?

My overriding problem with the remaining contestants is their personalities. Look at the past three champions: Iain Harrison, strong shooter, charming British Guy; Chris Reed, strong shooter, charming southern guy; Dustin Ellerman, strong shooter, excitable, charming camp counselor. These three share several things in common, they were either the contestants viewers wanted to see win, or they were the contestants that viewers did not have a problem with winning. They got along with most of the other people in the house, and balanced a feeling of joy of simply being there with the seriousness of wanting to win the competition.

I am not saying there are not personalities in left in the house, there certainly are, but there might not be any left that match attribute listed above. I'm going to get little Chris Cheng-y on you know and list off the remaining contestants flaws.

William Bethards has certainly shown he has the skills to take this competition. However his personality has rubbed contestants (and some viewers) the wrong way. This is the tough compromise with Top Shot. At what point do viewers sacrifice the integrity of the competition by rooting for personalities rather than skills? Let me again use Season 3 contestant Jake Zweig as an example. There is no denying that  Zweig was a lethal contestant. His ability to perform in competitions was outstanding, but his personality and nerves forced him out of the competition. If he had won the competition, would he have been a champion viewers could get behind? Previous winners have strong fan followings, it's the reason viewers and contestants get excited when the champions come back as experts. If one of the more, for lack of a better term, villainous characters wins, what kind of reaction will that get from the ? This isn't Survivor where there might be some sort of sick satisfaction for a villain taking the top prize. This show is about sportsmanship and respect, and having a winner who doesn't hold these values during their time on the show, hurts the show.

Chris Cheng, Chee Kwan and Gary Shank are all fine shooters, but are also all a little bland. Not to say they aren't nice guys, or good teammates. They are very calculated shooters and their one on one interviews reflect that. They are missing that thing that makes them pop, and maybe that is more of a fault of the editing of the show than anything else.

Gabby Franco has been a fun presence of the show. In terms of personality she has one of the stronger one's of the remaining contestants. However, and I hate to say this, but I do not think she will win. This is not to say I would not be happy to see her win, I think it would be awesome for her to be the first female winner of Top Shot, but I just don't think she will. I wish I had better reasoning than that, but I usually trust my gut, and this is what my gut is telling me.

I can't say much about Littlejohn that hasn't already been said. Fans seems pretty displeased by his presence on the show (just look at some of the comments on the Top Shot Facebook page). At this point it is verging more on the mean side, especially because he really isn't that bad of a guy, it's simply that his actions come off the wrong way. That, coupled with his troublesome nerves, make him not long for this competition.

Augie Malekovich is probably the biggest question marks this season. While he has had a few standout moments this season, he hasn't gotten the same kind of screen time as the rest of the contestants. He has been overshadowed by his fellow teammates, and this has made him a bit of a mystery. If he hangs around for a few more episodes that may change, and we may get a better idea of what kind of person Malekovich is.

Not to beat a dead horse, but Kyle Sumpter rubs me the wrong way. I can't quite put my finger on it but something about his personality comes off as disingenuous. In addition, I think there are shooters with more skill than him remaining in this competition and it is only a matter of time before his luck runs out. And without a team to hold him in high regard, I wouldn't be surprised if that time was sooner rather than later.

So, who am I rooting for? For now, I'm going with Chris Cheng. Cheng is a beast in competitions, and while he may have made a misstep here or there, I think he has embodied the qualities of the past three winners the most of any of the remaining contestants. The personality problem will work itself out as the field of contestants continues to whittle down.

Who do you think will take the competition? More importantly, who do you want to win? Hit the comments and let me know.

That will be it for the weekend. I'm up in Door County, Wis. for the Easter holiday and will be spending the next few days playing golf in balmy 50 degree weather. Have a Happy Easter everyone.

Follow @cswiets

Top Shot Analysis: S4 E8 "The Mad Minute"

I don't share a lot about my personal life in these posts, mainly because this isn't that type of blog, but I've dropped in a few pieces here and there just to let you, the reader, get a little better idea of who I am. I say this only because Tuesday was a bad day for me. I worked, I took a test, I got a test back I didn't do very well on, I got lost on the back country roads of northern Wisconsin in car that was dying with a phone I was meaning to get replaced. The one thing I was looking forward to was relaxing and watching Top Shot at the end of what had turned out to be a very long day. However, I should have know that luck was not on my side on Tuesday, and even Top Shot decided to lay it on me by kicking out my man for Season 4, Terry Vaughan.

I've invested a lot into this season of Top Shot, writing posts, watching episodes, sending tweets, and interacting with contestants (notice how money is nowhere on this list, blogging is free, welcome to America, you're welcome), so it was pretty devastating to see Terry Vaughan get sent home on Tuesday. I don't think I've been this devastated since J.J. Racaza was sent home in Season 1. (I'm crossing my fingers this isn't coming across too stalker-y, I realize this is just a TV show, and that Vaughan is still alive and well.)

Anyway let's dig into the episode, because while I do want to spend a good chunk of this post talking about Vaughan, there are a few other areas to address.

The Challenges
Speed shooting is always a fun part of this competition but one that is often difficult to execute effectively. Speed often comes at the cost of accuracy, which is a difficult idea to rationalize when the show is called Top Shot. The team challenge was good, if again, a little boring. I will admit I was as surprised as the contestants seemed to be when the targets started to move, it was a nice twist on a simple challenge. I always enjoy when the teams are forced to face off against one another. Yes it may make the outcome more obvious, but it's almost always more exciting to watch than having teams take turns.

I was a little curious about blue team's decision to sit Gabby Franco. During the practice she struggled with the amount of trigger pressure on the Webley. I was watching with my friend Tony and I said if they were smart they would go back to the house and start telling blue team how good Franco was with the revolver. Now, the episode didn't show this, but I wonder if that might have been what happened. To me it would have made more sense to sit someone like Kyle Sumpter or Gary Shank who would most likely have more experience with revolvers than their teammates.

I don't think teamwork has ever been shown to be more important than it has in Season 4. Sure, the past seasons have had strong teams, but red team this season is just flat out ridiculous. These guys (and girl) have their act together. On the other hand, blue team just couldn't quite catch on, and didn't seem to want to (I can talk about the teams in past tense as we know next week the competition moves on to the individual stage.) I don't think we've ever seen a team work so poorly together, and I think the reason for that is the lack of a team leader. I haven't always been a fan of teams who have appointed (or in some cases succumbed to) leaders. Most of the time the leader believes they know best in all aspects of the competition, take Jay Lim from Season 2 or Jake Zweig from Season 3. Both jumped at the chance to fill the leadership gap they saw on their teams, and in both cases, that leadership painted targets on their back. This season however, Kyle Sumpter is presenting a different kind of leadership. He said early this season that the leadership for red comes from each of the individuals that comprise the team, and while that might seem trite, I challenge you to tell me that hasn't been the case. While Sumpter may be the leader (and I feel I should note the guy's personality still rubs me the wrong way) he is a team leader, he isn't out there for his own ego.  Take for example this last episode where he told Gary that he would shoot a full chamber with the Webley and then pass it on to the next person. He wasn't telling Gary how he should shoot the Webley, he was managing his team for a successful practice. A good leader also knows when to step aside and let someone else take the reigns, which is why Tim Trefren and Gary Shank were calling the shots in the challenges that complimented their respective expertise.

Contrast these actions with blue team, who were a mess from start to finish. There were times when a team member would step up and give a little pep-talk, but there just wasn't the same level of communication going on like there was on the red team. However, there is another way to look at this. While red team has been playing a team game, the blue team members have been playing this as an individual competition from the start, and now that it's green jersey time, those three remaining shooters on blue have made it to part of the game they have been ready to play. The question now is whether or not red team can turn off that camaraderie that helped them succeed as the competition becomes every man (and woman) for themselves.

What was I talking about? Challenges right.

The "Mad Minute" was a pretty good challenge. I liked that it had real roots in history, and translated well in terms or action and tension. I wish I could have filmed the manic conversation between Tony and I as we waited for Colby to give the results. Here's a brief transcript:

"How many shots did he take?"
"I think he took more than Greg."
"No, he had to have taken less shots."
"But Greg shot slower didn't he?"
"But Terry got jammed up a little."
"Tie I think it's a tie."
"Terry can't go home."
"Littlejohn can't beat him, not like this."
And so on...

It was a fun challenge to watch, and I don't think I breathed for the entire minute Vaughan was shooting. I would definitely be up for more military style challenges in the future.

The Contestants
As I mentioned in my recap there was on odd moment in "The Mad Minute" where the cameras cut away from the blue team meeting and focused on the red team enjoying another victory. It was the rare moment this season where red team has been portrayed in a negative light, and I wasn't really sure what the purpose was for showing it, or what the purpose was for Kyle Sumpter talking about it. Yes, one of the advantages of winning is that you don't need to worry about the consequences of losing. It just seemed a little mean-spirited and against what this show is about.

In my new favorite side game, What hat will Chee wear today? Kwan reverted back to Kyle Sumpter doppelganger hat, after trying out a baseball cap last week.

Finally, it is time to say goodbye to Terry Vaughan. I've been a strong supporter of Vaughan this season, and I was pretty crushed to see him go. I was more upset that he was outed by Littlejohn, and further upset when he was beaten by a technicality rather than a poor performance. I really wanted Vaughan to go up against Bethards in the elimination because despite his poor attitude, Bethards is a strong shot, and I could have lived with Vaughan being outed by a superior shooter. I have a hard time living with the fact he was outed by someone like Littlejohn. Take away his off-putting personality for a moment and we are still left with a shooter that has been sent to elimination three times and has won two of those because he didn't take as many shots as the contestant he was shooting against. The other time he almost gave a up a strong lead by struggling to close out the challenge against Colin Gallagher.

I don't want it to seem like I'm pissing and moaning about Vaughan losing. I don't want it to sound like I am saying his elimination was unfair. A lot of people have been hitting up Twitter to voice their complaints that Vaughan should have won because the point of the contest seemed to be to take the most shots, which he did. However, I disagree. There needs to be a level of consistency throughout the challenges, and if they would have changed for this one contest, I think there would have been just as many people complaining about that.

What I am saying was that Vaughan was a lot of fun to have on the program. He was a strong shooter, a likeable personality, and someone who was clearly there to have fun, without being annoying about it. he played the game clean and straight, owning up to his mistakes, without being afraid to call other people out for their own. he was a contestant that embodied all the things that make this competition great, and honestly now that he's gone, I'm not sure who to throw my support behind for the rest of this competition.

Come back tomorrow when I talk about who I will throw my support behind for the rest of the season.

Hit the comments with your take on "The Mad Minute" and who you think is going to take the title.

Follow @cswiets

Top Shot Recap: S4 E8 "The Mad Minute"

Speed.

It can make or break a Top Shot competition, and it's the subject of tonight's Word.

No, wait, that's the wrong show. Sorry, I'm still reeling from the outcome of last night's episode.

The show opened with William Bethards reentering the house and red team expressing their confusion over why blue decided to send him in the first place. They felt that despite Bethards performance in the trick shooting challenge, he was still one of the best shooters on blue team.

On the range Colby introduced the shooters to the Webley Mark VI revolver, and also introduced them to the day's expert, Season 1 winner Iain Harrison. It was difficult to gauge how each team was doing coming out of practice. Chris Cheng discussed practicing loading the revolver because it's mechanics were not the same as most revolvers. While many revolvers have the chamber pop out the side to enable a reload, the Webly has to be cracked open. The editing for this part of the episode was a little shaky because there weren't many close ups of the targets to show how close the shooters were to the mark.

The team challenge was a straight shoot-off, not much unlike this season's first team challenge. There were five rows of six jars. The first team to hit all thirty of their targets would win. While the challenge looked like a fairly simple stationary target, Colby and the Top Shot team threw the contestants a curve ball by putting the structures holding the targets on a track that moved at a good pace from right to left.

Chee Kwan finally got a chance to shoot when blue team decided to change up it's strategy and sit Gabby (a move to be discussed in the analysis). This marked the first time in four seasons that a female contestant has been benched. Kwan was anxious to get back to shooting going first for the red team against Terry Vaughan. While Vaughan was faster on the trigger, Kwan's slow and steady pace resulted in more targets hit. According to Kyle Sumpter, this was red team's strategy for the challenge, and it was one that paid off in the end. Mark this one down as another blowout by the red team who hit all 30 targets to blue team's 18.

The graphic that popped up on screen after the commercial break, broke down how each blue team shot during the challenge.Vaughan was the only blue team member to make it to the the third round of shooting going 6 for 18 on his run. Greg Littlejohn went 5 for 12, Bethards 4 for 12 and Augie Malekovich brought up the rear with 3 for 12.

The blue team meeting was mess with Vaughan being the only one owning up to their mistake, which some might argue wasn't the biggest mistake of the challenge. He rationalized that by not having a strong start he set the pace for the rest of the match. Littlejohn proved he wasn't paying that close attention to the match by claiming Malekovich had had the best day and Bethards had had the worst, when in reality Malekovich had had the worst and Littlejohn had the best. Malekovich took issue with how long it took Bethards to take his shots, especially since this challenge was supposed to focus on speed. (There are a disgusting amount of "had" 's in that paragraph, I apologize)

The episode then took a short detour to focus on the red team gloating over the win and how good they were as the team.  Sumpter was doing most of the talking, taking pride in the fact that his team was not picking apart each others performances in the challenge, as he assumed blue team was. It was an odd route for the show to take, since they usually leave out what happens with the winning team while the losing team has their meeting.

At the elimination range it was Vaughan and Littlejohn once again heading to elimination with two votes each.

The practice session brought back Harrison, this time to instruct the competitors on another British weapon, the Lee-Enfield Mark III rifle. Littlejohn went first and Harrison showed of some truly amazing skills with his manipulation of the rifle.(Seriously, how good is that guy?) He showed Littlejohn and Vaughan the three different ways in which the could hold the rifle and work the bolt. The practice session looked pretty even, but Littlejohn seemed more comfortable coming out of it than Vaughan.

The challenge featured a special military twist. The competitors would have only one minute to take as many shots as possible at a target 200 yards down range, a challenge the British military reffer to as "the mad minute" (don't you love it when they say the title of the episode is in the episode?). Littlejohn went first, and, while inconsistent throughout his time with the weapon, managed to get six hits on the target. Vaughan was up next, and while he was able to get on target more quickly than Littlejohn, he struggled to get back on target after his first reload. That combined with a small struggle manipulating the bolt, kept Vaughan's score at six as well. This being Top Shot, the tie went to the man who had fired less shots, and once again, that man was Littlejohn.

There might be something ironic about the Brit getting beat by his own weapons, but I'm too upset to see it.

What did you think of last night's episode? Did the right man go home, or are you as upset as I am that Vaughan was sent packing? Or, third option, are you also like me, upset that Littlejohn keeps barely winning these elimination challenges?

Hit the comments and let me know. By the way, I changed the settings on commenting, so now pretty much anyone should be able to do comment without having to put in as much information as before.

Analysis is in progress, and believe me, there is a lot to analyze. Look for it tomorrow.

One more thing, Colby was not live tweeting last nights episode, so that is why there were no Top Tweets.

Follow @cswiets

Tony's Take: Meeting the Man Himself

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

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

Seriously… don’t. 

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

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

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

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

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

F---.

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

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

Follow Tony on Twitter @thREALtonybader

Top Shot Analysis: "Trick Shot Shoot Off"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Follow me on Twitter @cswiets

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Follow me on Twitter @cswiets