We have a new champion
... for dumbest comment ever made on the Amazing Race. Did mom Weaver actually say that Lake Ponchartrain is one of the five great lakes?!?! That certainly tops the idiots who didn't know what a stein was in Germany a few seasons back. Sheeeeesh.
Not only have the Weavers topped the dumbass list, but they've now leaped ahead of the Paolos as my most hated team this season. Good for the Paolos for pulling it together and finishing 2nd! They were still annoying, but the Weavers have flown FAR beyond that. Please, please be gone soon.
The Gaghans are gonna give me a heart attack! (I'm sure some wacko group will come out in protest of kids playing blackjack any minute now.) They've gotten very very lucky so far, but they are capable of playing better. I hope they figure it out before it's too late.
Now to the New Orleans clan... how much would it suck to be eliminated in your home town?! Yikes. I was hoping for more of an update on the specific places they went through and to in New Orleans -- what's still there and what's not. I know the bridge they crossed is toast, but I'm curious to know if the Preservation is still intact.
Finally, how 'bout that preview of next week! Looks like I was wrong about an all-American race, huh? A friend suggested the baseball theme could mean the Dominican Republic, which makes sense. It has to be somewhere close, like Mexico or the Caribbean. Can't wait!
Posted by tivogirl at 10:57 PM
If you haven't watched in a while, give The Office another chance
The BBC version of The Office was amazing. It was so different, so smart, so hilarious and so completely irreplaceable. Even though the creators (Ricky Gervais & Stephen Merchant) were behind the American version, I was scared to death when it started midseason last year on NBC. It was funny -- after all, the brilliant Steve Carell stars in it -- but just not the same. It was good they didn't try to copy the original exactly, and the shows were better when they veered into original storylines rather than rehashing BBC episodes. But still, it was just okay.
This season, though, the show has really hit its stride. The Office is getting better every week. The office Olympics episode a few weeks ago was terrific, but this week's show hit a whole new level. The fire alarms go off about 10 minutes in and the rest of the episode takes place in the parking lot, with the staff entertaining themselves. The Dwight character, which to me was always a poor copy of Gareth in the BBC original, came into his own in this episode and absolutely stole the show. That's tough to do when you're working with Carell.
If you stopped watching last year, or never bothered to start, The Office is worth a try. And if you're not already watching it, check out Extras, the new show Gervais and Merchant are doing on HBO. Gervais stars as a sarcastic (but slightly more sympathetic than David Brent) movie extra alongside the adorable and charming Ashley Jensen, whose character is as dumb as a box of hair but completely endearing. It's terrific.
Posted by tivogirl at 12:27 AM
A little disappointed in tonight's Race
Since it's pretty obvious they're not leaving the continent (notice Phil says at the start "a race" rather than "a race around the world"?), some of the usual equalizers are missing in this season of the Amazing Race. Normally you have very long and limited flights, train trips, etc. that allow most of the teams to catch up, but a flight from D.C. to Charleston just isn't quite the same thing. There are multiple options and they're all within a few minutes of one another. This forces the AR folks to artificially create equalizers or spacers, and I'm not liking it.
Sure they've always done the thing where there are two or three buses, planes, etc and the teams sign up in order for the earliest one. The difference is before there were always other tasks afterward that almost guaranteed the order of the teams would vary wildly between that point and the end of the leg. Not so tonight. There were two of those options right after one another -- two buses and eight slots to do the NASA centrifuge. There was no room anywhere for the order to change except for running faster to the sign-up sheet (or getting hopelessly lost between the building and the shuttle, but even the Paolos weren't dumb enough to do that.) Basically the order in which they did the centrifuge was the order in which they finished.
It was fine, but not very exciting. Don't get me wrong, equalizers are necessary and a good part of the show -- imagine if they weren't there, you'd have some team a full day ahead of the rest by week four or five. I just hope they do a better job of balancing them with random chance in the future.
(Boy did I feel stupid for choosing the mud bog in the detour! Only one team actually had an easy time completing in (go Gaghans!) but it shocked the hell out of me.)
Posted by tivogirl at 11:18 PM
Arrested Development is on the bubble... again
With everything on Fox on hold through the rest of the month (thanks, baseball), the network will be looking hard at what shows to bring back in November. It's never too early to axe something great, I'm sure they're thinking. Hopefully they won't be heartless enough to nuke Arrested Development just yet. After all, they have taken it this far and know the rabid fan base is out there.
So what if you're one of those people who is wondering what all the hype is about? You've never watched it, or maybe you've seen an episode here or there and not really gotten what is going on. What does that mean for you? You've got three weeks to borrow, rent or buy seasons 1 and 2 of Arrested Development and be ready to WATCH IT when it comes back! Trust me, if you start from the beginning, you can't help but get hooked on this funny, smart and just plain great show.
Please, I'm begging, on behalf of Arrested Development fans everywhere, come on board! Without you, Fox will surely cancel it before the season is over. Of course, hell could freeze over. The War at Home could get axed and Arrested could go back to the Sunday comedy lineup... yeah, I know. That would mean somebody at Fox has a brain in their head. Not gonna happen.
Posted by tivogirl at 6:34 PM
Roadblocks are back!
I was glad to see the competition to return to normal last night on the Amazing Race Family Edition. Too bad the southern folks got so hopelessly lost - we have at least one more week to endure the horrid Paolo family. ick.
Why didn't the Gaghans do the other Detour? Two little kids to help carry stretchers? What were they thinking?! Don't scare me like that!!
Posted by tivogirl at 2:58 PM
Handicapping the contestants