Sunday Feb. 26th

"Two Tribes, One Camp, No Rules" Air Date 2-15-12

When ever I watch Survivor, I have to be eating something.  It's just a little thing I do to feel superior to all the idiots on the show as they starve out on the island.  It was more fun to do in seasons past when they made a bigger deal out of how little they had to eat.

I'm not a big fan of twists on reality shows, they almost never work and usually leave me thinking how much better the show would be if it just got back to its roots and let the people play the game.  But the game changing potential for one world is great enough that I'm going to give it a pass and see how things turn out.  All too often when the tribes merge it becomes a us vs. them mentality among the players, and this is do to having never formed any bonds with the other team.  So with everyone living on one beach it makes it so not only do you need an alliance with in your own tribe but you can and should also form an alliance with some people from the other tribe for after the merge.

It always bothers me that Jeff acts like he doesn't know anyone's name when they first get off the arrival truck.  He's the executive producer I doubt a casting decision is made with out his input.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I hate Men vs. Women challenges.  It never adds anything to the game except chest thumping and usually ends up taking away for the game in other areas.  But with them all on the same beach, I'm going to have to wait and see how it develops this season.

There is no redemption island this season.  Good, I never liked it anyway.  If you are voted out you should leave.  Now if only we could have a season without any hidden idols.  What would actually be fun is if they did another season without any hidden idols, but never told the contestants that there wasn't any idol to look for.

They said the trek to the beach from the starting point was about ten miles.  Why would you carry fire wood all that way.  There is wood everywhere and the shelter locations always have the necessary items to sustain life close by, it's just a waste of energy carrying all that wood.

So they get to the beach and there just happens to be chickens running around right in the middle of their campsite?  I don't have a problem with production making the surrounding area more liveable and ready for the show, but this seems over the top.

If the girls would spend less time begging the guys and more time working for themselves they would also have fire.  Also, did every single girl expect others to make the fire for them?  The first thing I would do after I found out I was being cast on the show is to meet with a survivalist and learn basic things like how to build a fire with no tools.  It ranks right up there with knowing how to swim, in terms of things you should be able to do before you play Survivor.

Colton would be the very last person I would give the immunity idol to.  It's obvious that he is completely on the outs with his team and more than likely will be the first to go.   You should give the idol to someone that will be able to hold onto it for a while, preferably until the merge, that way it will benefit you.  She had the ultimate tool to forge a secret alliance with and she wasted it on someone who will more than likely need to use it the first time he goes to tribal.

Did any of the women listen to Jeff when he told them how to land in the net?   At first I thought it was a voice over added in after the show was filmed, but continued to tell them how to land after each one took a bad landing.

There are four reasons why the men deciding not to finish the challenge was the right move.  First, the whole name of the game at this stage is to keep your team strong and not going home first.  This gives the men the opportunity to sit out a player that is lacking in the next challenge, this in and of itself is enough reason.  Secondly, there was nothing more to gain from competing.  If they stopped right there, they won immunity.  If they played it all the way out, they would still only win immunity and nothing more, but they then had the risk of losing.  Why would anyone take on those risks with nothing else to gain.  You might say it would be the gentlemanly thing to do.  To that I say this is Survivor, not who wants to be a gentleman.  When they get to the wrap party the guys can open the car doors and hold the buildings doors open for the girls and that will be the gentlemanly thing to do, but for right now they are playing a cutthroat game.  Thirdly, part of this challenge was crossing a balance beam.  If you look at the history of Survivor, crossing a balance beam has to be the greatest of all equalizers.  The team had never worked together before and no one could know who would be good at crossing the beam.  All you need is one person who can't get the hang of it, and you can just sit helplessly and watch the other team catch up and pass you by, while you wait.  If the men had chosen to continue and had someone get stuck o doing the beam, it would go down as one of the biggest bone headed moves in all of Survivor.  And lastly, there is no way that if the tables were turned the other team would have wanted to continue.  No matter what they say, deep down everyone know they would have taken the easy victory because it's the smartest thing to do.  The only possible downside is it could fire up the women, who now feel they have something to prove.

Sabrina is playing a little to fast and too loose, if she keeps it up I could see her not lasting much longer.

I liked that Jeff stirred the pot at tribal council before letting the girls know that Cortney would not be coming back.  But what idiots must the girls have been to air all that dirty laundry after they got there and saw that Cortney wasn't there.

All in all I think we could have a good season of Survivor on our hands, the one beach and male female split both seem to be working the way the producers wanted them to.  It made the the guys seem arrogant and cocky, but it also made the girls seem whiny, selfish, and untrustworthy.  Just about the only thing that I didn't like was that she had to give the hidden immunity to the other team so soon.  If she had had more time to get to know everyone I think she would have made a different decision.  It would have been nicer if the instructions had said you have two tribal councils before you must give it instead of before the next one.

"Amsterdam"  Air Date 1-15-12

The cast just keeps getting better and better.  Adding Richard Schiff to any cast instantly makes it a better cast, it's kind of like adding Andre Braugher to a cast.


I usually don't like celebrity's playing themselves in guest rolls.  Especially when it serves no other purpose than just being there (Entourage).  But the way they used Cat Deely really worked in this episode.

When was the last time an arena was still named after the sports team that played in it?  


I love the dynamic between the team.  The constant ball busting and one-upmanship that goes on leads to them seeming like they have an actual friendship between the four of them.


I don't think that in real life the owner of a sports team would let someone walk on the court in high heels.  It would have to damage the floor.


The show did a better job than most shows do in regards to showing actors playing video games.  Most often they spazingly push any and all the buttons as fast as they can, but here it almost seemed like they were actually playing the game.  Although if they were his son would have been throwing all his grenades as fast as he could of.

"The Way of the Fist"  Air Date 1-15-12


If the first episode of this season was all about where are they now, then this episode was all about setting the gears in motion for all the plots of this season.


Lets see if I can guess all the major plot points of this season:  Hank will try and break up Bekah and her boyfriend.  Hank will try either to, or not to sleep with Samurai's girlfriend.  Charlie will have sex with the new nanny.  Maybe the girl Hank dumped in the first episode will show up.  And there will be one crazy plot that comes out of left field that no one will have seen coming.

I just hope this isn't another season where all Hank does is work on a project that he doesn't want to do.

"You Know I'm Not as Smart as You" Air Date 2-26-12


It looks like they have replaced the metal boxes that hold the clues with a red and yellow bag.  I wonder why they changed it?


I think it would be amusing if a local lied to all the teams and they ended up standing around all night because of some bad advise.


If the border patrol guys want to hate Brendon and Rachel, it won't take long before they have more than enough reasons to do so, they don't need to get all upset over Brendon taking an envelope before they got to.  It was a mad house of people scrambling to get the clues from the mailman and the mail man did put the clue in Brendon's hand.  It just seems like sour grapes to complain about something so trivial especially when it was only a few second delay before they got their clue also.

It has to be nerve wracking  to be the only team to do one half of the detour.  In this type of game where you are never really sure where any of the other teams are I would have to think its better to keep an eye on your competition than to go off on your own.  For all the border patrol guys knew, they could have gotten back to the pottery lady and found that all the other teams had already left.


An 18 hour bus ride would have to suck, it would be even worse since it's in a foreign country.  At least the bus seems really nice, but you know no matter how nice it is it's going to have that sickly sweet clean smell that buses always have.


Uh-oh Rachel didn't get everything to go exactly her way, here comes the waterworks.  And by waterworks I mean a lot of crying noise and one single tear.  I have never seen a person who could make so much crying hysterics without shedding a single tear.


The clouds in the background at the pit stop seem very foreboding.  It didn't have an effect on this leg of the race, but I wonder if the next leg will be impacted by bad weather.


The girls on the last bus to depart couldn't work together at the roadblock due to them not knowing where they stood in the player positioning.  I think that would be the thing that bothered me the most if I was running the amazing race.  It wouldn't be the strain of travel or the tough challenges, it would be the constant unknown of where you were in regards to the other teams.


Half the teams have already checked in before the last bus arrives.  If there isn't a stop gap on the next leg this could lead to a huge separation between the teams.


How crazy is it that he had never seen a cow before.  It's like people in Florida who have never seen snow.  It just goes to show you that no matter how much you do on some level most everyone is still leading a very sheltered life.


You can tell Phil likes screwing with the teams that think they are in last place.   I suppose he has to do something to keep himself entertained while he waits at the mat all day long.  

It's pretty harsh to make an alliance to work together while standing only a foot away from the person you are now working against. 

I don't understand why neither of the last two teams didn't decide to work with the clowns instead of each other.  The clowns are obviously the least threatening of all the teams there, why wouldn't you want to bring them along as far as you could take them.  They would always be your safety net.


Is she going to say "tears of a clown" every single episode?


Part of me was really hoping that the twin that did the jumping spin onto the mat would wipe out.


I thought it was pretty cool that the soccer player twin knew who the welcomer was.  It also seemed to make the welcomers day.

"18 Miles Out"  Air Date 2-26-12


I understand the desire for the scene leading into the opening credits to have a good hook so you want to stick with it. But this week it came off as just confusing, especially when after the credits they made no mention of what we had just witnessed.  All they would have needed to do was add a little tag to the screen saying three hours earlier.  The way they did things just made it less scary when the zombies started coming out of the building.

I'm glad that they are finally starting to come up with some strategies for dealing with the zombies.  Both using the knifes instead of their guns and Rick's smart thinking in hiding under a dead zombie so the others would pass him by.

If they are going to start using silent weapons to kill the walkers, they are going to need some bigger knifes.  They could also use some walkie-talkies.  


I don't know why Rick would throw away a knife to that kid after just minutes ago deciding that knives should be their primary weapon choice.


Are the walkers skulls weaker than ordinary human skulls.  It seemed that no one had any problem sticking their knives all the way through the front of the skull.  And if it is the case that the walkers skulls start to deteriorate wouldn't then it be safe to say that other bones in their bodies like their legs should be deteriorating the same way.


Why was Rick wasting bullets shooting at the zombies by the bus when they were in a car.  He should have just yelled to Shane and saved the ammo.


Well, I'd have to say that this was one of the weaker episodes of the show.  It seemed that everything that happened could have taken place in about half the number of scenes that it did.  Also did half the cast decide that they needed the week off.  Where was everyone?

Recording 2-27-12:


Alcatraz
Being Human
Monday Night Raw
Caged