Saturday, October 25, 2008

Weekend Rant - Reality Madness

This week was full of some great stuff, some boring stuff and unfortunately some heart breaking stuff. My love affair with Paris Hilton's My New BFF took a nasty turn with the girls pulling out all the stops (and their claws) and deciding on who was the "fakest" with help of guest gossip queen Perez Hilton. Unfortunately it meant that Onch and Corrie were put up on the chopping block (I could not understand why that bitchy and nasty Natasha was not there instead after her huge freak out at the commercial challenge) and then Paris decided that Onch was too fake and had to go.

I am pretty much sure that I am way over this series now... there is no one interesting left to see except for a bunch of bitchy girls that I could care less about, but in a strange twist the girls seemed upset that Onch left. Stupid decision Paris ---seriously, it was a really stupid decision. At least she didn't give him a TTYN so maybe there is a silver lining somewhere in this whole debacle.

Stylista started this week, and if the first episode is any indication of how things will play out I am a bit disappointed but a couple of things were interesting enough that I will be completely hooked with in a couple of weeks. Anne Slowey is all that I expected and more, and the way she had the contestants shaking in their boots (literally and figuratively) at their first challenge was priceless. Anne knows her business and has a "Do not fuck with me" vibe that makes me wonder why she didn't eliminate more than one contestant this week. If there was ever a tougher or bitchier boss out there I have yet to see her. All of the stuff with her and her interactions with the contestants was interesting enough, but I am disappointed with the Layout challenge of the first episode and I wonder about the level of talent with some of these contestants. The 2 teams that blew it (and they did big time) showed a high school level layout scheme with poor colour choices and bad design ideas. I am not sure that some of these contestants were chosen by talent level or by personality.

I could care less about names at this moment, but Rich Spoiled Girl is a complete bitch that will either win or be pushed under a bus by one of the other contestants. I find the contestants pretty juvenile and their lack of professionalism is a tad tiresome. All the drama around the one with the huge rack was over done and little geeky gay guy better watch his ass before he says another inappropriate thing and gets it handed to him. I was not surprised that Scarecrow and the Big Girl were put up for elimination, and although Anne was gentle with our Big Girl this week but her time is limited. Image counts in this industry and as much as she wants to be there it isn't a sitcom and she will be shown the door soon. Bye Scarecrow, we never even had the chance to get to know you.

Top Design is still boring me to tears, and little Mr Martha Stewart was such a knob this week that I hope he gets booted next week. Preston is still rehashing the same things over and over (everything seems to be designed for a hotel lobby), Nathan is still blowing my mind each week with his out of the box and organic design sensibilities (and he is still my favorite to win), but this week I really loved the room put together by Ondine that appealed to my own personal style. I loved how she put all the knick knacks from traveling and gave the room an earthy feel and I felt that she incorporated the lighting fixture well into her room. The judges didn't feel that way and hated her room and she would have left if Mrs. Shroeder wasn't homesick and decided to leave the competition.

What???

I don't understand how silly people can be sometimes, but I have been waiting weeks for her to leave as she was really just so out of her element. She did a decent job with the challenge but she still needs more confidence, training and practice to go further along this career path. It was too much of a cop out for me and I was really disappointed that the judges gave her the choice (which she had to hum and haw about for a good commercial break) to stay or go. She wants to go? Fine, just let her go and that's it.

Thank god there are only 2 episodes left. I am not sure if I am interested in a season 3 at this point.

The Amazing Race had more outstanding visual moments again this week with their arrival in New Zealand (complete with Phil's dad -- meeting him was a cute moment) and more conflict between our bitchy divorcees Kelly & Christy and the brother and sister team of Nick & Star. All this drama is a waste of energy and maybe the teams don't realize it, but they are falling behind and need to concentrate on the Race and not on the other teams.

There are still lots of teams and the Race gets more exciting for me when we get down to the last 6 Teams and the stakes get higher. I did like that the first Fast Forward of the season was played, as it starts to divide the pack (although there do seem to be a lot of equalizer flights -- it doesn't matter if you show up early you all leave on the same flight). There does seem to be a lot of tension with some of the teams so I am expecting more meltdowns at a faster pace this season and we'll have to see how far this tension will push some of the teams. The teams that I like and am cheering for are: Toni & Dallas, Nick & Starr and Ken & Tina. The teams that I don't think will go far and I don't really care are : Andrew & Dan and Aja & Ty. The teams that I hope lose ( yes I know it sounds harsh but I don't like them) are: Terence & Sarah ( get out Sarah while you can -- Terence is way too needy and you are just enabling him) and Kelly & Christy. Yes ladies, I know that you both had bad relationships that ended in divorce but you can stop punishing the world for that. Very bad energy those two.

The tattoos on the Maori warriors was a trip of a challenge (wild stuff) and I laughed as the poor blonde Southern Belles got frightened silly trying to do the challenge and unfortunately were eliminated at the end of this leg of the Race. They did manage to get a hug out of Phil's Dad so I guess things weren't a complete loss.