Those who do not learn from the past....

After 2 episodes it seems that a major theme this season is how the person played on their last season. This theme seems to come up more and more from any other previous returning player season. On All Stars it was new and exciting and there really wasn't any talk of how the players were going to correct the mistakes from last time. This also held true for Heroes vs. Villains, as this season mainly focused on Russell Hantz and his horrible social game play. The first player that I can recall stating what they needed to change for Parvati in Fans vs. Favorites, when she stated that she was the flirt on Cook Islands and there was no other dimension to her. She voiced that she knew what she needed to change about her game play in order to be successful at this game. However, this season it seems to be talked about all the time, even at tribal. With everyone talking about what they did wrong last time, I am very surprised that Shirin did not comfort Abi. Even if this comfort is just for game play, as soon as you see Terry go down there, walk down there too and talk to her or talk to her the next morning and ask for her side. Mike came to Shirin's defense, even when it was against his alliance and Shirin could have made a similar move. Or at least had a pow wow saying, "guys let's suck it up and deal with Abi until she can get cut loose", anything but letting the other alliance bond with her. Abi for all her faults is very loyal to the people who show her kindness. She was very loyal to Pete an Artis as soon as they solidified their bonds with her. She was even loyal to Malcolm until he betrayed her. So how Abi some kindness and she will be yours forever and be a bigger target than you almost any day. As for Spencer, I'm kinda surprised he didn't make the bonds needed sooner, as that's what he talked about needing to do on day 1 and apparently he failed to do this.  I do have to say that my stand out so far is Kelly Wentworth. As she has an idol, that she grabbed at a challenge in front of her tribe, she's seems to be good with everyone and is playing a low key, somewhat Sandra game. She definitely comes off of having the attitude "as long as it ain't me". This worked very well for Sandra and it might get Kelly very far.  There really hasn't been any strategy talk shown at the Bayon camp after the first episode where an alliance was shown. Really the only thing from Bayon we get is the Stephen is not well received and Savage wants him out. Oh, and everyone loves Joe. I'm kinda indifferent on Joe and find Spencer and Stephen to be more interesting. I will say that the only thing the only place Stephen can go from here is up and the 3-way tribe divide is going to be great from him. However, 1 tribe will be screwed and have to make a new camp, with only 6 people on day 7. Sorry to those people. I am very excited for the 3 way tribe divide and kinda want to see things go south for Monica or Abi. I can dream at least.

Til next week.

Thoughts on Survivor Second Chance premiere

Abi being Abi

It's that time again, Survivor is back!! For this season the producers gave fans "control" of who was going to be cast. I use the term control loosely as I'm not 100% convinced that the producers didn't put some people in that the fans didn't vote in. While these people probably got close to the top 10, I don't think they actually made it in, but more on those people later. The show premiered last night and since I got my wires crossed, I missed the first 30 minutes or so, which I just watched and I got to say I still have the same reaction, who picks Abi over anyone else! This woman is horrible and just plain mean, she isn't even funny and doesn't understand anything and was basically useless in challenges in her first season. Arg!! Why?! I'm somewhat surprised she got back in, but at least you remembered her and she made an impact on her season. I just hope that people kept Abi as either a shield or the other person was a bigger threat to their game, and if that is the case then please leave soon. Before the Abi lovers get on me about her, I also don't like Woo either. However Woo is for a completely different set of reasons. I mainly don't like him, since I think he took Shane Powers spot and I would have liked to see him play again, which probably will never happen. Shane has since gone on to say that he will never go through the Survivor  process again, so I guess I just have to watch Exile Island over and over again. Woo didn't really do anything in his season, he was just kind there and I know nothing about him. I'd rather have almost anyone else there than Woo. I can't even say that at least he plays the game, even Abi had that going for her, Woo just seems to be out there having fun. This is fine for your first season, however on your second try I want to see some sort of awareness on your part and some sort of knowledge about the game, Woo showed none of that. I just looked on CBS's website to see what he was known for and it's "vibrant attitude". Really?! I will say Woo is true to himself and that's nice to know, still doesn't make me want to watch him anymore. I will say that it appears that Jeff Varner is most willing to adapt of the "Old School" players. He seems willing to have the conversation and run off, but we were shown a bigger portion of Takeo camp than the Bayon camp. Speaking of Bayon,I really like the people on this tribe, they seem aware and wanting to play. While I am not a big fan of Kass or Monica I really want this tribe to go far. Go Bayon! However, my all-time favorite to win would be Kelly Wiglesworth. I was 9 or 10 when her season aired and it never occurred to me that a girl could beat a boy in a physical competition, she did- a lot. I loved it and rooted for her so hard, looking back Rich was the better player, but Kelly's impact still stays with me.

Til next week.

BB17's Bumpy Start

Clay and Shelli being Clay and Shelli

While I am a bigger Survivor fan than Big Brother fan, after last season I was really excited to watch Big Brother 17 play out and I have to say that I am very disappointed. I gave it 4 weeks to wait for something good to happen and I got nothing. Nothing at all. Instead I got people who don't understand the game and in general not a lot of people that I can or even want to root for. While I am a sucker for a good romance, Clay and Shelli have just bored me and even made me angry from Day 1. I'm sure that they are nice, good people but they are just so blah, both together and apart. Like there is nothing to them except for how good looking they are. Austin and Liz aren't even a real thing and I don't get Austin at all. He says he will sacrifice his game for her or words to that effect and she doesn't even really like him. If it's really meant to be then, she will be there after the game and y'all will live happily ever after, if it's not then you might have $50,000 cause I really don't see him winning the $500,000. I actually really don't want anyone to win the money or at least really don't care who does win at this point. I think last season must have been the funny season, cause the people on this season are just boring on the show. I will admit that I do not watch the live feeds and I have heard that they are good, but I just don't care enough about the people to buy the feeds. A contributing reason why I don't like this season is how the "Battle of the Block" or "BOB" is being played out this year. I'm trying to compare the BOB from this season to last season to find out why I don't like it and I think has to do with how last season there were some twists but it wasn't as calculated as this season.  This season the HOHs or Heads of Household decide who will stay in power and then convince someone to throw BOB. Why would you throw a competition that means you'll stay on the block?! Why? I am glad the BOB has ended earlier than last season, with it only going for 5 weeks, but please retire this twist, please. We don't want to see it again, it was cool and different last season but we don't want to see it every season. Another factor into my dislike for this season is the "BB Takeover", where a random person outside the house takes over the game for a week and then random powers are introduced in the house. This twist seems to have died out but it just didn't seem good to start with, with there being too much of a chance that production was going to mess with the game. However, everything goes back to the people, because all the good twists in the world won't save your show unless there are people that the viewers want to watch and want to see play. Well here's hoping the either the season gets better or Survivor Second Chances is amazing.

Yeah, cause who wants America to hate them?

Hollywood's spin on "The Duff"

Before I start off I want to let you know that I know that the movie and book are almost never the same. It just doesn't happen as the director and write use the source material and spin it for the movie or TV show in some cases. Sometimes the changes or things that they leave out aren't noticeable and sometimes they are. There are are a few cases where the movie is better than the book, see Legally Blonde, and there are more cases were the book is better than the movie, see The Princess Bride.  More often than not Hollywood will take the name of a book and keep a couple of the character's names but then they will have completely different characteristics and the plot will have gone through the cookie cutter plot maker for Hollywood. This is wanted happened to The Duff

I read the book The Duff for the first time when the movie first came out in theaters and I really enjoyed it. The story was different and featured a strong female who didn't really make excuses but instead analyzed her actions at the end. However, based on the previews I had a feeling that the movie wasn't going to be anything like the book that I had read. I recently saw the movie for the first time and I was right. The movie keeps lets some characters keep their names, however all of the backstories are different.

You can change a character's name all you want, but keep at least a portion of their backstory, please! How do you have the same protagonist if she isn't taking care of her father or hiding from one of her best friends that she dated his brother? You don't. Instead you get a cookie cutter nerd protagonist who is kinda flat, which makes the story kinda boring. For the best friends they kept them somewhat the same, but they more or less combined them into a mish-mosh. In the book, each girl in the group gets a distinctive personality, and in the movie only Bianca has a distinctive personality.  Jessica and Casey are boring and almost a non-factor in the story. The best thing they do is shut down a website and make a dress.

Wesley's character gets the worst treatment, as in the book he explains that he is basically shunned from guys for competition reasons and his family shuns him due to other reasons. In the movie, he gets the, what has become cliche, fighting parents for sympathy points. You stripped this character of EVERYTHING that made him different and instead made him a typical teen character movie. A fraction of his character could have been kept for the movie, just a fraction. Toby gets transformed from a seemingly perfect guy in the book, to just a guy in the film. There is nothing interesting about him in the movie, other than Bianca likes him. His look probably gets the biggest change, as in the book is described as being straight laced and preppy; while the movie sees him as a rocker.

What makes me most disappointed about the film is that it takes out one of the original messages that I got out of the book. That if you start using a word that someone means negatively and give it a positive spin, then the power the word had is gone. At the end of the book the girls start using DUFF to comment on themselves, which means the power of the word is gone. That makes me saddest about this jump from page to screen, but I understand why this change was made. As everyone gets something different out of a book and with mainstream release, especially for teens, studios want everyone to get the same thing out of the movie going experience.

Should you chose to experience The Duff,  I obviously recommend reading the book and skipping the movie. As really the only thing it's good for it watching Robbie Amell, who you can catch on The Flash on TV.

Positive Attitude on Project Runway

While catching up on some older seasons of Project Runway, I have come across a very unwelcome conclusion. The majority of the seasons feature a challenge called the "every day woman" challenge where the designers make clothes for "real woman" sometimes with unconventional fabric.  The women or models that the show brings in always feature a mixture of full figure woman and women who tend toward "model size"; sometimes the designers get to pick their model via random draw and sometimes they are randomly assigned. In the majority of the seasons a designer who receives a full figured model complains and gripes about how to make clothes for women of this size. I find this attitude to be insulting. Who are you designing for it not women?! If you aren't thinking about women who are wearing your clothes then all you're doing is making art from fabric! In season 8, 1 designer stated that they wanted to make something that his client loved and didn't utter a horrible word about the client or her figure.  While in season 10, a designer constantly made jabs at his clients size and figure, while complaining about it was unfair that he had a full figured model and others didn't.  While both contestants had the same result, bottom 2, the experience was most likely much better for the season 8 designer. I just think that that's how you should tackle challenges, with a positive attitude and being practical. Like Tim says, "Make it work." Complaining about your client isn't going to do you any favors and might get you a bad rap, but wanting to help them and handling the challenge with grace will only make the experience better. Actually arguing with your client can make you end up in the bottom 2, as it did for a season 3 contestant. This also just might be the legacy that you leave behind in reality TV and this legacy almost never goes away, so be wary of how you approach the challenge. 

The Discovery of OZ

Hello Again! Over the past couple of weeks I have been thinking of new blog ideas and this was put on the back burner due to me binge watching OZ. OZ was on HBO during the later '90s and early '00s, therefore I came into this show somewhat blind. As I wouldn't have read about this show when it was airing or if I had, none of it stuck with me. I am currently watching season 5 and I have to say what I like most about the show is that they cast mostly unknown people, at that time, so that you can believe that these people are in OZ. While the warden is played by Ernie Hudson from Ghostbusters, the time period between the two projects, helps him remain grounded, as well as the difference between the two characters. The show is very gritty and not polished so it feels authentic and makes it that much more enjoyable to watch.

Not only is the show set up to look gritty, the stories that it tells are also gritty. This is not a happy-go- lucky prison, this is a prison where you hope you make it from day to day and you really don't know who you can trust. While it does have some funny moments, for the most part OZ is a dramatic show about life in prison. The character interactions drive the show and make you keep watching and hoping that someone will change or someone will die, it might happen or it might not,  but you keep watching. I do admit that the first season is very painful to get through but the rest of the series makes up for that and I've flown threw the past couple of seasons. I give you a little taste of the show, with one of my favorite stills. Hope you look into OZ and enjoy the ride.

Fantasia 2000 Flamingo

So this week I finally got around to watching Fantasia 2000 and I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by how funny some of the segments were, in particular The Carnival of the Animals.  This segment is what I will refer to as the Flamingos with yoyos.  I love this segment because it is so absolutely and completely ridiculous. Who honestly asks the question what happens when Flamingos get a Yoyo. Who asks that question? Disney does. This segment is the result. While it is short compared to the other segments it is just the right length for the concept and it is not drawn out too much. I am also convinced that the Flamingo with the yoyo is male, just based on the other Flamingos reactions. This makes the segment even better in my mind. I highly encourage you to take a couple minutes out of your day to watch the segment and until that time here are some pictures of it.