viridian5, posts by tag: reality show - LiveJournal

So, RuPaul's Drag Race Allstars. I'm so happy to see so many of these folks back! Watching them interact feels weirdly like some kind of a crossover event, though it turns out many of them are friends and/or have worked together even if they weren't in the same season. The Allstars elimination twist this time is rather mean considering how warmly a lot of these queens seem to feel toward each other but a lot fairer than the "put them and eliminate them in pairs, even if the skill level of the two queens are wildly unequal" bull from Allstars 1. I don't imagine that warmth lasting long as the season goes on, more people get eliminated, and they start feeling more competitive, which I think is a shame. It was sweet watching them cheering each other during the main challenge.

Alyssa Edwards is so much wittier here than she was in season 5. I'm all for Adore Delano doing drag her way, but Michelle apparently disagrees. ( Collapse ) I'm glad to see Katya back, though her ( Collapse ) about Roxxxy during the reading made me gasp and laugh. The reading section was good all the way around! I'm interested in seeing if Phi Phi actually holds to her stated goal of not being the a mind games player. ( Collapse ) I'm all for Ginger Minj getting another shot since she looked on track to win season 7, but then Violet pulled her head out of her ass near the end of the season and won with her fashion know-how and how tiny she could cinch her waist in, which must have made Ginger's loss even more bitter since she hoped she might be the first big girl queen to win the show. Tatiana obviously hated the others underestimating her, but ( Collapse )

July photos begin here. I think the postcards series shows how something simple can lead to memorable windows. Actually being colorful helps too; Bergdorf Goodman abandoned white for this one. You can find my 13 new photos at my Flickr account and my deviantArt.

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A little while ago, while parking at night, I nearly backed into a large, several-feet-deep hole around a sewer grating in my neighborhood. I sent a comment on it and photo to 311 about it, and the city actually fixed it within a week! Alas, my earlier request to have a two-block local stretch of Woodhaven Boulevard repaved because it's currently like a washboard and wrecking my car still hasn't been filled. I could easily avoid the hole but Woodhaven Boulevard is necessary.

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I wish I knew people still watching The Amazing Race, because I need to talk to somebody about how much I loathe Josh & Tanner! They're attempting to set every other team on the show against Team Green, saying how they "don't like the way Justin plays the game." I was mystified by this, since Justin may be a loud and weirdly offputting man but hasn't been anything other than polite in his dealings with them and plays fairly. Then during Friday's episode Josh & Tanner admit that they thought they'd "coast" to a win but Team Green keeps pushing them to actually put effort into coming in first. So not liking the way Justin plays is actually that Justin's team plays "too" well. What makes it even worse is that Josh & Tanner keep claiming that they're good Christian people, with one of them saying once that one finally figured out the challenge after his partner prayed for help, as if God has nothing better to do with His/Her time than helping entitled douches win TV shows. If that worked at all, a just god would've helped ( Collapse ) instead.

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I've been loving the music on this season of American Horror Story. Within two episodes, they've played the Sisters of Mercy and Siouxsie and the Banshees.

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The internet can do many very cool things, but so far it can't tell me if Eisbrecher's "Treiben" truly is inspired by Type O Negative the way it sounds to me. I mean, a contemporary German industrial band emulating a 1990s Brooklyn goth metal band for one song. I'd really like to know.

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Cleolinda is livetweeting her reading of the new gender-swapped Twilight novel, Life and Death, and it's really funny. (spoilers abound)

I'm so over ombre hair. It's like hair you get when you're growing your roots out or when it's been winter for several months but you want to keep long hair. It's not attractive of itself. I just had to get that off my chest.

Inspired by seeing a Kardashian with ombre hair on TV after seeing a parade of ombre hair in lots of other places.

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I'm intrigued by this season's Project Runway All-Stars, though I don't know why they brought back three prior winners. Wasn't the whole point of All-Stars to give non-winners a chance to win? (I am also annoyed by Alyssa Milano continuing to call one contestant "Ari" throughout even though she'd changed her name as part of her transition. To me it seems disrespectful.)

Well, Chizuru ends Hakuouki as useless as she was from the start, even though she spends the whole series around warriors and on battlefields and carries swords throughout. I guess that's some kind of accomplishment? At least the animation on the cherry blossom petals in the final battle was awesome.

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I was satisfied by the final championship match in Robot Combat League and hope they get a second season. It amuses me so much that the overtly threatening looking robots got knocked out first, leaving the final two combatants endearingly goofy looking 'bots. Also loved that the two robot jockeys were each small women who packed one hell of a punch.

I do wonder if a second season would involve new teams and robots and, if not, whether they'll take what they learned in the first season to improve the robots. A lot of things they thought would be pros and cons of each 'bot turned out wrong in actual battle! Also, Crash's arms break if it's pitted against a robot with decent armor, especially when it's Amber throwing the punches. ( Collapse )

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Roxxxy took things to an ugly place in Ru Paul's Drag Race. Those pageant girls get whiny and nasty when they're outclassed. Loved her thinking acting and comedy aren't drag talents, and that drag comedians--and this show!--insult drag! One, have you ever watched Drag Race? Two, you're welcome to tell Ru that her show is insulting to drag. I'd love to see it.

This season still hasn't convinced me that any of its contestants are ready for the title of drag superstar. ( Collapse )

Am I the only person watching Robot Combat League on Syfy? C'mon, two-person teams--a fight jockey working the arms, punching and blocking, and a tech working the lower half "footwork"--maneuvering giant boxing robots for real! I spend an alarming amount of time yelling, "Get him! Kill him!" *g* Tonight's was especially satisfying in that it was a close match and the combatants here were using strategy more now that the combatants are getting more of a feel for how the robots and the fighting work. Plus, one team was sprayed with their own badly damaged robot's hydraulic fluid.

Next week starts the quarter-finals, where all the teams left in the tournament now already have a win under their belts.

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I'm annoyed that Dancing With the Stars had Contemporary as one of its first dances because almost nobody has the strength for either side of the lifts to look good this early in the game. Brooke is a terrible interviewer, but I'm still stunned by how she basically told Andy Dick that being on this show is almost certain to make him relapse. I was dubious about the cane the choreography put in Dick's hands but found it mostly charming over the course of the number. I'm annoyed the judges were so down on that football player who did a really entertaining number despite having half the practice time of the others and recent new surgery.

For now I'm hoping D.L. Hughly goes home since he's a hot mess on the dance floor.

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RuPaul's Drag Race and ...Untucked: Ivy Winters is from New York? I can't quite see it, while I can totally see Alaska and the rest of the House of Haunt being from Pittsburgh and Jinkx from Seattle. Maybe she's a transplant? I'm not really surprised by who went home. ( Collapse ) I'd be more amused by the pageant queens' angst if they didn't have the very not cute tendency to belittle the queens who have talents they don't. I'm shocked that it's possible for a queen to get this far and not be funny and witty! You are the problem, pageant queens! ( Collapse )

I was surprised by a Death Becomes Her reference on RuPaul's Drag Race: "Do you remember where we parked the car?" Really appropriate too!

It's sad to me that nobody so far is really sparking to me as a drag performer, though I find some appealing as themselves, mostly Ivy Winters and Alaska and, this episode, Jinkx Monsoon, though I find Jinkx's lack of eyebrows disturbing. Is it just me, or does it seem that a lot more contestants have that puffy, shiny, oddly upholstered plastic surgery face with dermabrasion this season? Some of them I need them to put makeup on so they look closer to human.

My left arm is still hurting badly, and now the cap of my left arm and shoulder are killing me. Just moving my arm is very painful. My doctor is clueless, and today I went in for X-rays. These problems first started on the 16th, so this is really dragging on. It's frustrating and getting in the way of me living and writing.

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Supernatural, you fail at female gods. That was really supposed to be ( Collapse )

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Just as every season of The Amazing Race has heights and water challenges and cars with manual transmissions while every season contestants come on who have a fear of heights or water or can't drive stick, every season of RuPaul's Drag Race has The Snatch Game while every season queens show up who have no idea that they'll have to come up with an impression and be funny for it. Every season. Also every season on Drag Race? Some queens who appear to have little knowledge of recent pop culture or the giants of past queen reverence. You're a queen who doesn't know who Diana Ross is? I hope you both enjoyed being the recipient of RuPaul's "...." look.

Also every season, I get annoyed that every queen has to dress in a certain kind of glamor to make the judges keep them. (I'll never stop being bitter over what happened to Pandora Boxx.)

Project Runway has been going downhill since Lifetime picked it up and changed it but I held on until this current season, where the contestants have been separated into two groups. Contestants always get bitchy when put into teams on PR, and with every week involving teams it's non-stop complaining and irritability. The contestants and challenges have been boring and the product placements more open and jarring. It's so stupid that one member from the winning team wins and one person from the losing team loses and goes home, because that lets some people ride along longer who'd normally be shed if judged on their own merits or, rather, lack of them. Lifetime running it against Person of Interest and Elementary has just made my choice even easier.

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I've been watching RuPaul's Drag Race and Drag Race Untucked but haven't figured out a favorite contestant yet. Though there was something in the recent episode where the contestants had to create a "children's show" that made me wonder if I alone was wondering about it. ( Collapse )

I've given up on The Following to watch RuPaul's Drag Race instead. As much as I like Kevin Bacon, his character is doing nothing for me. None of the characters are doing anything for me.

Amazingly, Dancing With the Stars did it right. Some people were sent home too soon--Sabrina, Drew, Joey--and some stayed longer than they should--Bristol, Kirstie, Emmitt--but in the end the final three were a good selection of talent and the right person and dancing pro won. It felt so earned, and they were both so sweetly thrilled to win. ( Collapse )

But, man, Kirstie was even worse during the "Gangnam Style" group dance than the first time. I didn't think that was possible. But she still did better than Pamela Anderson, who was given a brief routine that only asked her to walk, sit, pose sexily, and play with her hair, yet still failed.

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RuPaul's Drag Race ended its abbreviated all-stars season with a whimper. Of the four queens left, the best of who was left won. One contestant in particular was only still there because the rest of the season was weirdly RuPaul's Best Friend Race. When I saw the lush "goddesses" commercials for the next regular Drag Race starting in January(!!!!), I again can't help wondering if Ru had been forced to do an all-stars season against her will, because it looks like this coming season is already getting a ton more love from her than she showed her poor all-stars.

I've started to resign myself to the idea that RuPaul's Drag Race Allstars hasn't done anything based on merit since they decided which queens would appear... well, aside for Mimi Imfurst, who seems to have been a harbinger of what was to come. ( Collapse ) Well, only two more episodes left in this sad, abbreviated excuse of a season.