TV SHOW REVIEW: "Top Shot" Hits the Bullseye in Third Season

     History Channel's "Top Shot" has been one of my favorite shows ever since it started in 2010. The show highlights the skills in marksmanship of 16 competitors who get placed on two teams-red and blue- and compete for a $100,000 prize. The show is creative in it's challenges and it really allows viewers to take allegiances to certain competitors with it's superb skill levels and entertaining behind-the-scenes drama. The first season, one in which a Brit, Iain, won, was fun and exciting. The second season (actually the first one I watched) was outstanding, although the series lost many fans when they seemed to put drama in front of marksmanship (I disagree, but that is what the fans who left thought). Now fall 2011 brings the third season of top shot- but does it continue the superb trend the series have set, or does it fall flat?
     To sum up, Top Shot blows away with it's third season. The show brings back a lot of the old favorite weapons, and the final episode has, as usual, the exact same challenges, but the new things brought to the table are astounding. Now the challenges are much more team-oritented and physical, including rope climbing, log carrying, crawling under barbed wire into mud, and traversing obstacle courses while shooting. Additionally, new weapon challenges have been added that bring diversity to the table- players now must bounce arrows off ramps into a target, fire gattling guns and cannons, and shoot targets on a 50 feet tall rotating circle.
     The contestants this year are some of the most energetic and entertaining yet. The winner, Dustin, may just be the best shooter I've ever seen- with a perfect run on almost all challenges. Jake Zweig, a football coach and former Navy Seal with an attitude, is the funniest contestant on a game show since Elise in Hell's Kitchen and it is amazing how messed up his mind is (trust me, it is shocking some of the things he does). There is also nice guy Gary Quesenberry, who competes in the show against his best friend Jarrett Grimes, and Mike Hughes, the first competitor to be let back into the competition after elimination.
    To sum up, Top Shot's third season impresses in all levels. A flawless season, Top Shot Season 3 is not to be missed.