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.

TV SHOW REVIEW: Doctor Who: The Doctor's Wife

Last week's next-time trailer for the Doctor's Wife got me very excited for this week's episode. I already knew that the episode was to be called "The Doctor's Wife", and the next-time clip revealed that a time lord would call The Doctor for help on a planet. Sadly, the story ended up scrapping the whole time lord idea- The Doctor's still the only one left. But, the real story of the episode is still strong, written well by author Neil Gaiman.

So, on to the story. The Doctor opens the TARDIS doors to find a glowing white cube hovering in space. He is ecstatic to find that a time lord, "one of the good ones", has sent him a message, and so follows the cube outside of the universe, to a living planet (voiced by Michael Sheen). On the planet, the Doctor and gang meet the strange Auntie and Uncle, who turn out to be made up of strange time lord parts. Also living there are nephew, a stranded ood with a broken communications device, and a crazy lady. When the Doctor finds out that the Time Lord message was just a lie sent by the planet to lure the Doctor in, he sends Amy and Rory back to the Tardis and locks them in. He finds out that the planet lives on TARDIS energy, and that to get that energy, the planet must transfer the energy into   a body, the Doctor's Wife. The planet then begins to eat the TARDIS, but Rory persuades the planet that it would be much more fun to kill Amy and Rory slowly. The scenes where the planet tortures Amy and Rory in the TARDIS are very well done with great suspense and editing. I won't spoil too much more of the story, but it is pretty strong of a storyline.

So, is "The Doctor's Wife" good? Well, I consider it so. While I think that having Rory die AGAIN and the TARDIS and the Doctor being separated AGAIN, this time both of those have been handled in the most creative way possible. Having the Doctor meet the real love of his life, the TARDIS, in human form, is the best thing ever for him. The scenes between the Doctor and the TARDIS are extremely strong and the episode as a whole is intense, well-written, and overall brilliant. Also, you have to bear in mind that, even though Rory dies in this one again, one- it's only a trick the planet plays on Amy, and two- Neil Gaiman wrote this episode for series one originally but it was put back due to budget issues. So, if it had been last season, it would have been Rory's first death anyway. Also, it's great to see the Ood make a return, but I think that a deeper part of the story for the Ood would have been better than just having an Ood there just so the BBC could make use for it's costume collection. I was dissapointed that there wasn't at least one returning timelord, but, with Amy's baby regenerating and River Song revealing all her secrets soon (cliffhanger for mid-season break?), an extra timelord would probably have made a lot of mess. Also, great to see the use of the David Tennant TARDIS interior for one of the rooms of the TARDIS Amy and Rory get trapped in.

The episode ends strongly and emotionally, with the Doctor having to put the TARDIS' soul back inside the machine. Next week's episode looks interesting, being about clones (Sontaran Stratagem?) and living skin (cassandra). It may not be the most original episode, but it will be the series cliffhanger so let's hope it's strong.


Pros:

• Strong story
• Great Acting
• Continuity of stuff from older series throughout adds awesomness
• Michael Sheen

Cons:

• Doctor cut off from TARDIS and Rory dies, again

TV SHOW REVIEW: Doctor Who: Curse of the Black Spot

After a confusing and plot-hole ridden, yet exciting opening two-parter to the sixth season of the new Doctor Who series, the series has almost completely moved away from all of the story arcs introduced in the first episode, and episode 3- The Curse of the Black Spot, written by Stephen Thompson, is a good old-fashioned historic story with a pirate theme and an extra-terrestrial "villain".

The episode begins with some pirates sailing on a pirate ship, as expected. The pirates, led by Henry Avery, who is played by Hugh Bonneville, are forced to sit and wait as there is no wind to move their ship and a homicidal mermaid siren is hunting off any of them who get cut and bleed. She marks the ones who she is going to "kill" with the black spot. Of course, the Doctor and friends stow away on the ship and help to save the day.

For most of the episode, the Doctor and friends wait as each pirate is one by one killed off by the siren, played by supermodel Lily Cole. Another inside story is the fight between captain Avery and his son, who has stowed away on board. I, however, found it confusing that, after not seeing or knowing where his father was for 3 years, he can just magically appear on board his ship. It's never explained. The best part of the episode is definitely when Rory gets slashed with a sword and becomes very attracted to the Siren, angering Amy by saying she's the most beautiful thing he's ever seen. (During adverts (or commercials for you Americans), in a Dctor Who insider, Stephen Moffat said "It's good that a Doctor Who has a scary monster, but this time's it's a big bonus that she's hot as well!"- adding 100% epicness to himself). There are many more of these siren attarction scenes, but Rory's is the best.

The Doctor eventually, with the help of Captain Avery, manages to figure out how and why the Siren has been taking the people. I won't spoil the ending, but I will tell you that it is explained in great Doctor Who sci-fi fashion, involving two overlapping parallel worlds. The pregnancy of Amy is touched upon at the end, and after saying goodbyes to the pirates, Doctor and crew get ready for their next adventure. The next time trailer is epic- the Doctor gets an invite from a timelord to have a meeting, the gang get trapped on a planet with a mysterious family , the ood are involved, and the episode is called "The Doctor's Wife", according to many Doctor Who news websites.

Pros:

• Many funny scenes, as Rory prefers the Siren to Amy and the Doctor and Avery fight for the role of Captain
• A great explanation to the Siren's purpose and where she's from
• Good piratey theme, gets us prepped for the upcoming pirates of the Caribbean 4. 
• Epic next time trailer
• Great cast (Lily Cole)

Cons:

• A couple plot holes- no explanation for how Avery's son got on board, some plot holes at the end that I don't want to spoil.
• Some continuity issues
• Repetitive story- similar things that have happened in previous episodes, just with a new  setting.