So SaysUncle bemoans the Internet for spoiling the ending of the latest Top Shot episode. I’m sure he’s half-joking but also half-serious.
For me? I have no idea what happened or how it ended.
And I don’t care. Well, that’s not totally true. Fellow gunblogger Caleb Giddings was on that show and due to that I was mildly interested. Since someone in Uncle’s comments mentioned Caleb I wondered if he got eliminated. Seems he did. I watched his exit interview and I must say, Caleb left with class and grace.
I really don’t care for reality television and all the “reality competition” shows (a la “Survivor”). Oh sure, I thought this show might be nice for the mainstream to see that gun people can be normal folks, so I support it. And I did watch one episode a week or two ago just because I was flipping channels, it was on, so I figured I should finally see what all the hubbub was about.
And it just made me groan.
It’s the same old crap, with high school-level drama and childishness, because we need turmoil and conflict. Whine whine whine, cut to shot of a one-on-one interview of that person giving their “I don’t like the whiner” commentary to build conflicts. In-fighting. Backstabbing. Childishness. The biggest douchebags get the most TV time and the guys getting no camera time are probably just nice guys (but there’s no TV drama in being a nice guy). And of course, very little time was actually focused on shooting. Figures. I do think the shooting stuff was kinda cool… I liked the long bow work and then how they worked the elimination competition (with the crossbows), that was kinda cool. And I did also catch that one elimination where they did the shooting off the zip line. So the shooting events seem neat, but all the rest? feh. I’ve got better ways to spend my time than watching this “reality” stuff.
But you know, maybe it’s not too far off the mark. It does show people shooting, it does show some cool marksmanship stuff. And it does show that gunnies are normal folk: we’re just as subject to drama and childishness as everyone else. 🙂
Stuff From Hsoi 
I’ve taken to fast forwarding through all the non-shooting parts.
To me the big let down is that there’s just not much shooting. There’s a good chance whoever wins the show will be the best “shot” with a blowgun, or have the best memory, or be the best puzzle solver, or something lame like that. Meh.
Also there’s some people on the show who just don’t seem that good.
It’s all about the drama… the shooting is merely a new format/context for delivering drama to the masses.
I’ve got enough drama in my life. 🙂
I’ve watched it and I’m still trying to formulate my opinion about the drama.
On one hand….I would rather see 16 shooters compete straight up in various contests – loser goes home.
The idea behind the show was to challenge them with top shots throughout history — I like that concept.
Because, I see people who are top pistol/rifle experts struggling with a Long bow, cross bow or a musket.
Heck, given my experiences with a bow, I could probably do better — makes the shooting sports appear more accessible.
On the other hand, and this is showing the shallowness of the antis accusations of gun owners: None of the competitors have shot each other.
None have threatened physical violence toward each other.
Think about the lies the antis have told, repeatedly — blood in the streets, wild west shootouts, etc.
And here are a bunch of admitted gun nuts who only talk bad about each other like a bunch of school kids.
Wow, hardly the intimidating, scary, steel-eyed killers we are made out to be, eh?
I commented on Top Shot on my blog the other day. I watched Caleb get eliminated and while he was classy and respectful, his disgusting, malodorous, and spineless competitor in the challenge completely ruined the show for me.
-Rob
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You know… the only reason I went ahead and approved your posting is because it appears you missed the point of my posting, saying how much the show sucks! (but you probably figure it doesn’t matter… even bad press is still press).
So ok… go ahead, film a second season. Just don’t make it suck as much as this first season.
More shooty goodness. Less high school childish drama.
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