For some reason or other, I never watched the TV series The A-Team. I was aware of it, and knew a bit about the characters, but I ignored it, which is strange because I liked George Peppard, especially when he did his turn as Banacek on the NBC Mystery Movie.
We saw the trailer for the movie reboot this past summer and it seemed solid enough. Entertaining at least, and Liam Neeson had a serious Peppard groove going on. So we queued it up OnDemand this weekend. I have mixed feelings about it. We enjoyed it, but it could have been much better if the editing hadn’t been done with a machine gun. Clips were cut together so quickly that I don’t think they registered even on a subliminal level. Is there a polyester film shortage I didn’t hear about? Sometimes I wasn’t sure who that character was on the screen for a picosecond before something else was flashed at us. A sufficiently utile McGuffin (although there seemed to be an awful lot of metal pieces to those money plates) and at least one genuine surprise. Patience can be a virtue, though, and if the editor had allowed a little more time to each cut, my viewing pleasure would have been increased.
Here’s my review of Don Winslow’s Savages. As I think I mentioned before, I was deeply disappointed by the ending, but I was so energized by the style that I immediately wanted to write something in a similar vein. The feeling has since passed, I think.
There were a few surprises in the finale of Survivor. First off, Fabio did the unthinkable and won the last three immunity challenges. I thought for sure he was toast on the last one because his stack of coins looked far less stable than Sash’s. Dan getting voted off was a mild surprise, as he was dead weight. People liked him but I don’t think there was any love for his game-playing acumen. I didn’t realize the extent to which Sash had alienated everyone on the jury. A person who could have hand-picked Sash and Dan for the final three would have had it made. (Aside: I don’t think I would have recognized Sash during the reunion show if not for context.)
Dan revealed his true colors, though, when he was voted off. Bitter much? He and Jane had the worst exit interviews of the season, I think. Another surprise was Holly getting voted off instead of Sash. Again, I didn’t realize how many enemies she’d made. When she got to Ponderosa, only Alina and Brenda greeted her the first evening. People warmed up to her the following day, but it was a cold reception.
I figured it was a foregone conclusion that Fabio would win after his challenge streak, but Chase put up a good fight and the vote was closer than I expected. I always enjoy the reunion show, and I wish more shows of that kind did it. Big Brother or Amazing Race, for example. We really discover who knew what when. That Brenda had made a move to evict Sash during the same cycle that ended up with Brenda being evicted, for example. Was it my imagination, or did Terry Bradshaw fart on national television?
The twist for next season sounds almost mythological. If a player is voted off, he becomes the gatekeeper of Redemption Island. Subsequent evictees are sent to challenge him. If they win, they become the gatekeeper and the original inhabitant is sent packing. The decision about when to reintroduce a player into the game will be crucial to its success, I think.
