–The only other reality shows I watch are The Apprentice and Survivor. Watching this show makes me really appreciate Burnett’s editors. Tighten it up, people!
–Speaking of which, the attempts to add “drama” by having long pauses and portentious music before decisions are revealed are very lame. Especially when it’s really obvious what the decision would be.
–But enough of the negative…I’m enjoying this. Branson is always entertaining. I like how he actually spends time with the contestants, unlike Trump. The daredevil stuff is actually kind of interesting, especially as it relates to Branson’s real life interests.
–I also liked the first challenge A LOT! For once, snotty snobby people got their comeuppance. Hee hee!
–It’s too early to have learned all that much about the players. Sara is very impressive, and I like her a lot. I feel bad for Tim, as he didn’t do anything wrong, so it’s a shame he got booted. And Jermaine? Shut up!
–It was nice to see that the token fat player is a female for a change. And a very pretty female, at that.
So, did anybody else see it? What did you think?
Oh, good, someone else saw this too. I think I’m addicted after having watched just the premiere, and I wasn’t even planning on watching it. It just happened to be on, and then one thing led to another and…
Anyway, I really dug it. I too loved the first “challenge” in which a couple of people got the boot even before the show began, practically. Especially because one of them was booted for being a jackass, which is pretty rare in a reality show, many of which seem to value jackassery as a prized character trait.
I like Branson’s over-the-topness, even if it is a little, well, over the top. I thought it was cool that he was the first one up the ropes on the balloon, and was leading the pack on the biplane flight.
Could have lived without the standard reality-show infighting, although I was impressed that the two biplane contestants (Erica and… the other one, whose name I forget) totally forgot their differences and had a bonding moment after the stunt was over. It was also unexpected that Jennifer (was that her name?) voluntarily gave up her spot because she admitted that she would have rather gone home than done either the balloon or the plane stunt.
Looking forward to next week, and to see if the prize is really what they’re saying it will be. Surely they don’t mean the winner actually becomes the head of Virgin Enterprises, or whatever the umbrella corp.'s name is, do they? I mean, how would that work?
I forgot to mention my favorite moment–Sara finally gets to the top of the balloon. Then she almost falls through the balloon. She barely manages to stagger up to the table, where not only is there an English tea party, but Branson is all puckered up for a little kiss! Like she was just meeting him for tea at Fortnum & Mason or something. He really is quite a character. The look on her face was priceless. But I have to give her credit–she smooched him. The girl is certainly adaptable.
I kind of enjoyed the show. Fox seems to be hitting British civility-reality pretty hard this year; Richard Branson’s humble, charming daredevil (to Trump’s self-absorbed something else) and Nanny 911’s take on raising American children (I assume these nannys are actually British). I’m enjoying it. I especially like Branson’s thrill-ride-for-the-guy-about-to-get-kicked-out thing - doesn’t seem as much like a self-righteous power trip as Trump’s dismissals. Branson almost appears sorry to dismiss these characters, though so far they all seem fairly inadequate to the task of actually running a large company. I agree that he’ll likely really stay in charge.
