Re: America's "Top Shot" on History channel
I held off making a comment until the season ended. At first I was a little disappointed. Some of it was hokey, some of it wasn't "shooting" (bows, knives, and so on) but I could see the 'marksmen' connection. Honestly, I kind of want to learn to throw knives now. It looks like fun. I didn't care for the "reality t.v." drama (if I heard "rat fink" one more time I thought I was going to puke). I hurt for the lady whose father was dying, BTDT.
I thought the weapon selection could have been better. At times it felt like I was watching a Beretta commercial. The distances did not seem that difficult considering the size of the targets (for the rifle portion). Some of the pistol targets seemed pretty damn small. I think the real difficulty came in by the added pressure of not shooting in your comfort zone, knowing you could get sent home, you're on t.v., and let's face it $100,000 is a lot of money.
What I did like was it wasn't about shooting tiny groups. Don't get me wrong, that has it's place but how many non-shooters would watch it. For that matter, how many shooters would watch other BR guys. More often than not if they missed someone could beat them. I also had to remind myself that certain shooting sports are not very spectator friendly. Someone who knows very little about shooting would get bored watching them punch paper but jars of colored water, marbles, panes of glass and stuff look cool when hit and you can do that slow-motion camera stuff. I do think they should have pointed out you need to clean up after yourself if you shoot targets that aren't biodegradable. The last thing I want to find at the range is a bunch of broken mason jars or light bulbs or whatever someone found in the trash.
The last two episodes were more along the lines of what I expected from the start. The shooters were on their own. If they didn't beat the other guy they lost. It's a simple concept. Additionally, they seemed to have a fairly good mix of rifle and pistol. If it was one or the other you've got a glorified rifle match. I would have liked to have seen more shotgun events fliers, movers, static, etc. to disprove the movie myth that "you can't miss with a shotgun".
I think the show is decent. It introduces shooting to people who may have never thought about it or had a negative idea of it. For the most part, the contestants got along with each other much better than most of the BS competition shows. It seemed like there was a lot less bickering, backstabbing, etc. compared to Survivor and the like. Granted I only watched a couple of those so I don't know for sure. Another thing I noticed was every one of the people that got eliminated were gracious. I don't think you'll see "Top Shot, Bad vs. Good Guys" anytime in the near future.
Keep in mind, it is what it is... Entertainment. Bottom line, it beats the hell out of 'Jersey Shore'!
Just my .02 YMMV