[Sci Fi Channel] "Who Wants To Be A Superhero?"

[ChristopherAnn]

Iron Enforcer had to be a plant. He must have thrown that dog challenge. There is no way someone could get that far and then just say uncle a foot from the door.

Not to mention the whole body odor thing, and then responding to the question about the steriods by saying "I want to be an example to the kids." Or words to that effect.

Cannot be serious. Has to have been a plant from the beginning.

And, TwinBahamut, brilliant idea about the sidekicks. You're so right.

 

[Nuclear Platypus]

After watching them all get new costumes, I couldn't help but think of The Incredibles:

"This is a hobo suit dahling. You can't be seen in this. I won't allow it. You need a new suit. It will be bold! Dramatic! Heroic! NO CAPES!"

Man, you go Monkey Girl (dragged around for like 10 - 15 mins) while Major Victory just cracks me up. I'm guessing that "Stan's #1 Fan" will get booted next. I also noticed that the winner gets a comic book (looked like Dark Horse I think) and a Sci Fi original movie. What better than a new version of The Mystery Men (team flick)?

As the Sphinx might say: When the dogs drag you, you must drag your dogs.

 

[Felon]

Good call! That whole ending bit was obviously staged. It appears Iron Enforcer was a plant all along. One of us spotted it last week. Not me, though.

Well, that would seem to be the case. I'll go ahead and put the rest of this post in spoiler tags, since it might represent a letdown for those who want an immersive experience watching the show:

Spoiler

Most if not all of the cast are actors, or are at least actively pursuing an acting career. They're not just a bunch of average joes taking some time off from their jobs as secretaries and encyclopedia salesman to fulfill a secret fantasy of becoming a superhero. From Wikipedia:

"There has been a fair amount of criticism of the 'reality' of the show given that several of the contestants have previous television involvement (e.g., Matthew Atherton's Navy NCIS appearance, Tonya Kay's America's Got Talent audition, Tonatzin Mondragon's numerous television roles, Mary Votava's film roles, and Chris Watters' multiple soap/serial performances)."

To match up codenames with real names:

Feedback (Matthew Atherton)
Creature (Tonya Kay)
Lemuria (Tonatzin Mondragon)
Monkey Woman (Mary Votava)
Major Victory (Chris Watters)

 

[Felon]

Overall the competition was biased towards the men but then the last one was biased towards the women. For the women it wasn't so much that they din't finish, because they were at a serious strength disadvantage, but it was a question of how mentally tough they were and how long they would stick it out. Cellphone girl should have used the teriffied of dogs excuse instead of the headache excuse, Stan can understand having a weakness but a headache should not be it.

Meh. She should've just toughed it out like Monkey Woman. Too bad. She was nice eye-candy.

As for Iron Enforcer, I don't think he was a plant. He seemed to me to be genuinly surprised to be eliminated. I agree that Stan was already looking for a villian but I think he was willing to choose from any of the contestants. I figue that there was a clause in all of thier contracts that said if they were eliminated that they could be brought back in another roll if Stan so chose. I saw his emination coming when Stan said there was something not right about the costume. I saw that as one last chance. I think if Iron Enforcer had said, yes your right, I don't need the gun he might have stayed and Tyveculous would have gone for lying.

Entirely staged. That entire bit with Ty and Feedback being put on the block for those minor transgressions was trumped up so that Enforcer could be villanized at the end. If Ty had complained right away, he'd have been called on the carpet for a negative attitude. If he had remained silent, Stan would have faulted him for both dishonesty and cowardice.

Overall there seems to me to be lots of production stuff that isn't being shown and that I can except as part of the show. With the little girl challenge I figure that once the went to the "security" office that producers were there saying that this was part of the show and that they were sworn to secrecy until after the challenge (so those who didn't stop were geniounly surprised when Stan revealed it). Major Victory might have picked it up sooner judging from his actions (and the super cheap security signs that were around). With the dog challenge I figure the trainers were just out of camera shot. It wasn't the contestants saying uncle that the dogs responded to but to the trainers listening into the mic feed.

Hehe, yes Virginia there is a Santa Claus. Most reality shows have a sizable crew following the cast around, not just a lone cameraman. And naturally, every reality show with Survivoresque physical challenges have professional stunt coordinators and medical staff waiting just off camera. In this case, it's a dog handler, probably with a whistle. And yes, the conveniently-placed "Security Office" copies that weren't even taped up to the walls properly were probably a dead giveaway to anyone paying attention.

The only other one I dissagreed with is Monkey Woman. While I don't think the new one is bad, I think the old one was better.

I agree, with a provision that it was hard for me to see all the bananas arrayed across her old outfit--which is an important detail, since according to the official site, her bananas actually conceal trick gadgets.

 

[ChristopherAnn]

Monkey Woman's original costume did look much better. But on the other hand, assuming that "Monkey Woman" means she's a friend of the monkeys, it did give her the appearance of having killed and cut up one to make herself an outfit.

That's not very friendly.

And I don't think the PETA folks would like it much, either.

 

[Richards]

Felon (I'll follow your spoiler-tag tradition):

Spoiler

Can you tell me what Tonya Kay's "America's Got Talent" audition was? I've seen a couple episodes of that, and I don't recall having seen her. She wasn't "Hoopalicious," was she?

Johnathan

 

[Felon]

Monkey Woman's original costume did look much better. But on the other hand, assuming that "Monkey Woman" means she's a friend of the monkeys, it did give her the appearance of having killed and cut up one to make herself an outfit. That's not very friendly. And I don't think the PETA folks would like it much, either.

Unfortunately, there aren't too many Gap outlets in the jungle. I'm sure she only skinns monkeys that die of natural causes.

Felon (I'll follow your spoiler-tag tradition):

Spoiler

Can you tell me what Tonya Kay's "America's Got Talent" audition was? I've seen a couple episodes of that, and I don't recall having seen her. She wasn't "Hoopalicious," was she?

Spoiler

The IMDB has the skinny: http://imdb.com/name/nm1800223.

The wikipedia entry is annotated for the various characters' appearances (I parsed them out of my quote).

 

[Richards]

Felon: Interesting. Thanks!

Johnathan

 

[trancejeremy]

Well, there's basically two reasons to be on a reality TV show. One, if it has a really big prize. The other is to be famous.

In this case, I bet it doesn't pay well, and the reward is to star in a made for TV movie, so you would expect that you'd get a lot of actors applying for the job hoping to use it as a springboard for better stuff. And not to mention, they would also have the edge in doing an audition and being photogenic.


Also, a lot of them have websites. TyVeculus seems to be a real person - if you go to his site you can see him with his fellow fire-fighters and his family, and how he made his costume.

Iron Enforcer has a site which claims he's an action star, but I can't get it to load.

 

[BrooklynKnight]

Iron Enforcer, and the other's have Myspace pages! HAH!

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=43469713