On The Lot, 5/29

Tonight we watched both episodes of this weeks "On The Lot". Somehow our Tivo seems to have missed an episode last week which was curious enough. But then the blonde girl host was replaced with a brunette girl host without explanation. Uh, note to producers, don't leave me hanging like that. But more on her in a minute.

The challenge this week was straightforward, a one-minute comedy film. It looks like the contestants are given quite the budget, which is great news for us watching. My favorites were the dancing man, the barfing alien puppets (I'm bored with toilet humor in general, but for me puppets fall into a special category of awesomeness where anything goes, which is why I also loved the barfing mannequin in "Team America" and the puppets singing about porn in "Avenue Q"), and the "get a room" guy. On the latter I have to agree that perhaps the line was crossed between nerd and mentally challenged, but still it made me laugh more than any of the others. The Canadian special effects dude Zach is still my favorite so far.

And the streak of familiar actors continues, with the ever talented Mark Feuerstein as the dancing man. Sweet.

The new host lady is pretty, but good hosts have to be more than pretty. They have to exude confidence and charm, as does the ultimate host, Jeff Probst, or they have to have a good dose of geek in them (think Seacrest and Phil from the Amazing Race.) This girl is just pretty. As in pretty boring! When she put on her "mean" face for the elimination round it was just awkward. Also, why was she wearing Marilyn Monroe's dress from "Niagara"? Wishful thinking honey. I can't believe I'm commenting on wardrobe, but it was distracting. I did like the way she kept manhandling the contestants to get them to stand close enough to her. Either it was just an uncomfortable invasion of personal privacy that they hadn't warned the contestants about, or else she must have some pretty terrible B.O., because she had to physically tug them to stand closer to her. People all up in each other's space makes good TV.

I didn't agree with the voting results, but not so much that I care. I wish the eliminations were less a copy of "American Idol" and more something, you know, else, but oh well. The only person I so far don't like was safe, which was a bummer, but even so I'm more disturbed by the fact that he's a dude that looks better in make-up than out of it, so I guess I'll give his art another go before I dismiss him as the Scott Savol of the group. The inherent weakness of this show is the lack of humanness - we're judging a movie, and so don't get as much a connection with the contestants. So with 18 of them, I didn't really pay attention to names. We'll see if this improves and I start caring about individuals more, or if this just remains a high-wattage but less-enthralling distraction through the summer until Survivor: China starts.

But lest we forget, "Pirate Master" begins on Thursday, which has the potential to the best thing on television. Ever.