fear factor

i've got a guilty pleasure. i watch fear factor. i was disappointed when it didn't start at the beginning of the season but glad it's back now, even if it's for a few weeks during th interim between other shows.

i guess it's a little different these days, with no eating of any gross stuff during the new shows. they've got a stunt at the beginning, then a middle part with contestants able to win a trip, and a final task to determine a winner.

today's show had four couples. during the first task, one of two team members had to be shot from a cannon, after the first member ignited it after swimming from a buoy to get flares. all four teams completed it and in a new fear factor twist, the team with the least time involved in completing the task gets to choose which team leaves. the gay couple choose one of the girl teams to go. the middle stunt was a trip to las vegas, non-elimination. it involved diving into large trash cans and dumpsters filled with oil and other junk. the gay couple won. the final stunt involved crashing through barriers while lying on your stomach and being pulled. at theat moment, team members let go. the teams, combined footage, closest to a finishing line, win the moolah. the bikers ended up winning. they were cool. not typical fear factor folks. they had large bellies, tattoed, bearded. but cool.

one of the things i enjoyed that the show isn't doing much anymore (and call me sadistic or insane) is when the couples (or singles, because usually its one-member teamss) had to eat something either alive or something once alive or part of a now-dead animal. people on the show have eaten pig uteruses, 50-year-old egg nog, milk a goat with their mouths, cow brains (and my own sick favorite) live african cave-dwelling spiders in an episode a few years back. contestants had to pluck the large spiders off a roulette table (it was in vegas) and munch on them. as the contestants crunched, you could still see legs jutting out of their mouths. sick shit, but it made for interesting tv.

one of the more provacative stunts involved no physical excertion -- but it was physical all right. contestants had to walk out nude and walk around a stage. the deal ws there was a room full of people watching. i, unfortunately, did not get to watch the episode. my wife and i were in a neighboring town in texas and it was only after coming out of a restaurant that i remembered the show aired that night. too late, though. i learned later that networks will not show that episode again. oh well. side note: one of the girls even did cartwheels during the stunt.

i wish some of the major stunts would stick out in my mind, but none do. to me, i enjoy them all. most present soe sort of difficulty and challenge. some involve swimming, others arm strength by hanging on to something. either way, i dig them.

next week seems interesting. the couples are placed into the "psycho house" and they have to do tasks and be involved in similar things (a shower scene was shown in a preview). sounds absolutely thrilling.

go joe, go joe, go joe