The Go! Teams

The Amazing Race returns to CBS tonight with a two hour premiere and the only thing I can say about it, without spoiling anything, is that it's back to the same old Race that fans know and love.

After a tragic experiment with teams of four for the "family edition," which took place primarily in North America, the show is back to its classic teams-of-two-traveling-all-over-the-world format. And for its ninth edition the Race has loaded up on Big Personality teams including likely fan favorites BJ & Tyler ("the hippies") and Lori & Dave ("the nerd lovers"). There's also the token eye candy (Dani & Danielle, "the double Ds"), the token old folks (Fran & Barry), the token gay team (Scott & John, best friends but not partners), the token couple of color (Ray & Yolanda), the token older ladies (slightly obnoxious sisters Joni & Lisa) and the token overbearing, ultra-competitive husband (Southern dentist Lake, whose wife, Michelle, was also his dental assistant). My favorite team, at least for the first episode, was the mother/daughter team of Wanda & Desiree, but there are a few teams here who might be worth rooting for.

I won't say who they are, but neither the first place nor the last place team tonight is very surprising. But it's fun to see the show back in its proper form and in position to reclaim its title as TV's Best Reality Show.

I'm one! (And four days)

With my lack of recent postings I completely missed the first anniversary of this blog. But yes, on February 19 my Untitled Blog Project turned one.

Aw, so cute.

Here's my first post.

Seriously, presents aren't necessary. Instead, my gifts to you below... a BAFTA awards reaction and the return of American Idol-related blatherings.

Don't say I'm not good to my (two) readers!

Idolwild

So yeah American Idol is back on the air but I've ignored it here so far because the show didn't really start until this week (you know, when they opened up those phone lines...).

Simon Cowell has already gone on record that this year's top 24 is a little lacking in "amazing singers." Apparently the judges/producers were hoping to emphasize quirky "characters" over "talented singers" this year. Fair enough, since Idol is above all an entertainment show and it's never really produced more than two or three really interesting performers per season anyway. But what's really notable about this year's top 24 is how many of them truly suck.

The top 12 girls were first up in front of America, on Tuesday, and one by one they took the stage... and choked. Only Paris Bennett, Lisa Tucker and Katharine McPhee delivered cringe-free performances (although Melissa McGhee and Kinnik Sky weren’t that bad). Paris, in fact, was quite spectacular. Based on audition footage I had preferred Lisa but Paris’ vocals on "Midnight Train to Georgia" really shocked me (she wasn’t squeaky at all) and she’s a natural born performer (cue second-coming-of-Fantasia references). It’s performers like her who make the show worth watching.

Two girls go home tonight and I’d bet on "classically-trained" but painfully shy Stevie Scott and the truly awful Heather Cox as the two to go. Although the aforementioned Kinnik is probably in trouble as well (even though she was better than most) and Becky O’Donohue needs to hope her status as hottest-girl-on-the-show (boosted by recently resurfaced Maxim photos) buys her another week, because her terrible vocals won’t.

While the girls were pretty lackluster the guys were downright special (as in the Special Olympics). Elliott Yamin appears to be the one true standout, although oddball contestant Taylor Hicks has a decent voice (and unforgettable performance style), Chris Daughtry did the mainstream rock thing credibly and the ludicrously named Ace Young played to his strengths (with a George Michael song ), but he should really cut out that creepy vacant male model posturing. The show already has Ryan Seacrest.

It seems ridiculously obvious that first-to-perform-and-instantly-forgettable Patrick Hall will leave the group tonight but who will join him? Bobby Bennett and Kevin Covais could be saved by the "Vote for the Worst" crowd (and, in Kevin’s case, viewers over the age of 90 with bad hearing, to paraphrase Simon). Gedeon McKinney is also hopelessly bland and could join Patrick on the way out. Basically anyone besides Elliot, Taylor or Chris could go and it would be fine, which only becomes truly terrifying when you realize six of these guys will make the top 12.

The British Have Spoken

This is a little late, but just for the record, the BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) award ceremony took place on Sunday, and was broadcast in the U.S. on BBC America. Even though not many Americans are even aware of their existence, the BAFTAs are a pretty fun event to watch. It's a lot more relaxed than many award shows (and it's British—who'd have thought?) and the longtime host, Stephen Fry, is witty and ironic in the best way. They even play rock/pop music when the presenters take the stage (yes that's The Chemical Brothers or The Killers or The White Stripes you hear when Patrick Stewart or Pierce Brosnan or Kristin Scott-Thomas appear on stage after an appropriately amusing introduction from Fry).

Winners in the big categories were:
Best Picture - Brokeback Mountain
Best Director - Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain)
Best Actor - Philip Seymour Hoffman (Capote)
Best Actress - Reese Witherspoon (Walk the Line)
Best Supporting Actor - Jake Gyllenhaal (Brokeback Mountain)
Best Supporting Actress - Thandie Newton (Crash)

Pretty much how it's expected to go at the Oscars, except in those supporting categories where Gyllenhaal pulled an "upset" (BAFTA showered George Clooney with more nominations than anyone else this year—that's saying a lot—but his noms for both Syriana and Good Night and Good Luck in the supporting actor category probably hurt his chance for a win) and Newton, who isn't Oscar-nominated, surprised as well (Oscar frontrunner Rachel Weisz, who is British, was up for lead actress at the BAFTAs for The Constant Gardener). It's the first ever major award win for either of them (although Gyllenhaal was recognized by the National Board of Review earlier in the season and Newton was part of Crash's ensemble cast win at SAG).

Other winners included:
Best Adapted Screenplay - Brokeback Mountain
Best Original Screenplay - Crash
Best Cinematography - Memoirs of a Geisha
Best Costume Design - Memoirs of a Geisha
Best Editing - The Constant Gardener
Best Make-up/Hairstyling - The Chronicles of Narnia
Best Original Score - Memoirs of a Geisha
Best Production Design - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Best Sound - Walk the Line
Best Special Effects - King Kong

All of these winners are nominated in the corresponding Oscar categories as well (and none of them were shown on the BBC America broadcast).

In awards specific to the BAFTAs, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit won for Best British Film (over the likes of Constant Gardener and Pride & Prejudice, ha ha) and Pride & Prejudice director Joe Wright won an award for Most Promising Newcomer.

The show's most disturbing win was James McAvoy's triumph over Gael Garcia Bernal, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Rachel McAdams and Michelle Williams for the inaugural general-public-selected Rising Star Award. No disrespect to McAvoy (who was perfectly charming as Mr. Tumnus in The Chronicles of Narnia) but he was up against four of the best "Rising Star" candidates possible. I guess that's what playing a faun does for you.

Even the BAFTAs' career-achievement award was more interesting than the usual rote tribute, thanks to a very moving speech from the honoree, producer David Puttnam, that included praise for the films of 2005 and an extended reference to The Sixth Sense. You kinda had to see it to get it...