I liked today overall, despite it being a Rent day. Drew, as usual, was variable in mood, but at an acceptable level today. That is, save for that awful blunder about there being no winners in SCSD; this was inexcusable.
However, on the bright side, Drew actually explained Rent pretty well, and a whole hell of a lot better than he usually does. Sadly, Kristine wasn't the sharpest crayon and put the lowest item first. Again. Until someone who is a LFaT somehow manage to play this game, this is the snafu we'll be in. Don't mention Veteran's Day last season, please- I'm sure he thought the same bad strategy was the one to use.
Edit: Meh culpa, the dog food was lower, but I still think Kristine thought it was the lowest of the GPs.
Money Game: Drew was very blah here, as usual. Once again, I have no idea if the money rule still remains in this game. I'd like to think so, but this falls under a similar gray area to me that Switcheroo and leaving the numbers alone does (more on that later). Some of Crystal's picks here were inexcusable, namely the 54, 19, and 78. None of those even remotely make sense.
Squeeze Play: Yay, Montreal! Too bad George had to go over the top with a accent, and a bad one at that when this was introduced. As I could tell you personally, it's not cheap to live there; that and junior suite would tell me it's the most expensive of our 3 options, so it had to be $7,826. $7,816 doesn't look right, and the 8 was obviously the 2nd digit, given the average (non-sexed up) trip on Price these days is just over $8,000. Poor playing, and Drew was unmemorable but not focusing too much on the coats, thankfully.
SCSD1: I'd ask for a touch more animation in Drew for the $1 Bonus Spin, but given Drew's standard this was about what we, the viewers could hope for. Very exciting for me, nonetheless; I thought giving Jacob's spin power there was no way he'd get any additional money from the wheel.
Eazy: Yay, Gaston got up. Drew hinted as much with his close bids the last 2 rounds, but I think he was a LFaT. Drew had a solid explanation here, nothing special. I also thought he was right with 3-2-1, even with the Macbook Pro, I thought that Washer set was the upper $3,000ish one. I found it interesting that he placed the 3 block first, rarely do contestants go out of order placing these blocks, at least, when I've been watching.
Double Prices: By far my favorite part of the show. Not only was Martha pretty smart, and saved the show, but Drew was fantastic at the end of the segment. He made a reference (I'm not sure if intentional) to Barker saying, "A winnah!" Pretty awesome, I must say.
'Roo: Slot win, lineup win. Not perfect, but pretty darn good; this last really helped. Marianito was extremely annoying to see stumble through this game. As Drew put it, he was focusing way too much on the SPs. Yes, you should care about the SPs since you then use process of elimination, but he was messing with 2 SPs that really wouldn't have helped him.
Drew irked me again about his hosting of this game; he needs to remind the player (even if the choice to correct is blatantly obvious, like today) that they do not have to go again or switch any numbers. Same problem in the second trail; too much focus on SPs, with maybe 5 moves of those, and 1 of the car. He must have really liked that Pasta Maker, or hated the car.
SCSD: Yay, more money; and it goes to a good player.
SCs: Overall, what a Mikey day; 3 overall trips AND a 2 prizer. Pathetic. Once again, very mediocre reveal by Drew, acts like he couldn't care less, though he showed some decent excitement when stating Jacob's total.
SC1, I have no damn idea what they were doing here. A boring 2-prizer, which went by way too fast, had the car at that new angle platform that I hate. If Jordan is right that this was under 60 seconds, that just shows the incompetence of this staff, in case anyone was wondering.
SC2: More sexed up trips, with designer furniture. I swear Mike is doing this just to spite GR. This had no connection, and needed better writing. Frankly, I would much rather see a LONG overdue Splendido showcase in its place. While I'm usually opposed to the sex-ups in SCs; this one is no exception, but I must say, the jet pack excursion looked pretty darn awesome, I must say.
