As soon as I finished watching this episode, I knew there would be several pages on the recap thread....
Opening: Wow, the light border is gone that quickly.
I thought it'd be a while before that happened. After being used to seeing the border at the top of the show for so long, the opening seems naked without it. It wasn't bad, just weird.
OB#1: I like the new outer shell on the clam, but the inside is a bit busy with the lights and such.
OWP: I've never seen a multi-prize game where the price matters offer just one trip before, except 2 For 1 (which works well for that). That was awkward. I thought for sure that would be the evil setup that tricked Michael until I saw the skin cream with the fake over $2000. Well, I would've won, but that skin cream duped him.
Calldown #2: Drew asks for an IUFB, and Rich segues beautifully through the flub. As Elaine came down, I noticed the curtains around the missing chairs on the right side of the audience...played it back just to make sure.
Money Game: Elaine made very short work of the game today, quickly picking from the "first half" numbers and then going straight to El Cheapo. A LFAT perhaps? I wonder why Bart didn't get a closeup of the first number as it was revealed. And speaking of reveals, Drew didn't seem very enthused about this game today.
Calldown #3: Twice in a row, Drew? Seriously?
The green screen finally makes its appearance. Honestly, it didn't look bad at all--at least for me as a home viewer watching on the net. The reaction from Zeke as the in-studio contestant...exactly what we were afraid of.
Shell Game: Yay for Shelly!! Those SP's were really interesting today (and all electronic gadgets, too) with the rollaway alarm clock making me chuckle. Drew really botched what could have been an exciting reveal here. With a slight delay in hearing the *ding* sound effect, methinks the crew thought Drew would handle that differently.
CoG: So much for this game's winning streak...back to its old ways. I still don't see how contestants can see two possible prices, one ending with "95", and
not choose it.
The studio audience shot after this game was kinda nice. It made me think fondly of the old mid-show bumper and how much I miss it.
OB#5: Rich mixes up his copy again! Although this time, it just seemed kinda weird and not as fun as the one last season. Staged?...I don't think so, but I unfortunately wouldn't discount the possibility.
Line 'Em Up: What a heartbreaking loss. I'd have been down to last number on the first try, and won on the second.
Pick A Pair: Tony goes for the obvious pair and wins it. The show uses Campbell's Soup as a GP occasionally, but this is the first time in recent memory that I can recall it being used as a fee plug from the company.
The audience shots after 5th & 6th games didn't seem necessary. Granted, that's time that we probably would've seen Drew and the contestant talking onstage anyway, but I'd rather see that time reallocated elsewhere.
Showcases: At least Stan is using music cues other than the MDS sting to start this segment. I still haven't heard one that I think fits though. (Although I'd rather this little bit were scrapped altogether...)
Showcase #1: I, too, thought a reference would be made to Fingers Greco. I also thought that Drew would have another random response for each of Rich's questions. This could have been put together so much better, as has already been stated, but I didn't think it was overly bad. At least Rich eating chicken at the end closed-out the theme in the wrap-up. However, the continued references to fried chicken after the skit was done were clearly unnecessary.
Showcase #2: This one was just abysmal.
I thought there would be a theme wrapped around snow- or winter-related prizes. The line about "fake snow" made me chuckle. But then it turned to a satire on missing out on the first/"better" showcase. That wasn't called for at all...
Showcase Reveal: I will give Drew credit in that his showcase reveals have somewhat improved over last season.
This show was just plain weird. Many flubs, too many changes, and I'm really starting to lose faith that the showcase writer(s) will ever return to any semblance of the classic showcase narrative formula. I've tried to stay optimistic through all this, but today's show was the first time that I've ever seriously doubted the future of the show... As a LFAT, it pains me to say that.
