Let's back off of the "variety show" aspect of today's show for a second.
Today's setups were, overall, the easiest they have been in awhile. OWP and Switch, often some of Mike's favorite traps, were easy as pie today, and Racey wasn't too bad either (very strong playing to ace the fridge early and recognize -99 ATV eventually). Sidey I also think they may have wanted the win, but if they did they should have made it 6196 or something...still, not a trap. The only real hard game today was H/L, with that random gum actually being the highest high. When all the GPs get jumbled together like that it gets tough fast and mistakes like the pasta sauce can happen, never mind the fact that weird icing pack was actually a high.
But nothing of the above compares to A#, which had to be the easiest car setup in Season 39. -95 on a non-L7, non-fee car game, my god! As soon as I saw that Jeep Wrangler, I was expecting some paint along with the usual folding top, but nope...it was to my great delight then that I concluded that the show had actually determined to let a car be wide open on one of these "special" shows to create a good moment - FINALLY the right move! ...
Now, let's consider what Donald did today as a contestant:
-The only difficult part of A# was not overpricing the Jeep like people have in More or Less twice this year, which seems to be a major problem for people. Not only did Donald KNOW this was 22xxx, he then got 227xx. Everything was all set up for Donald at this point.
-He bid $52000 on a luxury car showcase, which is the most appropriate bid we've had on such a showcase in awhile. If it wasn't for those bloody stupid guitars and MacPro, he would have won, but alas, Mike sexed the showcase up for this exact reason, as we've broken down countless times now. Still, Donald knew what was going on.
...And this is exactly what did Donald in, thinking that the price could not possibly be as nice as -95. I'm expecting a lot of negativity toward Donald today, but I have to say the way A#, Cover, Money and L7 are all set up nowadays, the setup today was a rarity and, if you're not paying attention to the options (which is very hard to do on stage), ultimately Donald got reversed, horrible bad luck. There's no fault here, other than Mike getting incredibly lucky he has established a culture of weird prices and finding a rare contestant who knew this culture when it was reversed today. The loss speaks to the fact that there has been a culture change in the setups.
As for the rest of the show...you know, if door #3 is going to be occupied the whole show, I might not schedule a GPT game like Hi-Lo, *especially* for a car, forcing weird angling of the game (and different starting position). Now maybe Mike sprung this upon them after the lineup was made, but I kinda doubt that since it was very short again to allow the five or whatever minutes there was of singing, so that really just shouldn't have happened. Use Grocery Game if you really want a non-car GP game loss.
And as for Rain...boy, this "variety" show today sure left me... unfulfilled in watching a game show today. First time I've ever really experienced that - Mike's little attempts on a "varitey" show this season with the announcer's increasing role, models talking a bit, removing a model for announcer hasn't ruined too much for me personally, but God, I'm willing to bet no one here could have possibly enjoyed this if they weren't a Beatles diehard (and the two fanbases do NOT have a significant union!). Easy setups will never cancel out something as aggregious as this ... God do I hope it's the last time I have to feel that.
EDIT: Uh, guys... a non-car game for a car is usually a chance to force a loss (or at least make it tougher) as well as get an unique lineup in. Nothing wrong with it, the DOB did it all the time. An exception would be Pushover, and OWP on a S36 primetime show. But even ME on the S35 opener was supposed to be lost.
