NichD

Derrick, a rookie! Were we ever so young? I mainly remember this season as a total dud, and the moment when the Challenge stopped being appointment viewing. Except for that porny challenge where they had to melt giant blocks of ice, and the guys were all in Speedos, climbing on top of each other and so forth.

The challenges themselves were probably the worst they've ever had (jump rope! a heated battle between Katie and Julie came down to JUMP ROPE!), but the contestants brought the drama. Katie and Coral in particular were at their best when they were slamming Julie. Between Katie's"You think Coral's a bitch, wait 'til you fuck with me," and the eternal "I don't wrestle; I fucking beat bitches up" from Coral (which should be on her tombstone), it was fantastic for those of us who found Julie insufferable. Not to mention Coral's "Melissa will kill you" t-shirt. And of course, there was this: The big fight kicks off at about 4:30. I can't for the life of me figure out why MTV felt the need to blast that music over it, when the music of Katie and Veronica hollering spoke for itself.

Absolutely. I pointed out to Joe Reid on Twitter that they actually went with his idea of preventing predictable alliances by changing the voting/team structure every week: http://previously.tv/the-challenge/angry-jonna/ But as he also pointed out, the public vote plus time to discuss it beforehand gives people a chance to get their ducks in a row, so to some degree, the alliances that make up the status quo will have a chance to defend themselves, which is too bad. I'm looking forward to see how the new season is covered on the site, because I can't imagine anybody would attempt power rankings with dozens of individual players roaming around, many of them invisible in this first episode.

If I were picking my top three at the start of the season, I would've gone with Bianca and Courtney for sure, and probably Milk. At this point, I'd stick with Bianca, but fill out the other spots with Ben and Adore--the latter of whom has really surprised me.

That Untucked was everything. And the other queens weren't even that mean-spirited, so much as they were demanding some honesty from her. And did Leganja say that she was going to "chassé" away? I know that's a dance step, but it's NOT what Rupaul says, so it just seemed kind of dumb. As a friend of mine pointed out after the show, being taught anything by Alyssa must be a constant, crazy game of telephone.

Very delayed response, but she was thoroughly embarrassing in the Untucked from a couple weeks ago. "That wasn't ENOUGH attention!"

I don't care how decently Rachel is behaving this time around, I still have a visceral dislike for her. It's extremely frustrating that she & Brendon keep plummeting from first to last or nearly-last, and STILL manage to avoid elimination. Bah.

I like Dave & Connor too (not least because of the latter's pretty, pretty hair), but I need exactly zero further reminders that Dave blew out his Achilles the last time they raced. I've got it. Honestly. (Same goes for "leg" puns.) It was nice to see a decent, human side of Rachel this week, but it's going to take a lot more than that to erase three previous seasons of her awfulness to make me actually reverse my opinion that she's the worst. I'm not saying it can't happen, she might well have become a lot more mature, but she has a lot of aggravation to answer for.

That was a spectacular meltdown at the reward challenge, not to mention a great display of ineptitude in the immunity challenge. J'Tia seems to be terrible at just about everything so far, and even with a tribe mixup coming up, I think it was the right call to get rid of her. Spencer certainly wouldn't hesitate to flip on Tasha & Kass if that's the best move, but he could also see the benefit of sticking with them in a final three alliance. And at the very least he'd be easier to predict and work with than J'Tia.

Hope it's OK to start this topic. Just to get the ball rolling, I'll say that I was saddened to find out that Countess Luann was demoted to a recurring role this year. I'll miss her particular brand of crazy, although I suppose now she can storm in as she pleases, kick up a fuss, and retreat to her lair without having to deal with Ramona ALL the time, so good for her.

Pretty lackluster and rehash-y for a season premiere. The new housewife bugs so far, but the jury's still out. The highlight for me came from the season preview at the end, with the Countess bellowing, "I AM THE HOSTESS."

I agree, but I don't think they're as automatically screwed on Drag Race as they are on Top Model. At least I cling to that notion based on Latrice Royale, who got close to the end and whose biggest criticism as I recall (her mask-y makeup, right?) had nothing to do with her size. I hope she's not the exception that proves the rule. Time will tell with Darienne.

It occurred to me last night that she has a similar face to Dawn French: very elastic, I guess, expressive and versatile. Perfect for comedy.

Oh geez, I hope not. An enjoyable villain has wit and style (Hannibal Lecter, Jafar, Cersei Lannister, even Shannel from Season 1). Gia is just so aggressively stupid, I really dislike her on a gut level. It's not love-to-hate with her, it's genuine irritation.

Ho hum. The same old arguments from last week just carry over, with Lisa still doing her damndest to deflect and avoid every single one. I kind of admire her ability to manipulate her way out of trouble at every turn, but this episode was just filler to lead up to the reunion, made painfully obvious by the fact that they spent the last several minutes previewing next week.

I'm just slightly disappointed with the outcome tonight. Vi Vacious was an utter train wreck during the challenge, to be sure, but she brought something unique to the table. There are about four other Aprils hanging around.

Oh, I'm still pretty much on board with her. She definitely has a tendency to get in a quippy response for EVERYTHING, but at least some of them landed & made me laugh. I'm also slow to give up on the ones I've picked as my favorites (held out hope for way too long that Delta Work would pull it together), so I guess I'll see if Bianca starts getting on my nerves.

I couldn't stand Phi Phi, but at least there was some kind of spark there, something behind her eyes, where Gia just vacant.

I picked Sarah yesterday afternoon, and the premiere hasn't dissuaded me from that; at the very least I'm pleased that it wasn't a totally embarrassing pick to make. But she looks solid so far--she managed to take the leader role without getting flak for it, and she seemed to breeze through the puzzle.

Oy, if this episode is indicative of how the season is going to go, I am really not looking forward to Probst making it into a referendum on the value of intelligence vs. muscles, hollering "NERD!" at every opportunity, etc. I think the "Brains" tribe needs an asterisk on it, with a footnote reading, "you know, comparatively speaking--within the subset of people who will show up for a reality show."

Love, love, love--even just from the 10 minute teaser from the second half of the premiere. She's bitchy with a brain to back it up, and has already made me snort-laugh my wine. "She's dead."

Yikes, what a colossal bore. And moron. I'm desperately hoping for an early challenge that calls for wit, to thin either her or Trinity (or both) from the herd. For someone who's trying so hard to read the others, she's utterly humorless.