S32 E03: Crazy Ex-Girlfriend 2018.07.24

[Lantern7]

Three hours of show, and we finish one round. I hate Bunim-Murray Productions for making me feel like an old man. I yearn for thirty-minute episodes, where most everything was wrapped up in a neat package. Now, it's basically people sniping at and/or fucking each other.

Good News: Natalie & Paulie are out! Bad News: Redemption House still exists, because most everybody deserves a second chance . . . even Big Brother contestants. And I find those folks can make a dumpster fire even worse. Also, we get to hear Kam talk about "Killer Kam" over and over and over and my God, could you pace yourself?!? So you're 4-0 in endgames. That doesn't mean much these days.

I will say that I am happy with the endgame format. Somebody told the producers about Last Comic Standing, and they dug it up to exhume the voting procedure. Secret ballot and voters being held accountable actually works here. It's a shame it'll suck after three Armageddons (eyeroll), because The Challenge is where logic and hope go to die. At least the Armageddon looked gender-neutral. Oh, and two of the Brits talked about something called "Twittah." Any idea what that's about?

Redemption House: Chuck and Whasherface rip into each other. Once again Big Brother people can ruin anything.

Highlight of the hour for me: finding out new episodes of Ridiculousness are coming out soon. Hey, rank on Rob Dyrdek and his crew, but they look more three-dimensional than these idiots.

Edited July 25, 2018 by Lantern7

[Zima]

I liked the hour long format...when there was a challenge and elim in the same hour. Now, we're 3 eps in and have had only 1 elim. Pretty ridiculous.

Kam's bungee looked SOOO loose on her during the Armageddon. Paulie could barely move forward in his. There is simply no way to make things fair when the team's genders aren't ALL male/female. 

I really miss team challenges.

Edited July 25, 2018 by Zima

[crookedjackson44]

40 minutes of pointless stupidity and drivel, followed by 5 minutes of reveal, and 10 minutes or so of a Challenge.  This show knows how to waste time.  Why do I still watch this crap?

[scrb]

So the secret ballot lasted ... 10 minutes?

It's going to be dumb for them to go into that room in the future when everyone is going to know anyways.

Now if they keep the rule where those voted in get to choose their opponent, it has the potential to modify their voting patterns going forward.

Like it would make sense to vote for a team which you think you can beat in an elimination or the Armageddon Dome as they call it this season.  If you're a strong team voting in a weaker team, they'd be less likely to pick you and even if they did pick you, you'd likely beat them.

However, the players can all still play the "I won't say your name" alliance game as they did in previous seasons.  Even if they kept the votes truly secret, they'd find out later when the episodes air and that would kill alliances so the alliance which exist across several seasons would always be maintained by core groups.

Some of us viewers would like to see the alliances gone but it's not clear that B-M wants them gone since they generate drama and confrontations.

 

It's the first regular elimination so I don't know why they were so excited about finding out the results of the vote or the elimination.  Like I said about the season premier, they all have to know there's a Redemption House, since they sent off 3 teams right off the bat.

Please spare us them acting like they're shocked when that's revealed.  

Edited July 25, 2018 by scrb

[luckyroll3]

Despite waiting 3 fricken episodes for an elimination (really producers?), I really like this elimination format.  Everyone always has to vote which means everyone is always up for elimination.  And the alliances won't mean much because in order to be safe, you have to win The Challenge.  That means everyone has to perform every time. I'm here for it.

I forgot how awful of a performer Derek "I'm a football player" is.  Lol!  He's always talking about how amazing he is before the Challenge and then how the reason he did poorly wasn't at all his fault after.  What a loser.   

Also, Cara Maria was fucking annoying as hell this episode.

[RandomWatcher]

From what I saw on Twitter and Instagram, an equalizer was used on Paulie's ropes. If that hadn't been used, maybe he would have had a better chance.

[Zima]

4 minutes ago, RandomWatcher said:

From what I saw on Twitter and Instagram, an equalizer was used on Paulie's ropes. If that hadn't been used, maybe he would have had a better chance.

We could tell that from watching the show! I think the "equalizer" was way too much, as he could barely move, while Kam was zipping back and forth. 

[RHJunkie]

How in the hell did they give almost an entire episode just to show the behind the scenes leading up to the challenge? The drama wasn't even interesting and the only thing it managed to do was make me supremely annoyed with how desperate Cara Maria is and I can't tell if she's just so obsessed that she can't even see it, or if she knows it and isn't embarrassed in the least by her behaviour.

And on top of all of that, I waited for an elimination that resulted in a very unfair advantage to Kam. Whatever formula they used to calculate the relative tightness of the ropes was a shitty formula. It only took your eyes to see that Paulie's ropes were made far too tight compared to Kam's.

Britney is crazy and it's very clear that she's still into Chuck. The fact that he hasn't flat out denied her accusations of him cheating on her throughout their relationship seems telling but he seems very against talking about why he went MIA on her. Again, she's crazy and likely led to the dysfunction in their relationship but it doesn't excuse infidelity or walking away without a word.

They've already done this 'partner with your enemy' format. I must prefer teams or individual challenges.

[zoltana]

That was one of the most unfair challenges I've seen.  I read above about Paulie having an equalizer, but somebody screwed that up because it was so obviously unfair.  When she's bouncing all around her cage and having no trouble grabbing puzzle pieces and he's having to go back to the center each time to get momentum to run out toward his pieces?  That's f'k'd up.  And then watching Kam congratulate herself over and over after such an unfair advantage was just to much.  At least make these elimination challenges fair for friggin' sake.  Geez.  That was frustrating.

[mccartygirl]

1 hour ago, zoltana said:

That was one of the most unfair challenges I've seen.  I read above about Paulie having an equalizer, but somebody screwed that up because it was so obviously unfair.  When she's bouncing all around her cage and having no trouble grabbing puzzle pieces and he's having to go back to the center each time to get momentum to run out toward his pieces?  That's f'k'd up.  And then watching Kam congratulate herself over and over after such an unfair advantage was just to much.  At least make these elimination challenges fair for friggin' sake.  Geez.  That was frustrating.

I'm so tired of her talking about how awesome she is! It made no sense to me how she easily walked up to the boxes and grabbed them. It's going to be very interesting as the season goes on. 

I was laughing at Bananas and CT's talk about his partner. Poor CT. He's going to have to carry her arse the whole way.

[Lantern7]

1 hour ago, mccartygirl said:

I was laughing at Bananas and CT's talk about his partner. Poor CT. He's going to have to carry her arse the whole way.

I don’t regard her as useless. It’s just that she’s older, and she might be regarding the show as more of a vacation. To CT, she’s nowhere near Wes in Rivals II. In her defense, she isn’t Beth. That woman was a drag on anybody forced onto her side.

[Spencer Hastings]

Cara Maria has turned into such a toxic person.  I don’t love Marie, but she was so nasty to her for no reason.  They’re all portraying certain characters but this season’s version sucks.

[mojoween]

It’s not even my birthday!

I don’t care about how visually skewed it looked, Paulie is gone first yahoo!

Now hopefully he stays gone.  Don’t toy with me, Redemption House.  Hopefully whatever challenge they all have to do to try to get back in is something Jemmye is good at.

Kam is loud, but I laughed so hard at the nonchalant “it’s cool” with an immediate smash cut to “I AM SO PISSED!”

Sylvia goggle-eyed at how DARE someone vote for her was incredibly annoying.  You suck, Sylvia.

[Kangatush]

This 3 episodes to get anywhere thing is going to get really old really fast.  Maybe I'm in the minority, but I can happily fast forward through 99% of the in house stuff.  And what was up with the shiny hefty bag outfit of Brit?

[BK1978]

17 hours ago, RandomWatcher said:

From what I saw on Twitter and Instagram, an equalizer was used on Paulie's ropes. If that hadn't been used, maybe he would have had a better chance.

That is messed up.  I mean a little bit of an equalizer I can understand but as others have pointed out he was really hindered.  I dislike Paulie from his time on BB but it does suck that they really seemed to handicap him in this elimination challenge.

8 hours ago, Lantern7 said:

I don’t regard her as useless. It’s just that she’s older, and she might be regarding the show as more of a vacation. To CT, she’s nowhere near Wes in Rivals II. In her defense, she isn’t Beth. That woman was a drag on anybody forced onto her side.

Like CT said, she was once the queen bee and was pretty good at challenges (At least I think she was, I only watch the seasons when they originally air so I am using my faulty memory to try an remember stuff.) now she does seem to be there for the vacation.  I wonder if push comes to shove if she could be her old self again.

7 hours ago, Spencer Hastings said:

Cara Maria has turned into such a toxic person.  I don’t love Marie, but she was so nasty to her for no reason.  They’re all portraying certain characters but this season’s version sucks.

Yeah Cara has become such a let down to me.  I think the last season I really liked her was the season where her and her cousin won (Speaking on that what the hell happened to Johnny's cousin Vince?  I thought for sure he would become a mainstay on the show but he only did two seasons and that was it).  She seemed to have gone down hill since then.

I loved Marie's comment about Cara not washing her hair.  That got a laugh out of me.

 

1 hour ago, Kangatush said:

This 3 episodes to get anywhere thing is going to get really old really fast.  Maybe I'm in the minority, but I can happily fast forward through 99% of the in house stuff.  And what was up with the shiny hefty bag outfit of Brit?

I'll be in the minority with you because if I could I would have done the same (I watched it live).  At least they showed us an actual elimination, instead of holding off and showing it to us on the next episode.

[scrb]

That secret vote room, they have some tight shots of the faces.

Both Cara Maria and Marie looking their age.

[zenme]

I don't recall Veronica acing challenges--she wasn't bad, she wasn't great. She was Queen Bee in terms of being a mean girl. She used to ally herself with strong competitors.  She, herself, was never one of those great competitors.

[ImpinAintEasy]

Paulie being 5’8 and like 150 lbs didn’t help with that elimination. I think many of the other guys would have handled it much better, to where it wouldn’t seem like such a disadvantage. Still, it’s obvious the formula used to determine the resistance was ridiculous. Kam had it way too easy. They should have made Natalie do the bungee portion, or simply don’t do same sex and mixed sex pairs in the same damn season. 

[zoltana]

20 hours ago, mojoween said:

Sylvia goggle-eyed at how DARE someone vote for her was incredibly annoying.  You suck, Sylvia.

This gets me every time for every challenge related reality show.  Ummmm, you did realize that only 1 person or pair wins these things right???  Yet every show, every season, 'Waaaaaaahhhhhh, he/she voted for me, it's SO unfair!  I trusted you, waaaaaaaahhhhh!!'  Yeah, I don't think your entitled ass realizes how this stuff works.  They other players aren't there to just clear a path for you to the winner's circle.

[MaggieG]

21 hours ago, mojoween said:

It’s not even my birthday!

 

Kam is loud, but I laughed so hard at the nonchalant “it’s cool” with an immediate smash cut to “I AM SO PISSED!”

 

That made me laugh too!

I seriously thought Chuck and Britni were going to make out right after yelling at each other. Jozea said it right as I was thinking it

[MVFrostsMyPie]

19 hours ago, BK1978 said:

I loved Marie's comment about Cara not washing her hair.  That got a laugh out of me.

That was the highlight of the show for me. I wanted to high five her. Cara looks greasier and dirtier with every challenge. 

[scrb]

8 hours ago, ImpinAintEasy said:

Paulie being 5’8 and like 150 lbs didn’t help with that elimination. I think many of the other guys would have handled it much better, to where it wouldn’t seem like such a disadvantage. Still, it’s obvious the formula used to determine the resistance was ridiculous. Kam had it way too easy. They should have made Natalie do the bungee portion, or simply don’t do same sex and mixed sex pairs in the same damn season. 

They may have meant to level the playing field but just underestimated how much more resistance Paulie's band had.

Or B-M may be up to shenanigans, helping certain teams over others.

[LaurelleJ]

I just don't understand why they didn't make it mandatory that Natalie be wearing the bands, so they wouldn't need the use of an equalizer. In the end it doesn't bother me as much because I like Kam more than Natalie. Also because they thought that competing against a team of two girls would be safer than picking a guy-girl pair, so there you go. Especially since rumor has it that Paulie asked if their bands would be the same, so he thought he would have a clear advantage. 

Like Kailah, I used to really like Cara. Can't say that anymore. 

[IDreamofJoaquin]

I am glad Kam and Kayleigh won only to see who Cara tries to threaten to sleep with her next.

[Zima]

On 7/26/2018 at 6:05 AM, zenme said:

I don't recall Veronica acing challenges--she wasn't bad, she wasn't great. She was Queen Bee in terms of being a mean girl. She used to ally herself with strong competitors.  She, herself, was never one of those great competitors.

I rewatch the older seasons way too often, and I have to say that Veronica was a great competitor; probably one of the top women in her day. 

[sabretooth]

Quote

Britney is crazy and it's very clear that she's still into Chuck. The fact that he hasn't flat out denied her accusations of him cheating on her throughout their relationship seems telling but he seems very against talking about why he went MIA on her. Again, she's crazy and likely led to the dysfunction in their relationship but it doesn't excuse infidelity or walking away without a word.

During that whole argument, when Chuck was standing profile, he reminded me a lot of late-2000s Jonathan Jackson (his General Hospital days).  I'm dating myself a bit with this reference, I know. 

Quote

Everyone always has to vote which means everyone is always up for elimination.  And the alliances won't mean much because in order to be safe, you have to win The Challenge.  That means everyone has to perform every time. I'm here for it.

This is true, but this is also The Challenge, which probably means that this format will only work for three episodes or so. 

[luckyroll3]

On 7/28/2018 at 6:29 PM, sabretooth said:

During that whole argument, when Chuck was standing profile, he reminded me a lot of late-2000s Jonathan Jackson (his General Hospital days).  I'm dating myself a bit with this reference, I know. 

I was head over heals in love with Jonathon Jackson during his teenage run on GH. 

On 7/28/2018 at 6:29 PM, sabretooth said:

This is true, but this is also The Challenge, which probably means that this format will only work for three episodes or so. 

Well of course, because they'll probably find some reason to change the rules halfway through.