The Quest s1e4 "Battle Dome" liveblog roundup

It's really hard to find decent pictures for this show!

Here's what I had to say:

• A drill!
• I love this captain of the guard more every ep.
• I hope Tiny Chick kicks those two big dudes’ asses!
• Hey look! Barefooted, dirty, moppets!
• Oh, look. Christian isn’t as great as he thinks.
• That didn’t look accidental, lady. That looked like you just stepped down.*
• How interesting that the girls were actually using their weapons, while the boys were basically just wrestling.
• Tiny got a good push in! Good girl! Work on surprise and speed, because you can’t match strength!
• The chick won! Yayayayayayay!
• Look how good and genuinely happy they all are! That’s what I love about this sum show.
• Come on, Jasmine! Stay and show them what Tiny Chicks can do!
• "it was almost like a bear and a gorilla punching a baby!"
• Rain for realism!
• All girls at the bottom. I hope this isn’t a trend, but it might be because of the theme…
• Fucking skull trebuchet.
• I didn’t see seven skulls there.**
• I really don’t want this show to wind up being only big brawny dudes. I want the little chicks to surprise everyone with enginuity, and the tougher chicks to stand as equals, and the smaller guys to work around others being bigger. I want a diverse final few!
• If this show gets a second season, I hope there’s either total continuity, or none. Like, the same characters, returning failed heroes, same side characters, etc—or a totally new kingdom with a totally new problem. I hope it’s not a reset, where they just put new people in.
• Andrew is way emotional. He’s loyal to friends, he’s annoyed that someone pointing it out…
• Come on, Jasmine!
• The ghost windows are CGI, so do they even know that their failed hero comrades are looking down at them?
• Yeah Shondo! You support that little awesomeness!
• Nawwwwwwwwwww
• So dumb. I like these guys, but every judging time, they get real stupid.
• What of Andrew wins the Queen’s hand and heart?
• A fuckin ogre.
• I kind of want this show to evolve into an ensemble—like, they stop choosing and they all have to be heroes. Like all the books this is based on, where there’s always four or six or nine people who save everything.

So here's where I am with this series: I like it a whole lot for it's sincerity even in the face of it's own cheesiness, but EVERY SINGLE VOTING TIME, I get annoyed. They're all nice, they're all smart, they're all (mostly) capable and reasonable, and then when it comes time to see who stays, they always pick the wrong one. If it was only me, I'd think I just wasn't getting something, but I seem to be one of hundreds who get mad every week, and that's annoying.

And I want it to start challenging the tropes. Maybe it's too early in the series, what with this only being the first season and all, but I really want them to, like, go off-script and the show have to use it. I want them to interact with the locals, to form attachments that the writers and producers didn't think of, to solve problems with speed and brains instead of just slashing and fighting their ways through. The good news, though, is that someone dropped me a line saying the plan is to have each season be for a different one of the Twelve Kingdoms, so they could, conceivably, start expanding and deviating and getting more thoughtful about the whole Fantasy Kingdom thing. And it's possible that this want is just because of my own personal involvement in Fantasy as a genre, anyway.

I'm still pissed that Jasmine is gone, though. Like, seriously. She was the best, and how can she and Ansgar have a tough but respectful and productive friendship now??

NOTES:
*Actually, when I saw it, I thought she deliberately stepped down to let the other girl win, which would have been awesome.

**I was counting!

The Quest s1s3 liveblog roundup!

As you may or may not know, I frequently loveblog shows over on my tumblr--here's what I thought about The Quest this week:

(source: io9)

Apparently some of the last ones I posted didn't actually post, but here's the list of the ones that did!

• Time for The Quest!
• Wow, that poison made her look BAD. And now there’s a power struggle brewing!
• I’m not a witch, I’m your wife!
• This show reminds me of the Crystal Maze*—a little cheesy, a little awesome, and addictive.
• What if talky mctalksalot I’d a mole? Like, he’ll skate by until It’s really important, then he’ll turn on them and be a villain. That’d be cool.
• I was about to ask if busting down the door would be a problem, but then they start digging under the door, sooo…
• Damnit, Christian. Go home.
• Did they CGI that smoke and her color?
• Why does this moderately European kingdom have a vizir and not, like, a council, or a minister? Do we get his story?**
• Did they write that song for her or should she come back next year as the bard?***
• Oh, she said see wrote it.
• I hope they get to keep their medals even if they’re bumped.
• Everyone else is all “we’re family” and Christian is all “we ain’t family” and that’s why I don’t like him****.
• And I’m just thinking about whether I can make nail polish with those pigments.
• I love that they’re playing this collaborative. They’re working together, not against each other.
• They keep saying that C is good at stuff, but all I’ve seen is him messing up when he claims he’s so great.
• I love the ghost wall. It keeps the old contestants around and present.
• What the actual fuck. If C doesn’t turn out to be a turncoat later, I’m going to be so annoyed. Esp if this keeps happening.
• Everyone feels bad now that it’s too late, huh?
• Plot twist! Of course.

This show is, objectively, sort of dumb; but it's like watching a show at a RennFaire or something--you know it's contrived, it's more than a little cheesy, but they're so into it and taking it so seriously, that you sort of get sucked in, too. And, I mean, what nerd hasn't wanted to actually go into a fantasy world and actually do stuff?

My favorite part of it, though, is that they're mostly playing collaboratively. In other reality competition shows, it tends to be everyone for himself from the beginning, but these guys decided almost immediately that they are all hoping to be the Hero, but only one can be, and that that means the rest of them are there to support the Hero in any way they can--so they're not backstabbing, they're outright helping each other, and it's kind of beautiful.

I hope they don't cast meaner people if the show gets a second season.

NOTES:

*Am I the only person who remembers the Crystal Maze? I loved that show.

**There are so many ways for this story to open up--how the visir came to this medieval land, and whether his homeland is one of the competitive Twelve Kingdoms of EverRealm; the story of the master of arms and why he's such a badass and yet needs these noobs to be his fighters; any side stories the contestants can drum up, like falling for one of the serving wenches--or even the queen; the possibilty of willful turncoats, or of losing competitors to the sway other side where they then work against their friends...it could be SO COOL.

***I actually really liked the song, and I love the idea of her coming back as a bard in the next season if she doesn't win this one.

****Or at least how he plays.