Author: Shane

The Amazing Race Asia 3 Episode 2

The two Indian teams struggled with cab drivers at the end of the first leg, and Neena & Amit were eliminated in The Amazing Race Asia 3 Episode 1.

Teams depart in the order in which they arrived.

First: Mai & Oliver – 10:35PM
Second: Geoff & Tisha – 10:38PM
Third: Henry & Bernie – 10:45PM
Fourth: Pailin & Natalie – 12:18AM
Fifth: Ida & Tania – 12:34AM
Sixth: Isaac & William – 12:41AM
Seventh: Vince & Sam – 12:55AM
Eighth: AD & Fuzzie – 1:20AM
Ninth: Niroo & Kapil – 1:29AM

The first stop is the Flight of the Gibbon, a jungle canopy adventure that will have them 50 meters above the rain forest. Mai assumes they’ll hit hours of operation and is in no rush. For that matter, they don’t even bother. They find a local place to relax for the night. Henry’s trusting his baby sister, reluctantly. Isaac & William hope to be the bumbling and silly guys who don’t know what they’re doing.

When they arrive, it turns out it is an hours of operation (9:30AM-5:00PM), but it’s also first come, first served. Vince & Sam arrive first. AD & Fuzzie are second. Ida & Tania are third. Niroo & Kapil are fourth. Henry & Bernie are fifth. Geoff & Tisha are sixth. Isaac & William are 7th. Pailin & Natalie are eighth. The well rested but not particularly bright Mai & Oliver are last, but at least they still have the home country advantage.

The next stop is a banana plantation. There they must find a backpack while avoiding paintball snipers (which can and will leave bruises) at the road block.

Road block (in order of arrival): Geoff, Mai, Bernie, Kapil, Fuzzie, Tania, William, Sam, Pailin

Teams will be leaving Thailand and heading to Ho Chi Minh City (aka Saigon), Vietnam, where they will go to the Saigon Opera House. This flight will remove the home country advantage from any of the teams.

First flight (Chiang Mai to Bangkok to Ho Chi Minh, 1500km): Tanya & Ida (finished the road block first)
Second flight (to Ho Chi Minh via Siem Reap, Cambodia): Henry & Bernie, Geoff & Tisha, AD & Fuzzie, Kapil & Niroo, Sam & Vince
Third flight (to Bangkok, where they will wait 15 hours for the 9AM connecting flight): William & Isaac, Pailin & Natalie, Mai & Oliver

Natalie has a nice bit of melodrama as she breaks down over having to sleep at the airport (get used to it). She blames Pailin for not supporting her during her “darkest hour.”

At the Saigon Pho Cafe, teams must complete one level of the N-Gage (seriously?) racing game System Rush. After this sponsorship opportunity, they will go to Ben Thanh Market, where they must find a flower stall. It’s a day market, which means hours of operation begin at 6AM (though Ida & Tania and Vince & Sam are misled to believe it’s 7AM). Well ahead of the last three teams, but it gives everybody else time to catch up.

From there, they will go to the Cai Be Bus Terminal, two hours away. Vince & Sam are thrown out of the bus with 6km left, for some unknown reason, but it’s moot since their worst case scenario is sixth place.

The detour is a choice between sampan or some walk. In sampan, teams will fill a traditional wooden boat with fruit and paddle it against strong river currents to a trader. In some walk, teams must collect and deliver 20 chickens using a dangan, and they can expect to run into language difficulty and getting lost.

Some walk: Niroo & Kapil, Henry & Bernie, AD & Fuzzie (switched from sampan), Ida & Tania (switched from sampan), Geoff & Tisha (switched from sampan), Sam & Vince, Isaac & William, Pailin & Natalie, Mai & Oliver

Two teams turn out to have members with chicken phobias, whatever that’s about. Henry & Bernie, one of the first teams to opt to go directly to the some walk task, finish first after a bit of bickering. Geoff & Tisha appear to take Ida & Tania’s basket instead of their own, so they make them turn around and bring it back, which accomplishes nothing but create animosity. Niroo & Kapil finish second, after much complaining by Niroo. Vince & Sam finish quickly despite their relatively late arrival, as the rest of the teams are still in the process of switching from the other seemingly more difficult task. The next three teams finish around the same time as each other. Geoff begins blowing his whistle, which apparently is disrespectful, or so the other teams tells us.

As they’re finishing up, the last three teams, who it’s so obvious have no prayer in this leg (looks like about 6 hours or so), are finally landing. Natalie’s complaining about how she’s being treated like less than human because of the conditions on the race (“being dirty is the lowest form of human existence”). Mai’s heart is not in it any more than this whiner either, although at least Mai’s not acting like a beauty queen for the time being.

The next stop is Thanh Nu Jean Darc Vang Lang Church in Ho Chi Minh City. Their task is to choose a charity and spend $500 on it. The rules seem unclear. Some of the teams go shopping, while some just give the charities cash.

The pit stop for this leg of the race is The Museum of Vietnamese History.

First: Henry & Bernie (win a year’s supply of gas)
Second: AD & Fuzzie
Third: Vince & Sam
Fourth: Niroo & Kapil
Fifth: Geoff & Tisha
Sixth: Ida & Tania
Seventh: Pailin & Natalie
Eighth: Mai & Oliver
Eliminated: Isaac & William

After struggling with the chicken task, Isaac & William are the last team to arrive and have been eliminated from the race.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of The Amazing Race Asia 3 episode 3.

Big Brother 11

Yes, it’s official. Big Brother, CBS’s summer stalwart reality show, will return next summer with its 11th edition. Casting for season 11 is currently ongoing.

Big Brother 10 averaged nearly 7 million viewers this summer, 2.4/07 in adults 18-49 and 3.0/08 in adults 25-54 and proved strong counter programming opposite the summer Olympics.

In addition, Big Brother 10 used both online and mobile platforms to extend the overall show experience and created a community of fans. According to CBS Interactive analytics, Big Brother 10 led all other primetime shows across the CBS Audience Network in terms of video views (clips and full episode streaming), time spent, page views and number of people visiting for the month of August. In addition, Big Brother 10 featured a full 24/7 live online feed through a partnership with Real Networks. And on the mobile platform, Big Brother 10 alerts and video clips were featured by CBS Mobile.

Prison Break Season 4 Episode 5

They successfully obtained a copy of the second of six cards in Prison Break Season 4 episode 4. Following Bruce Bennett’s death, Sara headed to a bar, which allowed Wyatt to figure out where she was.

Scofield asks Self for his assistance. He’d better be prepared to break the law, too.

Wyatt’s hot on Sara’s tail as they race across traffic. In the chaos, she manages to escape his grasp for now.

T-Bag’s co-workers are growing tired of him not doing much. Not all that surprising considering they hired some random guy off the street.

Self barges into an office in the federal building and pretends he’s there to stop a terrorist threat. They begin copying the card, but once it’s put in the safe, they’re out of luck.

Sara explains who’s been chasing her. Mahone knows it’s the same man who killed his son. Now he’s coming to kill the rest of them.

Gretchen’s not responding to physical torture, so they move on to torturing her with smells resembling death.

Self’s a naysayer and tells them there’s no way they’ll get into the safe, but Scofield is unimpressed.

Sucre and Bellick show up at T-Bag’s work looking for him. The receptionist pretends she’s never seen him, despite their offer of $10,000. She hopes she can get more out of T-Bag by blackmailing him directly. He warns her of the potential disaster for crossing him, but he does agree to give her 3% of his commission.

Self makes a lunch date with the man in the office next to the safe. While he’s there, he spills ink on the carpet outside the door. Scofield and Burrows head into the office to break into the safe, while Sucre and Bellick pretend they’re maintenance men cleaning the spill and make a bunch of noise to cover up any sound coming from inside the office.

Mahone heads to the bar where Sara was. He obtains a bit more information about Wyatt from the bartender, who reluctantly cooperates with him. He heads to the hotel and is told Wyatt’s not around. Wyatt has paid the man at the front desk to play along with him, but Mahone’s gun convinces him otherwise.

They finally manage to get their hands on the card, even though the general shows up and sits down in the room with the safe in it. During his conversation, he expresses his concern about the way things are going. They’re not quite done copying the card, when he asks to see it. Luckily for them, the cardholder’s not happy with not being trusted, and his stalling allows them to finish copying the card and return it to the safe in time. However, the directive that is given is that, from now on, everybody must keep their card on them at all times. This should make obtaining future cards more difficult than it has been so far.

Sara wants Michael to know she’d been at a bar before. She says she didn’t drink, but she just doesn’t want to lie to him.

T-Bag gets a visit from the guy who killed Xing. He wants T-Bag to deliver for him, and he tells him he’s got three days at most before he kills him.

Just in case, the receptionist is holding on to Brad’s phone number.

Gretchen kills her captive. Now it’s time for her to escape.

Of the three remaining cardholders, they’ve got plenty of information on two of them. The general, however, is a ghost. They don’t know anything about him. Sara says she heard Gretchen talking about him in Panama. She believes he’s in charge of the company.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Prison Break season 4 episode 6 Blow Out, which airs Monday at 9/8c on Fox.

Heroes Season 3 Episode 2

Heroes Season 3 Episode 1 picked up where we left off last year, as Peter was shooting his brother to stop him from spilling their secret. Nathan’s searching for God, Hiro’s a rich man, and Parkman was transported to the middle of nowhere.

Claire knows Sylar’s not coming back because he got what he came for. She realizes something’s different after sticking herself with some glass and not noticing. Normally, she feels pain, even though she heals afterward.

Angela has another dream that frightens her, and she tells Peter again to go back where he came from. He’s not any happier to see her than she is to see him. She warns him about the butterfly effect: step on a butterfly today, and three years later a million people are wiped out. Her dream suggested that Claire is in trouble because he talked to her and tried to interfere in the future.

Suresh feels like a new man. He’s completely the same in every way but physically far more capable than he had ever been before. He hopes he will be able to reverse the effects and take powers away. For the time being, though, he’ll just hit on Maya.

Elle’s dad is displeased that Sylar escaped and got to Claire, making her virtually unstoppable.

Hiro’s hired some detectives to track down the speedster. Her name is Daphne Millbrook, and she’s from Paris, France.

Tracy and the governor are debating over whether Nathan’s worth the risk. She’s pushing hard for him to become the junior senator for the state of New York. Then she goes out into the parking lot where she’s shown a picture suggesting she’s a Las Vegas stripper (Niki).

Claire, unsure she’s even human, is back to making her video tapes again. Her theory is that she can prove she’s alive by getting hit by a train, but Peter jumps in to prevent her from the mistake of not really hurting herself at all. She asks him to help her be more than just a victim, as her defensive power is not enough for her. He denies her request and bails quickly so as to prevent any more alterations of the future than necessary.

Tracy comes to pay Nathan a visit. He thinks she’s Niki, too. Once they get past that, she offers him the job.

Bob’s been paid a visit. He’s no longer among the living. Elle breaks out HRG, who proceeds to shoot Sylar. Lucky him he’s invincible now. He attempts to steal Elle’s power as well, but the resulting explosion is enough to knock him out.

Hiro tells Ando what he saw when he went to the future (the part about Ando being a villain and killing him).

Peter’s worried about the changes he has made to the future and that he probably hasn’t saved the world regardless of having come back to shoot his brother.

Nathan gets over his concerns about great power carrying with it great responsibility and accepts the position as senator, as long as Tracy is on his staff. It turns out she’s got a pretty nifty power of freezing people and smashing them to bits, which she uses when another blackmail attempt over her Vegas counterpart surfaces.

Mrs. Petrelli is ready to take control since Bob has been dead for a couple hours or so. The additional bit of news is that Elle is no longer needed now that her father’s gone.

Hiro tries to outsmart Daphne, but she beats him to the punch. In order to save Ando, he lets her escape with the formula (again).

Suresh’s original euphoria begins to fade as his skin begins to peel off. He knows something’s gone terribly wrong.

Parkman wakes up next to a turtle and begins to listen to him (or rather the guy out of view who’s actually talking). It turns out he’s in Africa. He must spirit walk for many miles. The man, who knows who he is, also knows the future, though he offers no details how or why on either issue.

Nathan’s in a spirited debate with an invisible man about how he’s the one in control this time around.

A bunch of previously locked up people with powers were freed in the power surge, including Peter, who’s in the body of a madman named Jesse.

Claire’s biological mom is back and supposedly is going to make sure she stays safe.

Future Peter goes to see himself, only to find out that he’s escaped. That never happened. At least not in his reality anyway. Some of the other escapees have some fun causing death and destruction.

Sylar’s chained down for now. Angela says she’s his mom.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of Heroes Season 3 episode 3 One of Us, One of Them, which airs Monday at 9/8c on NBC.

Watch Heroes Online

Heroes Season 3 Episode 1

Heroes season 2 volume 2 concluded way back in December at the start of the writers strike, as we last left off in Heroes Season 2 Episode 11. Sylar died (only not really), Maya was seeking the assistance of Dr. Suresh, and when all was said and done, Nathan was getting shot as he tried to reveal his secret during a press conference.

Heroes Volume Three “Villains” picks up 4 years in the future. Peter Petrelli runs into the new Claire, an evil Claire. He wants to go back to the day people found out what they are, which forced them to hide. She tries to shoot him, but with time freezing and all, that doesn’t quite work.

From there, Peter goes back in time and shoots his brother to prevent him from spilling their secret. After a rush to the hospital, Nathan turns out to be dead. Or so it appears to the casual observer anyway.

Hiro owns 51% of the company with $250 million in cash. He’s less impressed about it than Ando, though. He mostly wants to know his destiny and pass by his boredom playing with time. He receives a DVD that his dad recorded and hopes it’ll show him the way.

Sylar pays Claire a visit. He didn’t exactly what you would call die. Doesn’t anybody stay dead any more? He wants to steal her power (again).

Maya’s staying with Suresh and hopes he will help her, but he tells her he’s going to pack up his bags and head back to India and that he can’t help her. When she gets angry with this, he realizes that her abilities are caused by her emotions. With that, he’s not so ready to head back home just yet.

Hiro’s dad tells him he’s leaving him with a secret that has been kept by himself and his father before him. This secret has the potential to destroy the world in the wrong hands. First he has to find out how to break open the safe where the secret has been stored. When he opens the safe, he finds… another DVD. He learns he must guard his half of the formula with his life. As soon as he opens the envelope, though, the piece of paper (which he doesn’t understand even a little) is stolen from him. When he freezes time, he’s able to see who did it. She’s a speedster, and she’s not exactly impacted by his whole time freezing bit. After a brief discussion, she punches him and speeds away.

Parkman catches future Peter trying to recover the gun. That whole mind reading thing won’t work on him since he’s too powerful, but he tells the truth anyway, so it’s not necessary. He’s from the future. Then he waves his hand to get rid of Parkman.

The less than dead Nathan walks out of the hospital to thank God for giving him another chance. He says his reason for being is that he’s there to do his bidding. He no longer has a message to deliver, except to say that God’s message is that we’re all connected. Save ourselves; save the world. So Peter doesn’t have to kill him again.

After a game of cat and mouse, Claire finally stabs Sylar, but that doesn’t do much to him. He starts opening her head because he has some plans to get into her brain. She wonders why he’s not going to kill her, and he responds that she can never die (and now he can’t either).

Mohinder’s discovered a way to give people power. Maya tells him the power is a curse and that he should destroy what he’s discovered.

Governor Malden believes he’s found his guy: Nathan. Tracy Strauss, his less than fully clothed associate, approves.

Parkman wakes up in the middle of the desert with a scorpion crawling on his face. His first instinct is to yell for help, as if there’s anyone within miles.

Hiro’s never going back to the past again, but he has no problem going back to the future to see whether the world has been destroyed or not. The collapsing skyscrapers and villain Ando killing him are a pretty good indication his father was right.

Peter’s mom asks what he’s done with Peter. She had a dream that he’d be back to shoot his brother, so she knows what happened, and she doesn’t approve. She doesn’t like that something different happens now that he’s changed the future.

Mohinder injects himself with his magic serum, and now he’s got power.

Tonight was a special two hour event. If you want to know what happens in the second hour, check out Heroes Season 3 Episode 2.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of Heroes Season 3 episode 2 The Butterfly Effect, which airs next on NBC.

The Biggest Loser Families Episode 2

After Stacey & Adam and Ed & Heba fell below the yellow line, Stacey & Adam were voted out in The Biggest Loser Families Episode 1, although I couldn’t quite figure out why.

Ed and Heba tell LT they’ll save him if they have the chance since he used his extra vote in their favor.

Bob expects week two to suck since it usually does. Jillian is also hoping against hope that things go not horribly.

Jillian discusses the divorce with Michelle. She tells her that, for once in her life, she needs to put herself first.

Bob hates the yellow line down the middle of the gym, so he rips it up and throws it out.

Alison warns the teams that the average weight loss for the second week is 2%, way down from the 4-8% they put up last week. Because the week is so difficult, she wants to offer a reward. One team will win $10,000. But there is a catch. The highest bidder will win $10k if they achieve their goal. However, if someone fails to achieve their goal, they will instead automatically be below the yellow line.

Phil & Amy bid 1%, hoping to kickstart the auction. Tom & LT bid 1.1%, as LT’s just thinking about the money. Shellay & Amy bid 1.2%. Ed & Heba aren’t taking any chances and won’t bid. Phil & Amy go 1.3%. Coleen & Jerry bid 1.4%. Phil & Amy bid 1.5%. LT & Tom go 1.6%. Coleen & Jerry go 1.7%. LT’s back again with 1.8%. Shellay ups it again to 1.9%. LT hits 2.0%. Coleen bids 2.1%. Amy P tries egging on everybody else. Amy C stops her mom from going any higher. LT goes to 2.2%. Shellay bids 2.3% (apparently). Coleen goes 2.4%, praying someone else will outbid her. Nobody does, though, so either they lose more than 13 pounds and get $10,000, or they don’t and go below the yellow line, where I’d assume they’re safe regardless. Jillian thinks they’ve lost their minds.

The second challenge involves huge waterslides. They must slide and then run up the hill. If they are unable to complete the course within 2 minutes, they will be eliminated. The reward is a phone call home, still a bit silly considering it’s so early in the season. Once again, Tom and Jerry are sitting out, so Coleen and LT are on their own. The other teams will rotate on and off. Not sure whether this is an advantage for the solo people or not. It should certainly make the first couple laps easier for them, though.

Everybody returns in time on the first leg, except for Brady, who appears to have injured his knee. Vicky suggests he threw the challenge. Everybody also completes the second leg, except for Amy P, who got stuck on the slide on the way down. The clock for the next legs is down to 1:30. LT is the next one eliminated. On the fourth round, everybody is okay. The time remains the same, but they have less chance to rest. They’re all going strong round after round. Renee and Coleen are both finally eliminated. That leaves Shellay & Amy against Ed & Heba. Shellay’s ready to give up, but Amy wants her to at least try and finish. She’s eliminated by just seconds, so Ed & Heba win the challenge after 18 rounds. In addition to the phone call, they must pick one other team to get a call. They decide to give it to Amy & Phil so they can have a call home to their kids. Ed gives his 10 minutes to Heba so she can talk to her dad for twice the time.

Rocco Dispirito is back. He wants to show them how to cook healthy and inexpensively. He has the teams divide. The best cooks from the teams stand up. It’s a trick. The less good cooks will be the ones actually doing the shopping and cooking, while the others stay behind and wait to be served. The winner of this will get a year’s worth of groceries. At the store, Rocco hands out the recipes at random, then gives them guidance as to how to choose the best food. Amy C hopes to learn to boil water, among other things. Then it’s a group effort to turn on the oven. This is followed by a Ziploc commercial. Once the food’s all done, it’s time to bring it out to the tasters.

They must taste each dish and judge them all, without knowing who has cooked what. Vicky refuses to eat any part of anything that has cauliflower in it, but most others are up for the challenge. Amy C manages to win, despite the fact that she had no clue what she was doing.

It’s time for the second weigh-in.

Vicky: 223 (-4)
Brady: 306 (-7)
Total: 529 pounds (-11, 2.04%)

Amy: 219 (-3)
Shellay: 201 (-3)
Total: 420 pounds (-6, 1.41%)

Michelle: 223 (-2)
Renee: 248 (-5)
Total: 471 pounds (-7, 1.46%)

Despite the low weight loss, Michelle is in good spirits and proud of what she’s done.

Amy: 209 (-4)
Phil: 300 (-8)
Total: 509 pounds (-12, 2.30%)

Heba: 280 (-2)
Ed: 309 (-9)
Total: 589 pounds (-11, 1.83%)

All three of Bob’s teams are safe. They can decide the outcome of who goes or who stays.

LT: 342 (+3)
Tom: 287 (-3)
Total: 629 pounds (no change)

Coleen: 202 (-6)
Jerry: 358 (-5)
Total: 560 pounds (-11, 1.93%)

Dumb risk, and it didn’t pay off. Coleen put up some good numbers, though. With that, Coleen & Jerry are below the yellow line alongside LT & Tom. Whoever ends up going home, one of them will be among the ones that has to sit out each week for medical reasons. LT hopes orange will have his back after last week, and Heba considers Coleen a big threat to win anyway, so Ed says they are planning to vote her and Jerry out.

Votes
Shellay & Amy: Tom & LT
Ed & Heba: Tom & LT
Amy & Phil: Tom & LT

With three votes, Tom & LT are not The Biggest Loser. Alison tells the rest of them they’re going to pack their bags and head on a road trip to the Grand Canyon. Tom’s down from his 9 pills to none. LT has dropped 81 pounds, while his dad has dropped 65.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of The Biggest Loser Families episode 3, which airs Tuesday at 8/7c on NBC.