The Challenge: All Stars | Season 1 Episode 6 - "Free Fallin'"

Spoiler Alert!

 

Hello people!

Here we are with a new The Challenge rant! However, this time I bring you All Stars first because I can't find the other one anywhere... But it's fine, at least having one The Challenge is nice so, let's get into it.

The thing with this new season is that it's too short and I can't feel the emotions that I usually feel while watching the 'normal' season. I love that they go straight into what's important and I love how they don't focus on drama too much but let's be honest... It's the drama that give you those heightened emotions and, without that here, you're just watching people compete. I do already have my favorites, to the point that this episode was really hard to pick who I was rooting for. But before I get into the elimination, let's talk about the week's challenge.

This week the challenge was above water and they had to do a puzzle. It was a team thing and, in the end, only one person finished the puzzle correctly - Big Easy. So Big Easy and Ruthie, the team captains, where safe. As for the ones going straight into elimination... I don't know exactly how they picked one team because, if none of the others finished the puzzle correctly, how did they pick the loosing team?! If you understood that please let me know because I was really confused. Still, I rolled with it and the ones going straight into elimination where Mark and Kendall. This was the moment that I've been waiting for! Ever since I saw him I wanted to see Mark in an elimination. He's so big and looks so strong and, after all, he's basically in charge of this season so... Yeah, it was pretty exciting! But then, they picked the girl that went against them and everything changed.

So Mark left up to Kendall as for the girl she wanted to go against and she let the house decide. Well, luckily for all the other girls, Katie decided to volunteer herself because she didn't do anything in the challenge. Even though the girls where okay with it, the guys had to say something about it as well - after all, Katie then would pick one of the guys to go into elimination with her. But all the guys where fine with it. I mean, they were all terrified of going in - all besides Laterrian, who just went straight to Katie and told her to pick him that he would be there for her and he would try his best. That was just the sweetest thing anyone could do! The fact that he said that we wouldn't be able to sleep at night knowing that he could help a friend and he didn't do it... That made him even a better competitor.

Well, and that was what Katie did - she picked Laterrian - and because of that I was so torn on who I wanted to win. On one hand there's Mark and Kendall who I think are the strongest competitors in there, and on the other hand there's the underdogs (sort of) with Laterrian being such a good person... Yeah... I guess in the end I wanted Katie and Laterrian to win because... yes, I was a bit sad when they lost. But, I'm also happy I get to see Mark compete more because, to be honest, that elimination was a bit weak. I mean, it looked tough, but I expected more from Mark (even with him winning) so I hope I get to see him compete more again...

And that's basically it, to be honest. TJ did drop a bomb in the preview - next episode is the last one before the final. WOW. Did not expect that! I mean, I knew episode 9 would be the last with 10 being the Reunion but, for some reason, the next episode being the last before the final caught me a bit off guard. So, let me know what you think of that. Would like this season to be longer? What do you think is going to happen next episode, now that we know that what follows is the final? Personally, I'll say that the next one will be a quadruple elimination because there's way too many people in the house still. But who knows?! This season has been pretty different from all the other ones so... We'll see. In the meantime let me know your predictions and hopefully I get back to you with the Reunion Part II from Double Agents.

Love,

Daniela.

The Challenge: All Stars | Season 1 Episode 5 - "Nuthin' but an OG Thang"

Spoiler Alert!

 

Heya people!

After that lack luster All Stars episode last week we have an exciting one! Basically everything about this episode was interesting and, most of all surprising. Starting out with the week's challenge.

This week's daily challenge was a mini final, and I love when they do that! It's when they do these that we know who's fit for a final and who's not, and this one had an interesting twist. It started out as a group challenge, with teams carrying a trunk and, right away we could see who was getting tired and who was pumped and just had all the endurance, one of the latter being Mark (which we already expected, I mean, I know I did). Then, after that part of the challenge, the teams split up into pairs and had to solve a puzzle (one of those that involve memory most of all) and, to be honest, it looked fairly easy so... I don't know why they were struggling so much. I did notice that some of the pieces the letters also changed colors so... That made it harder but still, I didn't think it was too hard. And after that the pairs split and it became an individual race where each person had to carry a log. This was a men's elimination week and, plot twist - no more life savers. Well, in the end, Laterrian was the first one to finish so he was safe, as well as the first female who was Kendall. As for last and going into elimination was Syrus. Also last was Beth and that actually mattered, but I'll get into that later.

After the challenge came the deliberation and now things started to get interesting. Syrus wanted Alton because he let the team down in the first part of the challenge, but Alton though it should be the second to last guy to go in which was Big Easy... Part of the house thought the same but then there was also the whole friendships thing and... Yeah, in the end it was Alton to go against Syrus. But not only him!

As they got into the elimination TJ drops a bomb - from now on it's a double elimination every single time so that meant that Beth went into elimination alongside Syrus and, as for Alton, he had the opportunity to chose a girl apart from Kendall (because she was safe) and he chose Aneesa. It was actually well thought out because the elimination was the one that Beth should've done last week but with a twist - this time one person had to go over the blocks and they had to do it five times. Obviously the guys were the ones to climb the blocks but the thing is, Syrus had a twisted ankle and that made him struggle and, in the end, loose the elimination and go home, alongside Beth. 

I was actually happy because I didn't want Aneesa to go home. I really think it's about time Aneesa goes into a final and wins and, to be honest, I think she has a better chance in this All Stars season than in the other seasons so... Let's hope that happens! 

And I guess that's it from me. This was a good episode in my opinion but let me know what you thought of this episode and what you thought of the double elimination twist, and I guess I'll see you next week with new rants!

Love,

Daniela.

The Challenge: All Stars | Season 1 Episode 1 - "Legends Never Die"

Spoiler Alert!

 

Hey y'all!

I'm sorry I took a bit longer with this post. I had intentions of watching this and posting yesterday but I couldn't find this episode for the life of me! Luckily I did today and so I'm here to tell you all about the new The Challenge series that it's all about the old school challengers. I do need to reference that I have not seen all the The Challenge seasons and so there's a bunch of these names that I do not know. (Also, if you're like me and you live outside of the US and you can't find the episode, just hit me up on twitter @danixinhahhh and I'll let you know where you can find it). Anyway, with all of that said, let's talk about this new format.

The first thing that I noticed was the image quality! Because this series is on a streaming platform, one that it's from Paramount, the image quality really increased and that is amazing! Some people talked about the soundtrack but I didn't really notice it that much. I mean, it's nice, but it's a lot like all the other seasons of The Challenge. Something else that you might notice once you get into it is the runtime. They really waste no time with dramas and all of that and go straight to the challenges. On one hand that is great, the challenges and eliminations are what I want to see, but on the other hand there's no real build up for who's going into elimination and whatnot so... I also understand that this is the first episode so there's not a lot of build up yet. Let's see if they incorporate more drama in the future.

As for the players, I feel like the only ones that I know are the ones that have been in the recent seasons - Darrell, Aneesa, Jemmye... But I also remember Big Easy, Derrick, Jonna, KellyAnne and Nehemiah. And, of course, even though I haven't seen any of his seasons, I know Mark, who's not only the big face of this season but also the reason why this series happened at all. Clearly Mark is the stronger one here and I can't wait to see him in an elimination - I feel like he's going to be a beast! But, I must say, my favorite one this episode was Jisela. Not only she was the funnier one but she also was a beast in that daily challenge so... I'm liking her!

And, talking about the daily challenge... It was a bit of a let down?! I don't know... I get it, they're old, they can't do things like they used to, but c'mon! Most of them didn't even try! I have no idea if the water was that cold and the pieces were that deep but... It didn't look that hard, but maybe I'm underestimating the difficulty of the game. Regardless, I expected more from this legends.

Luckily the elimination saved this episode. I didn't know neither Ace nor Laterrian, so I had no idea what to expect but damn! Laterrian is a beast as well and that elimination is the type of elimination that I like to see! I just wish the daily challenge was as difficult/physical as the elimination. Maybe next episode... We'll see. 

And yeah... There's not much more to it. In terms of nominations it was pretty straight forward - they went with who Laterrian wanted, since he was the captain of his team and his team lost he went straight to elimination - and the only different thing was that the female captain of the winning team had Life Saver, which means she could save who was nominated by the group, which Jisela didn't use on Ace. Besides that, it was pretty 'normal'.

The preview showed a few interesting things though. Most of all, it showed some cool eliminations and TJ being mad at someone leaving the elimination so... I don't know who it is but I can't wait to find out.

I must say that I was a tiny bit disappointed by this episode, mainly because most of them just gave up on the daily challenge but I'm stoked to see some of these physical eliminations and can't wait to see when it's Mark going down there, it's going to be interesting!

Let me know what you thought of this series premiere - if it was nostalgic for you or if you were a bit disappointed and I'll see you next week with new rants!

Love,

Daniela.