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I'm always amused when I notice geek culture sneaking into mainstream society, and here is another example of such.
I have been watching the new History Channel show, Full Metal Jousting, even though Shane Adam's thick Canadian accent is hard to listen to without giggling a little bit. Perhaps it's because there's nothing much else to watch that interests me, perhaps it's because I like the horses, or perhaps it reminds me of the few months I spent working at Medieval Times. Just the fact that the show is on the air is a nod to the geeks, in that often times geek, ren-faire, SCA, fantasy, and gamer interests often overlap, although I'm sure some devotees to each genre will hasten to speak of how different they all are.
What prompted this post, however, was not the mere existence of the show. It was just the choice of words used during the episode "A Killing Machine" which aired on March 25, 2012. They were part of the few quick words of encouragement made by the coaches to the competitors between passes in a quarter-final match, and were easy to overlook during the heat of the battle. Both comments pertained to rolling those horrible gazillion sided dice in table top role playing games, and one was something about "the DM being on your side", and the other about "rolling crits".
I giggled a little more, then decided to write an Inexact post.
All laughs aside, I would recommend giving the show a try. It's set up to be a really easy watch - you don't have to have seen it since the first episode to understand what is going on, and it's not packed full of table throwing reality show drama between the contestants - but you want to watch again because you get to know the guys and the horses, and you just want to see what happens next match more than who is going to win the grand prize. The hour air time is well paced through set up, action, and conclusion; lots of good high-speed camera angles during the competitive matches and the appropriate editing of those shots to highlight the technicalities of the sport, while not boring or confusing viewers who may only want to look at the pretty horses or those who want to see some blood.
Overall, it's pretty damn good in production value, but not my favorite show ever. I simply felt that since it inspired me to blog, I should give it a proper review.
PS: If it were my choice, I'd ride Crispin, and I am thinking about taking riding lessons since watching.
PPS: watch the episode before the one I mentioned if you want blood and guts and lots of rides in the ambulance. I'm not specifically saying anyone got jousted in the nutsack, but draw your own conclusions. |
