12/10/04

American Casino (Discovery)
American Hot Rod (Discovery)


American Casino

A reality show about owning and operating a Las Vegas Casino. Maybe I got a bad episode. Maybe not. Not painful to watch, but not terribly interesting. The trick with all reality shows isn’t the reality they portray, but the characters they come across. Compelling characters make for good shows. AC suffers from a lack of compelling characters.

In this episode, the management team goes on an executive retreat in Seattle. They visit a casino, east well, tackle a confidence course, and paddle a swollen river. While it might be assumed that they know casino games and are savvy players, we’re not treated to that sense. The management team seems to hit the casino pretty much as everyone else does, and seems just as likely to play unwisely.

Back at their casino, the lone management guy is trying to have a bust-out weekend to show the absent staff how good he really is. We see him trotting out all the successful promotions he knows—and he tells us as much. He’s working a microphone, he’s spinning a wheel, turning a Lucite box, giving out free money and roadside emergency kits. We see lines and people standing around with empty look on their faces. Our guy says it’s working but without having the numbers and absent of any commentary from the suckers lined up to get the swag, we’re left to take his word as truth.

The climax of the episode is a rafting trip. It goes terribly wrong. How wrong? a few of the rafts turn over, one guy thought he was about to drown, and one woman who can’t swim (they’re all wearing flotation devices) falls in the drink as well. Some others bail when scared. We’re told at the outset that the river is swollen, but the professional guides say the river is safe. Since we only get the view of the management team, it feels like the producer is desperate to create drama wherever he gets it. They never bother to tell us if the “disaster” strikes right at the start, or somewhere along the line, say some rapids.


American Hot Rod

AHC follows the American Chopper idea, but with a competition. Boyd Carrington, owner of Boyd Carrington Hot Rods has challenged his young guns to build a better hot rod than he and his old guys can. This episode was the season finale; the producers had dragged the comp out over the season. Boyd likes to offer sage advice and bold pronouncements, but at heart he’s just an old fart who likes to talk tough. He fires one of the younger fabricators for reasons unknown—though he certainly seems capable of sabotaging the efforts of the young team—and the young guys have to rush to finish their project.

The competition is two-fold. One is a five-leg race between Los Angeles, California and Louisville, Kentucky. The hot rods start at the same spot each day, and finish at the same spot, but the winner of at least three of the legs wins the race. The second half is a popularity contest; people at a hot rod convention vote on which car they like better.

The race seems pretty staid. The only issues are whether or not the cars will hold up, whether or not they’re filled with gas, and when they hit traffic. And there aren’t any Smokey and the Bandit chases. It’s just old cars tooling down the highway. Trailing the cars is another hot rod driven by the editor of Rod and Custom Magazine. He just drives and smiles. Twice he tells the audience the race was much more exciting than he imagined and he’s having a great time. If this was more exciting than he imagined, then he must have been expecting to fall asleep at the wheel. “Excitement was limited to both cars breaking down, one car running out of gas, Boyd chewing out his guys whenever he had the chance, and a steak-eating contest. Otherwise, the cross-country trip was all smooth highways and steady speed; maybe they only shot a little of the trip.

The dénouement was disappointing. Once they get to Louisville—Boyd won the race—there’s a popularity contest and visitors to the show are supposed to choose which car is “better.” The kids start electioneering a bit, urging people to vote. They don’t trash Boyd’s car, they merely encourage people to vote for their car. Boyd’s wife gets pissed and starts ragging on the other car, referring to it as a “trailer queen” and telling people it was a lousy car. Since they spent several minutes on this, I wonder if the producers thought this was box office gold.