02.16
What a show about guns says about our nation!
Ever tried to shoot a 1,000-yard target with a Barrett .50 in 40-mph wind? Ever fired a Gatling gun? What about an M-1 carbine from a moving motorcycle sidecar?
Of course you haven’t. Very few have. But if you’ve ever wanted to, then, boy, do I have the show for you.
I know, President Obama has a new budget, Congress is still fighting over the payroll tax and Republicans are still trying to pick a presidential nominee. But I’d like to briefly interrupt your regularly scheduled programming to bring you some lighter fare.
And by lighter, I mean badder.
Tuesday night, the season four premiere of “Top Shot” on the History Channel finally arrived, and I watched with all the excitement of a kid on Christmas. Or a pundit on caucus night.
If you’re not familiar, “Top Shot” is a competition-reality show in which 18 skilled marksmen try to outshoot one another for a $100,000 prize, a Bass Pro Shops shooting contract, and, of course, bragging rights as America’s top marksman. It’s hosted by another reality-show castoff, Colby Donaldson, a charismatic Texan who nearly won in the second season of “Survivor.”
And week after week, it is some of the coolest stuff on television, whether you’re a gun nut or not. The theatrics of the competition, the spectacular tricks these guys pull off with a variety of weapons, the eye-popping special effects and camera-work — it’s hard not to be awed.
But the best part isn’t actually the shooting. And I say that as an unabashed supporter and practitioner of shooting at stuff (legally, of course).
“Top Shot,” like all reality television, holds a mirror up to American culture. And in this instance, at least, the image reflected back is finally one we can be proud of.
Unlike the long and storied line of reality shows before it, which expose, exploit and shamelessly glamorize all of our worst characteristics as Americans, “Top Shot” is about average folks from modest means with above-average skills.
They aren’t debutantes, delinquents or ne’er-do-wells. Many have served in the military or law enforcement. Some are even Olympians. And others are just trying their best to support their families as farmers, small businessmen and factory workers.
These contestants are decidedly uncool, at least by Hollywood standards. They aren’t trashy or at all outrageous. They don’t flash their abs or get into fistfights. No arrests or late-night hookups. No drunken escapades or catfights. (Well, most of the time. It is a competition, after all!)
Last year’s winner was a Christian children’s camp director from Texas with a wife, two young boys and three foster kids. Hardly the stuff that makes prime-time television these days.
The year before, Chris Reed, an unassuming, self-described good ol’ boy from Tennessee, survived brain surgery to go on to win “Top Shot” season two, which he just hoped would make his family proud.
This year, the competitors include a former homeland security agent, a Malaysian-born United States Marine, a Kansas police sergeant, a high school custodian, a professional speaker, a big-game guide and a grass-fed-cattle farmer, all of whom will test the skills they learned in law enforcement, the military, in professional competition or just out hunting with their fathers.
For those of us weaned on the alcohol-addled escapades of “The Real World” or the stomach-churning stunts of “Fear Factor,” “Top Shot” is a refreshing break from the embarrassing antics of the “Jersey Shore” meatballs, the fame-hungry coeds trolling for love on “The Bachelor” and the money-loving “Housewives of” (name the city).
And as much as we all like a good train wreck, I can only take so much of “Toddlers and Tiaras,” “Extreme Couponing” and “Hoarders” before I start to suspect there isn’t a sane one among us.
Not that Snooki, Teresa Giudice and pageant moms aren’t “real America.” That certainly exists. But for once, it’s nice to celebrate small lives lived well. And it’s nice to see folks with an actual skill get some attention.
For many of us, the arrival of a new season of “Top Shot” is perfectly timed to fill that agonizing abyss in sports programming known as the month between football and baseball. (Luckily, some of us will have NASCAR to fill some of that void in about two weeks).
But the real relief isn’t just that there’s something to watch. It’s that there’s finally something to watch that makes us look good.
secupp@redsecupp.com
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