Top Shot: Difference between revisions

[[Top Shot]] is a [[Reality Show]] program on [[The History Channel]], beginning in 2010. 16 people are brought to a California ranch that has been converted into an outdoor shooting range and split up into two teams of 8 to compete for a $100,000 prize and the privilege of being named "Top Shot". Some contestants have military training, some are current or former law enforcement officers, some are amateurs, but all have considerable skill in the use of ranged weapons. They are put through a series of diverse team competitions, and, in addition to the team challenges, each episode has a one-on-one challenge in which a member of the losing team is eliminated. When enough people are eliminated, the teams are dissolved and the show becomes a free-for-all.

 

Most of the challenges focus on guns (from archaic military weapons to specially designed race guns), but other skills such as knife-throwing and archery have been tested as well. Primitive weapons such as blowguns, slingshots, and even rocks have been used as a test of marksmanship. Strategic voting and political maneuvering also impact the outcome of each episode.

 

 

The second season premiered on February 8, 2011. The third season premiered on August 9, 2011. Season 4 premiered February 14, 2012.

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* [[The Archer]]: Chris Palmer and Bill Troubridge, the instructors for the [[A Worldwide Punomenon|"Archer Enemies"]] episode; and Chris Brackett, the instructor for "Compound Fracture". And Jay Lim, Chris Reed, and Joe Serafini in season 2.

* [[Awesome McCoolname]]: Jack Dagger, one of the experts from season 2. Also in the running is J.J. "Razor" Racaza.

* [[Captain Obvious]]: The host calls out EXACTLY what is happening, ''thank you for telling us he missed the target '''again.''''' USAF Sniper George Reinas [[Lampshade Hanging|calls him out]] on this during season 2's Behind The Bullet special and also remarks that he had earplugs in and was firing a gun and he could still hear Colby.

* [[Catch Phrase]]: William in season 4.

* [[Crippling Overspecialization]]: There's a trend of self-taught generalist shooters outperforming champion shooters, who may be world-class masters with a single weapon but haven't proven as adaptable.

* [[Curb Stomp Battle]]:

* [[Cut the Fuse]]: During "Shortest Fuse", the contestants had to shoot the fuse off of a bomb with a pistol and ten shots. It proved extremely hard, to the point where only a couple of shooters managed it their first try.

* [[Deep South]]: Denny, who was also a [[Wild West]] entertainer. Chris Reed in season two.

* [[Final Exam Boss]]: The last challenge of the season is ''always'' one of these, featuring several of the most prominent challenges of the season.

* [[From Nobody to Nightmare]]: {{spoiler|Dustin Ellerman, a completely self taught Christian camp counselor with no competition or military experience, completely dominated pretty much everything he was involved with, and won the final challenge against Big Mike Hughes with ease. In truly ironic fashion, it was due to his perceived weakness and lack of experience that he was sent to elimination in the second episode}}.

* [[Game Show]]: 15 of the contestants are eliminated until 1 is left; they win the $100,000 grand prize. Also, from Season 2 on, the winner of an elimination challenge gets a $2,000 [[Product Placement|Bass Pro Shops]] gift card. Season 4 added a professional shooter contract, again from Bass Pro Shops, for the winner.

* [[Gun Porn]]: Of course.

* [[Idiot Ball]]: During Season 4, Colby introduces a somewhat archaic weapon and asks if anyone has any experience with it. One person from the team with more members raises their hand... and subsequently, the other team picks that person to not participate in the challenge since team challenges require even teams. Said contestant even Lampshades his own lack of foresight after the fact.

* [[Impossible Task]]: Lampshaded by Brian Zins regarding the 1000 Yard shot during the Behind the Bullet special:

** Also, as shown in [[Improbable Aiming Skills]] below, a number of shots are done with relative beginners for stunts that are hard for shooters that regularly use the involved weapon normally.

** The "Horse" challenge of Season 4 winds up being this, with the three competitors choosing shots that start each of them off 0/3. Colby does not hesitate to point this out.

* [[Improbable Aiming Skills]]: All challenges with the exception of the first team challenge have required some marksmanship feats that are difficult or legendary for shooters with experience with the weapon. It's common for at least half the contestants to have minimal or no experience and they still generally perform competently.

* [[Jerkass]]

** Adam, in "The Good, The Rat, and the Ugly."

** The Season 3 Behind The Bullet special elaborates further on how much of an asshole Jake was. He stated that much of his behavior was designed to throw the competitors off of their game, which included constantly waking them up, and ''[[Kick the Dog|impersonating their kids being in danger while they slept to invade their dreams.]]''

** While George was at least genuine friends with those in his circle, Jake was friends with ''no one''.

* [[Made of Iron]]: {{spoiler|Brian Zins}} made it to the season 2 finals without ever being in an elimination challenge. {{spoiler|George Reinas}} made it all the way to the finals without ever ''having his nomination range target shot''.

* [[Manly Tears]]: Greg Littlejohn of Season 4 can't bear the thought of voting for anyone based on performance due to his intense love for his team mates, so he ends up voting for Terry (who was already in the elimination challenge at that point), so Terry would be the one to choose his opponent instead of himself, and proceeds to tear up right after and during a cutaway interview. YMMV on how "manly" you consider the tears to be. And rather ironically, he was on the blue team which was rife with cliques and interpersonal problems - himself not excluded from it - so while he may have been close to his team mates, the feeling was not always mutual.

* [[Non Gameplay Elimination]]: {{spoiler|Tara in Season 1 (her father was dying of cancer), John Guida in Season 2 (double hamstring pull), Billy Rogers in Season 3 (complications with his wife's pregnancy), and Jake Zweig of Season 3 (forfeited due to reasons he never really elaborated on)}}.

* [[Paintball Episode]]: Early in Season 2.

* [[Rage Quit]]: {{spoiler|Jake in season 3, when voted into elimination (for the second time) against Phil, leading to just-been-eliminated Mike Hughes (the guy he attempted to eliminate by provoking him to attacking him) taking his place for the challenge. Ironically enough, Mike won that challenge and finished the season as the runner-up}}.

* [[Reality TV Show Mansion]]

* [[Shocking Elimination]]: {{spoiler|Blake}}. Later in the finale, {{spoiler|JJ Racaza}}. Many expected him to be one of the final two, but he ended up in third place due to either bad luck or a flawed strategy. {{spoiler|Jermaine and Daryl}} in Season 2, both sent home by Jay Lim, [[Running Gag|the golf instructor]].

* [[Shoot the Dog]]: Season 3's Jake outright says his strategy is to vote for the strongest shooters so that he doesn't have to worry about them later, which is the opposite of the rest of the contestants' [[Honor Before Reason|viewpoint]] (in that they ''want'' to face the best).

* [[Smurfette Principle]]: Generally, one or two females are included in the competition, but tend to make early exits.

** Season 2: Athena and Maggie were picked for separate teams. {{spoiler|They're the second and fourth to be eliminated, respectively.}}

* [[The Gunslinger]]: The contestants, [[Captain Obvious|duh!]]

* [[The Mean Brit]]: Iain's plan to eliminate Jim was controversial among the contestants.

* [[Those Two Guys]]: Jarrett and Gary of Season 3. They're friendly rivals in real life, and interviewed together in the Behind The Bullet special.

* [[Trailers Always Lie]]: The trailers either paint the show as a serious competition, or completely omit the fact that it's a reality show.

** {{spoiler|Chris Cheng}} of Season 4 as well. In his elimination challenge, he's up against {{spoiler|a former marine and noted competition shooter while Chris himself is an IT guy who only picked up firearms after watching Top Shot.}} The final challenge itself even goes according to trope. By a few minutes in, the leader has lead of 11 hits out of 15 versus 6 out of 15. And then, while the leader is reloading, the underdog shoots out 5 practically in a row. From there, it's neck and neck with the leader somehow managing to flub hitting the last target long enough for the underdog to reload and fire off a shot to win. {{spoiler|Chris Cheng beat Greg Littlejohn by one grenade launcher round, and it was ultimately revealed he shot the round blindly}}.

* [[Voted Off the Island]]: The elimination challenge. The Nomination Range is where the actual voting takes place. The Elimination Challenge ''itself'' is closer to [[Eliminated From the Race]] {{spoiler|and ''is'' that during the entire post-merge phase of Season 1 and the Final Four of Season 2}}. [[Elimination Catchphrase|"You have fired your last shot"]].

** Ashley out of the blue deciding it would be a good idea to berate the fuck out of Jamie. He took issue with Jamie claiming to be a Navy SEAL, rescue swimmer, ''and'' EOD (explosive ordnance disposal) technician. It turned out that Jamie had never claimed to be a SEAL; Chris and Brian Zins, upon finding out he was in the navy, dubbed him "SEAL Team" and that he was only ''attached'' to an at-sea EOD unit as their designated rescue swimmer.

** Season 4's Greg Littlejohn had a reputation for letting his nerves get the better of him in competition. So when he seemed reluctant to shoot his target in "Swing Into Action", it looked like that was happening again. Perhaps nerves played a role, but the bigger problem was that he'd forgotten to set his weapon to full cock, and didn't realize it until a team member pointed it out. Then, to add insult to injury, as he moved to cock his pistol, the musket ball fell out of the barrel. Greg eventually did make the shot, but not before several Red Team members had shot at ''their'' targets. {{spoiler|The Blue Team won the challenge anyway, as the Red Team missed a few shots and had trouble swinging between platforms. Also, as it was a flintlock pistol, it did require several steps to load and prepare before firing.}}

*** Subverted in that Greg was sent to three elimination challenges, each of which he won, and earned a spot in the season finale. {{spoiler|He came in second to Chris Cheng.}}

* [[Wild West]]: Several episodes. In addition, one challenge in the final episode of each season begins at a saloon-style bar stocked with weapons and targets.

* [[Younger Than They Look]]: Chris Reed (37) and Brian Zins (41) both look ''at least'' 10 years older than they actually are.

[[Category:Game Show]]

[[Category:Top Shot]]