[chick_in_the_hat]

Hopefully the link is ok to post - BL Australia is a daily show...so it will take a while to get thru all the episodes. The 2009 series starts here.

This is their 4th season, I think...love me some Commando!

Enjoy!

[trekkiegirl]

I've been watching the first season on youtube the last few days and it's been interesting to see the differences from their version (or at least their first season) from what we see here in the U.S.

One big difference is their scenes are so much longer. Whereas in the US, the scenes are more clipped, more about showing the shock or surprise value, theirs spend more time on things...sometimes to the point of rather boring redundancy. Also, for anybody that thinks the few seconds of recap we get after each commercial break is annoying, this show repeats minutes of the prior show. And the stuff that comes out of the host's mouth would totally tick us off here. I mean, at elimination she says "it's time to cut the fat." This Ajay chick comes off pretty cold, actually.

One funny thing...these guys actually admit when they waterload, and they admit it at the weigh-in. Our guys/gals all put on the innocent face and act like they don't do it but these guys put on like 5-10 pounds of water weight when they had immunity....and, at least in that first season, there was no penalty for doing so.

Anyway...the first season final three act like total babies when they brought an eliminated contestant back, they actually wouldn't even stand next to him, saying he doesn't deserve to be there. Seriously, it was like having a bunch of Vickys all in one season...and the guys who worked hard and didn't act deceptive or had cliques were voted out.

I'm in the middle of the finale now and don't really like any of the final four except for the guy who came back to the ranch! But my favorite was Shane. I had to peek at his MySpace to see what he looks like now. Totally hot. He and Mark Kruger now both top my list of TBL hotties. Shane looked so good that Jillian, who'd been his trainer, jokingly proposed marriage to him at the finale, lol. HUGE difference in this guy's appearance. Actually, I just found out, he's on some of Jillian's DVDs.

Incidentally, if anyone is interested in watching, Bob & Jillian are their trainers. However, Bob's mother died unexpectedly during taping and he returned home briefly. Even though there were Bob & Jillian teams, the contestants did get trained by both.

LOL, I actually did the conversion from kilograms to pounds at their starting weights (1 kilo=2.2 pounds) just so I'd have a frame of reference of how much they weighed and how much they lost.

[sassygrrl]

I honestly think that the BL Australia is much better than the US version. For one thing you get to know the contestants better because it's shown almost every night over there. There are also cooler challenges. There are also longer episodes.

[trekkiegirl]

Originally Posted by sassygrrl

I honestly think that the BL Australia is much better than the US version. For one thing you get to know the contestants better because it's shown almost every night over there. There are also cooler challenges. There are also longer episodes.

I did enjoy being able to "know" the contestants better. But the flip side, lol, is some of the not so likeable ones can get kind of grating. Kristie's Ron-like statements of who should go next was annoying. The Fiona/Artie/Tracy trio and their antics were a bit much. Adro...I just didn't like him...he acted like nobody worked as hard he did, was a self-admitted sore loser (too bad they brought him back because of the vitamin thing, I thought that was bogus...I think they just did that cuz they wanted him in the finale).

Anyway...it's official. Shane is my all-time fave BL contestant. I loved watching the way he and Jillian bonded and the fact that he was there for the right reasons. He did everything she told him to do and didn't cause drama. They really clicked. She couldn't keep her hands off him even before he lost all that weight. I mean, the guy changed his whole life around. The others were all like "oh, I can't relate to Shane, he's so quiet". I'm like, I totally relate to this guy, I'm not a wife or mother or spoiled dingbat, lol. My heart totally went out to him....it was wonderful to see the transformation in him, emotionally and physically. It's funny, but he looked like 3 different people throughout the whole thing--how he looked when he got there, how he looked after the beard came off and how he looked at the finale. You'd think it was 3 different guys. He's freakin' adorable.

Jillian and Bob seemed to have more fun with the contestants in this one as well.

[maryshady]

I believe I saw these episodes late last year on FIT TV? it was a one day long marathon of that season. Which I think was season 1 (with Andro) I really enjoyed it.

[wendyland]

Originally Posted by maryshady

I believe I saw these episodes late last year on FIT TV? it was a one day long marathon of that season. Which I think was season 1 (with Andro) I really enjoyed it.

I caught that too. I taped all of the episodes. They were really fun to watch. Sign me up for Shane's fan club! I really wanted him and Jillian to get together.

[trekkiegirl]

LOL, me too, Wendy! Seems from my (limited and faraway) viewpoint, they'd rock! I was kind of following up on him to see what he's been doing since. He's a physical trainer himself, he opened his own business, he also participates in karate. I think he's still single because he made some remarks about his training being his main focus. I got the 2 DVDs of Jillian's he's on...which I really like because 1) they're for beginners and 2) she gives a lot of info about the muscles they're working, the form of the exercises, why she does her circuits that way...so I've learned something about how and why to do things in certain ways. He also has his story on Jillian's website under the testimonials...he talks about having been motivated to apply for the show from having seen Jillian on the American version and how sometimes you meet someone and you "just click." I was like, dang, these two need to be acquiring some frequent flyer miles already, come on!

Anyway, I don't know if I'm allowed to include the link for Exercise TV here but there's a brief clip of one of the DVDs with Jillian working out Shane:

http://www.exercisetv.tv/workout-vid...frontside-4973

[livingoodinthe707]

For some reason you can see full episodes of BL:Australia on youtube, but not US episodes :/ Oh, well. Probably something to do with publishing rights or something.

[Magrat]

I've been watching season 6 on ***********. I like it much better than the American version. Less fluff and filler and hardly any product placements. Overall a much better show.

[bethbeth]

I'm watching season 6 too. Love the Aus version!

[trekkiegirl]

So far I've seen the first 4 seasons online. In comparison to the US version, I have mixed feelings.

For anybody who thinks the US version is too game-oriented, the Australian version is way more so. Constant game twists, eliminated contestants coming back more than once, double or nothing money bracelets passed around, the "walk" every week that allows someone to twist the game around again, an individual winning the chance to singlehandedly eliminate whomever they want. It's definitely a much more competitive atmosphere, alliances are often formed amongst weaker and lazier players to oust the threats or simply the people they don't like.

It's also very repetitive, both in terms of replaying scenes and doing flashbacks, but also in the fact that there is much more commentary from the contestants...by the time I get to the second half of the season, I'm ff-ing the videos a lot more. If I had a dollar for every time they went outside and one of them said "I had no idea what to expect..." or tells the camera what we just saw happen 3 seconds earlier... Not to mention, the contestants are obviously very much coached on exactly what to say to the camera and how to say it, particularly when revealing something pertinent to the game...it's all about presentation.

AJ, the host, is very robotic and comes off just plain cold. And there are constant questions to the contestants..."how do you feel", "what do you think"...things get verrrrry dragged out.

They also seem to have a lot more injuries, trips to the hospital and contestants forced to go home.

It's almost like watching a soap opera because you're seeing and hearing much more of the contestants and all the twists and upsets. I have to say, as far as the four season winners I've seen so far, I hated the first two and didn't care about the third. The fourth was the best.