Tag Archives: Cody

American Chopper: CHOPPER LIVE! (Part 1)

10 Dec

December 10, 2012

Keep checking in as I will update this as the show progresses.

For the (next to) last time…

build off

chopper live logo

Chopper Live: Road to Revenge – (American Chopper Special)
Competing to build the best bike, Junior, Senior, Jesse and the Fast N’ Loud guys bring their unique designs to life. But relentless trash talk and ridiculous pranks raise the stakes and threaten to knock everyone off course

TWO HOURS tonight of “relentless trash talk and ridiculous pranks.” OH BOY! When people ask me why I don’t like the show that way I used to, that’s the answer. I can’t even complain that it stopped being about bikes, that happened a long time ago.

Despite being called “live,” this show is not live. Go figure. Tomorrow night is live.

MY WINNING PICKS:
 Jesse James- no chance.
 Senior- has a chance if A- he builds a bike this time around and B- the fans have been fooled into having some sympathy for him.
 Fast N’ Loud- I think the new guys might win in a sort of passing the torch moment.
 Paulie- will probably win again.

Senior is taking it seriously and building a motorcycle, and when I hear Jason say things like “it saves us both time and money” I remind you of my prediction: he’s the next OCC boss, mark my words. Senior loves him like the son he always wanted.

Meanwhile, it seems like Jesse James is in everyone’s head, since every other team has been talking about him. Yet, and I’ll say it, Jesse James continues to come across like a total ass. The less of him the better.

PJD is doing a classic car theme, from the 1930’s or 40’s. The logic is they want to beat the other guys at their own game- FNL (easier to type that way) predominantly works on cars and Senior owns dozens of classic cars.

FNL wants to build a real motorcycle, a Harley, without the bells and whistles or extra aftermarket stuff, just a bad ass, real bike.

Jesse James said some stuff too, but he talks slowly like he is always stoned so I tend to tune him out.

So after a segment of PJD working on their bike, we get a OCC prank segment. Sigh.

Future OCC boss Jason calls Senior to his office because he wants to prank the FNL guys. Yes, the bike “drawer” called the boss off the floor to make  prank call. Meanwhile, for all their trash talk, the FNL guys have tried to, largely, be above the nonsense.

Meanwhile, if the twitterverse matters, it seems that the tweets (picked by Discovery, so take this with a grain of salt) running at the bottom of the screen seems to be in Paulie’s favor.

img

One thing I will say about Jesse, when he isn’t being an idiot, he talks bikes like we never heard on this show. I wonder if, honestly, given the exact same parts and tools, Senior could do what he does.

Senior is building what looks like a, at least from the drawing they showed, stretched out futuristic thing which, and I am calling it, is a loser.

Then we get a FNL vs. PJD prank battle with each imitating the other.

It is now 9:50 and this has more or less been a pretty average episode of American Chopper, but then I realize that I don’t have ten minutes left, I have an hour and ten minutes left.

OH, the Jack Reacher sneak peek! While I have never read a Jack Reacher book, everyone I know who has expects Tom Cruise to suck. I expect that too, simply because I have no respect for his acting.

The OCC bike is turning out to be overdone, overdesigned, overdetailed, just too much. I like the FNL and Jesse James ideas of just doing a real bike, really well.

Hearing Senior and Jason call the FNL guys “Stupid and Stupider” is hysterical, especially considering this:

I started this post by complaining about the lack of bike building over the last few years. Ironically, despite all the dumb pranks, there has been a ton of bike building on this show, mostly by Jesse James.

Meanwhile, the more I see Paulie’s bike, the more I agree with Jesse James and FNL. The bike isn’t looking much like a bike, it has so much non-bike, non-necessary afterthoughts that I am leaning toward FNL over Paulie, although their bike has a ton of pink on it.

Meanwhile, give Fast N’ Loud credit. They were the only guys to finish their bike on schedule. Jesse James needed another two weeks, OCC was going to have to forego an important part of their build, and PJD wasn’t finished either, although they rightly felt that if the had extra time, they’d like to had it earlier in the process. Everyone got two more weeks, which rightfully upset the FNL crew.

Senior took the finished bike out for a ride, and you can vote however you like, but it looks like an overgrown toy. Fail. Of course, that isn’t what OCC is good at, it is lousy pranks, which is what they moved on to next, blowing up dummies of the Fast N’ Loud guys. Or not. They really didn’t explode very much. These pranks are getting as old as Senior.

Jesse James ended up doing the opposite of what he kept saying he would. It is a weird-looking thing that does not look like a normal bike. Senior built an overgrown toy. Paulie built a nice looking bike that is all style over substance. My vote goes to Fast N’ Loud for making a clean, real, bike.

TOMORROW: NOT THE END OF THE AMERICAN CHOPPER ERA
Chopper Live: The Revenge – (American Chopper Live Special)
Senior, Junior, Jesse James and the Fast N’ Loud guys compete in a rematch of the ultimate bike build-off.  You voted.  Now find out the results in a live throwdown hosted by Sal Masekela at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas

Who is Sal Masekela?

According to wikipedia, “Selema MabenaSalMasekela (born August 28, 1971) is an American television host, sports commentator, actor, and singer.”

Skip ahead to 2:49 and watch to 2:55 in this clip to see my reaction.

Oh no they didn’t.

Discovery just advertised ONE LAST episode of American Chopper for next week. One more time, one more time. I swear I thought the Build-Off was the end!

American Chopper: The Last Build SERIES FINALE

3 Dec

December 3, 2012

I’ll be updating this blog every few minutes, so keep checking back.

series finale

American Chopper (Season 9)
The Last Build
In the series finale, the crews are under pressure to finish the 911, GAF and Venetian bikes. Cody goes after OCC with a revengeful prank as Chopper Live draws near. Sr and Jr find common ground in their relationship but are at odds over the new company.

This is not quite the end. There is still the 2-part build-off next week, which I will recap as usual. After that, not far down the line, I’ll do a short retrospective/recap of my coverage of the series, which I invite you all to jump in on and leave some comments.

And now, on with the show.

This week starts exactly where last week ended. (Jason: “I’m a real life industrial designer!” STILL FUNNY!)

“We had a good time with the R+D. We were able to blow stuff up.” -Senior, talking about last week’s outing to the shed shop, or whatever it was they were plugging last week.

This episode promises: Pranks, arguing, and disagreements. Hey, that’s how this show began! Anyway, Senior is frustrate that he and Paulie can’t see eye to eye on the bike. “It is starting to being back some of those old feelings… I’m at work at 7, he doesn’t come in until 11.” -Senior, and again, he said that way back in season one as well. anyway, for some strange reason, Senior keeps gathering his crew and telling them updates (“nothing is happening”) on the new business with Paulie. Why? Do they care? This has not affected them one bit, but Senior is trying to look good, like he is the victim, like he is the wounded party.

“Every business does business with a contract or agreement so we don’t have these problems.” -Senior
“I feel like I’m losing my mind.”-Paulie

They do a few minutes of the PJD build, a few minutes of the OCC build, then at 9:10 they go back to what every single viewer is dying to see- the preparations for the PJD demolition derby, where they will destroy the prank car OCC gave them last week.

And this was ALMOST IMMEDIATELY after Vinnie explained how little time they have to get the 9/11 bike done, and how fast they have to move on it. I guess Vinnie’s haterd of Senior, his refusal to work at OCC, won’t stop him from going with Cody to destroy two cars in their parking lot.

It wasn’t that impressive.
“It wasn’t the best prank.” -Senior, and he was right. It was pretty lame, despite Discovery editing it to show the same tepid crash six or seven times from about as many angles.

Paulie and Senior did one thing right. They decided to go out to dinner. The catch? No business discussed. Smart. I twent really well, just talking about whatever came to mind, and they both agree that they get along much better when business isn’t involved.

At about the midway point, the oft-ignored Venetian Bike was unveiled in Vegas. The build for this was largely ignored over the past few weeks. It was built by the OCC b-squad, and only rick went to the unveil. I said it before, the Venetian did not its money’s worth. Even Big Ass Fans got more promotion on the show.

Meanwhile, Paulie and the gang loaded up supplies and brought a truckload to Staten Island for disaster relief. I recognized the area.

The Memorial Bike was put back in shape and returned to NYC. Not to be too poetic, but there are worse ways the show could have ended.

As I write this, it is 9:47 and the American Chopper era is coming to an end. Senior is unveiling the GAF bike and there has been no indication that there will not be more shows. It seems that the decision to cancel was made without giving them the chance to do a real series finale. Of course, there are still two more shows, and two more chances to root against Senior in the build-off. While I more or less think that Paulie will win (people hate Senior and Jesse James is an ass) I would not be surprised if Fast N’ Loud won in a sort of passing the torch moment. I’m assuming they will all build bikes this time around, and as usual the vote will come down to a popularity contest.

It is now 9:51, after the break we get the last segment of OCC ever, though I would bet even money on some American Chopper specials down the road.

So how does the show end? At 9:55 Senior goes to PJD to look at the frame for the production bike, which he does not like.

“It doesn’t seem like we are good at doing business together.” -Paulie, right before they agreed to not work together for the sake of the relationship. That’s as close to a happy ending as this show could possibly give.