In Reply To:
What was wrong with the soundtrack? U2 was on at the end. If you want good music, put your Ipod on or go to a concert -- don't flip on NBC's Kona coverage for it. I thought that cinematography and pro coverage was excellent. There were a lot of cool overhead shots of FAS on the bike and, much more so than in the past, they really covered the pro race from start to finish (how cool was it hearing NS teeing off in German!). They had all of the key passes on as well. I agree that, despite being a compelling story, they had far too much of the ALS guy (btw, what was the deal with the hand paddle on the swim?) and thought that they had the right amount on SR (it is well within NBC's capabilities of hitting us with a full 30 minutes of her). I also agree that, for once, NBC has to spend some time on the people who have full time jobs and/or families who still manage to find time to train their asses off and crush Kona. There are a lot of them in that race and those people are the bloodline of what makes the race so special. If Kona were just 100 pros, not that many people would pay attention (how many people followed the World ITU Championships?) It is the fact that everyone knows someone who was there and competed against many others during the year who raced there. How about some coverage of them?
The music? Music is CRITICAL to establishing tone! They get an F for that. For example, how about that happy pappy insincere background theme that ran throughout. It was a bit like the way Island Breeze utterly stoned the drama (crowd went slient) when they took the stage in the final hour at the race finish line. As soon as the DJ went back to playing things like The Killers and YMCA or whatever, the crowd woke right back up w/ emotion. Ahh, but you have your iPod...
Yes, U2 was great. They should stick to that wherever possible. Same for that song that I don't know the name of, very aggressive rock, sounds like the lyrics are something like "I won't be ignored." That was solid.
And Fleck, agreed. Your point matches up w/ what Mag900 wraps up w/, too.
Here's the bottom line. For something like this, you need to make it seem *important*, difficult to reach, extremely difficult to finish. They failed. It looks like you just get to sign up, push hard for the day and get your ledal. When I saw those late finishes live, it looked like a life/death struggle for some of them. Convey that in the show! Last year, though still lacking in core content, was much much better from this standpoint.
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