I still say fiery ball of death for the Lairds. Something about them doesn't work for me. But then, I don't think I've ever liked a military man on a TV show. I'm still hoping Alex's Challenger has a talking computer.

And do those preppy rich kids still wear Polo shirts and pale-coloured pants?

They do in Florida! Sean's not a favorite, but I don't dislike him.

Irritating blonde seems too purposely irritating. I'm holding on forming an opinion on her. I agree that a fiery ball of death would be a good plan for the Lairds, but DH likes Ellie, big surprise there. (eta: she showed up in a bra, his needs are basic)

Wendy will probably grow on me, but I am not sold on her yet. Mostly I want to know a lot more about them all. But please, not in a Lost flashback way. I like the way the expositions have been done so far.

I'm very pleased with the visuals, the pacing, the feel. It made it all the more annoying when the commericals came on though. It was jarring to be tossed out of this entertaining space.

DH likes Ellie, big surprise there.

She provides two things I like: red hair and cleavage.

Yeah, I really don't mind the irritating characters, because I think they are irritating in a deliberate way. I don't expect every character on my screen to be a protagonist, and given that I know the creator, I don't expect every protagonist to not be annoying. Or every antagonist to not end up inhabiting a fuzzy spot of love in my heart. Or. Well, you get the point.

I don't like irritating. It makes me want to go away. Whatever Ms. Manning does onscreen gets less than half my attention, since the rest of it is fantasising slapping her silly.

See now I can just picture ita slapping her silly and it will help quite a lot. I'm not so much a slapper, so I appreciate this.

Whatever Ms. Manning does onscreen gets less than half my attention, since the rest of it is fantasising slapping her silly.

This.

I'm finding, natually enough for me, that I'm sympathizing far more with the people who are not in the race just for the money. In all honesty, I only watched the show the first night because of Tim and Captain Tightpants and Melanie Lynskey -- getting stranded on a desert island after a plane crash was more easily identifiable to me than participating in an illegal, cross-country road race.

What I loved was that ten minutes into the show I *cared* about so many of the characters. I especially love John and Vi, because a dying dad essentially shanghaiing his college-age daughter to do this crazy thing with her is just made of awesome.

I do figure, though, like Liese, that some of the irritating or less immediately sympathetic characters have a reason for being that way, mostly because, obviously, not everyone can win, and there has to be conflict between the racers.

So yeah, I'm completely on board. But I still hate the Annoying Blonde What Should Have Been Shot by the Crazy Woman with the Plastic Baby.

There's a difference between a character being annoying to other characters in an entertaining way (Jayne on Firefly) and being sufficiently annoying to ME that I want them off my TV screen—and possibly my planet (Spike on Angel). I think Manning's character is falling into the second category.

She provides two things I like: red hair and cleavage.

That's three things.

Tamara, it was helpful in getting the DVD's released, yes. There was someone advocating for it, and I think he was able to say, "here's an assload of people who want to see it."

So if there had been some kind of campaign we might have gotten those THE INSIDE dvds after all?