MISCmedia by Clark Humphrey » Blog Archive WHAT I LIKE ABOUT THIS WINTER OLYMPICS

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WHAT I LIKE ABOUT THIS WINTER OLYMPICS

February 16th, 2006 by Clark Humphrey

The NBC coverage so far has, as my fave TV critic Aaron Barnhart calls it, “less fluff, more stuff.” Fewer interminable human-interest profiles of the participants, more footage of them participating. They’re even showing the greatest winter sport of them all, curling, live on CNBC! (Too bad NBC’s HDTV transmission can be so spotty at times, due to excess signal compression.)
The opening festivity was a mishmosh of Cirque du Soleil-esque pomposity and truly heartfelt symbolism, such as when the Olympic flag was carried in by eight women from around the countries (though you had to have watched the CBC telecast to have learned about some of these women’s intense political activism).
Two-man luge!
Did I mention lots of curling in the US coverage? (But strangely enough, almost none on CBC, which farmed that part out to Canadian cable channels which we can’t get down here.)
The downhill ski courses with painted boundaries, which the skiers have to keep from crossing.
Women’s hockey.
Women’s speed skating.
The incredibly complicated (and therefore funner) new figure skating scoring rules.
Just enough return-from-gruesome-injury moments to keep from overdoing the shtick.
Non-USA athletes are winning a lot, and we even get to see it.