Assuming we're still using this thread, here's my post on the season-premiere
Star Wars special. I like it how they did one myth from each of the three movies. (The three that count, anyway.)
Chasm swing: Interesting. It seems such a simple stunt in principle, but the specifics are a lot harder to get right than you'd think. Who knew it was that hard to throw a grappling hook around a pipe? And the problem with having the line attached to the belt never occurred to me. (Although a good point was raised in the Twitter commentary superimposed over the episode: Namely, that Luke probably weighed a lot less than Jamie, so the strain might not have been as great. They should've gotten people of the right weight to do the swing, like maybe Grant subbing for Luke.)
I was surprised that they had their "guest Leia" just hang on to Jamie and the rope rather than being in her own safety harness. Although it seemed to work just fine. I've never heard of the actress they used -- Sophia Bush, was it? -- but she's really pretty.
Adam did something that bewilders me, something that Americans seem to do a lot: pronouncing "cosplay" like "cozplay." Which is bizarre, since it's short for "costume play," and nobody says "coztume." The original Japanese word is
kosupure, which is the closest Japanese approximation of "cos(tume) play" and is definitely pronounced with an S sound rather than a Z sound. So I have no idea where people are getting the notion that it should be pronounced as though it had something to do with Bill Cosby.
Ewok log trap: They raised a lot of good points about the logistical unlikelihood of this one -- how could the Ewoks have gotten the logs into position and been sure they'd get a target at the right height and location? But the result was startlingly effective. The second smash-up they did with Buster as the pilot looked very much like the movie scene, except for the explosion.
It's also a bit surprising that they got someone to give them an armored truck to wreck.
Speaking of cosplay, I'm disappointed that Kari wouldn't go along with the Slave Leia idea, but she looked pretty nice in that R2-D2 dress.
Tauntaun shelter: I was wondering how they'd do this one, and honestly I'm a bit surprised they didn't use a pig carcass or something. Although really they would've needed the carcass of a fair-sized horse at the very least. And Jamie made a good point that they needed an analog for an Arctic animal, and I doubt they could've gotten their hands on a polar bear carcass. I'm quite relieved that they constructed an artificial analog. It was clever how they did so, although it didn't work as well as they intended. I'm surprised there wasn't some other ready-made substance they could use for the intestines, like maybe sausage casings.
It's also impressive how well the "tauntaun" worked as an insulator, but I suppose it makes sense. The animal's body would be designed to retain heat, after all. What surprised me was that they interpreted Han's "shelter" as an ice cave. I always took the line to mean that he had some kind of collapsible tent with him.
Of course the question could also be how Han survived in the cold without the warmth of an animal while he built the shelter. IIRC he was no more heavily dressed than Luke was so he would've lost heat just as fast (if not faster) which would have really impacted his ability to build the shelter.
Remember, they said Luke had already lost 3-4 degrees and was mildly hypothermic when Han found him. And he was unconscious and immobile. Han's activity building the shelter would've helped keep his body temperature up.
The preview for the upcoming season looks really interesting. Some things there I can't wait to see. It looks like they're even recreating their classic cement-mixer explosion, perhaps in order to get some proper high-speed footage this time.
