Opening ceremony roundup
So, what did you guys think of the Olympic opening ceremony?
I thought that it was pretty good overall. I really liked the Greek historical tableaux, and most of the things they did with the water and levitating statues were really nice. Bjork's performance was a bit of a low point (though still better than the chrome pickup trucks of Atlanta). I also wasn't all that impressed with the Olympic torch, but perhaps my expectations are just too high after the flaming arrow in Barcelona.
I watched live coverage on the CBC. The one thing that really irked me was that they failed to show some countries in the parade of nations, opting for commercial breaks or cell phone interviews with Canadian Olympic athletes. Honestly, I don't fault them for either decision, but it would have been nice if they had shown brief highlights of the countries we missed when they rejoined parade coverage. Many of those countries are not competitive to win a medal, and it's dishonourable to deny them their moment in the spotlight. (Plus, I just like some of the cool national costumes.) I didn't watch the coverage on NBC, which wasn't aired until the evening. Did they also leave out countries in the parade of nations, as they've done in the past?
I thought that it was pretty good overall. I really liked the Greek historical tableaux, and most of the things they did with the water and levitating statues were really nice. Bjork's performance was a bit of a low point (though still better than the chrome pickup trucks of Atlanta). I also wasn't all that impressed with the Olympic torch, but perhaps my expectations are just too high after the flaming arrow in Barcelona.
I watched live coverage on the CBC. The one thing that really irked me was that they failed to show some countries in the parade of nations, opting for commercial breaks or cell phone interviews with Canadian Olympic athletes. Honestly, I don't fault them for either decision, but it would have been nice if they had shown brief highlights of the countries we missed when they rejoined parade coverage. Many of those countries are not competitive to win a medal, and it's dishonourable to deny them their moment in the spotlight. (Plus, I just like some of the cool national costumes.) I didn't watch the coverage on NBC, which wasn't aired until the evening. Did they also leave out countries in the parade of nations, as they've done in the past?
2 Comments:
Slate has a great opinion piece from a Seattle viewer who prefers the Olympic coverage of the CBC because it shows more sports and less talk and sob stories.
Speaking of which, why does NBC's gymnastics coverage suck every Olympics, Tesh or not? Between the tautological analysis and disdainful negativity whenever a gymnast slips up, NBC's commentating really detracts from the gymnastics. And don't even get me started on their schmaltzy mockudramas.
I watched most of it on NBC. It wasn't too bad... They had a lot of commercials but they did quickly highlight all the countries that they missed during the break so you could see what they were wearing and stuff (better than they usually do). My big problem though was the guy commentator (I don't know his name). He was really annoying! he didn't say many good things about any country and he even made jokes about some countries' name (poor djibouti)...
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