MTV's The Duel Season Ender

There's television, good television, and, if you're lucky, "Do not delete recording" television. Most of this season of MTV's The Duel 2 was barely television. There was a distinct lack of partying, night-vision hook ups, backstabbing, and any competitive drama after the Artest-ian melee between CT and Adam eight minutes into the season. Instead we were inundated with lame confrontations, contrived relationship disputes, and a player competing for diaper money. Yawn.

The final episode finally raised the bar, with a surprise extra duel, including the first full contact male duel. (And it was outstanding, with Brad pulling maybe the greatest and smarted competitive move ever, in throwing Landon's ring. Truly genius work from a guy who spelled T-H-R-O-N in a spelling bee challenge two weeks earlier.) And while the final challenge was par for the obstacle course, there were some great take-away moments. Rachel's wire-to-wire victory was nothing short of impressive, even if it was predictable, and even if she might have the anatomy to compete in the men's side too. Evan's reaming out of Brittni was both hilarious and typical d-bag Evan. And Mark's commitment to Aneesa showed class and character usually absent from the entire MTV network. You know the rest: the winners got oversized checks (one of the top 10 best things in life), the credits rolled, and then, and only then, did the show take its first steps into "Do not delete recording" territory.

Following the season finale, MTV aired an aftershow, The $#!t They Shoulda Showed, which is perfectly named. The hour long season retrospective with hysterical confessionals and video of the things we really wanted to see all season; the parties, hook ups, black outs, and silly time wasters that humanize the cast.

The main reason that the show was such a success was that it feature Issac in all of his drunken glory and comedic brilliance. If MTV were smart, they would have him live in the house for the inevitable next go around and not compete, only provide debauchery and commentary. Between Issac's epic black outs, his character 'Samuel the Cat', his Flava-Flav costume complete with black-face, and blunt honesty make him the uncontested MVP of the season.

Meanwhile, the aftershow also shed light into what the contestants do during the days, which was the first time we'd really seen how much fun the house can be. It's easy to rip these steroid-pumped meatheads for being dumber than the Kicker iPod docks door prizes, but they have some unbelievably creative ways to party and pass time. The mustache, the cardboard box game, the fashion show, the oneses, Evan and Mark's "Apartment Party" are all examples of things they really should have shown. (And honestly, why didn't they? Did they not want more shows and more revenue? Come on Bunim-Murray, you're better than that.)

Anyway, there's so much more packed into the hour but I dont want to ruin all the fun. It's MTV so it airs almost everyday, so I suggest making a DVR date. If all this hasn't been enough of a sell, I give you two more words: Pube Tacos.

Meanwhile tomorrow night comes the grand finale to the roller-coaster of a season, The Reunion. Maybe we'll finally get more video of the Adam/CT fight. Maybe we'll finally find out if Landon is gay. Maybe we'll get some insight into why Aneesa looked like such a crack-whore in the aftershow. Either way, the momentum from the Aftershow last week makes this must-see-tv and more potential "Do not delete recording" television.