American Grit – Season 2/Episode 1 – “Find Your Grit”

Original air date: June 11th, 2017

Now this show. This reality competition. It’s probably unlike any other reality show competition that I have ever seen. It’s fresh, new, it hones in on with John Cena’s love for the US of A but especially; what it really means to have GRIT. That was my initial thought when I was 19 and American Grit premiered last year on April 14th, 2016 and ended on June 9th, 2016. With two winners in the form of Fisherman, Claire Painter and Lumberjack, Mark Bouquin. Both were members of Team Noah. Ran by cadre leader, Noah Galloway; a US army member of the 502nd infantry and 101st Airborne Division and the recipient of a Purple Heart after losing his left arm and leg during a roadside bomb attack. However, I’m getting off track because this isn’t about season 1. It’s about season 2 with the following; new cadre, new competitors, new location, same host and same premise but with a different wording: Find Your Grit.

Fast forward to this year; I’m 20 years old and my thoughts remain the same on this competition but with a new spin since it is a new season. The season opened up with John (Cena), eating a hefty hardy meal at a diner. He basically defines the premise of the show like he did in season 1 but in a different format.“What is grit? It’s hard to define, but you know it when you see it. (Everyday heroes) That’s a table full of grit. Grit is all around us. You just gotta take a moment to look for it. (Football player) That’s grit. (Mailman’s pants getting chewed on by a dog) You Know what that is? That’s grit. (Old lady defending herself against a thief.) That’s grit. And possibly assault. Yep, grit is Everywhere. So, what happens if you lose your grit? Or you never had it in the first place? That’s what the new season of american grit is all about.” John explains first and foremost that he brought 17 competitors to camp grit. All of them are fresh new faces.

What’s it going to exactly take in order for them to find their grit? The answer: Even though I was personally hoping for the season one cadre to be in the second season, John brought in 4 brand new military heroes with four different styles of leading. They go by the names of Burk, Riki, Chloe and Grady. More respectively let’s gather them in order:

John Burk: US army Infantry Drill Sergeant.

Riki Long: US Marine

Chole Mondesir: US Marine Ammunition Technician

Grady Powell: US Army Green Beret

*Author Note: Personally, I’m on Team Grady and Team Riki but mostly Grady for this season. Then again that could change over the course of the season but for now I like my picks.

Coastal Georgia is the new location for season two that will be the home for 17 competitors & four cadre. To be quite honest, the setting is making me wish that I myself as a young person, should venture out into the great outdoors without social media. But that will come one day for me at a perfect time. Moving on, John (Cena) quickly meets up with the cadre in order to talk about what they are looking for in their respective teams. Before the next scene, Riki lets out a cool burp (in my opinion). Which proves this first lesson as an example: John didn’t expect Riki to let out such a strong burp, which case in point is underestimating. Regardless of their appearance, never underestimate a person of any kind. They may very well surprise you.

Next up, the competitors start rolling in. They’re a very unique group with different quirks and strengths.

Their names:

Richard Mallard

Hannah Koen

Gigi Gustin

Nathalie Martin

Herman Barr

Shermon “Big Sherm” Braithwaite

Melanie Mahanna

George Foreman IV

Chris Edom

Scarlett Angelina

Will Westwater

Michael Wilson Morgan

Heather Pincelli

Janessa Morgan

Gill Mortan

Carla Mireles

Alison Kempkey

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Key Favorite Moment #1: Grady cutting off Gigi’s manicured nails with a knife and what looked like a bottle or wine opener. I would kind of do that but nail clippers will always be my friend and that was a “do not try this at home” moment.

Fast forward to the evening, John Cena invites everybody over so he could welcome them all to the new season. Meanwhile, Nathalie is basically an older version of myself if I were to get excited in terms of John Cena were to speak with me about anything, in this case, about the competition. Back to business, as he explains there are 17 competitors in the competition but 10 weeks from now (in the time period of filming), there will only be one competitor left. Some can get an inflated ego but in the end, that will go away over the course of the weeks at camp grit. The first season included 16 competitors. The second season included a plus one as a preview for the competitors for the rest of the competition. They have their one week to prove that they deserve to be here. The next moment is pure gold and obviously something we would all do. Right after John says “Find a place to sleep”, everyone starts dashing to the little cabins that hold the beds. The golden moment is Hannah who, at first seemed to be honestly fearful to be at the camp is the one in the water, swimming to the nearest cabin. That was just amazing and honestly if I see anyone disagree, I think I might throw some hands. Switching gears for another moment, Shermon case in point, I would describe him as a guy that my mom would probably see fit for me but I would most likely avoid.

*Author Note: Not everyone in the whole world is phony and fake.

Going into the morning, some of the competitors look well rested while others look like a frying pan was attacking them. Heather makes an obvious notion about her current job position as a private investigator. Ironically, she caught her husband cheating. What happened between her and her husband after her time on the show or after this episode aired is out of my knowledge. I for one, as an obvious stranger hope that things are good. Gigi; let me tell you I started to quit for one moment after she kept emphasizing that she was sitting in the same chair as John (Cena) was at night. I took my deep breathes and chuckles and moved on from the moment. John Cena’s Butt, Gigi’s butt, enough said. Moving right along, “Y’all a bunch of smiles, I like this. ‘Cause they are about to disappear.” I feel like John (Burk) is going to be some sort of wild card cadre, meaning someone from his team could win the money but we shall see. The upside-down water challenge, let me be perfectly honest, I thought at least 2 competitors would quit. Forget just one. I was shocked, the cadre was shocked, John (Cena) was shocked, people who were in charge of filming the show were shocked, ALL of America was shocked to find that no one pulled the cord in order to stop being upside down. Some were even shivering like crazy. To keep it simple, it was impressive. The cadre are basically stumped to keep it realistic. The next moment is my continuing problem with Shermon. Not every person in this world is fake, yet he chooses to let past experiences get to him which makes him into the young adult that he is today. There’s no way of voting him out so a more pleasant reaction is an eyeroll. Shermon is the wild card competitor of this season. We could all see a change in him and he could actually make it to the finale or his mindset could be his biggest downfall in getting himself to ring out of the competition.

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Key Favorite Moment #2: You would think that when John said “hold the ball over your head and spin”, everyone would be spinning the ball within their hands, over their head. Nope. That was on purpose in my book with the way they took it because they all started to hold the ball over their heads and spin around in the spot that they were standing in. I can feel the puns and blunders in this season. It’s going to be just amazing. That one was definitely on John.

During the challenge, the cadre started picking their members. I’m beyond shocked that Shermon was picked. I feel like George might be eliminated in a future episode but due to who he’s related to. I mean he said it himself, no one knows he’s related to a world champion. I think Carla might win the competition because the fact that she was wanted by three of the cadre, there’s a lot of value in her. Nathalie is going to be my personal favorite for this season. Grady really did owe it to Gigi after chopping her nails off. As for John’s choice, I wish he was able to pick both Heather and Chris. Either way, it just hurt that they were both in the bottom two. I wish nothing for the best for Heather, especially under these circumstances of the new season. “From here on out, your success and failure depends on you, and your team. Because it is team chemistry, that will give you your best shot here. Your cadre are battling to ensure the winner comes from their team. And that winning competitor will take home $1/4 million. Congratulations. Enjoy it.”

That’ll do it for my first ever Everything blog post – for a show. I would say something witty to end this review but I’m a total nerd so until next Sunday!

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