The Amazing Race 10/24/10 *spoilers*

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I agree with those who said it was a pretty lame episode/season. The doctors are pretty impressive with great attitudes but overall there have been very few suspenseful or exciting tasks. I hope it picks up soon....

 

The funny thing about that is that they were showing what she was saying in the interview after the leg was over, and she said, "I still don't understand what happened," so it was obvious Nick and Vicki don't watch the show and had no idea how the FF works. I would think the producers would brief everyone on the rules of the game before it starts, but maybe they were daydreaming during that part.

I think all Fast Forward clues should be placed immediately after a long plane flight where the teams are likely to all be bunched together and will all think they have an equal chance to go for it. I hate when the FF clue comes as it did in this episode, where every team after the first team just automatically assumes it's not worth it to try because they weren't the first to get the clue.

As much as I'd like to see a race with no bunching and see how strung out all the teams get, and as bummed as I was many seasons ago when Colin and Christie earned a massive lead by being smart and then had to sleep on the steps of the Great Pyramid waiting for an "Hours of Operation" bunch up, from a TV perspective, the legs like this where there is no bunching and the team(s) at the back have zero opportunity to catch up are just boring. For that reason, I think every episode should have some sort of long-distance travel that's out of the teams' control (plane, train, ferry, etc.). Whenever the teams stay in the same general area and just drive themselves around, there is very little drama.

 

I think they realized they needed the equalizers when in season one the 3rd place team was a full 24 or more hours behind the winners. They were a full leg of the race behind.

 

The fact that they were that far behind in season 1 was their own doing. They completed the Fast Forward, then decided to lounge around the city and check into a hotel instead of getting to the checkpoint as fast as possible. No amount of equalizers can make up for stupidity like that.

 

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I agree that's when they realized it, and then I think they tweaked their procedures a little more when Colin and Christie almost got a huge lead in Season 5. Since then, there have always been bunch ups due to travel and "hours of operation" that prevent the teams from getting too spread out.

And frankly, I'm totally fine with that. As I said before, I'd love to see what would happen if those things were not in place, but I think it would make for crappy TV. Making each episode a competitive race in and of itself creates the most compelling TV product. The way to make each episode competitive is to eliminate the advantage the teams got in previous stages. Which is why this episode was boring: The volleyball girls never had any chance of catching up. Not even Nick and Vicki's boneheaded FF blunder was enough to get Katie and Rachel back into contention. I can see if a team starts the leg last and makes a bunch of mistakes, but if they start last, perform all the tasks well and don't make any mistakes, yet don't ever come close to seeing the other teams, then it makes for a pretty uninteresting leg.

 

I agree for the most part. I'd like to know how far behind the volleyball girls were. The show always tries to make it look closer than it is.

The other thing that frustrates me is seeing legs decided by bad cab drivers instead of the teams themselves.

 

Didn't the team ahead of them pass by on boat on the way to the ladders? No idea how long it took from the ladders to the house but the episode made it seem the bike task was quite a bit faster, thus why I wondered why the girls chose the boat task. Perhaps they are as bad at riding bikes as tech sleds.

 

I couldn't disagree more. Part of travelling is finding how how locals live and what they eat. It annoys the heck out of me when Americans go to foreign places and eat at Mcds. This challenge is real. They do eat that for the holidays in Norway.

 

You can see how far behind at the start of the next leg.

Kevin and Dad were the first to the Bike or Boat thing and checked in 4th - so however much time from 1st to 4th will be at least as long as the boat took.

The Volleyball girls would have had a chance if they did the bikes.

 

Possibly. But that proves the point. The team in last place shouldn't have to be clairvoyant and not only run a perfect leg but also be able to discern which task will be shorter and get that right too. If the point is making a realistic race, then they should keep doing it like they did in this episode. But if the point is to make compelling TV, they need to have bunch ups in each episode so the outcomes aren't inevitable.

 

While I agree that travel should include learning about the culture, lifestyle and food I don't agree this food challenges should be included here. TAR isn't an educational adventure for the racers. They barely know where they've been. While it could be somewhat educational for the viewers, we can't really taste the food, can we?

It's presented more like a "dare" than designed to learn about the food and culture. Sometimes the quantity is unreasonable, designed to overwhelm. That's not exploring the national cuisine. Indeed, if anything it digusts the viewers. I should actually think the residents in these countires would be insulted rather than pleased.

 

There's no good answer. With no equalizer it's almost impossible to catch up when more than an hour behind. It's also unfair when a team DOES work hard to get a big lead and it evaporates. But without equalizers the teams could get way too spread out. You have to look at it like a bunch of mini races.

 

Exactly this. Each leg is its own race. Win the leg and get a prize. Don't finish last and you're still in the race. But don't expect a lead in one leg to give an advantage in the following leg.

 

Wow, I definitely thought it was about as entertaining as most episodes… on the lower end, but I don't _remember_ there being horrible episodes or incredibly great episodes.. (there have been great lines said by people -- the geek guy from many years ago saying he'd get some girl's number).

and while at first I didn't get why the girl didn't get the "taken" sign.. as she explained it, it ALMOST made sense.. She was over-analyzing the exact wording of the sign. I'd have to watch it again, but I think she was debating whether it was "taken" as in someone else was DOING the challenge, or if it was "taken" as in someone else had FINISHED the challenge. I'm about the biggest grammar nazi there is, and I almost give her a pass in this case, since they're probably WAAAAAY stressed out during the challenges. (She's not the brightest bulb in the pack in the first place.)

 

The team that won last season didn't win a single leg. Until the one that really counted.

 

I think the producers are trying to avoid what happened the first season where one team was so far ahead that they crossed the finish line while another team was still in the previous city.

I'm not sure if this would work or not, but what about something on the following lines: All teams leave the pit stops together, but the time differences between their finishes accumulates over the course of the race. Of course the one with the largest total lag would be eliminated, but at least they would all be on the course together, and the "catch-up" flights would not be so devastating to the teams that are ahead.

 

As I previously said here.
The fact that they were that far behind in season 1 was their own doing. They completed the Fast Forward, then decided to lounge around the city and check into a hotel instead of getting to the checkpoint as fast as possible. No amount of equalizers can make up for stupidity like that.

 

True it was their own stupidity in that case. But without equalizers, each leg would play out as this past one did. Boring as hell.

 

I'd like to see them try something like this, but I fear that with everything being equal, certain teams would rise to the top and always be up front, and over the course of a season, they'd accumulate a large time advantage. This would make the final episode kind of anticlimactic, when all the teams land in the final city at the same time, but one of those teams already has a two-hour advantage in their pocket. It might also take away some of the incentive for a team to race hard each leg, since they may have an hour lead on the next team behind them, so they might not be so stressed when they get a bad taxi driver or it takes them a few extra minutes to locate a landmark. Stressed out teams is what makes this show interesting.

But it would definitely be an interesting experiment. Just for argument sake, when I get home tonight, I'm going to see if I have all the eps from this season still on my TiVo and I'll put together the total times for the teams so far based on the departure times shown to us.

 

As long as they NEVER do another family edition I'm good