The Amazing Race thread

[Sir GuitarCozmo]

So that we don't eat up the Survivor thread with Amazing Race discussion.  DISCUSS!!

It's pretty early on, but there are already a few teams I like.  I'm obviously on board for James and Abba to win.  Natalie and Nadiya are already getting on my nerves.  STFU!!  I like Gary and Will.  They're genuine nice guys that I'd like to see do well.  Jaymes and James seem really dense, for some reason.  Kelley's all right, Rob's a little irritating.  That's all I've come up with thus far, I think.

I was a little irritated that in the 1st episode, Amy and Daniel helped Abbie and Ryan out, then A&R passed them to come in first, though it matters little, since A&D got cut in the 2nd leg.

I never followed this show from the beginning, but apparently it's a hollow shell of its former self.  From what I gather it was better in every way, years ago, especially in the area of roadblocks and detours.  Now, some of them are fairly mindless tasks.  I'd LOVE to see some more action and some more serious challenge at R's and D's.  Either way though, I still dig it.

[BlobVanDam]

The task this week with the bull racing was completely pointless. Could you fail the task? It was busy work. I know it wasn't a proper challenge, but it was still a waste of time.

And obviously I too am going for James and Abba. And I wanted the cyborg chick to do better too. Shame to see that team go.

[Sir GuitarCozmo]

That goes right back to what I was saying about the lack of actual challenge in some of these tasks.  However, had they had to actually win, they'd have been there all day.

[BlobVanDam]

The proper challenges had some difficulty, although I just didn't find them that interesting this week. They can't have found them too interesting either, since they seemed to edit over a lot of the last challenge before the check-in. All at once they just showed the first 5 teams arriving.

[Sir GuitarCozmo]

I found that odd as well, though I thought the ice challenge was kind of interesting.  The fish challenge, not so much.

[BlobVanDam]

There's always that one challenge that only one team will do, and often it backfires in their face. I knew the fish one would be the one that only one team would do. I was kinda hoping it would backfire.

I didn't mind the ice challenge, at least what they showed of it. The fact that breaking the ice wasn't really a penalty kind of took away from it, since everyone was breaking it.

[MetalMike06]

I haven't followed the show in years (don't really watch much TV anymore) but it was a pretty fun show to watch, since I love travelling.

[Sir GuitarCozmo]

Even better now that it's filmed in HD.

[Ben_Jamin]

I havent watched this in 6  years. It was one of the best reality game shows I've seen.

[Sir GuitarCozmo]

I've been watching it since about 2005 and have loved it, for the fast-paced nature of the game, the travel aspect, as MM mentioned, and the lack of real social game aspects, like are found in Survivor or Big Brother.  While I like that aspect in those shows, it's interesting to see a show like TAR that is mostly devoid of that.

[Sir GuitarCozmo]

Seriously?  SERIOUSLY?  You're going to bitch on public television that you can't believe somebody who lives in Indonesia doesn't speak English?  Are you fucking kidding me?  Good riddance, you moron.  I just cannot even fathom how completely out of touch you would have to be to say something like that.

I don't know what is up with Gary and Will, but those guys have dodged so many bullets, it's like they're battling Stormtroopers.  I cannot imagine they're going to stick around much longer.  Due to complete dumb luck by Caitlin and Brittany, Gary and will did BOTH halves of the detour and still beat them there.  ONLY because C&B ended up at the egg challenge and their driver went the wrong way.  So incompetent drivers strike again.  That has probably accounted for MORE people being eliminated than anything else.  Bad drivers.  In this instance, however, the "doesn't speak English" thing irritated me enough that I'm glad they're gone.  Go be a loser in America, where they speak your language.

Meanwhile, I think James and Abba'a "do our own thing" tactic could be a little tooo alienating.  If they would've conversed with the others on the train and tried to make nice, it might've endeared them to the others a little, making them less of a potential target for U-Turns in the future.

[wkiml]

  .  Jaymes and James seem really dense, for some reason. 

They're Metalheads what do you expect   

[SystematicThought]

The two Indian chicks are getting on my nerves. They are almost exactly like the two girls eliminated last night, they openly berate the people in the country and are just plain loud.

[Sir GuitarCozmo]

  .  Jaymes and James seem really dense, for some reason. 

They're Metalheads what do you expect   

No, that's James and Abba.  James and Jaymes are the two tall blond Chippendales guys.

The two Indian chicks are getting on my nerves. They are almost exactly like the two girls eliminated last night, they openly berate the people in the country and are just plain loud.

The loud and obnoxious thing irritates me big time.  They do it constantly.

[SystematicThought]

Whenever I see James and Abba, I always think Rob Zombie is racing. I like those two and hope they go far.

Another thing on the Indian chicks, I wonder if the season will go to India. I'm curious if they know the language at all

[Sir GuitarCozmo]

Dhaka, Bangladesh next week.  They grew up in Sri Lanka.  I assume the language is probably similar?

[SystematicThought]

They might be. We'll have to see, it'd definitely give them the edge for the week.

[BlobVanDam]

Finally watched this week's episode. Not too happy with the results. I'm glad the metal dudes caught up a bit, although as Coz said, they shouldn't stick to themselves so much. I expected they were going to get U turned, although luckily the other teams were smart enough to realize that it wasn't necessary for the front pack, and would have worked against them in the long run.

I wasn't happy that the generic couples came first and second. Every season they have the forgettable and dull couples who you can never remember. Bleh.

It was a shame to see the chicks go only because of a crap driver, especially considering how terrible those teachers are. They'll be gone next week most likely.

And I like the Indian chicks. Everyone else finds them annoying (which I completely understand), but I think they're hilarious.

[Sir GuitarCozmo]

And James and Abba nail the fast forward.  Killer.  They now have a huge lead, time-wise on everybody else.

Until the standard bullshit equalizer of everyone getting to the airport and having to wait on a flight, basically nullifying ANY ADVANTAGE WHATSOEVER to coming in first.

No surprise that Gary and Will continued to move at a snail's pace and end up dead last.  They are terrible at just about everything they've had to do.

[Big Hath]

Until the standard bullshit equalizer of everyone getting to the airport and having to wait on a flight, basically nullifying ANY ADVANTAGE WHATSOEVER to coming in first.

I hate this also.  They also use the standard "this area/challenge doesn't open until XXX time tomorrow".  I know it would kill a season, but just once I want to see a team get so far ahead that they aren't even in the same country as the others anymore.  But I guess Phil wouldn't be able to be in two different places for the pit stops.

[Aefenwelg]

I thought this was a thread about white people.

[BlobVanDam]

And James and Abba nail the fast forward.  Killer.  They now have a huge lead, time-wise on everybody else.

Until the standard bullshit equalizer of everyone getting to the airport and having to wait on a flight, basically nullifying ANY ADVANTAGE WHATSOEVER to coming in first.

No surprise that Gary and Will continued to move at a snail's pace and end up dead last.  They are terrible at just about everything they've had to do.

Those guys were in such self denial about how terrible they were. They were bragging about their "comeback" last week. They didn't make a comeback at all. There just happened to be one team who had such a shitty driver that they lost all of their time. I'm glad those teachers finally went. And I was very glad to see the generic couples knocked back a bit.

And I was thrilled to see the rock dudes grab first this week.

[BlobVanDam]

Rock dudes in first place again! It's been a couple of weeks since they had a plane ride to equalize the playing field, so they kept their first place lead of a couple of hours from last week's shortcut. No slip-ups from them this leg.

Suck shit to the generic couple being cut up about getting second place. Deal with it.

And the Indian chicks were hilarious again this week. If the rock dudes go, they're my next choice for first place.

[Big Hath]

still need to watch last week's episode and the latest one.  Last week the DVR only got about half of it thanks to the Pats/Jets game going to overtime.

[Sir GuitarCozmo]

Fucking football always fucking up TV schedules.  FUCK YOU, NFL!

Yeah, glad to see James and Abba doing well.  The Sri Lankan chicks are irritating as hell.  STFU!!  I chuckled at the end when they told the chick at the mat they were from Sri Lanka.  I imagined she's thinking "Awesome, you're from a completely different country that's at LEAST 1,300 miles away!"

The scale challenge looked pretty in-depth.  Real easy to screw that one up.

[Sir GuitarCozmo]

Okay, fuck those Sri Lankan chicks. Fuck 'em. Period. I already didn't like them, but now I am really pissed. That's bullshit.

[BlobVanDam]

Had to catch up on the last two episodes.

I'm pissed off that generic couple A came first 2 weeks in a row. That chick's face needs to go, because it's offensive to the optic sensors.

And I'm not happy about the rock dudes losing their passports. I never like when things come down to the taxi driver, such as driving off with their gear, or not knowing where they're driving to. I like teams to win or lose based on their ability to do the challenges, and to play the game to get ahead.

Even though it's continued next week, I'm pretty sure the rock dudes can't come back from that. The preview didn't give away a lot, but it did reveal that generic couple B stays in it (which already disappoints me greatly), so that means either the rock dudes go, or that generic couple B beats the goat farmers in a footrace to the finish, and the goat farmers go.
I don't know how far ahead the rock dudes are, but unless they get really lucky, we're talking needle in a haystack here.

[Sir GuitarCozmo]

Had to catch up on the last two episodes.

I'm pissed off that generic couple A came first 2 weeks in a row. That chick's face needs to go, because it's offensive to the optic sensors.

And I'm not happy about the rock dudes losing their passports. I never like when things come down to the taxi driver, such as driving off with their gear, or not knowing where they're driving to. I like teams to win or lose based on their ability to do the challenges, and to play the game to get ahead.

Even though it's continued next week, I'm pretty sure the rock dudes can't come back from that. The preview didn't give away a lot, but it did reveal that generic couple B stays in it (which already disappoints me greatly), so that means either the rock dudes go, or that generic couple B beats the goat farmers in a footrace to the finish, and the goat farmers go.
I don't know how far ahead the rock dudes are, but unless they get really lucky, we're talking needle in a haystack here.

Yeah, she's slightly butter-facey, for sure.  Generic couple B are the ones that won the first leg.

Yeah, I don't know how they'll come back from it at all, but I would presume that even though it's a big city, there's probably some sort of parent cab company.  Find someone who speaks English and Russian and have them call the taxi company(s), at the very least.  Otherwise, yeah, they're pretty much fucked.  This happened to a couple a few seasons ago.  The camera zoomed in on their fanny pack, still on the taxi's floor board, then watched it drive away.  I get that the whole point is keep an eye on your shit, but if you KNOW the taxi is leaving with a team's stuff, to film it leaving and not say anything is not cool.

[BlobVanDam]

It must be hard for the camera people to let these things pass, but of course they have to. They'd get in shit for interfering with the game like that. I'm surprised the contestants don't notice the cameras focusing on certain things like that when it happens. Maybe it's not as obvious as it seems though when you're there in the moment.

I would love for them to overcome something like that, especially after also overcoming leaving their money behind and having it stolen last episode, but I'm accepting that they're basically gone at this point.

[Big Hath]

I agree that the cameramen shouldn't do anything about it.  They aren't there to be part of the race, just to document what the racers are doing.  It's the team's responsibility for their crap.

But I guarantee that more times than not when something like this happens, the show directors stage a recreation of the item being lost so they can make the show more dramatic.  I bet the cameramen miss it the first time too.

[Sir GuitarCozmo]

Dammit.  I really hoped beyond hope that they'd pull out a miracle, but no such luck.  Major bummer to go out like that.

Not even sure who I'd root for at this point.  Possibly James and Jaymes.  Those guys are a shit ton of fun and nice guys.

I liked the time zone challenge last night and how Ryan was all "I got this!" then he fucked it up repeatedy.  When he finally got it and the instructor was laughing at what an idiot he'd been, it was fucking gold. 

[BlobVanDam]

Finally caught up on the last two weeks. I wish it hadn't trailed on with a non elimination leg, because it was obvious they weren't going to find their passports, and even if they did, they had no chance of catching up.

And this week's episode could not have gone better. I'm going for the Indian chicks now, and they came first quite convincingly. And generic couple A came last and finally went! Suck it.
Now I just hope that generic couple B loses so I don't have to see that chick's offensive head anymore. I would be so relieved to not even see a generic couple make it to the final.

edit: Oh yeah, and I forget to mention - who the hell gets tripped up on time zones?! I can't believe that anyone made that mistake in that Moscow time difference challenge.

[Sir GuitarCozmo]

I was pretty disappointed to see James and Abba go out that way.  Fucking sucks to go out on a technicality like that.

Natalie and Nadgonnashaddup have gotten on my last nerve for weeks.  Generally it's 5 of us watching it and we've all been actively rooting for them to get eliminated.  Abbie and Ryan I wouldn't have minded seeing win.  But yeah, Trey and Lexi are a no for me.  I'm hoping to see James and Jaymes win it still.

I thought the time zone challenge was pretty interesting.  It's possible that Americans are self-absorbed enough that it would never occur to them to have to understand time zones beyond the following:

Okay, it's 8 here on the east coast, so CT=7, MT=6, and PT=5.

When Ryan finally got it and was like "I'M SUCH AN IDIOT!", it was damn funny.  Good stuff.

[BlobVanDam]

James and Jaymes would be my second choice to win. Basically, as long as it's not generic couple A, I'll be content.
And again, it does suck to see people go on a technicality. The rockers were doing really well that leg, and through no fault of their own, they lose. I like teams to lose based on how well they do in challenges, not based on whose taxi driver screws them over the least.

[Sir GuitarCozmo]

Exactly and often times that's what happens.  You unluckily picked the wrong taxi driver and you got screwed through no real fault of your own.  Those kinds of eliminations suck.  Also, I really hate the U-Turn.  I realize that there's the advantage to it for those ahead, but it just feels bad to see people use it.  I'm always proud of those who have the chance to use it and don't.