Author Topic: The Amazing Race thread  (Read 15538 times)

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Online jingle.boy

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Re: The Amazing Race thread
« Reply #140 on: March 03, 2022, 08:31:36 AM »
Still having a hard time with the idea that "Social Media Personalities" is a job title.   :(

I know, I know, "Get off my lawn".  I know.

I think it's a dumb "title" for sure.  People like the Holderness's who are self-employed entertainers, and are able to reach a wider audience via the ease of distribution that "social media" channels allows them to... I got no problem with that as a job/career.  "Influencers" is a bullshit job, afaic.
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Offline hefdaddy42

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Re: The Amazing Race thread
« Reply #141 on: March 03, 2022, 09:20:53 AM »
Don't watch the show, just popping in to say that the Holdernesses are pretty funny (my wife follows them, so I wind up seeing a lot of their stuff by osmosis), and they actually live around here, so good for them.
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Offline pg1067

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Re: The Amazing Race thread
« Reply #142 on: March 03, 2022, 10:46:40 AM »
Very happy for the Holderness’s. I would’ve been fine with Raquel and Kayla winning it - even with their unsportsmanlike tactic after the foley challenge.

??


I was SUPER disappointed with the outcome.  I was predisposed to dislike Kim & Penn, but I had ZERO issue with them based on their appearance on TAR.  However, the editors gave Kim & Penn the Adam & Bethany treatment.  If anyone doesn't know, there was a team on s25 of TAR composed of Bethany Hamilton and her husband.  I didn't know who she was at the time, but she lost one of her arms in a shark attack while surfing, and they made a movie about it.  During s25, the editors pushed the "OMG!  Bethany is so awesome and brave!" narrative to ridiculous extremes.  They couldn't have been nicer, but I found myself getting annoyed by how hard the editors shoved her down our throats.  Kim ("OMG!  She's so amazing to overcome anxiety!") & Penn ("OMG!  He's so amazing to overcome ADHD!") got much the same treatment.

But like I said, I didn't really have any problems with Kim & Penn.  My disappointment resulted from REALLY wanting Raquel & Cayla to win.  They won the penultimate leg and were out in front for most of the final leg but got tripped up by that final memory challenge.  And, while that sucked, I thought it was a really well-designed challenge and was generally happy with how the final leg was constructed.  It's also kinda cool that I've been to the Home Depot or Stubhub Center (or whoever has the current naming rights for the home of the LA Galaxy), including the neighboring tennis arena where the final memory challenge was performed.

This season had several superlatives:

- Kim & Penn are the oldest winning team ever (eclipsing the prior mark by two years), and they are the second (Penn) and fourth (Kim) oldest individual winners.  Interestingly, had the race not been suspended, they might not have broken the record (I'm not sure whether their listed ages were as of the start or end of the race).

- The route was the shortest route in show history (excluding "the Family Edition," which was almost entirely confined to the U.S.).

- This season visited the fewest continents and countries of any season (again, excluding "the Family Edition").

All in all, it was definitely "The Amazing Race Lite."  Supposedly, season 34 will start running in May and hopefully will air sometime during the 22-23 TV season.  I hope they're able to make it look a little more "normal."
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Online jingle.boy

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Re: The Amazing Race thread
« Reply #143 on: March 03, 2022, 11:09:08 AM »
Very happy for the Holderness’s. I would’ve been fine with Raquel and Kayla winning it - even with their unsportsmanlike tactic after the foley challenge.

??

when Raquel wished that she'd told the passerby not to give directions to Kim/Penn.  Sure, gameplay, but a 2-minute minor imo.  I mean, why not just slash their tires if you want to slow them up??   :lol  I'm being mostly facetious, but I think it was a bit of a cheap thought - even if they didn't actually do it.

Another thing I noticed was how Kim/Penn kinda got hosed on the piñata challenge, in that the mini-donkey was COMPLETELY hidden from Kim's view behind a larger piñata.

I'm not sure I saw what you saw in the "shoving down" of Kim's anxiety and Penn's ADHD.  IMO, it was no more or less than Dusty's anger, Ryan's jail-time, Raquel/Cayla being unemployed flight attendants, or Lala/Lulu's twin connection.  It's just a part of their individual storylines/personalities.
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I fear for the day when something happens on the right that is SO nuts that even Stadler says "That's crazy".
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Remember the mark of a great vocalist is if TAC hates them with a special passion

Offline Stadler

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Re: The Amazing Race thread
« Reply #144 on: March 03, 2022, 11:30:08 AM »
I've said this before: reality TV is now all about the "backstory".   And as I've also said before:  when EVERYONE has a story, NO ONE has a story.  It's ridiculous; I saw the episode where they had to find the medallion under the stone, and while it was interesting to see the guy struggle with his anger in real time, that was enough.  They didn't need the whole backstory of "I'm doing this for my KID!"  Tha fuck.  I wonder if you asked the kid: would you rather have your dad crawling around flipping stones or have him home with you?

Sorry if that is negative, but it's ridiculous.

Offline pg1067

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Re: The Amazing Race thread
« Reply #145 on: March 03, 2022, 11:31:02 AM »
Very happy for the Holderness’s. I would’ve been fine with Raquel and Kayla winning it - even with their unsportsmanlike tactic after the foley challenge.

??

when Raquel wished that she'd told the passerby not to give directions to Kim/Penn.  Sure, gameplay, but a 2-minute minor imo.  I mean, why not just slash their tires if you want to slow them up??   :lol  I'm being mostly facetious, but I think it was a bit of a cheap thought - even if they didn't actually do it.

Meh...wishing she'd said it is a far cry from actually having said it or, as happened in Kuwait in s10, pushing your opponent away from a local in an effort to prevent the local from giving the same directions to the opponent.


Another thing I noticed was how Kim/Penn kinda got hosed on the piñata challenge, in that the mini-donkey was COMPLETELY hidden from Kim's view behind a larger piñata.

Hard to say, but I imagine everyone had the same set up.


I'm not sure I saw what you saw in the "shoving down" of Kim's anxiety and Penn's ADHD.  IMO, it was no more or less than Dusty's anger, Ryan's jail-time, Raquel/Cayla being unemployed flight attendants, or Lala/Lulu's twin connection.  It's just a part of their individual storylines/personalities.

You're not wrong -- especially about Ryan's incarceration.  It just felt like K&P's sitch got way more screen time than most of the other things you mentioned.  Or it could just be my perception.
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Re: The Amazing Race thread
« Reply #146 on: March 03, 2022, 11:59:35 AM »
Hard to say, but I imagine everyone had the same set up.

Perhaps, and editing messes up everything, but later when R&D were there, the tiny donkey was pretty easy for them to see from the gazebo.  Again, editing can make anything completely misleading.

I'm not sure I saw what you saw in the "shoving down" of Kim's anxiety and Penn's ADHD.  IMO, it was no more or less than Dusty's anger, Ryan's jail-time, Raquel/Cayla being unemployed flight attendants, or Lala/Lulu's twin connection.  It's just a part of their individual storylines/personalities.

You're not wrong -- especially about Ryan's incarceration.  It just felt like K&P's sitch got way more screen time than most of the other things you mentioned.  Or it could just be my perception.

Or a third alternative, because they were the winners, the show (consciously or unconsciously?) wanted to have the audience form more of a connection to them over the other 2 finalist teams?  I mean, naturally the 2 finalist teams will get the most screen time when all is said an done.  I'm sure if Akbar/Sherri had made it to the finals we'd be "Enough with them both being collegiate basketball players and very competitive - WE FUCKING GET IT ALREADY!   :lol  Hell, I 'got' that enough with just the 3 episodes they were in!
That's a word salad - and take it from me, I know word salad
I fear for the day when something happens on the right that is SO nuts that even Stadler says "That's crazy".
Quote from: Puppies_On_Acid
Remember the mark of a great vocalist is if TAC hates them with a special passion

Offline pg1067

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Re: The Amazing Race thread
« Reply #147 on: September 22, 2022, 11:07:27 AM »
Season 34 of The Amazing Race premiered last night.

A couple of twists this season.  First, there are 12 teams, which makes this only the fifth season to have that many, the first since season 15, and the first since season 4 to have 12 teams and not have one team booted in a surprise early elimination.  The other twist is that there will be NO non-elimination legs this season.  In the past, after the first few legs, you'd often see teams near the bottom of the pack audibly hoping for an NEL.

They also talked about this being the first season to start outside the U.S. (they started in Munich, Germany), but that's not true.  Last season effectively started in England after all catching flights from major cities near their homes to Heathrow and then being held at the airport and released at the same time (they also did something similar in season 28).

As with just about every season going back at least 10 seasons, the cast is probably mostly recruited as opposed to "normal" people who went through the full application process.  We've got yet another team who had previously appeared on Big Brother.  Gag!  Fortunately, they were mostly non-obnoxious in the first episode.  We've also got former NFL coach and current analyst Rex Ryan, who's racing with a golf buddy.  According to an interview he did on Dan Patrick's show yesterday, he lost 50 pounds for the Race!  This is definitely the most box-checkingest season yet of TAR.

Last night's episode was a bit of a mess.  Instead of having a linear leg, they did a "scramble" format.  The teams were simply given a map and three addresses and were permitted to go to those locations to do the challenges in any order they wanted.  This made it even more impossible than usual to tell in what places teams were in.  So far, no one comes across as super likable or unlikable.  The cast seems relatively bland.  Of course, with 12 teams, it's hard to get to know anyone after only 45 minutes (60 minutes less commercial time).
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Offline Stadler

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Re: The Amazing Race thread
« Reply #148 on: September 23, 2022, 06:33:55 AM »
Season 34 of The Amazing Race premiered last night.

A couple of twists this season.  First, there are 12 teams, which makes this only the fifth season to have that many, the first since season 15, and the first since season 4 to have 12 teams and not have one team booted in a surprise early elimination.  The other twist is that there will be NO non-elimination legs this season.  In the past, after the first few legs, you'd often see teams near the bottom of the pack audibly hoping for an NEL.

They also talked about this being the first season to start outside the U.S. (they started in Munich, Germany), but that's not true.  Last season effectively started in England after all catching flights from major cities near their homes to Heathrow and then being held at the airport and released at the same time (they also did something similar in season 28).

As with just about every season going back at least 10 seasons, the cast is probably mostly recruited as opposed to "normal" people who went through the full application process.  We've got yet another team who had previously appeared on Big Brother.  Gag!  Fortunately, they were mostly non-obnoxious in the first episode.  We've also got former NFL coach and current analyst Rex Ryan, who's racing with a golf buddy.  According to an interview he did on Dan Patrick's show yesterday, he lost 50 pounds for the Race!  This is definitely the most box-checkingest season yet of TAR.

Last night's episode was a bit of a mess.  Instead of having a linear leg, they did a "scramble" format.  The teams were simply given a map and three addresses and were permitted to go to those locations to do the challenges in any order they wanted.  This made it even more impossible than usual to tell in what places teams were in.  So far, no one comes across as super likable or unlikable.  The cast seems relatively bland.  Of course, with 12 teams, it's hard to get to know anyone after only 45 minutes (60 minutes less commercial time).

My wife is watching it; I think I'll pass and let her tell me what she wants me to know.  I'm really done with these shows that basically have a loose premise - it is loose, because the rules seem to change whenever it's convenient - but are really intended to give screen time to quasi-interesting people.   I find myself checking out of these shows the minute after I decide if I think they're hot or not.   Yes, that's shallow, but that's all these shows really deserve.  THEY are shallow.

Offline pg1067

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Re: The Amazing Race thread
« Reply #149 on: July 31, 2023, 02:25:52 PM »
Resurrecting this thread....

I got bored with season 34 pretty quickly.  Very dull cast and, like season 33, not terribly competitive.  I think most veteran watchers of the show could predict the winning team from the get-go.

The producers of TAR are doing something unprecedented (although maybe other "reality" shows have done this).  The 35th season was run in October and November 2022.  LOCATION SPOILER:  the season was run entirely in Latin America (except for the starting and finishing lines) - I assume this was still for COVID-related reasons.  The 36th season was run in June and July 2023 (apparently, it's back to being a global race).  Because of the pending strikes, both Survivor and TAR are getting 90-minute slots in CBS's fall schedule (on Wednesday nights).  However, instead of running the fall 2022 season in the fall 2023 time slot, CBS is going to run the summer 2023 season as season 35 - with the fall 2022 season presumably being planned as a mid-season show (or, I've seen speculation that it might go straight to streaming, but I doubt that if the strikes persist much longer since the networks will need this sort of programming).

Doesn't really matter to me what order they get run in, but I imagine that whoever won the fall 2022 season is more than a little annoyed since they won't get their money until their season actually airs.  I just hope that they were much less stunt-casty with these seasons and that the Race starts to look more normal now that COVID restrictions on travel have (mostly) been lifted.
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Offline MinistroRaven

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Re: The Amazing Race thread
« Reply #150 on: July 31, 2023, 02:52:55 PM »
Currently watching S34E7, I agree, all of these teams are BLAND, maybe except for the army team, which is the one me and my wife are rooting for.