Amazing Race 19

Spiderman

Administrator
Staff member
Anyone watching this? EricBess? I forgot to post about it last week and caught up last night...

So from the first episode, the grandparents "Ma and Pa" got a reprieve when it turned out to be a non-elimination round and survived the double-elimination in the second episode. Of course, getting everyone caught up at the airport at the beginning of the second leg always helps :)

From the first leg, people seemed to have a lot of trouble with the "telephone" challenge. Maybe it was the "panic" and "rush" people felt, but some had to go back for what seemed a heck of a lot of times before getting it right.

From the second leg, the cave roadblock was cool in theory, but seemed awfully simple in execution. Just rappel down, grab the mask and knife, and climb back up? I think they should have had to search around for the stuff or something. It just turned out to be a physical challenge (climbing) and maybe a fear-of-heights thing (which no one seemed to be affected).

The orphanage money thing was.... interesting. The majority of the teams didn't read the sign and had to go back, which cost Ethan and Jenna. Not sure how Bill and Rich got so far behind everyone as they seemed to be in contention at least back at the cave. Maybe they were slow with the money-maker challenge?

No real favorites yet, although the snowboarder team seems likable. The brother/sister team (mostly the sister) seem to be the most aggravating so far.
 
T

train

Guest
I know... not intentionally... just kind of happens... but at least I have a better chance of liking a team that won't get eliminated in the first few legs!...;)
 
T

train

Guest
I think I'd like to see Bill and Cathi do something... I didn't like everyone on the same bus... there's no suspense there, but that's what happened...
 

Mooseman

Isengar Tussle
So I watched a little of the last episode and was wondering about the 2x uturn, why did the first group do the one right behind them. Id winning a leg that important?
The other one seemed to pick a group at random... was that smart?
Did the some of the teams seem directionally challenged? Follow a map? Go in the right general direction, like north or south?
 

Spiderman

Administrator
Staff member
train: I like the snowboarders. They're nice and laid-back.

That kind of thing always crops up, from airport waits to waiting for an area to open where everyone (mostly) catches up, negating anyone's lead. There's only been a couple of times in the whole show's history where a team made such a grevious error or had such bad luck that they couldn't keep up even with an equalizer like that.

Mooseman: Is this the first time watching the show overall? I'm guessing the first group U-Turned the group right behind them to give themselves more of a cushion. Winning a leg isn't that important overall - it's not coming in last that's important - but you do win a nice prize for coming in first and I guess because they were outrun in the last leg that they really wanted to win this leg.

The second group to U-Turn didn't do it so much as at random but they knew they were behind and not sure who else was still racing, so they basically U-Turn a "sure team".

Being directionally-challenged happens to every team on every show, to some more than others :) It's surprising to see when it happens to some teams and how far they end being behind; I never would have guessed that the one team this leg was lost for two hours - you definitely would have figured they would have found out and got proper directions before then. But some teams do the weirdest things... like one team in a past leg whose member just sat and waited for other teams to show up during a Roadblock because she didn't know what to do next instead of going to her teammate and re-reading her clue, which would have been less time.
 
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