Amazing Race

[Spiderman]

Somehow I managed to catch the first episode (my daughter got up late from a nap so she stayed up late). Thoughts:

That yellow-shirted dude looks to be the new "Colin" of this season.

The team that lost made a bunch of mistakes, such as doing the Ice Search for the Detour (not necessarily a mistake in itself, but they took too long trying to find the buoy) and probably taking back-roads to the Pit Stop.

How did they and the Father-Daughter team end up on the wrong side of the Pit Stop when everyone else ended up on the right side?

It was hilarious that the Roommates followed that one team before finding the waterfall and got 90 minutes away from it before finding out.

The wrestler team is... interesting.

 

[Mikeymike]

The guy's name is Bolo....Bolo for chrissakes! It is so terrible, yet so wonderful.

The guy in the yellow shirt is The Most Annoying Person Ever. I was hoping the raft driver was going to kick him into the icy water when he started randomly hootin' and hollerin'.

 

[Spiderman]

I was kinda hoping they'd get eliminated the first round after they made that minor bumbling error on the second day (which I can't remember what right now, finding the waterfall?)

Oh yeah, and what's up with people who can't read what kind of gas goes in the car? Both this time and in the past seasons, the sticker is RIGHT ON THE GAS DOOR! It boggles the mind...

 

[EricBess]

Yeah. There are still too many teams to comment on them all realistically, but there were a lot of silly things going on.

To be fair, there is a lot of distance that we don't see. When they say, "250 miles"...that's a good 4-5 hours driving, so these people are probably pretty tired.

Still, they even asked about which gas it used and didn't even bother to glance down to see if there was any indication?

And the guys that lost were pretty confident in their intelligence... "7 square miles is nothing"....yeah, if it it's completely clear and there aren't a bunch of icebergs everywhere blocking your line of sight...

It's hard to say how much taking the back roads hurt. Probably a decent amount because the speed limits would be a factor, but they really didn't make a deal of that.

I wonder if the back roads were actually more appealing to the people who did the boat because of where they started off. That would possibly explain the father/daughter. The really stupid thing was that the friends actually didn't believe the father/daughter when they said that nothing was there, so they wasted more time looking. If they had just turned around and followed the others, they probably would have beat them because 1) once they saw the checkpoint, they could have easily passed - the Dad was insistant on obeying speed limits and 2) the Dad was obviously a very slow runner and got passed on a lot of running tasks throughout.

In short, the guys that ended up getting eliminated really did a lot to make that happen, dispite what they were saying of, "but why? We did our best..."

 

[Spiderman]

Well, I can understand them wanting to check for themselves since we've seen in past seasons how trusting another team can be damaging (such as when the teams were looking for stuff on three islands last season, or even looking for the waterfall in this season). But yeah, it took some time and like I said before, how did they end up on that side anyway? I didn't think the father/daughter team took the back roads but if they did, that probably explains it that the roads led there instead of where they were supposed to go.

 

[EricBess]

I agree with you about what has happened in previous seasons. However, they knew that they were heading to the pit stop in this case and, as far as I can tell, once a team hits the pit stop, they aren't allowed to go out and "mingle" with the other teams any more.

 

[Spiderman]

There could have been another place named The Blue Lagoon or whatever though.

Not sure by what you mean by the "mingle with other teams" part. You mean a team that's reached the pit stop can't mingle with a team that's still trying to get to it?

 

[train]

I think that's what he means... I have to agree on the annoying colin-like person this go-round...

I'm a little surprised at how (for the hiking portion of it) Bolo struggled, which surmises his "stronger" than everyone else mentality...

Guess we'll see...

 

[EricBess]

Okay, I'm a bit upset by this weeks episode. There are a few people that deserved to be eliminated this week...

- The old couple. The "we will win on the thinking portions" old people who thus far have commented, "we haven't even had a chance to apply our strengths that are the thinking challenges" nevermind the fact that they have done really bad on the thinking portions old couple.

- The wrestlers. The, I'm a big strong guy so I'm going to have my wife do the physical stuff until she tells me that's stupid and I'm going to count by tens and keep counting even though I could put a desk together in a heartbeat wrestlers.

Last week, if the sisters had been eliminated, I would have been, "well, that's what happens when you drive the wrong way for nearly an hour" and not been so upset about it.

The the truth of the matter is that they were eliminated due to nothing short of dumb infernal luck. Out of 200 bales of hay, there were 20 with clues and they had the misfortune to hit "we estimate 100" bales without getting a single clue. Now, I suppose it is possible they just missed it, but everyone else was saying that once you unroll, its easy to see it. So I'm guessing they just happened to be really bad at choosing which bales.

It sort of ticked me off at the show that with all the cool challenges and inventive stuff they do, that they would have a final challenge that came down to dumb luck.

I wan't impressed at all.

 

[train]

(minor detail - I believe it was 27 bales of hay...)

But I agree... The basically had a 15% of picking a hay roll with a clue in it each time, and just didn't get it...

The thing I liked is the show ending it for them, and not making them finish it through... that would have been extremely wrong...

I still think Colin's twin needs to be decapitated... his whole body is controlled by his head motion and his easily entered to tantrums are not cool at all...

I am impressed with Hera and her father...

 

[EricBess]

I'm torn on that one, train. By the show having to come to them, it basically sent a message that they had totally failed. I couldn't possible know how they felt, but not finishing might have been more frustrating because there is no sence of closure.

Still, my point is the fact that any task that could potentially come down to dumb luck really shouldn't be the deciding task for who gets eliminated and who doesn't. In my opinion, there should always be a "catchup" point after every such task. Even if it is a "you have to get on one of 3 shuttles" type of thing so they are set back, that is certainly better than, "you are eliminated because of dumb luck".

 

[EricBess]

So, this week's episode. See, this is what I'm talking about...The fishing can be considered fairly random, but the players were given a choice. They didn't have to do the fishing. They could have done the stacking instead. That's good.

And the salt-mining was a completely skill-based challenge.

So, why was this week non-elimination instead of last week?

Anyway, not a lot new this week in my opinion. Still the same people getting on each others nerves. I was actually pretty surprized by the number of people who are so stubborn about paying a taxi driver what he asks for. It happened at least 3 times this week.

 

[Spiderman]

Well, I'm still behind. Just managed to watch the second episode last night. Don't know if you guys remember it - it was the one where the best friends got eliminated, mainly because it looked like they couldn't drive stick. But Johnny (Colin's alter-ego) was the same and we had a good laugh at the people falling down on the detour - road-ski challenge (a friendly laugh).

 

[train]

I remember it... and I think it was the stick shift issue.... didn't they also go the wrong way for like an hour?...

Let us know when you catch up on the rest...

 

[Spiderman]

I don't know if they went the wrong way, it just looked like they had troubles starting and stuff. But it's possible...

Still have what, three episodes (including last night's) to catch up on... going to try to be better about this than Survivor...

 

[train]

No hurries... take your time and enjoy the family and holidays... (and maybe a Magic game or two...)

 

[Spiderman]

Nope, no Magic... there's a game set for this weekend but we had other plans made...

 

[EricBess]

It was the sisters that went the wrong way. They barely got back in time. The friends just couldn't drive a stick and had a few other issues, too, if I remember right.

 

[train]

thanks EB...

let us know when you catch up to the rest Spidey...

 

[Spiderman]

Well, I finally caught up on all of the episodes over the holidays (except for this past week's which was just outtakes as I understand) so although you guys probably don't remember a lot of it anymore , here are my thoughts:

Episode 3: I sort of disagree with EricBess about the bale of hay challenge now having seen it. While it is "luck", it is also basically the catchup point that he's talking about. Look at all those teams that got there and beat them while they were trying to do it. They sure didn't mind I also think that it was good that whats-his-name came out and told them that it was over; personally, after unrolling all of those bales of hay and spending all that time and getting frustrated, I would want to quit. If they wanted to find one just to find one, maybe they did but was edited out. But at least they have the choice now

Episode 4 & 5: While the old couple got lucky it was non-elim, they couldn't make up the ground. It would have been cool to see someone work the catapult but definitely understand why everyone chose the cannon.

Episode 6: This episode was sure odd in that it's a "to be continued" and I don't think that ever happened before. Of course, it's probably all due to the wrestlers being unable to complete their task in time and get back to Budapest and for once, the teams are really split and the wrestlers might not be able to catch up (especially since the next task, the Internet cafe, seems to only be open at night and the wrestlers would miss it coming in the morning). Should be interesting...