The Amazing Race 17

[EricBess]

Normally, Spidey starts this thread up, but since he hasn't yet, I guess I will.

Are we all still watching? Interesting twist with being able to skip a challenge. Is it a one-time thing, though? Seems like something they would want a couple of times during the season, but not too much. If one team keeps winning because they get to skip challenges, that isn't so great.

What would be interesting is something like Survivor is doing - if you use it, it goes to the next team to arrive after you. If you still lose, or come in second to last, it's just gone. I'm not sure that Survivor didn't go too far (will the challenges still be interesting?), but we'll see. I just like to see things where the people behind are given a chance to catch up rather than something where the people who are winning win even more...

What a blow to the face. It will be interested next week to see if they comment on it and whether or not the medics got involved. Not too upset at who was eliminated, but it's really early and hard to really like anyone yet. The one team I'm interested to see how they play out is the girl and her bio-mom. Not that I think they will win, but it will be interesting to see how they get along. So far, they seem to really be pulling together.

 

[Spiderman]

Yeah, I didn't start it because I hadn't seen it yet

And we almost missed the ending because of the sports backlog and stuff... fortunately, we tape Undercover Boss right afterwards, but that just means we'll miss the ending to that...

Anyway, I think the Express Pass is a one-time thing. I'm thinking they should use it in case they get detoured and if all the detours are done and/or they're not detoured, use it in a challenge that will put them ahead. Unless they're tied to near last in one of the early legs. Definitely save it - there's still 10 teams right now!

It is too early to get a favorite, but I don't think the tattoo team will last too long, based on their lack of observation skills

It sucks that the team which got eliminated *did* get eliminated - they went from first to last in what seemed like no time. I can't believe they couldn't get to Stonehenge and the castle at some point...

Not sure if the "Tinkerbell and Pan" nickname for one team is friendly and playful or sarcastically mean... The "Pan" guy does need to calm down.

 

[Spiderman]

Well, last night was pretty "bland". All of the teams seem fairly nice (well, there was that one comment from Jill's partner about worrying about other people's feelings...). This episode just seemed like it was all down to the cab drivers (again!) - the adoptive team were the ones on the losing end this time.

 

[train]

I thought it amusing the son found his father to be more useful than just tagging along this time. I wish the mother/daughter could have extended their stay in the race if for only the experience - but alas, they didn't get to the pit stop accordingly...

 

[EricBess]

Yeah Spidey - I was thinking the same thing. The front-running teams were definitely all doing fairly well, but the three of four "losing" teams all seemed to have issues with their cabs and the mother/daughter in particular. Word to the wise, though - if you ever get onto The Amazing Race and your cab driver doesn't seem to know exactly where he is headed, INSIST that he pull over and ask someone early. It is really sad that the cab driver's inexperience eliminates someone, but there were teams that asked the cab driver to pull over and find out for sure, so you cannot completely blame the driver. Still, that feels like less of the "race" than people getting stuck on the challenges.

Speaking of challenges, I was really surprised that so many people chose to do the TVs. While that was closer, it just seemed like the sort of thing that would take longer and could be more frustrating than transporting a coffin. I found it very interesting that the teams in the lead all seemed to choose the TV and the trailing teams the coffins. I almost wonder if they realized it would take longer, but wanted to have more control. As they got to the end, they were more interested in just getting it done as quickly as posible.

The daughter in the father/daughter team (that came in second to last) bothered me a bit, though. I don't know if it was because I was pulling for the mother/daughter team, but the fact that she was making such a big deal about "we can't be eliminated" and took no consideration for the fact that someone was getting eliminated and if it wasn't them, it was someone else. I understand the desire, but I guess the way she went about it came accross as a bit arrogant to me.

 

[Spiderman]

I think the "cab experience" is meant to be part of the race - since it can really happen to anyone, someone in the lead could get a bad cab and fall back and vice versa. So I guess it's supposed to even out.

I don't know about that Detour either; I think it may have seemed easier just to "put up an pole" than transporting stuff. I didn't really get a good idea of what the antenna challenge was though, but it seemed pretty simplistic.

I think the daughter was just getting caught up in the moment, but it did seem over the top. But maybe to her, after the bad cab driver and trying to catch up and just a difficult day, it's just how she felt

Oh yeah, your comment about always asking for directions when with a clueless cab driver reminded me from the first episode: Like Survivor, where you should be learning how to make fire the moment you find out you're on the show, you should be learning how to drive a stick the moment you learn you're on the Amazing Race

 

[Mooseman]

Ok, I watched this thing.... since I have been reading your posts for a while.

The cab drivers were a big part of it, but doesn't anyone have a smart phone to look up things? Maybe that part of the world is not mapped or not googlable (is that even a word?)

I would have thought the older players would have some experience with "rabbit ears" and know how hard they are to use. But coffin delivery could have been the hardest one, although each team seemed to get help up the steps.

Yes, the one girl who was over the top at the end, was over the top... kind of annoying.

Were some of the guys in the cabs gaying it up too much? Don't know if they are, but they seemed to be a bit much.

 

[Spiderman]

Ha, we got a convert!

I get the impression that the contestants aren't allowed to have phones. They've always had to either borrow a phone from a cab driver to get directions or look up airport stuff or have the cab driver call for a replacement cab when they break down or whatever. I think it's game rules.

There's actually not too many older players with experience with rabbit ears, I bet... maybe the two dads and the adoptive mom, but everyone else seems to be in the 20's, which would mean they were raised during the later 80's and early 90's and that's more when cable was on the rise.

Not sure by what you mean by "gaying it up too much"... which guys?

 

[EricBess]

I think he means the singers. They are part of an acapela group, so when they started singing for the cab driver to go faster, it was annoying, but given the context, I don't think you can imply gay.

I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who thought that about the daughter. I understand that she's "in the moment" and doesn't have the context of the other teams like we do, but there is a fine line between that and being self-important. My personal impression was that she marginally crossed that line.

I'm 40 and I know what rabbit ears are, but it's always hard to get a sense of how much younger people know about technology and the majority of the contestants do seem to be a bit younger. To me, just knowing that you have to ajust them "just right" could be a huge pain. But yeah, I've seen carrying/navigating challenges where things are very awkward, so it's easy to see both and judge, but being there without knowing what the coffins look like, I guess I can see where they might have thought it would be easier to plug in a cable to the back of a TV.

And Spidey's right, they aren't allowed to bring their own phones and such. So, if they could find a cab driver who had one of those gadgets, they would be able to use one, but they cannot bring their own. It might be interesting if they had a season where everyone had one, just to see how much of a difference it might make. If someone lost their's half-way through, would they just automatically lose the next leg or would they be able to scrap the information together anyway...?

 

[train]

I'm waiting for this week, once spidey has read up...

 

[Mooseman]

It got prempted for football and pushed back. I only saw parts of it.
What was with the "going back to the school and working"?
I don't even know who got eliminated.
But the one tattooed chick boy friend is not very nice.

 

[train]

school+working=charitable event.
agreed on tattoo boy.

 

[Spiderman]

Yeah, thank goodness we also tape Undercover Boss, or we would have missed this one.

I think the tattoo boyfriend is this season's "yelling/abusive boyfriend", but he did calm down at the end of the show and admit that he shouldn't have jumped on his girlfriend's case the way he did (unlike past seasons boyfriends). So I guess we'll see if he keeps his cool in the future.

What was up with hardly anyone but the acapella team finding the decoder clue for the language arts? No one looked around the building or anything? It was too bad the Asian team got eliminated because the father had a hard time with the challenge, but people need to look around more. The acapella team seemed like they didn't have a problem finding it...

 

[EricBess]

Yes, he did at the end calm down, but at one point, he said he would calm down only when standing on the mat and hearing Phil tell them that they were still in the race. So did he really calm down or was it just for now? Honestly, though, if we was that upset at the fact that she didn't read the clue properly and they had to go back...couldn't he have just gone over the list also, just to make sure nothing was missing? I don't think you can be upset at someone else for missing something if you didn't catch it either (or even try to).

I couldn't believe how many people started on the word search, only to switch to the wheels. Personally, I would have thought that the wheels were the faster challenge anyway. Granted, I've never done that, but it didn't really look that hard. I think the part that is hard to imagine just watching it is the heat, which clearly affected at least 2 people. Still, that was a huge wall to have to check for the search. Ironically, no one switched for that reason, but everyone seemed to switch because they didn't bother to look around the side of the building to find the key.

Everytime someone switched, I half expected one of them to glance back and see it, since they showed them walking right by it every time.

No one got eliminated. It was a non-elimination round. The asian team have a speed-bump next week.

 

[Spiderman]

Yes, he did at the end calm down, but at one point, he said he would calm down only when standing on the mat and hearing Phil tell them that they were still in the race. So did he really calm down or was it just for now?

Well, he did say that, but I think it was while they were walking back with the wheelbarrows and he was hot and tired and frustrated. He calmed down and admitted he was wrong when watching her do the hoop game and struggling with it. So he did it while still in the leg and not on that mat, so I think it was genuine. He obviously needs to control his frustrations better and not take it out on her, but really, he's not the only one, either in this season or past ones.

Right, forgot it was non-elimination. It's been a couple of days

 

[train]

I think the key was the biggest factor, and I don't think it would be too difficult to decrypt once you had it.

I thought it was cool that it was non-elim.

I kept watching the wheel task, and finally realized that the stick "pushes" the wheel along (why many held it in a down position)... As for keeping it totally straight - don't know if I could do it right away - but would be fun.

 

[Spiderman]

Oh yeah, once you knew what symbols to look for, you just had to find the pattern in that big mural thing. That's what the acapella guys did.

 

[train]

Spidey?

 

[Spiderman]

I won't be able to see any shows as my wife's out of town, so I'll have to post my thoughts next week.

 

[EricBess]

Most of this was pretty straight-forward this week. Getting on the early flight clearly made the biggest difference. They edited it to show all sorts of overlap, but since the contestants from the first flight were never actually at the same place at the same time as those on the second flight, it's hard to tell.

The one other piece that clearly made a difference was the detour. Putting up the tents clearly took longer than sledding down the mountain. The asian father/son arrived first and went straight for the tents. A couple of the other teams (if not all) had to try the sleds at least twice (and the chair-lift clearly took time), but they still managed to pass them.

However, that was assuming that they were able to do the sleds at all. Some of the teams clearly weren't cut out for the sleds and the ones that realized that quickly and switched early had the advantage. The one guy was so excited about sleds that he didn't even take into consideration the fact that his girl friend clearly wasn't as adept as him, but she insisted and they switched after a single run. I don't remember how many runs the doctors did before switching, but had the a capella group not tried the sleds a second time, that probably would have kept them in the race.

Obviously, when you are in the middle of it, you can't always know if someone else is going to switch after you, so it's not an easy decision to make.

Normally the detour challenges are more balanced. This was had an extreme time difference if you could manage to pull it off.

Turned out that they team using the Express Pass didn't need to, but they had no way of knowing that, either.