Time for some Academy Award counter programming!
I’m mainly starting the thread so there’s only one thread if anyone wants to comment on the show while it’s on…
I’m a little weirded-out by how convinced Linda is that Steve will be mad at her…rather than being worried about her own safety and all.
It does seem like The Amazing Writers are playing for yuks this season.
This is almost certainly on the first screen length for west coasters so spoiler protecting this post:
[spoiler]I’ve got to say I’m finding the heavy use of Google Earth a bit disconcerting.
I loved Mel trying to convince the other racers to not “chicken out”. It’s a shame that the partners didn’t leave for the meeting point immediately since he probably could have convinced a few of them to stick around.
“Drive yourselves to… ‘that word’,” should have been the title of the episode.
Oh my god, the divorcees from last season have disguised themselves as flight attendants and joined for another season.
I have to say that I’m getting creeped out by Steve and Linda too.
Ending the leg in Salzburg? They’ll have to have a task relating to Mozart next week.[/spoiler]
I’m not sure which was more impressive – how badly the last team screwed themselves, or how badly the second-to-last team screwed themselves and almost became last!
It’s somewhere on the TAR guidelines: Do NOT do the random selection unless you are desperate or the other Detour is simply beyond your team’s abilities.
Given that, though, the first team through the Detour was having lots of fun with the random selection. (No details now, due to spoiler issues.)
There would have been a time penalty for Steve and Linda as well since she took a car on the “hike” task.
Thank all the gods of prime-time television that team is gone.
But really, as a needle-in-a-haystack task, throwing pies in your partner’s face is miles above “find the lock that fits your key” or 'find the clue in the haybale."
I was amused by the deaf kid protesting so vehemently the pie challenge, given that the teams shown throwing pies before his team got there found a cherry pie in about 6 pies. Of course, deaf kid and mom took more like twenty pies–enough to validate his objections to the challenge.
ETA: I wasn’t exactly rooting for the last team, but I was darn sure rooting against the second to last team–they were driving me bonkers.
Did anyone else lose the ending? I had to go pick up my kid from work, and when I came back, my DVR had cut off right as Phil old Luke & Margie they were 4th and Luke yelled “Four!” Did the show go over or something? Did it start late? Oh well. I heard what happened, and I’ll catch the end later if I really need to.
I was so excited when they flew into Munich, but then sad that they didn’t do anything there. My husband had a summer job there in college. But when they got to Pit Stop at Schloss Hellbrunn, I was so jealous! We visited Salzburg that summer, and it’s so gorgeous.
Tonight was an episode where I could have actually done all the tasks – possibly even jumping off the mountain. I’m normally a wimp. Of course, since my husband is a jumper, he would have done that one, then, since he’s a mountain climber and runner, the trip down would have been no trouble for him. Oh but to be in Germany and Austria and do this leg!!!
I know I am new here, and I swear that I am not usually one of “those” people, but was anyone else just a little bit bothered by the HUGE amount of food (cakes and pies) that was wasted by the challenge? Normally, I would just go with it, but for some reason (maybe because it looked like it would have been really tasty, even though I usually dont have too much of a sweet tooth) it seemed needlessly wasteful…
It didn’t look very healthy, though. They just would have been empty calories. Personally, I would recommend wasting even more food in order to combat our obesity epidemic. Keep throwing those pies and rolling cheese down the mountain, I say.
I couldn’t even be annoyed at Mel because he not only didn’t pray for divine intervention, but actually said he couldn’t pray for God to intervene for him to win a race. How different from the Freaking Weavers!
I really liked Mel and Mike this episode.
Unlike last week, I didn’t muck like Mark and Michael this episode.
Victor is odd. I sing randomly, too, but I don’t think I would on the Amazing Race.
The Amazing Race: The Musical!
[singing]My ox! My ox!
Is brooooooken![/singing]
Oh! I meant to comment on Mel’s prayer too. I loved that. I hate watching people pary that they win. I mean, every know and then, in a big stressful situation, I don’t mind a quite “God, help me get through this” or whatever. But just the way Mel said he couldn’t pray for something like that when God has more important things to do… Awesome! And, of course, in the way of perfect TV, the wind changed for him!
I also loved how he talked about the jump being so amazing, and he would have lost the race for that opportunity. It was just really nice. And then they got to come in 2nd. Good for them.
Even though they couldn’t figure out the gate. Phil’s eyebrow was impressive. 
I suspect convenient editing in answering the prayers more than anything else. 
I’m really enjoying the legs in the Alps. I’m finding myself hoping that they drive through Austria to the Czech Republic sliding through those mountains. It looks like it’s very early autumn in those shots just as the leaves start to turn and the colors are filling the screen; absolutely gorgeous.
I don’t think so. She did hike down the mountain. She just took a wrong turn and ended up in the wrong place. The lady in the car drove her back to where she should’ve ended up.
I’d have to rewatch the episode but I’m 90% sure the task instructions said something like ‘hike from point A to point B’. A method of transportation was specified so using anything else would trigger a time penalty. Just because she went the wrong way doesn’t mean she gets to use another means of transportation to make up for that.
Something about Mel & Son really, REALLY annoys me…I think it’s cause they seem (well, Mel does, his kid hasn’t gotten that much screen time) like the faux-hippies: his “prayer” comment didn’t seem sincere to me, it seemed rehearsed. Most of the stuff he says is like that–just practiced and canned. (Also, I’ve really heard more about his groooooin than I really want to.)
The hillbillies–the way the guy grabbed her hand in the car when they were driving towards the pitstop seemed–um…psychotic. That, plus her being in tears that he’d be “mad” at her and that he made her cry on the first bit of the first leg all strikes me as mondo-creepy.
I really, REALLY like the older married couple (Victoria and the grey haired guy) and I like the stuntmen. (Yeah, I know, “midgets” is a bad word nowdays–but they’re midgets, not dwarves, right?)
I’m not all that thrilled with the deaf kid and his mom–dude, you’re proving something no-one cares about. If you’d asked me if a deaf person could do well on the Amazing Race, I’d have said “Sure, especially given Myrna’s language skills–if she can go through 27 countries without once listening to her partner or any local, a deaf person certainly couldn’t do worse. And besides, you’re not Helen-Freakin’-Keller. Get over yourself.” (I hate the “I’ve got to prove something to the world” slot. I wish they’d ditch it) That said, they’re certainly a strong team.
I think the episode title should’ve been, “I could stay up here all day… if I had a sandwich.”
The stunt guys are really short, but I suspect they’re just from a tiny family – which means that technically they’re not dwarfs (or midgets, which is at best an out-of-date term). They also bug me a bit. I suspect the combination of being that short (as in feeling they have to prove themselves or something) plus being in entertainment hasn’t helped their egos any.
Ah…another team I really didn’t like, gone. I’m not getting the really creepy overtones from them some people are, but they weren’t exactly good racers, so see ya. I’m sure there would have been a penalty for her getting a ride but since they were already last it didn’t matter.
The pie thing was overkill, but I will never cease to find pie-throwing to be funny. I would have been one of the people saying they tasted good, too, even when covered in it. Yum. Pie!