Besides which, the deaf team actually won The Amazing Race Asia Sesaon 3(?) - not sure if that screened in the US though
I’m glad I’m not the only one.
This was a three-eyebrow episode. Damn.
Just Some Guy, I wouldn’t expect a Mozart task next week. It seems like the first thing they do on every leg is travel to a new city, and then they make with the Detours and Roadblocks. Maybe the producers figure the world’s airline passengers have enough problems without sitting next to someone covered in pastry.
And what a change from the first episode. Everyone looked pretty competent on the first leg, and it seemed like half the teams fell apart, to one degree or another, on this one. And how far in front were Tammy & Victor? I expected to see them leaving on the next leg as the last teams were straggling in.
Got a slightly Jekyll & Hyde vibe from Steve, but it seemed like the stress of racing brought out his darker side. Now that they’re out, I think he’ll be okay. Does anyone sense a budding flirtation between Luke and the cheerleaders?
The Amazing Editors threw us a bit of a curve this time. The team they showed having a meltdown in last week’s previews was eliminated.
Is it me, or were the tasks on the easy side?
The navigation took some doing, obviously, but running down a marked path, being the passenger on a paraglider, throwing cakes or riding Segways? Not what I’d call taxing, exactly.
I’m thinking back on bikes (with flat tires), inflatable rafts on wild rivers, stuff of that nature. Or is the wild stuff reserved for later legs? It would make sense to have the teams settle into the race before hitting them with the mind-and-body bending stuff, I guess.
Skipping the paragliders and getting down the mountain on foot looked pretty taxing to me. It was all downhill, but it looked like a decent distance.
And don’t discount the difficulty of just finding your way around in a strange land. The teams had to do their own driving and navigating on this leg. I’ve done a bit of that in Germany, and it’s not as easy as you’d think. When you don’t speak the language, don’t know the landmarks, don’t even recognize the roadsigns, it’s tricky. I’d like to see more of that in the Race; make it about the journey as much as the contrived tasks.
Perhaps taxing is the wrong word. And one racer did manage to get lost, so it may have been harder than it looked. Wouldn’t have minded seeing it done with a map rather than signs. Involving mind and body both, as it were.
The navigation was a nice touch, although I do think German roads are as well-marked and logical as it gets, at least through the countryside. (Then again I lived there for years, so I’m probably not the right person to ask.:D)
Through landscape such as this, I like that idea. Segways or pie-throwing - that was embarrassing.
I got to live there for three months a few years ago. My only serious driving was from Nürnburg to Nürburg and back. I cheated a bit though. My rental car had a GPS unit, and I played around with the settings until I found a way to change the language to English. After that, it took me every place I wanted to go. But it did give me an excuse to check out some road maps. Everything about it was just a little bit disorienting; the density of the towns and roads, the non-grid layouts, the signs, the distances, the rules[sup]*[/sup]. In the U.S., I always kinda know which direction I’m facing; over there, I didn’t. All the instictive clues are different. I would have made it with just a map, especially if I’d had a second person along to navigate, but it’s just not an easy, obvious thing to do.
- When I’m old and in my dotage, I hope the memory of doing 130 on the Autobahn and cranking up the Beach Boys on the stereo is one that stays with me.
Eh. I guess racers throwing pies at their teammate’s face is good for a few laffs, and I did like the Roadblock choice of whether to run down the hill or wait for the wind to change. In addition, there was some presumably non-manufactured drama at the end, testing whose incompetence was greater. Overall, though, the episode could have been better. I guess because, after the downhill run, all the teams were strung out in time, so it was less of a Race and more of a leisurely plod through the remaining tasks. Except at the very end, of course.
Anyway, time for the…
Taxi Assessment
Stuck in the Desert and Officially Detained - or, Philiminated with extreme prejudice.
Jennifer and Preston - Working out their relationship in Sequesterville.
Linda and Steve (down from “Flat Tire”) - Now, I was honestly touched by this team’s heartbrokenness at the Mat, but they were clearly in over their head on this Race and they both knew it. If you watched The Amazing Race last week, it will come as no surprise that Linda & Steve are eliminated this week. The only real surprise is that the finish was (apparently) so close. It’s too bad that the not-young-models middle-America married-couple team crashed and burned as quickly as they did, but…to be honest, I wasn’t looking forward to Linda sobbing over her mistakes in every single episode from here on out. I guess that makes me a selfish person, but in my defense, I’m sure Linda is happier lounging on the beach in Sequesterville than she was on the Race.
Flat Tire - or, not likely to get anywhere soon.
Christie and Jodi (holding steady) - Yikes. Two weeks in a row where this team comes in next-to-last. Obviously, being not-last is the whole point of the elimination legs in TAR, so by that metric Christie & Jodi are doing just fine (and, as we saw last season, being ineptly not-last can net you a final three standing). But for God’s sake, the complete confusion at the end–wandering in a horse barn looking for a piece of wood?–is not the sign of a winning team. I really thought this team would be smarter and better-prepared than they’re turning out to be.
LaKisha and Jennifer (down from “Stopping”) - This team looks like it’s getting plenty burned out already from intra-team quarreling, and it’s only the second leg. The question now is: will that intra-team quarreling lead to a meltdown and a quick exit from the Race, or will it lead to endless weeks of escalating recriminations culminating in an enormous blowout? We’ll find out!
Stopping for Gas - or, not broken-down, exactly, but not a good sign.
Cara and Jaime (holding steady) - Still not a lot af airtime for this team, and they’re staying solidly in the middle of the pack. I suspect they’ll stay solidly in the middle of the pack for some time, but they’re not showing any flashes of brilliance, either. COuld go either way.
Brad and Victoria (holding steady) - Ditto Brad & Victoria. They started, they participated, they finished. Until we see more of them, I’m just going to assume they’re a pair of undercover CIA operatives that CBS is helping to smuggle into Russia on the pretext of participating in the Race.
"Rapido! Por Favor?" - or, making meaningless ineffectual comments from the back seat, but in no immediate danger.
Amanda and Kris (holding steady) - I think Amanda & Kris (and Tammy & Victor) got lucky at the pie-throwing task: they seemed to have a lot shorter time of it than, say, Margie & Luke. I’m also still optimistic about this team’s long-term chances, but I’d like to see more of them before committing.
Mark and Michael (down from “Passing”) - This was one of the two teams not to call ahead to reserve tickets on the Switzerland-to-Germany flight, and it cost them. Only a small error, to be sure, but one that exposes their overconfidence, and sent them on a precipitous drop from third to eighth. The question is, will they learn from this? I’m prepared to bump them back up if they perform next week.
Mel and Mike (holding steady) - On the one hand, you might argue that this team caught a break with the wind dying down in time for them to leap ahead of a bunch of other teams. On the other hand, you might argue that, given the time of day, a decrease in the wind was a pretty good bet, and Mel strategically took advantage of his meterological knowledge. On the third hand, from a purely strategic point of view, taking a gamble that might land you alone in last place (even if, on the flip side, it might land you in first) is a bad gamble. Here, the gamble was forced by Mel’s groin, but that just highlights potential problems for this team as the Race wears on. In any case, they land a second place finish. Combined with last week’s fourth, one could argue for bumping them up this week. However, I’m still worried about Mel’s age and general health, as we saw in this episode, and I suspect this team might be headed down later.
In the Passing Lane - or, ahead of the pack, but not quite comfortably.
Margie and Luke (holding steady) - You know, I’m with Luke on the choice of tasks. Avoid the random-luck type tasks unless you’re in or near last place: the time-wasting if you’re unlucky could be a killer. This particular task seemed to take less time than most, even for Margie & Luke, but the principle remains. I think I’ll leave Margie & Luke here in the Passing Lane despite their fourth place finish and their failure to call ahead to book reservations on the flight. They seem to function well as a team, despite Luke’s apparent petulence at being forced into the pie-throwing task, and I’ll note that Margie did pretty well in the race down the hill.
Tammy and Victor (holding steady) - A first place this week, following a second place last week. That’s pretty impressive, particularly since this team was comfortably ahead of everyone for the whole leg, even after the airport bunching at the beginning of the episode. I was tempted, even, to bump this team up to the next level, but their interview made me wonder if the team is going to continue to function well when things go wrong. It’s easy to be a supportive teammate and make good decisions when you’re in front of everyone. It’s altogether another story when you’ve slipped to the back of the pack.
Cruisin’ with Earl - or, drivin’ on the shoulder, takin’ shortcuts, and generally kickin’ butt.
No one this week–you have to earn this position. Maybe next week.
Next week:
[sub]Props to Mullinator and his Raj Ratings.[/sub]
As fun as the pie throwing might have been, the Segways was a no-brainer. I took a Segway tour of Philadelphia a couple years ago. There was a little training session for our group before the tour started, and it takes as little as one, and as many as five, minutes to get the hang of it. The thing couldn’t be easier. Go through a little course on the thing, with the climax of the course being a little teeter-totter? Please.
I too thought it was a little creepy how freaked out Linda was about how angry Steve was going to be that she got lost. I get the sense Steve disciplines her quite regularly.
Tammy must have the patience of Job- Victor would very quickly get on my last nerve.
ETA: Loved the fact that the flight attendants were carrying a big log all over town looking, I guess, for a saw. Loved it!
Ignore this space. I made an oops!
You caught that too? I cracked up!
Go Phil!
And please, you really need a better sweater collection.
Did anyone else notice that the clue for the paragliding task said something like “The person who performs this task must be able to follow verbal instructions.” on it? Makes sense of course - if you’re doing something with the instructor, you should be able to understand him. I wonder how many more challenges Luke will be prevented from doing?
I think it’s cute that Luke has a crush on the redheads - either individually or collectively, I can’t tell.
And by “cute” I mean “That’s nice, but you should probably pay attention to the race.”
Seriously. It goes “First you get the money…”
At least they’re indicating it BEFORE they pick who does the task. Since the pick is irrevocable, they’d have been really screwed if Luke decided to do it and then found out he couldn’t.
Well sure. If they’d let him be selected for the task, then told him “Sorry, you can’t do the paraglider, you’ll HAVE to walk down the mountain,” it would have invalidated the whole “deaf person can do anything a hearing one can” moral they’re shoving down our throats.
I thought this ep was really well edited. Although, I knew Mike & Mel were going to get saved by the wind right from the start. They even gave it away during an interview before we saw it. One of them said “we thought we were done” past tense meaning “we weren’t.”
Luke & mom are great. I wouldn’t give them a hard time about Luke proving he can do it. He was obviously disadvantaged at a task that requires the ability to understand verbal instructions. Plus, to get on this show you have to have a schtick and they expect you to talk about it, at least at first. Last season it was “I cheated on my botoxed wife, and need to make it up to her.” They dropped it after awhile and they were one of my favorite teams. Luke was really irked about the pie throwing choice. He strikes me as a fan who has every season memorized and knows which task to pick. I bet he hangs out on message boards and armchair quarterbacks a lot too.
I’d have gone for the Segway though. Who doesn’t know they’re specifically designed to be easy? The teams were acting like they’d have to learn to ride a unicycle.
Linda & Steve, you poor guys. I knew you were doomed from the start. Linda would have incurred a time penalty or been made to go back and redo it. Either way, it was so over.
The two short guys bug me. They come across as kinda mean spirited.
Kisha & Jenny are going to crash & burn.
All the other teams are kind of a blur so far.
This was a factor in the original Rob & Amber season, as well, with the Iraq veteran and his fiancee. It got to be ridiculous how often he talked about how this place reminded him about Iraq and that place reminded him of Iraq. And of course, it was production ASKING him about Iraq in just about every confessional.
BTW, who else noticed Phil signed “you’re team number one” last week but in the “previously on” portion he just said it. Obviously refilmed.
I did notice, levdrakon. I also noticed that this week, he said & signed the placement at the same time.
Good episode. I’m very homesick in a way watching these first two legs. I lived in Germany for 3.5 years, and I miss it quite a bit. I’ve been most everywhere they’ve gone so far. Spent 5 days in Interlaken, Switzerland…been to Munich and Salzburg multiple times. I had a dinner at Schloss Hellbrunn (too bad they didn’t show all the crazy water fountains the jokester installed there.) I spent a day with my wife at the Königsee, at that exact little dock area, and we took a rowboat out onto the lake for two hours. It was awesome (and we watched the paragliders…jealously).
Ahhh…I miss Europe.