Amazing Race, 4/15 (Spoilers as always)

Cafe Society
1

Why hasn’t anyone started the thread? I never get to and this is like the second time this season! Has the world gone topsy-turvey?

“Hayters can drink their hateraid”? Good fuck–so…what? She’s 12? Actually, my niece is 12 and she’d be embarassed to say something that stupid. :rolleyes:

Also? I think her boobs are fake. If they’re not, they look fake. Yeah, that’s a cheap shot. But then so’s Rachel. < rimshot >

Air Supply is the right choice–it’s tough, but that line on water supply? Damn!! Dumb task though–“Stand in line for 30 minutes”? Great TV guys. C’mon.

Team Kentucky again…they annoy me but at the same time, I like that they’re competent unlike the other Kentucky team—the coal-miner and his wife who were just inbred hicks (actually coal-miner wasn’t bad. His wife made the chick from Stephen King’s MISERY seem well balanced and nice). Also, what was with Bopper’s(?)

Major Dad’s wife was the instigator this time around. Snarking and filing her nails while he does the work? Not nice.

Regarding the U-Turn, the smart thing to do is either A) save your U turn (you can only use it once on the race) or B) U Turn the secret agents and guarantee that you won’t be last. (They also changed the rules–in the past, if you were U-Turned you couldn’t U-Turn anyone else until you’d done the second task.)

I hate U turns (I hate double-U turns slightly less) but Art & JJ’s tantrum wasn’t pretty-they sounded like Rachel. Their strategy wasn’t too bad–first person u-turns the people ruining the race and the second team u-turns the “secret agents”. The big problem with the water task on this U-Turn is that there was no way to make up time at all. Given that the task was “stand in line”, you can’t rush. They never plan these well. There should have been two active tasks, not one active/one ballast task.

I’ve never seen a task I’d instantly quit the race over–I’ve seen tasks I’d have troubles doing, or that I’d freak out while doing, but the beekeeper task? I’d quit. I mean, I’d walk away. My mom is really allergic to bee-stings and I’m way, WAY phobic about them. I’m still shuddering at that scene. To her credit, Rachel didn’t do badly and had fairly low drama on that task.

2

“I’m like Winnie-the-Pooh!”

Except not cute, not endearing and not funny.

3

Once again I am struck at how nasty and petty everyone but Bopper & Mark have shown themselves to be at various points during this Race.

A real bunch of winners here.

(I guess in fairness, Jamie & Nary seem more or less OK, but for some reason that I can’t put my finger on, lying about yourself to everybody else from the get-go really rubs me the wrong way)

And though I am not at all a fan of the Border Patrol team, I absolutely 110% agree that it was a chickenshitt move for the Chopper Pilot and his repulsive, bitchy shrew of a wife to abandon their agreement to U-Turn team Big Brother.

4

I agree. And Rachel knew it was a shitty thing to do, too. You could tell by how uncomfortable she seemed when they ran into each other—avoiding eye contact, giving a really fast explanation and then getting the heck out of there, etc. still, whichever Border Patrol guy is obsessing about it has to let it go. Hanging onto that kind of grudge can distract one into making stupid errors.

I thought Rachel and Brandon and Vanessa and Ralph were going to end up standing next to each other in the water line and start bickering and name-calling. I know that I look for reasons to hate Rachel ('cause I drink too much haterade), but I thought she was really ungracious to the woman whose water they delivered. Didn’t say thank you for the clue and just pulled an ugly face.

5

I suspect the water line got shorter as time went on. Families would do this chore first thing in the morning.

So by the time the Team BB and Team Ralph and Vanessa got to that task, they didn’t wait as long as Team Border Patrol.

6

I think the Border Patrol guys need to get off their high horse. It wasn’t that big of a deal.

7

Border Patrol have done come out ahead in the least likable people category for me.

Sure, completely competent racers but they come across as complete dicks. (Or at least get edited that way.)

8

Unless he was not at all serious about it or throwing a temporary tantrum, it’s hard not to take what the patrol guy (Art?) said - “I’m not even going to talk to them” as way out of proportion to what happened. The way they kept showing him talk about it in the car was odd, and it’s not clear if he had hoped it was a way to gauge whether the other team had already reached the u-turn before them. Possibly he’s just overly bothered when things don’t go the way he planned.

Overall, a pretty boring episode, though rather pretty scenery. It makes sense to have the double U-turn right after a non-elim. That worked well and even came into play as Dave & Rachel judged the feds to be too far behind to hit anyone else. It’s interesting that the Speed Bump came after the U-turn — that could have gone either way, though they’ll always edit it to be close whether it is or isn’t. It’s probably better to give them as much of a chance to pass a team before getting there as possible.

BB Rachel is striking me as someone who’s not all that dumb, but either acts dumb or lacks self-awareness about it. She’s known a few things here and there, even if she makes inane-sounding comments. I note that she at least learned to say “Jambo” to the folks down there.

9

A couple questions/observations:

Phil’s opening spiel seemed to be phrased a little differently than usual. He described Ngorongoro Crater, and then said it was the start of the next leg. But usually he says the place was the Pit Stop. I do remember a leg once where they finished in one city and then took a bus trip to start the next leg someplace else. (I think the start was at a chateau in France, and then there were wine/champagne tasks on that leg.) Maybe they did that this time. It’s perfectly fine, except the last task last week was to build their fancy campsites. I thought that was a great task because they were taking part in making the Race happen. It seems kind of a waste to go to all that trouble and not stay there.

Did anyone catch Nary & Jamie’s start time this episode? I remember they limped in way behind at the end of the previous leg, but it must have been worse than I thought. I think the first teams were across the crater, found the clue, and done with the Detour before N&J even got started.

After the Detour, when the next clue led them to a bar (which I think everybody mispronounced), one team asked for directions and were told it was three kilometers away. That’s 1.8 miles, on foot. If they got there and then found out they had to do the other Detour, the U-Turn would have been an absolute killer.

10

Per Phil’s twitter, they stayed in the tents for the pit stop. Maybe he referred to it like that because they took a nice drive through the crater to get to the actual tasks?

As for timing, the Feds started at 9 something, when everyone else started at about 6:30 iirc.

11

Rachel mentioned something about them being “3 hours behind everyone” when talking to the border patrol so that sounds right. You have to assume she was going by start time.

12

How cool would that be, driving through that crater?

I find myself (horrors) getting a little bored with TAR this time around, and I can’t put a finger on it as to why. I don’t dislike anybody, Bopper and Mark are a joy to watch, and Team BB hasn’t gotten on my nerves the last couple of episodes (I do agree with what was said upthread about Rachel having no self-awareness). The whole blowup with Border Patrol/Army seemed rather trite, like “OK, now I have to get angry now because they broke a promise.” Let it go, please. You said your peace.

I don’t know. I’m still watching, but I’m getting less compelled to continue. When I start looking more forward to the shenanigans on Celebrity Apprentice, you know something’s wrong.

13

I’ve never really been all that geeked about going to Africa, but this episodes highlights of the Ngorongoro Crater really made it look like a wonderful place to go.

Oh! Plus, this episode’s tasks looked super-easy to me. I used to fix all the kids’ bikes in my neighborhood for a few years running (until they all growed up), so I’'ve done the innertube patching thing. And my dad used to keep bees, and I’d help him out feeding and harvesting. Not African bees, but still.

Taxi Assessment:

Stuck in the Desert and Officially Detained - or, Philiminated with extreme prejudice.
Misa & Maiya and Dave & Cherie and Elliot & Andrew and Kerri & Stacy and Joey & Danny - Already eliminated.
Nary & Jamie (down from “Stopping”) - There were no bunching points in this leg, and with a two-hour lag behind everyone else, plus the extra task, Nary & Jamie were pretty much guaranteed to land in last place. Vanessa & Ralph tried to help out by wandering around and volunteering for the U-Turn, but even so Nary & Jamie’s TAR run really ended last week with the tent-building task, and this week’s tour was just for the scenery.

Flat Tire - or, not likely to get anywhere soon.
No one right now.

Stopping for Gas - or, not broken-down, exactly, but not a good sign.
Brendon & Rachel (holding steady) - So is “haterade” a beverage that all the with-it kids know about, or was Rachel saving that pun for the perfect occasion? Rhetorical question; I don’t care that much, really.

"Rapido! Por Favor?" - or, making meaningless ineffectual comments from the back seat, but in no immediate danger.
Vanessa & Ralph (holding steady) - Vanessa & Ralph are pretty lucky that Nary & Jamie were so far behind. There was almost no chance that they wouldn’t be U-Turned by Brendon & Rachel if Brendon & Rachel got to the station first, and Vanessa & Ralph made sure that would happen by wandering around looking for the roadside stand.
Mark & Bopper (holding steady) - Someone other than Dave & Rachel or Art & J.J. finally lands on the mat in first place, and it’s Mark & Bopper. I think this cements their postion as the most likely number three team in the final three. In fact, Dave & Rachel, Mark & Bopper, and Art & J.J. have been 1-2-3 the last three episodes. I’m a little concerned that the screen time given to Bopper’s leg in this episode (which they won) presages some catastrophic event later, but we will see.

In the Passing Lane - or, ahead of the pack, but not quite comfortably.
Dave & Rachel (holding steady) - So a pretty standard leg from Dave & Rachel, where they perform pretty well despite Dave being something of a dick. I guess one good thing about this season is that Rachel now has the videotaped evidence, so that next time Dave’s like, “Rachel! Step up your game and don’t leave the coffeemaker on!” Rachel can be like, “Episode eight, twenty minutes in; you’re doing it again. It’s saved on the TiVo if you want me to replay it for the 138th time.”

Cruisin’ with Earl - or, drivin’ on the shoulder, takin’ shortcuts, and generally kickin’ butt.
Art & J.J. (holding steady) - So do Art & J.J. now officially hate everyone else on the Race? I think they don’t hate Mark & Bopper yet, but there might have been an imagined insult that I missed when I blinked that one time. It must be tough to pack every morning when you have to cram in such a long shit-list. In any case, I’m prett confident that Art & J.J. will make it into the final three, and probably have the best chance to win it all. However, they have come in third to Dave & Rachel and Mark & Bopper in the last two legs, so they can still be out-Raced. And, seriously, I think carrying around so much ire at other teams is really just hurting yourself, because you’re expending brainpower being peevish instead of actually Racing. Maybe that’s not a huge negative, but it’s also unneccessary.

14

Am I the only one who thought Rachel was deliberately moving a little slower to give Mark & Bopper a chance to reach the mat first? She knew about the Big Bopper’s knee, but walked, rather than ran, to the pit stop.

My theory is the long water line chore was to illustrate the need for more clean water wells in Africa. Every team in line commented on how hard this would be to do every day, and how we take our water on tap for granted. I was surprised there wasn’t a PSA at the end.

StG

15

I thought that as well.

kiz, I find myself slightly bored these past few seasons as well. Sad, really, because TAR was always something I really looked forward to. If course, my boredom has not progressed so far as to make me watch Celebrity Apprentice.
:stuck_out_tongue:

16

I mildly enjoyed last night, but yeah…I’ve actually forgotten to watch episodes this season. Same with Survivor (I actually made a conscious decision not to watch this season after the first episode), but I’ve been heading in that direction for a couple of years. The only reason I watched Survivor anymore was because it was cuddle time for me and my partner and I didn’t want to stop doing that, and he still likes it. Being here in the hospital/rehab for this season of Survivor made it a lot easier to skip it.

17

I’m feeling the same way about TAR.

I think it’s combo of about 4 things.

  1. The casting. Either the groups are boring OR boring with a psycho. Either way…look back at the early episodes and it was “just people” not “people with a HOOK TO GRAB AUDIENCES!”. And there was more diversity in the casting-normal people, but a wide range of them, rather than the weird freak-shows we’ve gotten in past seasons. (And with regards to Team Big Brother, I thought TAR casting folks had finally figured out the basic rule “Don’t cast someone who’ll piss off the entire audience if they win”. Apparently not.)

  2. The tasks. There have been far too many “ballast” tasks in the last few seasons. Sure, it’s easy to set up and cheap, but watching episodes where the “challenge” is “stand in line for 30 minutes” or “drop from an airplane” or “be passively swung around on a rope” just isn’t good TV. There seems to be less thought in the tasks. A while back (I think it was the one with the woman with the prosthetic leg and her creepy-evil doctor), they got a task-designer from Survivor to create a bunch of new tasks–that season seemed really strong, task-wise.

  3. The races are cushier. They’re clearly allowed more clothes than they can carry (possibly a necessity given close quarters on airplanes), but the races used to be grueling. You had a 12 hour break to “eat, sleep and mingle”. Now? My understanding it that it’s more like 36 hours. In early seasons, you managed your money and if that meant sleeping on the streets, that’s what you did. Now? I don’t even remember the last time money was a real factor and you have spoon-fed hotels/campsites/etc to stay in. So–they’re not carrying all their gear, they’ve got more than 12 hours to rest between legs (where they’re fed, get to bathe, etc)

  4. Lack of airport drama. As much as I disliked Myrna/Shmirna, they were airline wizards and once managed to “break” the race–they got a flight that the producers had missed and ended up 24 hours ahead of everyone else…apparently including the guys who set up the legs. Luckily there was magical bad weather that prevented them from taking a boat 50 yards across a pond that held them up until the other teams arrived. I understand that they didn’t like in TAR All-Stars II(?) where two teams were stuck in…somewhere…Botswanna or something…because there weren’t enough tickets and a religous holiday started, so they ended up like 3 or 4 days behind. Fine, in those circumstances, buy tickets in advance. But there’s way too little jockeying for position in airports any more–hell, the rumor I keep hearing (and the show seems to support it) is that the producers have pre-purchased tickets and you get them based on when you arrive. The stuff in travel agencies is just a task (“before you pick up your tickets at the airport, you have to find the flight number at a travel agency” or some-such).

  5. There’s no more eat/sleep/mingle. We don’t see the racers any more at rest and interacting in a non-race environment.

Look–I quit watching Kitchen Nightmares a few seasons back when it made the change from “Show about cooking” to “Big Brother Drama–with occasional cooking tasks and obscene product placement.” It’s so bad that people are ousted by Ramsay for being boring on TV (too low of a drama quotient) rather than their skills as chef or a leader. Sadly I see TAR going the same route to a lesser degree. It’s becoming less a show about racing and more a show about drama between racers. And that’s not what I want to watch.

18

Whoever is selling elephants got a lot of product placement this ep.

I liked the “drive slow and enjoy the view” bit at the start.

Art & JJ are petty AND cocky. I’m wondering if it’s an editing set up for a big “shocking elimination” ep, like DWTS did.

19

My guess is that the racers had no control over their drive through the crater. They were given drivers who would do a set route at a set pace, and told to sit back and enjoy the view.

No doubt whoever was in charge of that wildlife area would NOT want drivers getting off the track, or bashing into crossing wildebeasts out of unwillingness to wait a few minutes, and so forth.

And cool as it would have been to watch Rachel (either of them) be eaten by a lion, it would probably be bad for the tourism business.

Come to think of it, I think one of the teams outright said something like “This is cool but it’s time to get back to racing,” i.e., they weren’t actually racing at that point.

20

The most surprising aspect of this lackluster episode was they didn’t even try and pretend the end was close and they almost always do that no matter how ridiculous the editing ends up being.

PS I still think Vanessa is awesome.