Expedition Impossible 1st Episode Preview (Amazing Race rip-off?)

Cafe Society
1

So Hulu’s posted the first 15 minutes of ABC’s take on the Amazing Race, called Expedition Everest. Check it out here:

http://www.hulu.com/watch/250696/expedition-impossible-first-look-expedition-impossible

The premise had intrigued me, as it looks to have fixed many of the problems with Amazing Race: No taxis, no driving, and super tough challenges. There are also now 3 players per team, which might make for some additional drama. But now that means there’s a ton of people to keep track of, given that there are 13 teams–it’s already hard enough on Amazing Race.

So far, I’m intrigued, but not entirely sold. I’m concerned that they’re weaving too many talking heads into the actual challenge portions slowing the pace considerably, but it could just be because it’s the first episode. Also, the $150,000 prize seems lame.

But I know I’ll tune in–I need my reality show fix!

2

If the lack of responses is indicative of things to come, maybe the show should be retitled: Ratings Impossible.

3

I just found out about this show today. Seems like Mark is getting back to his Eco-Challenge roots–he’s even going back to the scene of the 1998 race in Morocco. I haven’t watched the preview, but I’ll be tuning in for the first episode with high hopes.

4

I enjoyed the first episode, though I agree on the ‘too many people’ aspect. Right now I’m just concentrating on learning which team name goes with which color.

They had some killer challenges this time. Just walking up that dune in 105 degree heat would lay me out.

And I really liked that getting the snake count wrong had genuine consequences, way past just ‘go back and count again’ which is pretty much all that happens in TAR.

5

I’ve met two of the guys from the Boulder team - they’re athletic freaks who both summited Mt. Everest. One of them is the blind guy. I’d be shocked if they don’t win this thing.

6

Hmmm. I guess the “Amazing Race rip-off” description is apt, but since Mark pretty much invented the genre, I would call EI a warmed-over rehash. It’s all the same stereotypical contestants and the attendant drama of people realizing it’s not going to be a walk in the park. My early favorites are The Gypsies and The Fab 3. It’s interesting enough for me keep watching for a couple of weeks, but I may decide to go back and watch my Eco-Challenge tapes instead.

7

Problems: too many contestants. Why 13 teams of 3? Maybe 10 teams…

Not enough variety of scenery. Notice that the host said that their journey would be “hundreds of miles”, as opposed to TAR’s race around the world. So we’re building a series around a walk across Morocco?

On the other hand: no airport drama. No legs decided by lost cab drivers.

As to the actual episode…I was flabbergasted to see that you could find water just by digging in the sand for a few inches. I had no freakin’ idea that water in the Sahara was so close to the surface.

And good god, could team Latina be any more obnoxious? Did any of them crack a smile once during the episode? Very glad to see them gone.

And I’m used to getting The Amazing Editing Fake-Out, but they flat-out cheated. The last time they showed us the standings, the Latinas were ahead of Grandpa. They never show one team passing another; but somehow Grandpa is first to the mat…er, finish line.

8

I watched it. I will probably watch more episodes, but I’m not committing to the whole season just yet.

Agree with the comment that the prize seems kinda lame.

A whole lot of teams, most of them having too many arrogant people on them (although that may be partly questioning and part editing–it’s just that when someone says “We’ll beat the blind guy” I root for the blind guy and when the blind guy says he expects to be underestimated, I root for anyone who isn’t on the blind guy’s team).

And yeah, if they are racing across Morrocco, I’m not sure I want to see a whole season of this episode repeated with fewer and fewer teams.

But maybe they’ve got some other twist up their sleeve.

9

It looked to me like there was a cistern or something like that with water in it just a couple of feet down. Didn’t they dig down a bit and then remove some type of cover?

10

There was a palm tree and grasses right there. There had to be water underground. They gave a big hint with the blue tent over where to dig.

11

Not too bad to “watch” while playing LOTRO*
Not that it is saying a whole lot - but I probably wouldn’t “watch” 99% of the other reality shows

Brian

  • Lord of the Rings online game
12

Just watched tonight’s episode and it’s really going according to form. This is why Survivor and Amazing Race introduce the element of luck into the game - if it’s just straightforward challenges there is no suspense. Two all-female teams and the one with the 70 year old guy are gone (although his granddaughter seemed to be the weakest link on the team.)

I feel that I could skip the next four weeks and pick it up again when the weak teams have all been eliminated. Next week they go to altitude with cold and snow. The Boulder team has two guys who have summited Everest, so they should break the winning streak of the purple team.

13

Here’s a bunch of camels; I’m sure you can figure them out for yourselves. I don’t think this show’s going to be satisfied until they kill someone.

The challenges don’t seem to make much of a difference. There’s no random taxi luck, but now the travel is so difficult that the challenges don’t really contribute to the result. Whoever is fastest at climbing the mountain, or whatever, wins.

14

Wow, I totally am familiar with the blind guy. My wife and I are just catching up.

The blind guy, Erik Weihenmayer, has climbed the tallest mountain on 7 continents AND lead a bunch of blind Tibetan kids up Everast. He’s crazy awesome.

I highly recommend Blindsight, the movie about him leading the kids up Everest. It streams on Netflix.

And if you want to see how great a guy he is, watch this short interview(less than 10 minutes). I show it to my kids at school every year.

Oh, his mother also died in a car accident around the same time he went blind. He’s had some huge setbacks.

15

I may be the only person who stuck with this through the end. This is what happens when you take the element of luck out of a competitive reality show. Although the results are justified, all suspense goes out the window very early on. The winners (Purple Hippies) won nine of the ten legs, including the last one. I initially thought that the two mountain climbers and the Marine would win easily, but it turns out that every square inch of Morocco is strewn with rocks and boulders, making it all but impossible for a team with a blind guy to move around quickly. It is amazing that Eric made it through without turning bot his ankles. They also had 33% less help on the challenges, as all involved visual cues, and several consisted of crawling around a dark space looking for an object with special markings on it. Still, amazing that they finished second.

All in all, not a bad show, if lacking in suspense. It seems to need some tweaks, but I don’t know what they should be. Actually, I doubt there’ll be a second season.

16

I made it to the end, too. As you say, the Gypsies deserved to win, but the progress of the show overall was quite boring.

Staying in a single location no doubt keeps the costs down, but it made for very repetitious challenges: how many times did they walk/wade down rocky streams? rappel down cliffs? ride horses? ride camels? kayak? just freakin’ hike X miles across dry monotonous terrain?

If they want to stay in one country, at least make it a country with more varied terrain. Like some island, maybe: mountains in the center, jungles, salt water beaches, rivers, waterfalls, etc.

Also, they need to balance the teams for ability a lot more. It got actually TEDIOUS waiting while they burned off teams 13 to, say, six: those bottom 7 were obvious losers from the first episode. You didn’t know which order they’d go in, but you knew damn well that one of them would go, and the top 5/6 teams would chug along in no danger.

So, how about requiring that each team be composed of 2 men/1 woman? And no age stunts. That 60 year old grandfather is NOT going to win. This is a physical challenge to a vast degree. No amount of life experience/wisdom is going to play a big role in helping the guy scale sand dunes in 100 degree heat.

At the very least, they’ve got to figure out a way to make the ‘mental’ challenges stay independent. How many times did we see one team solve one (like the digging for water one) and then all the other teams coasted off them.

Also, they need a much better host. This guy has less personality than anyone else I’ve ever seen on TV.

Over all I agree with you: I don’t really expect to see another series.

17

I watched most of the episodes, but forgot when it was on so I missed the finale.

The problem to me was that “freakin’ hike X miles across dry monotonous terrain” was the only thing that mattered; any time gains from the other challenges were totally overwhelmed by who could walk the fattest.

They tried that. It was called Pirate Master, and it sucked.