TAR 4/14: "My Cheese Is Out Of Control"

Cafe Society
21

That was one of the all time lame episodes of Amazing Race ever.

Bunch them on the airplane. Then make them “find” a person standing in plain sight. Bunch them on the train, then just in case bunch them again for the first clue. Then send them up a mountain all on the same train and make them “find” a person standing in plain sight on a 100 square foot (or, 13 picolightmeter in metric) platform.

Then send them on a task where it is essentially impossible to pass each other (the Eiger Sanction without Vonetta McGee’s breasts) before sending them on a variation of a task we’ve seen before (but made easier) and have it done in such a way that regardless of relative fitness it is again almost impossible to pass each other.

If it weren’t for a penalty and someone stupidly deciding to walk instead of taxi there’d have been nothing of interest. As it was I was fast forwarding through the last 15 minutes.

22

I suspect that one of those bunching points was to wait for good weather. They had an absolutely perfect day on the Eiger, but I’m sure they aren’t all like that. The Amazing Producers either got super lucky, or the teams met that guy on the ski bike every morning. If the weather was going to be too bad to do the tasks, his clue said “come back tomorrow.” When it’s good enough, they go.

There were two routes to get the gnome on the Eiger. (And add this to the “places contestants have mispronounced” list.) Joey & Meghan seemed to wait for Chuck & Wynona on the upper route even when the bottom one was open. I wonder if they didn’t notice, or if it had to be three teams on each route (for gnome availability reasons.)

I was a little surprised to see them handling their own safety lines while on the North Face.

I thought Phil twisted the knife a little more than necessary with Joey & Meghan. And he needs a haircut.

23

To minimize the damage, if the cheese explodes.

24

I get that adrenaline rush Chuck had, but I thought he was unnecessarily rough on Wyona at times. If I were here, I would have been tempted to slap him. She was trying, although it was obvious that she is so not an athletic sort.

I was under the impression people waited at Eiger because only one person could be on the bar at a time, which makes sense safety-wise. I know I would have not looked down. I’ve got a fear of heights if I’m not enclosed in something :shudder:

As somebody already mentioned, I think they omitted the “go back and do it again” part of the cheese task because of the snow.

So-so episode. Gorgeous scenery. Had no idea there was a train going up the Eiger. And I’m going to cheer loudly the day Max and Katie have their pompous self-serving asses eliminated :smiley:

25

With all the bunching this episode, it’s a little hard to clearly seperate out just how well the teams are doing. Still, lack of certainty hasn’t stopped me before, so on to the :

Taxi Assessment:

Stuck in the Desert and Officially Detained - or, Philiminated with extreme prejudice.
Matthew & Daniel and Idries & Jamil and John & Jessica and David & Connor and Pam & Winnie - (already eliminated)
Chuck & Wynona (down from “Flat Tire”) - Unsurprisingly, Wynona’s awfully slow, which drops this team into last or near-last place for most of the episode. The only thing moderately surprising was a final elimination that hinged on a failure to RTFC rather than actually hitting the mat last. Even so, it dodn’t look like this team was going to last much longer: both Chuck and Wynona were getting pretty frustrated with the tasks and with each other, and it was time to go.

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

Stopping for Gas - or, not broken-down, exactly, but not a good sign.
No one.

“Rapido! Por Favor?” - or, making meaningless ineffectual comments from the back seat, but in no immediate danger.
Joey & Meghan (down from “Passing”) - After some bad navigation in the last episode, Joey & Meghan wind up walking to the Pit Stop and coming in a hair away from elimination. I’m not sure if they simply couldn’t find a cab, or if they somehow figured that hoofing it would be easier, but either way it was questionable. Joey & Meghan have exceeded my expectations so far, but I think they may be reaching the limit of how far youth and exuberance can carry them. If nothing else, it’s interesting to note that they’ve come in fifth place (plus or minus 1) on every single leg so far. This is probably the last leg where that’s good enough,
Max & Katie (holding steady) - Max and Katie haven’t been stellar, but it’s probably unfair to keep them ranked in last place after their solid performance in this leg (Katie’s slippery shoes notwithstanding).
Caroline & Jen (holding steady) - There are only five teams left - Anthony & Bates clearly look like the cream, and Mona & Beth are probably the best of the rest. That leaves one slot open in the final three, and Caroline & Jen probably look like the most likely team to make it.

In the Passing Lane - or, ahead of the pack, but not quite comfortably.
Mona & Beth (holding steady) - Again a good leg for Mona & Beth, who notched their second 2nd place finish in a row. They did make a goof by missing their train, but other than that looked pretty good this episode.

Cruisin’ with Earl - or, drivin’ on the shoulder, takin’ shortcuts, and generally kickin’ butt.
Anthony & Bates (holding steady) - Anthony & Bates really solidify their front-runner status in this episode. Despite the multiple bunching points, they wound up pulling away from the rest of the teams every time, including a pretty easy jaunt through the cheese-rolling task (helped, to be fair, by Katie’s flailing about in the snow anf holding up the other teams) and onto the mat in first place.

26

In my opinion the tasks on this seasons TAR have been some of the easiest and lamest ever.

Chuck and Wynona need to go. He’s a jerk and imcompetent. I was in awe at his stupidity when he turned the sled upside down and put the cheese on it. She is physically just not capable of keeping up with a team like the hockey players.

They must have worded the requirements for the cheese challenge differenlyt this season. Last time they were allowed to let the cheese roll down the hill.

27

Riddle me this:
Why would you ride down in front of the sled. It seems awkward plus likely you will be run over by the sled or hit in the face with 100 lbs of cheese. Why not hold on and ride behind using you body as a brake that way?

28

And next week, I’m sure the CBS coverage of the National Arm-Wrestling Championships from East Overshoe will pre-empt the start of 60 Minutes.

I don’t even DVR the Amazing Race any more. For me, it’s not worth the hassle of trying to guess when it might actually air.

Now, I just come here on Mondays and read the taxi report! Much easier on my blood pressure.

29

I think staying in front of the sled made it easier to keep the cheese from falling off. Otherwise you might have to go chase down your cheese as it rolls away.

I don’t know WTH Chuck was thinking with the upside-down sled, expecially after seeing everyone else do it the right way.

30

The only people he saw do it were Joey and Meghan - everyone else was done by the time they got there. And he had his head stuck up his wife’s ass going up the hill. He is from Alabama - I wonder if he’s ever sledded before.

31

Isn’t it obvious though? Two rails? Snow? :confused:

32

I was happy to see Chuck and Whine-ona go, but something smelled a little fishy about that penalty. Sure, heaving the cheese down the hill was not at all in the spirit of the task, but TAR usually allows a great deal of leeway for people to do tasks. Unless it is clearly and explicitly prohibited, they seem to let anything go.

So to come in and say that they did not transport the cheese properly seemed like a little bit of an intervention. OTOH, they clearly thought they were getting some of their best TV in this past episode from an extensive focus on Chuck’s whip-cracking and Winona’s semi-run walking and passive aggression.

On that note, every time I wanted to start giving the bulk of the blame for their dysfunction to Chuck, Winona would do something like saying “Get up ahead of me and pull me up the hill” or “Here Chuck, you take both my sleds and three cheese wheels. I’ll manage this one down the hill.”

I mean, really, I’m sure that you get a little bit of a heads up before you ship off on the Amazing Race. A month’s worth of physical conditioning will do wonders.

33

RE: Chuck and the upside down sleds: I agree that was a mostly stupid idea, and my initial reaction was “Why would anyone do that?”

However, after thinking about it, I could form some idea of what he might have been thinking. If you observed that a big part of the problem with the task was keeping the cheese in control, and that anything of any shape was going to slide down the hill, you might think that the sled aspect of the sled was not particularly useful.

However, since they ended up just hurling the cheese down the hill anyway, I suppose cheese control was not his first priority.

34

Yeah, my wife kind of thought the same thing. If the problem is the sleds go too fast and the cheeses fall off, then flipping the sleds upside down (so they go slower) and propping the cheeses in between the runners (so the cheese stays aboard) is kind of a brilliant solution. Except the cheeses kept falling off anyway, and they never bothered to try it right-side-up, so I suspect it was just that they’s never seen a sled befrore.

35

Once one learns that they will be on TAR one should do the following three things at a minimum:

  1. Learn to drive a stick.
  2. Learn to swim well enough to not drown.
  3. Get in somewhat decent shape. Doesn’t have to be much. Just enough to not be walking up a gentle incline.
36

I thought they were on to something at first. I still wonder if they tried everything; maybe put the cheeses between the runners, then grab the rope so you can lift the front of the sled a little bit (so it doesn’t dig in), then walk or slide down the hill.

I saw a couple teams, at least, take their gnomes with them. I wonder if that was specified in the rules.

37

Two rails and snow? Are you talking about the white stuff on the ground or cocaine? Because I’m pretty sure Chuck has experience with at least one of those two things.

38

Now that is a task I would volunteer for!

39

Are runners on a sled useful on loosely packed snow as opposed to packed snow or ice?

All the other sleds just ended up sinking into the snow so essentially you have the surface of the sled on top of the snow with the extra drag of runners six inches deep in it.

If flipping the sled over lost that drag and gained a containment system for the cheese I could see it being useful. But I was fast forwarding by that point so didn’t see this part.

40

I always set it to record TAR and The Good Wife. Even this week, with 56 minutes of Golf Over-Run, it was enough to get it all. I flipped over to see if I needed to add The Mentalist just in time to see C&W get the boot, so I know how it ended.