The Amazing Race 10/9 - "Where My Dogs At?"

Cafe Society
1

Didn’t see a thread yet for this week’s episode, so here we go.

I’m liking the challenges so far this season. They aren’t just “go here, do this simple thing, then move on”, they actually require some work or some thinking or at least paying attention to detail.

Sorry to see the street dancers go. I could tell they weren’t going to last very long but I would have liked to see them stick around for another couple of legs. I thought for sure the cheerleaders would be gone before the brothers!

And Team Texas needs to knock it off with the God stuff.

2

When I said last week Team Dancers weren’t going to last long, I didn’t expect them to go quite this early. This leaves me with no teams I like and most teams I actively dislike, including Green Guy and Team Texas.

I could get behind ChacAttack, since their attention to detail put them in the lead after the barbeque challenge. But their lack of attention to the clue (read the fraking clue!) cost them the lead in the detour. Plus they made up cutesy name for themselves with matching T-shirts, to boot. Sheesh.

3

I don’t know if I’ve ever seen an episode that had more mistakes in it. Teams couldn’t figure out how to attach the meat to the roasting stick (how do you no notice which side the bones are on?), a couple left their whips behind and had to go back to get them, and mom picked up a penalty for helping during the Roadblock.

All of which meant the dancers never stood a chance. Can’t be sure because of the editing, but they seemed to run a pretty flawless leg (got the challenges on the first try, didn’t have to go back for anything) and still couldn’t catch up to anybody.

4

Justin is annoying, but he never bothered much till this episode. Team Texas needs to get over their God bothering and their apparent hatred for Justin, though.

5

Almost forgot, The Amazing Phil seemed to be barely ahead of the Racers. He was still shooting his intro at the Roadblock when the first teams arrived.

6

Lots of dogs. Cool.

7

Phil has been doing this for the past few seasons now - introducing a task every episode while the contestants race past him. Possibly one of the best innovations of TAR in recent memory.

8

Yeah, pretty boring episode. Lots of screwups and it didn’t matter because the dancers were so far behind. Hours, by the looks of the shadows when the teams made it to the mat.

9

I am not sure what to make of Green Guy. I imagine in real life on the Race he would be hard to take but he seems to be sincerely enthusiastic which a part of me has to appreciate.

10

I heartily disagree with the OP. So far this season has been nothing but go here, do this. Go to the Copacabana and play volleyball or do a puzzle. Collect a bunch of cardboard or do a puzzle. Dress up a plastic horse or dust off a carriage. Seriously, a dusting challenge? Every taxi driver has known exactly where to go. Nobody has gotten lost.

The challenges are as straighforward as possible. Maybe some have made some mistakes, but most have had no problem with them. God, I’d take a needle in a haystack challenge over dusting or dressing up a plastic horse. They need some new blood in the challenge development department. The current group is out of ideas.

11

In my half paying attention style of TV watching, I failed to see why the dancing guys were SO far behind. Was it because of the bus schedule? Did they have to wait on a bus to come back?

I don’t remember them being HOURS behind at the mat last week.

12

They started out far behind because of their late arrival.

13

I was curious too so I went back and re-watched it:

Departure Times:
Green Team: 5:45 AM
Texas: 6:12 AM
Denise/Earl: 6:13 AM
Paparazzi: 6:14 AM
ChacAattack: 6:21 AM
Cheerleaders: 6:28 AM
News Anchors: 6:30 AM
Track: 6:53 AM
Dancers: 7:16 AM

So Green had a 30 minute lead, then a big clump of teams, 23 minutes between the news anchors and track athletes, then another 23 minutes between the track athletes and dancers.

Texas and the News Anchors (who apparently had a really fast taxi) got on the first bus, and every other team except Green got on the second bus (seems like the cheerleaders, who were pretty far behind, just barely made it in time). Green team went to a different station and ended up joining the first bus mid-trip.

When the dancers are standing in the station waiting for the bus, it’s already pretty much daytime, and it looks like the clock says “8:45.” So I bet that they got screwed by missing out on the second bus (which the team ahead of them made) and had to wait a long time for the next bus out. It’s also quite possible that they did make mistakes and just got a clean edit since they were behind already.

14

Yay. Team “Queen for a Day” is gone. No more whining about how they’re homeless. (Which, if they are actually living out of a refrigerator box, I’m sorry for them, but still. I don’t want to hear about it)

Texas only did the Gawd thing twice, which didn’t bother me that much…yet. But it will if it gets more frequent.

Homophobe mom and son? I’m not seeing their story so far. So far, she’s just a bitch and he’s kinda whiney. Let’s see a full-on Fred Phelps style meltdown.

Justin is really annoying. And the fact that he thinks using a U-Turn is “playing dirty” tells me that, no matter how much he’s watched the race, he doesn’t really understand it. Plus, he works in that he’s watched the race in every segment he’s in. He’s much more intrusive about it than the Texans about Gawd.

The tasks all seem completely, utterly risk-averse. Remember when people would rappel into caves, slide down mud covered slopes, etc? Remember Gretchen (of “Merideth and…”) bashing her skull in a cave? There was some risk on the race. I mean, they clearly tried to minimize the risk, but there was at least the possiblity of danger. And now the tasks are “dust a carriage” or “play Dress-Up Barbie” with a plastic horsie? This is a completely wimped out race so far.

Of the teams that remain, I kinda like the cheerleaders (they’re not afraid to get their hands dirty–they remind me of the Beauty Queens in that they’re not afraid to get their hands dirty. I like competence (Colin of “My ox is broken” fame is still one of my favorite players even though he was completely unlikeable) so Team Texas is ok to watch too.

I also miss the real diversity of earlier races. Everyone looks to be within about 20 years of each other, everyone’s more-or-less a hardbody, they’ve left out the gay/lesbian couple, the old couple and the working class, out of shape couple. (On the other hand, they’ve also left out the z-list celebrity from another reality show, couple, so that’s a plus).

15

Hmm… So since Team DancingGuys was less than 30 minutes out at departure, it must have been a bus schedule issue. Only two busses or something.

Thanks magn

16

Queen for a Day? What are you trying to say?

17

Queen for a Day.

It was a radio show and then an early TV show. Sort of a proto-reality show. They producers would get several women with the most pathetic story and they’d each tell their heart-rending sob-story to the audience. The one who was the most pathetic won. The point of the game…the way to win…wasn’t to be actually good at anything beyond being pathetic* and telling a sad:( story in a heart-wrenching fashion. (There was a parody of it on I Love Lucy, if that helps)

The only defining characteristic of the dancers was “Whaah. We’re homeless. It givs us a sad :(”. They would have won on “Queen for a Day” because all they were was “We’re homeless”. It wasn’t “We’re following our dreams to be famous dancers and we’re living out of the back of a car, but we’re gonna show everyone when we’re rich and famous”, it was just “:frowning: homeless :(”

What’s weird is that TAR usually doesn’t go for this kind of “I should win 'cause I’m sad:(” contestant. They prefer the “Fuck my disability, I’m going to kick ass and take names” attitude. With one or two possible exceptions**, I think this is the first time they’ve tried this stunt.
*In the “inducing pathos” sense, not the “inspire contempt” current sense.

**Emotionally broken momma’s boy Deaf kid Luke. Who was all about trying to win as long as it wasn’t hard. And then he’d burst into tears. Or team Abusive Kentucky wive and coal-miner husband. Or team Alabama (My daughter needs an operation so I gotta win). But even these teams had motives beyond their single problem.

18

Well, the dancers weren’t shown talking about homelessness when they got eliminated, and they actually danced around a bit and had some fun even after getting the boot. What I appreciated about them is that they just did the tasks, whatever those tasks were. No fighting or whining, just doing the tasks.

The mom of mom-and-gay-son seems kind of insane to me. I think the strain in the relationship has more to do with that than anything. The way she was rocking back and forth while they were waiting out their time penalty, plus the fright mask makeup is just not a good look.

19

I liked this team better when he was deaf.