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The Amazing Race 18 And Also Survivor 22
enlightenedbum
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Registered User regular
So The Amazing Race is a reality show that airs on CBS at 8 PM on Sundays (in the spring; in the fall it airs an hour and five minutes or so after the last NFL game ends). It's one of the best examples of the genre, routinely winning the Emmy in this category until this past year when I believe Top Chef finally unseated it for the first time ever.
It is hosted by Phil Keoghan, who is a cool dude.
The show is a fairly simple concept, with teams of two in a pre-existing relationship (most frequently young, cute dating couples) traveling around the world doing tasks vaguely (or sometimes directly) related to the local culture and/or history. At the start of each leg, teams receive a pre-determined amount of money which must cover all non-airfare costs There are two major kinds of tasks which make an appearance on all or nearly all legs: the detour and the roadblock. A detour is a choice between two tasks, each with its own pros and cons (in theory). Frequently there's a brain/brawns split to these tasks. Or a "hey boring losers, don't take this task" vs. "WOOOOOO BUNGEE!!!" choice. A roadblock is a task that only one team member may perform and the teams must roughly split the roadblocks in half. It was for a while a requirement to be 6-6, but it may have been relaxed to 7-5. At the end of most legs, the last place team is eliminated, until there are three teams left. The first team to finish the final leg wins a million dollars woo.
This spring, TAR is doing its second All-Star kind of season with former competitors being invited back. They range from highly competitive former high finishers to forgettable also-rans whose only distinguishing characteristic in their previous race was having the female half of the team look really good in a gymnastics leotard.
They are:
Amanda and Kris (Engaged couple from TAR14 - 8th place): They were bland but dull in their attempt to be Kris and Jon from TAR6. They were not nearly as competent as those two. Nor as (stealth) funny. Or as unbelievably chipper and awesome about other cultures. Or as hot. She's pretty cute though, so they've got that going for them. Should be Kris and Jon, but we're not inviting anyone from before TAR12, so that's sad.
Gary and Mallory (Father/Daughter from TAR17 - 6th place): Gary is pretty awesome. His daughter is loud and a little over exuberant. Also a beauty queen and decent eye candy. I like Gary, I'm meh about her. Last season had fairly good racers so their finish isn't as awful as it could be.
Flight Time and Big Easy (Harlem Globetrotters from TAR15 - 4th place): They're Globetrotters! They come with Globetrotter theme music! Pretty likable. Good racers until they blew it on a puzzle task in the second to last episode.
Jaime and Cara (Friends/Cheerleaders from TAR14 - 2nd place): They're hot. They were nearly the first all female team to win the race in their season (this finally happened last year), but lost due to taxis if I remember right. Also if I remember right one of them (Jaime, I think) is a totally awful human being. So... hooray?
Jet and Cord (Brothers/Cowboys from TAR16 - 2nd place): Dominated their race and then blew it by not getting near enough to the door on the last plane and shitty final leg design. Likable as they were depicted on the show. There may have been some usage of the word "faggot" to denigrate one of the guys they lost to at TARCon, which would be sad and make them less likable. But popular and competent and basically had to be cast.
Kent and Vyxsin (Dating/"Goths" from TAR12 - 5th place): I think they're ridiculous posers. HATE. Especially him. She's kind of a badass. But very popular for reasons I don't pretend to understand.
LaKisha and Jennifer (Sisters from TAR14 - 4th place): Lost when one of them decided they had to go to the bathroom before checking in at the pit stop. Collegiate athletes who were quite good racers except when facing swimming tasks.
Margie and Luke (Mother and Son from TAR14 - 3rd place): He's deaf, she's possibly enhanced with cybernetic implants. Very good racers, but possess an insufferable persecution complex about his lack of hearing. Hate Kisha and Jen for spurious and silly reasons. Wheee!
Mel and Mike (Gay Father and Son from TAR14 - 6th place): They're among the funniest teams in race history (Kevin and Drew from TAR1, Danny and Oswald from TAR2, Ken and Gerard from TAR3). Mike is in fact professionally funny, writing and appearing in School of Rock. I love them, but they're probably doomed, as impressive as Mel is for his age.
Ron and Christina (Father and Daughter from TAR12 - 2nd place): He treats his daughter horribly. She loves him and expects him to get better! It's an awesome dynamic. Love her, loathe him. He said one of the creepiest things in race history at the end of their season about how "for the first time he means it" when he says he loved his daughter. They were (she was) excellent racers who were foiled by a brilliant puzzle roadblock at the end of the race. Possibly my favorite task in race history besides the ox that inspired the greatest line in television history "My ox is broken! This is bullshit!"
Zev and Justin (Best Friends from TAR15 - 9th place): Zev has Asperger's or some other place on the austistic spectrum. Justin is a cool dude who befriended him. They lost Zev's passport in a leg they finished first on and ultimately could not be checked in because without a passport you can't keep racing around the world. It was a bummer as they're pretty cool. Decent racers.
All in all, not the greatest casting, even given the theme. I wish we could have had some older teams, particularly Ken and Gerard (brothers from TAR3) and Kris and Jon (couple from TAR6) my two favorite teams of all time (and possessing the two best navigators in Kris and Gerard). Hell, I'd take Flo over some of these people. But it could hardly be worse than the original All Star season which featured similarly depressing casting, bad race design that allowed 24 hour leads and Dustin and Kandice to start a leg before other teams finished the previous one and horrible, horrible things that kept friggin' Mirna in the race instead of Guido and it was sad. And then the fake team that was totally dating after they met on TAR9 except really they just fucked a couple times won. Sigh.
Anyway, hopefully this will be excellent, as the show is usually great, even if just for the locations. And I think it's finally in HD! Which it always should have been as the scenery is usually gorgeous.
Also, in this thread, we can discuss the other mainstay CBS reality show, which once again features these two:
"Boston" Rob Mariano, making his fourth Survivor appearance, along with his two TAR appearances. He's a professional camera whore, but he's also fairly entertaining and good at both games. He's finished 10th, 2nd (losing to his wife... if you haven't heard), and 14th in his three seasons. I like him. There is a "rivalry" with...
Russell Hantz, making his third appearance in four seasons. He's a terrible, terrible human being and tremendously bad at Survivor in the sense that he cannot ever win the game. He's very good at self-aggrandizing though and makes you sure he's the best player ever. Except the woman he lost to in Survivor 19 made the key play (at 12) and Sandra/Parvati thoroughly kicked his ass in Survivor 20. He's a great goat to take to the final tribal council because he's such an unlikable asshole and is incredibly non-self aware. HAAAAAAATE.
The season premiere was tonight, and things look fairly promising despite the ridiculous gimmick of them and Redemption Island. Not enough personalities shown and I only REALLY hate one person besides Russell so far. So that's good news.
Anyway, use this thread to discuss the flagship CBS reality shows!
The idea that your vote is a moral statement about you or who you vote for is some backwards ass libertarian nonsense. Your vote is about society. Vote to protect the vulnerable.
enlightenedbum on
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Also I wish that the 'reality' tag was used more sparingly. I view TAR and Survivor as gameshows, whereas something like.. uh, half the programs on MTV are 'reality'. There's a distinction!
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That was perhaps the most boneheaded move I have ever seen in a Tribal Council to date. I have literally no idea what is going on inside that person's head.
That plus how stupid people were being about the first vote in the game, in addition to the annoyance of having Rob and Russell back... not a good start to the season and we haven't even seen how Redemption Island is going to factor into everything.
neat note: My uncle was friends with Steve and Dan, the air traffic controllers from Season 4. Apparently they kept flubbing their audition tape that they just sent all of the bloopers instead.
TAR is still a legitimately good show, but the casting has gone downhill a bit. Or the editing is more focused in inter-team dynamics rather than the intra-team dynamics that were interesting. The last really great season was TAR12 (TK/Rachel win over Ron/Christina and Nicholas/Donald), I think. TAR14 had an ok cast that the producers obviously loved.
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REFS REFS REFS REFS REFS REFS REFS REFS
Also I want to quickly point out that Survivor and presumably TAR are not up to date in all countries of the world, so please please please don't post spoilers in the thread title like there has been done with other, unrelated threads in D&D. NZ is usually 2-3 months behind with Survivor and I think 6 months for TAR and there's nothing worse than having results spoiled. Thanks
*Avoids thread from here on in*
psn: lankyplonker
Oh, damn. Now I have this fantasy where Jerry and Mike ran the Race.
At least there are more teams I like in the lineup than ones I find annoying.
He just seems to be playing a different game, he sees the outwit, outlast and outplay the cores of survivor and therefore doesn't see anything wrong with his play style, then he's confused when he doesn't win.
He neglects the social factor i.e. that people take getting voted out personally, betrayal tends to have that effect though, go figure.
I love the guy but i really didn't need to see him back again, I was surprised in the last series, he was in, that people trusted him so maybe this time he can pull something out of the bag again. Really though why wouldn't you just vote him out straight away?, easy target.
I haven't watched it yet btw, was trying to hold off till the series was over but I can't resist
The only reason his shtick worked twice in a row was because both his Survivor games were filmed back to back, and he essentially had two fresh groups to work with.
Now hopefully, one of two things will happen. Experiencing two humiliating losses in a row has made him grow a brain and change his playing style, or the other players, having hopefully watched the damn show they auditioned for, vote his ass off toot suite. Otherwise, I am going to facepalm so damn hard, and then laugh my ass off for the rest of the season.
Then again, maybe I'm hoping for too much. They sure do get a lot of morons on this show. Why do you audition for Survivor, and then not at least spend a weekend learning how to use a flint to make fire?
Unofficially, I've heard a lot of people don't really audition for the show. Instead, they are cast into it by production, then asked to send an "audition" tape. Most of these cast people have never watched the show before and just watch a few episodes before coming on the show.
Anyway, I'm not necessarily happy to see Rob and Russell back AGAIN, but I have to give them props for their gameplay: it usually makes for good TV. I loved the first episode of this season, but I was really sad to see Francesca go. She had a great personality and I was looking forward to more confessionals by her. Unfortunately, she was a casualty from Kristina's (way too early) aggressive gameplay. And Phillip's an idiot. I don't know if I believe he's a former federal agent. Even CBS writes it as: "Former Federal Agent?" with the question mark.
In any case, yay Survivor! I was a latecomer to the show: the first season I watched from beginning to end was Exile Island, with the surprising Cirie and crazy Shane. I got hooked on the show since then. I love the mix of physical and mental challenges with the manipulation and social gameplay. My favourite players are usually the ones that understand that there is a tactical aspect to the game and that plan and scheme. Players that rely on their physical prowess do not impress me (I'm looking at you, Terry from Exile Island).
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2) The moves he claimed where the most important in his first season were voting off a slight annoying girl and a bossy older woman in the first two votes. Do you know how easy it is to vote off slight annoying girls and bossy older women early? So hard it happens almost every season unless there's a bossy older man.
3) Natalie made the vital play in Samoa when they were down 8-4 she got the votes necessary to flip the game.
4) She then used Russell as a scapegoat. If the show wasn't so desperate to play off the Russell is the greatest strategic mind ever storyline, people might have noticed this. Natalie was VERY good at Survivor, and I consider her one of the 8 or so best players ever.
And then in HvV, he's gone early if Tyson isn't an absolute moron who can't count. And then we get a very different season with far more interesting people. Sigh. Regardless, Parvati controlled his ass the whole game because he's a creepy, horny old man.
It was something that really frustrated me in previous survivors, I probably wouldn't just assume there were hidden idols as some seasons haven't had them but as soon as Jeff handed out the first secret note to anyone I would be guessing it was a clue and been off searching myself.
I was going to suggest we never say never, that maybe Russel has learned he needs someone else to take the fall for breaking promise and betrayals. But let's face it though he's too full of himself to let anyone else take the credit for his master plans. So it will mostly likely end with him shooting himself in the foot again.
For Rob and Russel isn't this really just for bragging rights to see who get's further, if either of them get to the merge without having to go the Exile island way, the other players are idiots.
But by god the cowboys better not get eliminated from TAR in the first week.
Like Baffin island.
No chicks in bikinis, so this will never, ever happen.
Not really, especially (sadly) in the case of Russell. If you take Russell to final tribal council, that is one player there who is not going to win.
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Well, technically they already didn't.
Oh come on, he's a more ridiculous and entertaining if he goes away quickly Coach. And I find Russell considerably more annoying than him.
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Ralph is the new Rupert.
Ralph seems way cooler than Rupert.
Seriously, first two episodes have been awesome.
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And indeed it was. Lovely people, bad racers.
Nah. Amanda and Kris easily could have gotten on the first flight, but they squandered that lead. Admittedly, they only had that lead because the flights got reversed, but there were plenty of lead changes after that based on how much you screwed up the flag puzzle. They could have scored an early flight regardless.
Not to say I disagree with bunching in all circumstances, because without it you get the situation Guido faced in the TAR1 finale which was an awesome cut, but it's better when all three teams have a shot. I do hate bunching between the last bunch (the two flights to Sydney, obviously) and the next elimination point though. At the very least, Jet and Cord should have been given a speed bump or ideally the U-Turn penalty themselves.