A double dose of The Amazing Race
Oct. 10th, 2010 07:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
spiderbraidsBack again with more TAR recaps, and we have two TARs for the price of one, as both the Asian and American editions have started a new season. Here we go, then:
Asia (season 4):
Ep 1
1. This season has teams from 6 countries: India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Phillipines (2 each), Singapore and HK (no Thailand this year, thankfully [?]). First stop is the Batu caves, last visited in the All-Stars edition of the US version. We see one of the teams ends up picking up some guy to get directions to the cave, and dropping him off at the caves once they're done with him. Ouch. Incidentally, Yani/Nadine (Indonesia) run this leg wearing shirts that bear this logo.
2. Batu caves, and we have a Roadblock where one team member carries an offering to the monks at the top of the hill and counts the steps along the way. Some get it right the first time (272), while quite a few are off by at least 100 (at one point, one competitor says something like 550... wow). There's also a few amusing bits of monkeys trying to take their offerings too.
3. Next clue sends racers to the pitstop from TARUS 16x08, which after a bit of Googling, reveals itself as the Pinang Peranakan Mansion. Teams then have to find a "Baldwin" (piano) to get their next clue, which entails them singing a version of "Amazing Grace" with the lyrics changed to tell what the next task is: saving soccer penalty kicks. Insert crappy singing here. Amusingly, quite a few teams have to ask around to find the Baldwin, with the prerequisite footage of some team walking straight past the piano before zooming in on the Baldwin logo :-)
4. Soccer task, brought to you by perennial race sponsor Caltex (rolls eyes) Save penalty kicks, and get two minutes penalty for each goal scored against. Natasha/Hussein (parent/child, Indonesia) get something like 16 minutes of penalty, while some other teams get like 6. Moving on...
5. Next stop, some cruise ship dock with a Detour between learning semaphores and washing windows. Not surprisingly, everyone's washing windows. Well, not exactly, as one member washes a window, while the other runs around cabins and photographs the washer through the window (with a Sony camera... of course, since Sony is another race sponsor). Okay, then...
6. Pit stop is right on the cruise ship. Ethan/Khairie (friends, Malaysia) get a Sony Bravia and Playstation 3 (rolls eyes again), and despite apparently having some navigational difficulties getting to the cruise ship, Natasha/Hussein manage to make quick work of the Detour and pip Yani/Nadine to avoid last place, but it's a non-elimination (with a 30 minute penalty).
Ep 2
1. Next clue is on top some beach, which is route info to Kota Kinabalu. Everyone gets AirAsia flights connecting through Kuala Lumpur. Most of the teams get on one flight while Jess/Lani (Philippines) get tix for a flight scheduled to leave 30 minutes later. Incredibly, Jess/Lani then convince the pilots on their flight to KL to take off before the flight scheduled to leave before them (!!!)
2. Kota Kinabalu, and everyone drives off (in the middle of the night) to some tribal village where everyone does a little dance (one team comments that they're glad they weren't being judged)... and then have to touch a snake's head (my mom thought that it was scary, and quite a few of the teams would agree).
3. Next stop, some night market where everyone eats as many chicken balls as they can to get a 20 minute advantage in the next part of the race. Not all of the teams go for it (some even struggle to complete the required 100 balls), but the team that gets the 20 minute advantage is a pair of girls, Claire/Michelle (Singapore), with a whopping 275 balls. It doesn't matter much later, though...
4. After an hours of operation bunching (during which one of the teams sleeps in their cab!), we have a Roadblock at some harbor: Take a keyring through an underwater rope maze in an allotted time or get a 4-hour penalty slapped on you at the end of the leg. That would suck quite a bit if you were like seconds away from completing the maze when you were slapped with the penalty... like Natasha/Hussein. Claire/Michelle's 20 minute advantage proves less meaningful, as they end up getting hit with the penalty also, as well as Yani/Nadine. In total, 5 of 10 teams get a penalty.
5. Next is a detour between river rafting and shooting with slingshots. Eh, moving on... we have a pit stop on some pier. We see Ivan/Hilda (Malaysia) strolling slowly across the pier... until they see Richard/Richard (Phillipines) gaining up on them, and then haul a$$ to get the win and a Sony laptop (yep, more sponsored goodies!). Amusingly, Ethan/Khairie arrive in last place, but thanks to the penalties from the Roadblock, they're actually in 5th, while Yani/Nadine's 30 minutes on top of their 4 hour penalty sends them home.
Ep 3 (Sri Lanka) just aired this past Friday, so it'll be a while before I get my thoughts on that one up.
America (season 17):
Ep 1
1. This year, we have quite a wide array of teams. Besides the usual types, we've got doctors (one with diabetes), home shopping hosts, beach volleyballers, glee club singers (and yes, they do introduce themselves with "Amazing [G]race"), and three (!) parent-child pairs (one of whom is a daughter racing with her birth mom that gave her up for adoption 20 years ago [!], and another is KevJumba and his dad). This leg, we also have an "Express Pass" to skip a task before leg 8. For now, first task: Drive to Boston airport, get on one of two flights to London Heathrow (arriving 20 minutes apart), get cars in airport parking lot, drive to Stonehenge.
2. Of course, the B-roll that heralds their arrival in England has a shot of Big Ben with "Rule Britannia" playing in the background, and of course, the cars have the steering wheel on the "wrong" side (to America that is, in Thailand we use the British side), and stick shift. Amusingly, Andie/Jenna (birth mom/daughter) have a hard time with the stick shift, and we see Katie/Rachel having to push their car... before Rachel drives off, briefly leaving Katie behind :-D We also see Brooke praising Claire (HSN hosts) for being able to get into gear with the steering on the "wrong" side :-) On the more serious side of things, we see Nat/Kat (doctors) checking Nat's blood sugar... while driving (!)
3. Everyone gets to Stonehenge in due time, except for Ron/Tony (best friends), who have apparently left their navigational skills (that helped them get to Boston airport first) back in America (and this despite that they stop at a gas station to get a map). We see Nick/Vicki (dating) call Stonehenge a bunch of rocks. You know who else called Stonehenge a bunch of rocks? Blooregard Q. Kazoo.
4. Everyone speed-walks (no running allowed near Stonehenge, apparently) to get their next clue for the opposite of Nor'easter, which somehow comes out as Eastnor Castle. Funny, I thought it was Southwest :-) (To be fair, Andie/Jenna ask around for Norwest :-) ) At Eastnor, everyone has fun storming the castle, by which I mean, crossing a stream on a turtle-shell like boat, before climbing ladders while being doused with pond water, and grabbing a flag. Hilariously, Chad/Stephanie (dating team) sink their boat like 12 times, as Connor/Johnathan (glee club) and Katie/Rachel pass them. We see KevJumba/dad comment on how they figured it out... Dad: "We didn't figure it out, we saw other teams pass us."
5. Next task is a Roadblock. Ride a horse to a bunch of giant slingshots and shoot watermelons at knight armor. Mallory watches a jester juggling while balancing on a ball while her dad Gary (they're the other parent/child team) does the task. As anyone who saw the promo knows, Claire gets meloned directly in the forehead. (I had not known about it, so it was quite a bit surprising for me.) It's both hilarious... and scary(!) which I suppose is the intended reacion. Incredibly, after a bit of a medic check break, she gets back up and melons the knight in apparently just two shots, and saying, "I made it my b!tch" before repeatedly saying "I can't feel my face" on the way to the pitstop :-)
6. Amusingly, two of teams get in-show nicknames from the beach volleyballers: Chad/Stephanie are now Tinkerbell and Pan, while Connor/Johnathan are Team Glee (of course). Tink and Pan spend a lot of time trying to find the pitstop after the Roadblock, and at one point even enter the actual castle building ;-) The pitstop is actually on the castle grounds, as Jill/Thomas (hairdressers) get first and the Express Pass (but no other first place prize), and we later see Team Glee hilariously wiping out on the mat.
7. Among the trailing teams, Nick/Vicki walk right past the boats, mistaking them for turtle shells :-) Then after climbing the ladders, they ask around for a battlement (shades of "Baldwin" above ;-) ) before noticing the flag :-D Also, as if their bad navigation to Stonehenge hasn't already sunk them yet, the boats literally sink Ron/Tony. Let's just say they're a bit size-challenged, and not in the Charla sense :-) Nick/Vicki finish next-to-last, and when asked by Phil what country they're in, Vicki answers "London" (DOH! :-D ), while Nick has more luck guessing their position. Ron/Tony are of course out.
Ep 2
1. Next stop, some statue in Ghana. After we see Brooke/Claire (from here on, Team Melon) getting directions to Heathrow from a tractor guy (and hoping that there aren't any watermelons on this leg :-D :-D ), everyone gets bunched on a single flight, so yeah, whatever. After the statue, a trip to a market. Amusingly, we see Team Glee singing "Please drive faster" to their driver :-) Not so amusingly, auto troubles knock Gary/Mallory back, and we see beggars stick their hands through taxicab windows trying to get some money from the teams. Andie/Jenna give the beggars some money. Interestingly, they make a big deal of this being the only time they'll be together. Hmm...
2. Market, with a Roadblock about "shady dealing": Selling sunglasses for at least 3 cedi each, for a total of 15 cedi. Mind you, that's a big chunk of money for the average Ghanian... So, some would-be purchasers rather non-chalantly take the specs for free, and one even performs an amusing dance, and some even try to buys the specs for less than 3 cedi. Not surprisingly, Team Melon does well with the task, although another team manages to sell one for 10 cedi (while others were content with trying to sell for the minimum 3). We see KevJumba's dad doing the Roadblock, while commenting about the market and comparing it to when he was growing up in Taiwan.
3. Next stop is an auto parts shop, with a clue pick up for the first Detour of the race: Hook up a TV aerial or drag a custom coffin. Of the teams hooking up a TV, we suspiciously get the same insert footage of African dancing every time someone successfully hooks up. As for custom coffins, we see teams dragging coffins designed in the shape of a keyboard, a lobster, and an old-fashioned film camera, and one of the coffins already at the drop off point is in the shape of a truck. Strangely, Team Glee switches tasks after putting up the antenna and while trying to get a good picture. Methinks that just sticking with the task would have taken much less time than dragging a coffin...
4. Pit stop is a mat in the middle of a market. Team Melon gets the win, and a trip to Hawaii. In a rather bizarre (and dangerous) moment, we see a few taxis (with the doctors and Team Glee) making their way to the next pit stop... by driving between cars in adjacent lanes. Jonathan (Team Glee) is all "I think I just soiled myself" :-D At the back end we have two of the parent/child teams racing to avoid elimination, and Gary/Mallory (with Mallory worrying about getting a heart attack on the mat ;-) ) pips Andie/Jenna, so birth mom/daughter will get to spend a month or so bonding (hopefully) away from the prying eyes of the CBS cameras.
Ep 3 airs "tonight" in the US (for those of us in Asia, it airs tomorrow night).
Asia (season 4):
Ep 1
1. This season has teams from 6 countries: India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Phillipines (2 each), Singapore and HK (no Thailand this year, thankfully [?]). First stop is the Batu caves, last visited in the All-Stars edition of the US version. We see one of the teams ends up picking up some guy to get directions to the cave, and dropping him off at the caves once they're done with him. Ouch. Incidentally, Yani/Nadine (Indonesia) run this leg wearing shirts that bear this logo.
2. Batu caves, and we have a Roadblock where one team member carries an offering to the monks at the top of the hill and counts the steps along the way. Some get it right the first time (272), while quite a few are off by at least 100 (at one point, one competitor says something like 550... wow). There's also a few amusing bits of monkeys trying to take their offerings too.
3. Next clue sends racers to the pitstop from TARUS 16x08, which after a bit of Googling, reveals itself as the Pinang Peranakan Mansion. Teams then have to find a "Baldwin" (piano) to get their next clue, which entails them singing a version of "Amazing Grace" with the lyrics changed to tell what the next task is: saving soccer penalty kicks. Insert crappy singing here. Amusingly, quite a few teams have to ask around to find the Baldwin, with the prerequisite footage of some team walking straight past the piano before zooming in on the Baldwin logo :-)
4. Soccer task, brought to you by perennial race sponsor Caltex (rolls eyes) Save penalty kicks, and get two minutes penalty for each goal scored against. Natasha/Hussein (parent/child, Indonesia) get something like 16 minutes of penalty, while some other teams get like 6. Moving on...
5. Next stop, some cruise ship dock with a Detour between learning semaphores and washing windows. Not surprisingly, everyone's washing windows. Well, not exactly, as one member washes a window, while the other runs around cabins and photographs the washer through the window (with a Sony camera... of course, since Sony is another race sponsor). Okay, then...
6. Pit stop is right on the cruise ship. Ethan/Khairie (friends, Malaysia) get a Sony Bravia and Playstation 3 (rolls eyes again), and despite apparently having some navigational difficulties getting to the cruise ship, Natasha/Hussein manage to make quick work of the Detour and pip Yani/Nadine to avoid last place, but it's a non-elimination (with a 30 minute penalty).
Ep 2
1. Next clue is on top some beach, which is route info to Kota Kinabalu. Everyone gets AirAsia flights connecting through Kuala Lumpur. Most of the teams get on one flight while Jess/Lani (Philippines) get tix for a flight scheduled to leave 30 minutes later. Incredibly, Jess/Lani then convince the pilots on their flight to KL to take off before the flight scheduled to leave before them (!!!)
2. Kota Kinabalu, and everyone drives off (in the middle of the night) to some tribal village where everyone does a little dance (one team comments that they're glad they weren't being judged)... and then have to touch a snake's head (my mom thought that it was scary, and quite a few of the teams would agree).
3. Next stop, some night market where everyone eats as many chicken balls as they can to get a 20 minute advantage in the next part of the race. Not all of the teams go for it (some even struggle to complete the required 100 balls), but the team that gets the 20 minute advantage is a pair of girls, Claire/Michelle (Singapore), with a whopping 275 balls. It doesn't matter much later, though...
4. After an hours of operation bunching (during which one of the teams sleeps in their cab!), we have a Roadblock at some harbor: Take a keyring through an underwater rope maze in an allotted time or get a 4-hour penalty slapped on you at the end of the leg. That would suck quite a bit if you were like seconds away from completing the maze when you were slapped with the penalty... like Natasha/Hussein. Claire/Michelle's 20 minute advantage proves less meaningful, as they end up getting hit with the penalty also, as well as Yani/Nadine. In total, 5 of 10 teams get a penalty.
5. Next is a detour between river rafting and shooting with slingshots. Eh, moving on... we have a pit stop on some pier. We see Ivan/Hilda (Malaysia) strolling slowly across the pier... until they see Richard/Richard (Phillipines) gaining up on them, and then haul a$$ to get the win and a Sony laptop (yep, more sponsored goodies!). Amusingly, Ethan/Khairie arrive in last place, but thanks to the penalties from the Roadblock, they're actually in 5th, while Yani/Nadine's 30 minutes on top of their 4 hour penalty sends them home.
Ep 3 (Sri Lanka) just aired this past Friday, so it'll be a while before I get my thoughts on that one up.
America (season 17):
Ep 1
1. This year, we have quite a wide array of teams. Besides the usual types, we've got doctors (one with diabetes), home shopping hosts, beach volleyballers, glee club singers (and yes, they do introduce themselves with "Amazing [G]race"), and three (!) parent-child pairs (one of whom is a daughter racing with her birth mom that gave her up for adoption 20 years ago [!], and another is KevJumba and his dad). This leg, we also have an "Express Pass" to skip a task before leg 8. For now, first task: Drive to Boston airport, get on one of two flights to London Heathrow (arriving 20 minutes apart), get cars in airport parking lot, drive to Stonehenge.
2. Of course, the B-roll that heralds their arrival in England has a shot of Big Ben with "Rule Britannia" playing in the background, and of course, the cars have the steering wheel on the "wrong" side (to America that is, in Thailand we use the British side), and stick shift. Amusingly, Andie/Jenna (birth mom/daughter) have a hard time with the stick shift, and we see Katie/Rachel having to push their car... before Rachel drives off, briefly leaving Katie behind :-D We also see Brooke praising Claire (HSN hosts) for being able to get into gear with the steering on the "wrong" side :-) On the more serious side of things, we see Nat/Kat (doctors) checking Nat's blood sugar... while driving (!)
3. Everyone gets to Stonehenge in due time, except for Ron/Tony (best friends), who have apparently left their navigational skills (that helped them get to Boston airport first) back in America (and this despite that they stop at a gas station to get a map). We see Nick/Vicki (dating) call Stonehenge a bunch of rocks. You know who else called Stonehenge a bunch of rocks? Blooregard Q. Kazoo.
4. Everyone speed-walks (no running allowed near Stonehenge, apparently) to get their next clue for the opposite of Nor'easter, which somehow comes out as Eastnor Castle. Funny, I thought it was Southwest :-) (To be fair, Andie/Jenna ask around for Norwest :-) ) At Eastnor, everyone has fun storming the castle, by which I mean, crossing a stream on a turtle-shell like boat, before climbing ladders while being doused with pond water, and grabbing a flag. Hilariously, Chad/Stephanie (dating team) sink their boat like 12 times, as Connor/Johnathan (glee club) and Katie/Rachel pass them. We see KevJumba/dad comment on how they figured it out... Dad: "We didn't figure it out, we saw other teams pass us."
5. Next task is a Roadblock. Ride a horse to a bunch of giant slingshots and shoot watermelons at knight armor. Mallory watches a jester juggling while balancing on a ball while her dad Gary (they're the other parent/child team) does the task. As anyone who saw the promo knows, Claire gets meloned directly in the forehead. (I had not known about it, so it was quite a bit surprising for me.) It's both hilarious... and scary(!) which I suppose is the intended reacion. Incredibly, after a bit of a medic check break, she gets back up and melons the knight in apparently just two shots, and saying, "I made it my b!tch" before repeatedly saying "I can't feel my face" on the way to the pitstop :-)
6. Amusingly, two of teams get in-show nicknames from the beach volleyballers: Chad/Stephanie are now Tinkerbell and Pan, while Connor/Johnathan are Team Glee (of course). Tink and Pan spend a lot of time trying to find the pitstop after the Roadblock, and at one point even enter the actual castle building ;-) The pitstop is actually on the castle grounds, as Jill/Thomas (hairdressers) get first and the Express Pass (but no other first place prize), and we later see Team Glee hilariously wiping out on the mat.
7. Among the trailing teams, Nick/Vicki walk right past the boats, mistaking them for turtle shells :-) Then after climbing the ladders, they ask around for a battlement (shades of "Baldwin" above ;-) ) before noticing the flag :-D Also, as if their bad navigation to Stonehenge hasn't already sunk them yet, the boats literally sink Ron/Tony. Let's just say they're a bit size-challenged, and not in the Charla sense :-) Nick/Vicki finish next-to-last, and when asked by Phil what country they're in, Vicki answers "London" (DOH! :-D ), while Nick has more luck guessing their position. Ron/Tony are of course out.
Ep 2
1. Next stop, some statue in Ghana. After we see Brooke/Claire (from here on, Team Melon) getting directions to Heathrow from a tractor guy (and hoping that there aren't any watermelons on this leg :-D :-D ), everyone gets bunched on a single flight, so yeah, whatever. After the statue, a trip to a market. Amusingly, we see Team Glee singing "Please drive faster" to their driver :-) Not so amusingly, auto troubles knock Gary/Mallory back, and we see beggars stick their hands through taxicab windows trying to get some money from the teams. Andie/Jenna give the beggars some money. Interestingly, they make a big deal of this being the only time they'll be together. Hmm...
2. Market, with a Roadblock about "shady dealing": Selling sunglasses for at least 3 cedi each, for a total of 15 cedi. Mind you, that's a big chunk of money for the average Ghanian... So, some would-be purchasers rather non-chalantly take the specs for free, and one even performs an amusing dance, and some even try to buys the specs for less than 3 cedi. Not surprisingly, Team Melon does well with the task, although another team manages to sell one for 10 cedi (while others were content with trying to sell for the minimum 3). We see KevJumba's dad doing the Roadblock, while commenting about the market and comparing it to when he was growing up in Taiwan.
3. Next stop is an auto parts shop, with a clue pick up for the first Detour of the race: Hook up a TV aerial or drag a custom coffin. Of the teams hooking up a TV, we suspiciously get the same insert footage of African dancing every time someone successfully hooks up. As for custom coffins, we see teams dragging coffins designed in the shape of a keyboard, a lobster, and an old-fashioned film camera, and one of the coffins already at the drop off point is in the shape of a truck. Strangely, Team Glee switches tasks after putting up the antenna and while trying to get a good picture. Methinks that just sticking with the task would have taken much less time than dragging a coffin...
4. Pit stop is a mat in the middle of a market. Team Melon gets the win, and a trip to Hawaii. In a rather bizarre (and dangerous) moment, we see a few taxis (with the doctors and Team Glee) making their way to the next pit stop... by driving between cars in adjacent lanes. Jonathan (Team Glee) is all "I think I just soiled myself" :-D At the back end we have two of the parent/child teams racing to avoid elimination, and Gary/Mallory (with Mallory worrying about getting a heart attack on the mat ;-) ) pips Andie/Jenna, so birth mom/daughter will get to spend a month or so bonding (hopefully) away from the prying eyes of the CBS cameras.
Ep 3 airs "tonight" in the US (for those of us in Asia, it airs tomorrow night).
