The tenth installment of The Amazing Race began tonight, and to... well, I don't know, I guess "spice things up a little," some of my friends decided to have a pool on the outcome this time around.It came about when I was looking in TV Guide's Fall Preview issue last week, and there was a picture of all 12 teams in the back. All you could see was their tiny little faces, their names, and the quick one or two word description of their relationship: "Best Friends," "Father and Daughter," "Dating," etc. I was commenting with another Amazing Race fan that I thought you could just take one look at that picture and instantly tell which teams were going to place in the top four.
The trouble was, she basically agreed with me. Not much of a pool if everyone wanted to take the same teams. So we did a random draw. Everybody pulled a number from a hat, and then we assigned teams to everyone based on the order the teams were introduced in the first episode.
It worked out that I drew number 10, which translated to Tyler and James, one of the three teams I'd identified in the cast photo as most likely to succeed. I found out in the first few minutes that they were recovered drug addicts (I don't know whether you'd count that a plus or a minus), that they were both models (ugh), and both a bit conceited (like Eric and Jeremy from last season). But then, they did take first place in tonight's episode, so I guess so far, I've gotta like my chances of winning in this pool.
As for the Race itself? Well, based on just the one episode, I can only draw a few quick conclusions. I don't think there are any instantly likeable teams like the last installment of the Race had (except for Peter and Sarah, I suppose). There are so many teams that look destined to fail (compared to usual) that trying to guess who is going to go out next is a bit of a challenge. I feel like I could divide the pack into thirds (who will be out early, middle, or there until the end), but beyond that... it's anybody's guess. And I'm very curious to see more of these "surprises" Phil promised at the start of the Race. We're off to a juicy start there with an elimination that took out a team before they could even complete a full episode. Yikes.
And, of course, I'm cheering on my druggies.
3 comments:
i heard studio 60 was pretty good from a west wing fan
My wife made an interesting observation about the natural progression of this show. Each season has seen non-elimination legs gradually pushed to after half the field has been eliminated. Now, we have eliminations occurring within legs. She posits that the producers decided it was wasteful to keep lesser competitors in the game when their eliminiations were inevitable. The show's focus has shifted to the better teams earlier than before.
I wonder if the Yield has been removed in light of these other wacky changes that Phil teased about. I've never liked the Yield because it adds a political element not related to actual racing into the race. It might be fun to watch a team you hate get some existential comeuppance, but, in the end, it's a cheap tactic in a game where teams really need to focus inward.
It's unfortunate that after only one episode, this race suddenly got much WASPier.
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