The Amazing Race > The Amazing Race Discussion
Why the Amazing Race has lost its magic
Neobie:
Why the Amazing Race has lost its magic
We watch the Amazing Race for different reasons. Some see the world through racers’ eyes, some for the emotions global travel arouses. Most are intrigued by the scale and intensity of the production.
But of late, the race has turned farce.
Slapstick tasks
Early editions of the race are compared to travelogues, allowing the audience to experience the culture of a destination vicariously. Teams danced with the Berber nomads of Tunisia, shared sunglasses with the children of Cape Town’s townships, and played Brazilian volleyball on the beaches of Rio. These interactions have been replaced with slapstick challenges designed for low humour, recently exemplified by the “pinnacle” of slapstick comedy, throwing cake on each other’s faces.
Low comedy would be forgivable if the tasks were identifiable to the locale, but throwing Austrian cakes does not an Austrian task make. In the most recent edition alone, teams have been made to carry Italian cheese in Switzerland on constructed-to-break racks, ride Segways (an American invention) in Bavaria, and run through Siberia in their underwear, apparently not the tradition host Phil Keoghan believes it to be. Real experiences, it seems, have been sacrificed for cheap laughs.
Cultural irrelevance
Producers have become increasingly insensitive to a locale’s cultural essence. Relying on stereotypes or transplanted customs, they add to the very cultural misunderstanding the show is touted to break down.
After visiting Hong Kong in the second season (in which they applaudably highlighted the city’s blend of tradition and novelty), the race returned in its eleventh cycle to an episode filled with blatant stereotypes, beginning with the very first destination, a laundromat in Tsimshatsui.
Now the laundromat is at best an American-Chinese tradition, started up for immigrants in the Chinatowns of the West. With almost every Hong Kong household owning a washing machine since the industrial boom of the 1950s, the laundromat has never had a following in the city, save the occasional need for dry cleaning. One more interesting fact: the laundromat in question, Sun Wah Kiu, is located in the heart of the city’s tourist district. The owner tells me the bulk of their business comes from tourists, not locals, and is genuinely surprised she was approached to represent the city on the race.
The episode continues to explore Hong Kong’s movie and stunt industries with “kung-fu fighters” dressed as Japanese ninjas, and ends off with a “game Hong Kong children play”, tugging a replica junk across a model boat pond. I, for my twelve years of childhood growing up in the city, have never heard of such a tradition. Hong Kong, famous for its hilly terrain, doesn’t have that many ponds to begin with. With model junks unaffordable to the masses before the 80s and out of vogue ever since, did the producers create a “tradition” out of thin air?
End of Part One
Moo:
Hi Neobie!
Let me be the first to comment... :)
I must agree that the tasks on the latter seasons has lost its magic in exchange for pure quality tv humor and programming, contrary to what BvM said that they would focus more on the locations and the "culturally relevant" tasks in itself...
However, these things aren't even at the tip of the iceberg for me to stop watching the race. (Well I might have, I found it boring to watch the twelfth season for a week - the second episode, and came back after seeing some drama) As far as I know, the Austria-Germany detour was the worst for this season's (counting up to episode 6).
However, cultural irrelevance is something that I don't see in almost every episode. Why? The Hong Kong leg in All Stars showed not the culturally things Americans or tourists go, rather the walk of life of the usual HongKonger, which is through mazes and mazes of stores and buildings, and the stunty detour and roadblock proved to show how this region is famed for - action movies.
The junks I suppose is purely made up because of Travelocity.
I think that there may be some legs that are flaws or misinterpretations to some of what we know as cultures, but overall - what I see is that the producers are trying to:
1) Immerse the racers to the common life existing in a particular country they are in - not just cultural or touristy, and not just being a travel show
2) Provide another angle or point of view to us, viewers as to how we see not only the better or finer things in the country, rather showing the reality or how life is in where they are visiting.
AND...
3) To keep us fans who adore and love the show have a hard time spoiling (oh really now?) and following their tracks as they race all across the world!
I think that the Amazing Race has turned into a "tourist show" to a "travel show."
Just my opinions, peace! :hearts:
Neobie:
The end of open-endedness
The very first episode of The Amazing Race piled questions and decisions onto the contestants at the get-go. Which airport do you head for? Do you get there by train or taxi? Which flights are likely to be direct, and therefore likely to get you to your destination sooner? The leg progressed with challenging clues ("Find the smoke that thunders." "A ____ pot never ____.") and difficult decisions (whether or not to pursue the one-off Fast Forward). Teams used to be let out of the starting gate with the words “Whatever you do… is completely up to you.”
Host Phil doesn’t say that any more, and the race has turned into a cattle corral where contestants are directed from destination to destination by means specific to the minutest detail. Teams are told to take flights connecting through specified cities, and trains at specific timings. Deviating from the course is a big no-no, and when a team takes the metro over a taxi to save money, they are refused the clue to carry on. While herding teams within narrow fences makes logistics that much simpler, it removed the free rein early racers had to make the show entertaining, and in so doing changed the main reason for elimination from poor decision-making to poor luck.
Security and privacy
Racers of today are a protected lot. They are followed around at each locale by an entourage of production assistants, making the race a spectacle of itself. Train stations are opened for racers at three in the morning to keep them from the locals. Police escorts protect and cordon off the teams on the streets, and production hires a security team of six protecting the Pit Stops. Compare this to the times when contestants slept out in the streets of Hungary, or when mother-and-daughter duo Nancy and Emily sat huddled and crying, mobbed by the begging crowds of Delhi.
The race now runs in a bubble world to keep spoilers from leaking. Jewellery shops are redesigned as puppet stores, fake company signs are put up, and abandoned apartments renovated to look like tailor shops. Racers are prohibited from taking public transportation, most likely from the fear that they’d be recognized.
For the race, producers have created a world completely detached from the existing one, inventing slapstick tasks, new cultures, and cordoning off the racecourse, both from within and without. My advice to the show which is gaining popularity but losing the “amazing” qualities that kept me watching from Day One: keep it real.
Above rant written with the resources provided by all the nice folks of RFF, and the luck of being able to track the race through a dozen cities in the Asia-Pacific. Please feel free to ask for specifics wrt my arguments.
Thanks for the comments Mooyou!
I'm disappointed especially with the Hong Kong leg, since so little of what is shown belongs to the life of the "usual Hong Konger". The laundromat does tourist business. The stunts are alright for a single task, but the Roadblock, and Detour, and Fast Forward all revolving around the same theme? That reeks of laziness. (Guess what? They engaged the same stunt company to cover all three tasks.)
There are challenging culturally-relevant tasks that allow for product placement, the need for security and the race's want of privacy. (Call me, CBS!) Too bad production isn't ready to take the extra step.
Moo:
--- Quote from: Neobie on March 29, 2009, 04:41:43 AM ---
Thanks for the comments Mooyou!
I'm disappointed especially with the Hong Kong leg, since so little of what is shown belongs to the life of the "usual Hong Konger". The laundromat does tourist business. The stunts are alright for a single task, but the Roadblock, and Detour, and Fast Forward all revolving around the same theme? That reeks of laziness. (Guess what? They engaged the same stunt company to cover all three tasks.)
There are challenging culturally-relevant tasks that allow for product placement, the need for security and the race's want of privacy. Too bad production isn't ready to take the extra step.
--- End quote ---
Hong Kong is a fabulous place! I so much love it there! But TAR (and its spinoff Asia) has absolutely no good legs in HK... I think the popularity of the race itself restricted the coverage of the race, and probably security is installed to keep us fans from going straight to the teams, pulling and aiding them even to the pitstop... like the woman who recognized Romber. (Man, I envy the South African woman who got to step at the mat together with Romber in Season 7!!!)
I think redesigning things by TPTB is more costly though, but I hope that your article could be read by the producers, ESPECIALLY ELISE and BVM, so that they could figure out a way to push back the show to its former glory instead of a circus. This Season (14) should be the start of its restoration.
Care to try emailing them? :lol:
mswood:
Neobie
Some of your points are things that have actually occurred from day one. Teams have always been limited to certain carriers, security personnel have always been around (they do use more now), some tasks have always been manufactured, or based on american cultural stereotypes, or of long dead practices.
Some of your points still probably happen (we just don't see them), for example Phil's comments at the starting line, might still happen he has always spoken for more then what we see in the episodes according to racers. The teams still do on occasion sleep on the street (we rarely get that footage anymore), they still interact with locals (again something we really don't see much of anymore). Those are things that the production could easily change in just how they edit the show, if they wished to.
The change in how the clues are designed for the most part changed between seasons 1 and 2. They still keep a few where the teams have to figure things out (or aren't hand feed specific directions (we have had three such clues this season), but the practice of having the clue be a puzzle ended for the most part with season one.
As to first season teams having to figure out which airport to depart from, that was a rare case because I do believe its the only time a they started the race where a city had two major international airports in taxi distance. But teams did know which carriers and what flight numbers they could take (they just were told the airport).
On the issue of teams being kept more out of the public eye, through having task being kept in remote areas or in rented out locals this is also something that has happened even as far back as season one, but it is more common today and that is probably due to two costs. 1 I am sure is due to spoilers, and CBS and the producers trying to make it less easy for the common viewer to know what happens in the race. Earlier season really didn't have to worry about it (I remember the first spoiler I ever heard and that was an airline passenger saying how the final three were in season 3). But as the race has gotten more popular both in the US and overseas the production has had to take more steps.
A really good example of this is the leg in All Stars, where local fans followed the teams all day, that they helped Charla & Mirna perform tasks. Not because they randomly were able to charm locals, but because those fans loved Charla & MIrna and wanted to help them. Look at how many fans got upset about the undue amount of local help Rob & Amber got, because of their popularity of being on survivor.
Its one thing for racers to get local help (and they do get that probably in large part due to the camera man and sound man), but to get specific help because OH my god they are on the amazing race.... (and hell I would be doing that).
Season 13 the reports were so spoiled that If Puddin actually released the location (which they found out) I could have had about 20 people out scouting areas in Portland. Including the finish line.
The other reason is it is often times cheaper to film in secluded locations or to film in an area after normal business hours.
But that doesn't mean that they can't provide a more accurate local activity for teams to perform. But it does mean that any natural interaction with locals (instead of people that have been hired) is limited to more of the navigation aspect of the legs (and thats something that is shown a lot less.
And while we have always had a couple of tasks that are humor based, I do agree that this season in particular has a high number of them. I personally prefer more endurance, strength tasks (but so many fans complain about those being designed more for the young and the male).
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