If the Fast Forward has been retired, then, even though I think that the Express Pass is another bad idea from production, I agree that every team should get an Express Pass at the starting line.
--------------------
There have been a lot of ideas thrown around about what went wrong with the show, but Phil described what made the show great in the TAR 1 theme:
It's the most daring competition ever attempted.
Eleven two-person teams bound by friendship, love or family will race around the world.
They have no idea where they're going, what dangers they may encounter or how the journey will affect their lives.
Most of the teams will be eliminated, but the team that reaches the finish line first will win a cash prize of one million dollars.
This is a race like no other in history.
This is The Amazing Race.
It's even more powerful when I listen to it.
Bad teams, bad tasks, and bad locations are just superficial problems with the show.
The fundamental problems with the show now are that it's no longer daring and that danger is virtually non-existent now.
I'll use my two favorite sequences in the history of the show as examples.
- TAR2: Hong Kong to Sydney--Five teams remain. Four finish the detour and head straight to the Hong Kong airport. Another goes to a travel agent, decides to go shopping, and still ends up finishing in first place in Sydney.
- TAR7: South Africa to Botswana--Brian & Greg flip and crash their vehicle, injuring a cameraman. After getting a replacement vehicle and getting to the Detour, Brian & Greg see teams still at the Detour. Brian & Greg hustle, finish their Detour, and see that Ray & Deana are just leaving. Brian & Greg jump in their vehicle and scramble to catch up. As Ray & Deana park their vehicle, Brian & Greg drive right by their door. Both teams jump out and run for their lives. Brian & Greg hit the mat completely winded, and the rest is (Emmy) history.
The problem that I have with every post-TAR7 season, except for TAR14, is that it seems to me like production has scrubbed the element of danger/daring/risk/unpredictability from the show by either not putting teams in situations conducive to it or casting teams that are risk averse. Whether production was lucky or good, TAR7 had a female racer daring enough to shave her head for a Fast Forward, an older racer getting a bloody head injury looking for a clue in a cave, and a team of mactor brothers responsible for one of the most thrilling sequences in television history.
Even if the casts from TAR15, TAR16, and likely even TAR17, re-ran the entire TAR7 course, with or without the current rules, I doubt that any of them would be able to produce even one moment as special or magical as those by the TAR7 cast. If the recent casts were put in the same situation as Oswald & Danny in Hong Kong, there would be no shopping; they'd all head straight to the airport.
Like with every season, I'll give TAR17 a chance, but someone getting hit in the face with a watermelon is something that belongs on "America's Funniest Home Videos" and not "the most daring competition ever attempted."