The Amazing Race > The Amazing Race Discussion
Why the Amazing Race has lost its magic
slayton:
I think they could bring back the Fast Forward for every leg, except the last one, without spending extra money on an extra task.
All they would have to do is modify the early task in a leg, whether it's a Roadblock/Detour/general task, that they're already paying for.
Having a Fast Forward could have made Maria & Tiffany's and Joe & Heidi's elimination legs much more competitive and interesting.
In Maria & Tiffany's elimination leg, the early task was the Roadblock to count the church bells. Since they were already using that location, the Fast Forward could have been something as simple as having a team go up and down the church steps a certain amount of times within a certain time frame in order to win the Fast Forward.
In Joe & Heidi's elimination leg, crawling the trenches was already part of one of the Detours, so the Fast Forward could have been something like crawling across the trenches a certain amount of times within a certain time frame in order to win the Fast Forward.
Slight modifications like those shouldn't cost the show any extra money; they can open up the race by allowing teams that might be struggling a momentum swing, and I think it's a great way to counteract the 100% elimination factor of the U-Turn.
Other than extreme sports tasks, like bungee jumping and sky-diving, that would probably be difficult to modify, I don't know why production hasn't just modified existing tasks for the Fast Forward, unless they think that the Fast Forward winning team would have too big of a lead or the task itself would not be extreme enough for a Fast Forward. It's not like every Fast Forward used to be about head-shaving or tattooing. In TAR2, Oswald & Danny had to find a hotel and grab the Fast Forward from a shallow pool; Gary & Dave got their Fast Forward by finding Amelia Chow and getting a face reading and palm reading.
DrRox:
I thought of those same FFs slayton. The one I had orginally thought of was in TAR6 when Lori/Bolo had to drink the blood. How much extra could that have cost?
I think the water tower deal in TAR7 was pretty costly.....we dont really need FFs like that, do we? I remember thinking at the time, what a waste of money on a singular task.
apskip:
You might expect that Fast Forward use is the results of a carefully planned team strategy, but my observation is that they are mostly opportunistic. The team leading at the point where the Fast Forward card emerges gets the first chance to go for it. They are infrequently challenged due to the risks of losing if the leading team completes it and the challenging team has to go back and do regular tasks (example - Sarah and Terence in AR13 in Kazakhstan). Dustin and Kandice backed off in AR10 in Kuwait City because David/Mary had started for it and Erwin/Godwin appeared to be also doing so.
The only really important uses of the Fast Forward for strategic results were:
1. Frank/ Margarita being positioned to make the breakaway in Thailand's The King due to FF use going form Italy to India two legs earlier.
2. David/Jeff reaching the final 3 in AR4 as a result of Australia Sunshine Coast Water Rescue FF
3. David/Mary in AR10 in Kuwait City avoiding a Marked for Elimination penalty by getting the oil fire fighting Fast Forward
the most comprehensive listing of all Fast Forwards (in the first 14 seasons of the Amazing Race) can be found in "Circumnavigating the Globe: Amazing Race 10-14 and Amazing Race Asia 1-3."
Caelestor:
I have a feeling that the producers WANT to see the teams complete all the tasks so they have more footage + drama.
Personally, I think that FFs should be completely done away (the producers might have done so already) and every team given an Express Pass at the start. The Express Pass is far more useful imo because more strategy is involved; you can utilize it whenever you want. There could possibly be ways to earn additional Express Passes as well (perhaps an extension of a general task or by getting to the pitstop first enough times).
slayton:
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.
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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:
--- Quote ---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.
--- End quote ---
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.
[/list]
[*]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.
[/list]
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."
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