Well, kinda mixed feelings about this episode tbh.
I thought the challenges were rather poorly designed. The detour ones were still kind of ok although in the buggy task I didn't think it was clear how long it took for help to drag their buggies out of the sand. Was that a random timeframe or a set one? Help seemed to pop up out of nowhere so I suppose it was something organized by the production.
The race one was kind of rediculous I think. People racing hard lost so much time (45 min wait per bet) on something they had no control over. And teams arriving much later did this in a heartbeat by piggyback riding which took hardly any time or effort and seemed to be mostly for the amusement of us watching it. It required no skill nor much effort.
I guess had all of them still kept being unlucky the first teams would have still made it first but it was pretty random I thought.
On the positive side: Many good moments, and a few good laughs with the sisters as usual.
They drove into the no entry zone of the palace?!
Good thing to do in those regions!
They were lucky to get off so light I think, I wonder if some strings were pulled maybe by a consulate?
I do wonder a little about some racer's attitude though. Sure it's about having fun too but at times it seems to me they are a bit too preoccupied with having fun rather than being focussed on the race?
1. Kym and Donna giving up - sure they tried but I think a bit more creative thinking would have seen them to the end? Still think it might be in part due to culture shock, especially in light of what they said about India.
2. Grace just lying around in the sand instead of trying to help her brother dig out the buggy.
3. The dad of the dad-daughter team just wanting to have a go at grabbing the race clue in the water park. (I can sort of get that didn't take very long either but still it could make the difference of making it or being out in a later stage..)
4. Paul who always seems to want to quit at the first hurdle in spite of all his self-aggrandized talk.
5. The sisters who are lovely but really have no race-spirit at all it seems. Well, hardly any. Not that I fault them for it but this is just in the light of making a point here.
6. The cops who let themselves be distracted at the race course by having a nice chitchat without looking at the challenge first..
Not sure, I mean I think the US version may be a bit too cut-throat at times, a bit too harsh and competitive amongst each other.
But this kind of feels like everyone is not really thinking about the game yet. They are acting like they all need to be nice to each other. Not saying I promote how Paul is acting, far from it. But this let's all just have fun thing can be taken a bit too far too as this is after all a race and a competition.
Maybe it just comes across this way but I hope some teams will get a bit more feisty in future episodes, somehow a bit sharper.
Not that I crave drama, I like that about the Australian version, there's not so much bickering etc. But just a bit more of an edge, I seem to be missing it somehow so far.