Topic: Why the Amazing Race has lost its magic

[ImANewUser]

This season 15 is the epitome of what's gone wrong with the Race. Homogenous cast, total route control, and pre-packaged/barely cultural tasks. Haven't been this bored by a season since 12.

Here's hoping they shake things up with the Race at least one more time before the franchise dies.

I thought Seasons 13 & 14 were worse. Is that bad?

ETA: I am really not being sarcastic. I don't really see how TAR 15 is any worse than TAR 13/14.

[puddin]

TAR14's Cheese Hill and the Bungee off the Verzasca Dam rocked! I loved Tina and Kens Fast Forward ( TAR13) in New Zealand, it was a lot better than the racecar by far.  I admit the challenges are not all that this season but to me its about the contestants not really the challenges although it was sort of sucky that they used the tallest building in the world to get a clue? no rappelling no jumping?   ...   ?

[michael]

To me the only season that I felt had none of the "amazing" feeling of the Amazing Race was season 13. I just didn't like it and found it extremely boring.

[puddin]

We all see it different, I thought season 12 was boring. I've said it before and I'll sa it again, TAR has not had the same feel since season 7 but I really liked the cast of season 9, I never understood the season 9 hate?
 

 

[ImANewUser]

We all see it different, I thought season 12 was boring. I've said it before and I'll sa it again, TAR has not had the same feel since season 7 but I really liked the cast of season 9, I never understood the season 9 hate?
 

 

This I agree with. Season 7 was when something felt amiss. Even if I hated the TAR 6 outcome, it still had that good ol' TAR feel to it. Or maybe it's cause I used to watch not knowing 'spoilers' existed and ever since, the thrill of watching was more of, "Will the spoiler come true or not?".

[puddin]

Maybe we should stop doing spoilers Raymond? yeah right 
off topic! I'm officially bored with this seasons Survivor!

[Coutzy]

Season 6 was one of the worst in my eyes. The problem was, in one word: Levelers.

There was a certain leg (I can't remember it off the top of my head) Where teams flew to one country, got an hours of operation, did a task, flew to another country to pick up a single route info directing them to another country.

I understand the ratings nightmare that is a Guido finish, but three levelers in one leg, and only one task being meaningful? Give us a break.

[ImANewUser]

Maybe we should stop doing spoilers Raymond? yeah right  
off topic! I'm officially bored with this seasons Survivor!

  offtopic, so am I.

Season 6 was one of the worst in my eyes. The problem was, in one word: Levelers.

There was a certain leg (I can't remember it off the top of my head) Where teams flew to one country, got an hours of operation, did a task, flew to another country to pick up a single route info directing them to another country.

I understand the ratings nightmare that is a Guido finish, but three levelers in one leg, and only one task being meaningful? Give us a break.

Was there a leg like this in Season 6 or any other season? I don't recall.

[Coutzy]

I was actually mixing 2 legs together in that post. Oops.

Anyway, legs 8 and 9 are the ones I was referring to.

Leg 8 involved taking a ferry to Nice, France and getting a clue instructing teams to travel to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Once in Addis Ababa, teams had to sign up for yet another flight to Lalibela, Ethiopia. From there they completed their tasks and checked in.

Leg 9 involved flying back to Addis Ababa (bunching point number one), and running with 2 runners in a 4x400 meter relay. After that, they fly to Sri Lanka (bunching point number two) and perform a Detour between climbing coconut trees and riding elephants. After the detour, they all travel to the Temple of the Tooth, where an hours of operation provides bunching point number three. The Roadblock has one team member climbing up the mountain and searching with binoculars for the Pit Stop (Two memorable moments here: Bolo doesn't read the additional information, and three teams forget to swim before checking in.)

[Jobby]

A big part of the magic that made amazing race "amazing" is the cast. And i do agree that Season 15 teams, alike Season 13 teams.. are very homogenous and boring in a way.

And i also guess that a big part to whether you like a season or not is whether your favourite team wins. I loved TAR 14 because Tammy and Victor won. If Cara and Jaime won, i would not rank it as one of the best seasons of TAR. But i don't really think whether your favourite team winning or not contributes to TAR losing its magic, because it's completely 2 different things.. so lets not keep going in that direction. And to add to my point to prove that you may not naturally like a season because your favourite team won.. for me, i love Uchenna and Joyce like hell, but hated season 7 like hell because of all the "hatable" teams aka, Romber, Ron and Kelly, Lynn and Alex, Susan and Patrick and Ray and Deana... they made the season very hard to watch with all the squabblings. And with the route heavily based in the Europe and less of Asia, it made me like it even lesser because there was so little culture and tradition involved and every leg seemed almost the same. (Europe has this tendency of making every leg seemed the same for me?? It's easier to distinguish Asian countries IMO)

For me, i go with Phil, that Seasons 1,3,5,7 and 14 were the seasons he felt that it was different from the rest, because of the teams, the locations, the tasks and the maybe even the final results. The seasons with really bad teams were IMO TAR 4, TAR 7, TAR 9, TAR 13 and TAR 15 and these homogenous teams made the race hard to watch because they were more or less alike and boring to watch. We need memorable characters like Oswald/Danny, Charla/Mirna, Flo, Colin, Jonathan/Victoria, Romber, Dustin/Kandice, Ronald/Christina, Kynt/Vyxsin and Margie and Luke to distinguish a season from the rest and make it at least a season of its own.. and i would say that cast wise.. i really love Season 1,3,5,10,12 and 14 because there were at least more than one memorable team which you'll probably remember for long.

And sometimes you really need "surprises" to add to the fun/unexpecting factor to watch TAR. Imagine how badly it would suck if Charla and Mirna was eliminated instead of Romber and even though i don't really like them, but them making the final 3 was really unexpected and fun to watch. Same with teams like Lyn and Karlyn, Margie and Luke, Oswald and Danny, Chip and Kim, Ronald and Christina and a few other teams who were not expected to make it far but did so.. and when people get to root for the underdogs, they literally will like the show and enjoy the show more, thus liking the season more? I believe..

Also, route wise and tasks are also very important. One of the reason why TAR 5 revived the whole show after TAR 4 nearly killed the show and nearly caused it to be dropped, was not only because of the teams, but because of the locations that the race went to. Egypt? Philippines? New Zealand? Who can forget about the memorable meat/caviar/ostrich egg tasks, the ox roadblock in philippines, the puzzle pieces in Egypt, the mud detour and white water rafting in the season? Those are tasks which showed alot about the place that they're visiting and also the culture/tradition of the place as well...

IMO, i think equalizers and fixed routes are generally OKAY.. because at least all the teams will be together and it will be more exciting to watch, what i rather not have is the same teams coming in first every leg and make the race very hard and boring to watch. A fine example of it would be Season 9. Of course it applies to different people and if you're a BJ/Tyler or Eric/Jeremy fan.. you'll totally adore season 9..

But i'm not going to judge season 15 too quickly yet. I don't really like the cast, but the legs seemed quite good as of now.. and i believe it will get better.. will watch the whole season before i make the final comment that this season of TAR has lost its magic.. which i still do not think it has...

[ImANewUser]

Not quoting Joab's post since I don't want to clutter the thread with block quotes.

I agree with the cast comment. It can affect how you think about a season. But the route/tasks can affect the cast too, since it's the tasks that determine what comes out of the Racers' personalities. And I also agree that 'I like a season' =/= 'the season is great'. It may seem like they're the same, but it isn't.

Also, Joab, Season 14 was more Euro-centric than Season 7. Actually, Seasons 3, 4, 6, 9, 10 & 12 were all more Eurocentric than Season 7. They actually spent around half the Race below the equator, and that's sadder because it didn't feel like it. It felt like the race was just filmed in the back lot. Followed by a North America-based TAR 8 & the beginning of my spoiling days with Season 9, I just answered the question to "Why do I feel like TAR has lost the 'oomph' factor?" The magic though, will never go away.

ETA: Yes, I just made this post a self-reflection thread. Now if you excuse me, I'm off to watch Glee.

[Coutzy]

IMO, i think equalizers and fixed routes are generally OKAY.. because at least all the teams will be together and it will be more exciting to watch

There's nothing wrong with an equalizer here and there, hell I'll even take one at the start of every leg if it gives every team a chance to survive. As Amber said in the commentary for S7 "Every leg is a race in itself" but 3 in a single leg, and then punishing a team that makes a mistake at the end, but essentially granting teams a free pass to screw up at any point before the very final task in a leg? IMO they should just put bunching points at the Pit Stop if they want to play like that.

For example, Freddy and Kendra in Sri Lanka took the slower Detour, even knowing that playing elephant polo would take longer than doing the ropes course. They took that task because they would probably never be able to ride an elephant again. Okay, that's fair enough. But what about all the other teams that worked to gain an advantage by doing the potentially scary task? They get royally screwed because they didn't arrive at the Temple of the Tooth within a four hour window, and eventually, Lori and Bolo, who (I think, don't quote me on this) arrived at the temple first, lose out because of a simple oversight.

And that, is my really roundabout way of saying levelers that late into a leg are stupid and evil.

[Jobby]

IMO, i think equalizers and fixed routes are generally OKAY.. because at least all the teams will be together and it will be more exciting to watch

There's nothing wrong with an equalizer here and there, hell I'll even take one at the start of every leg if it gives every team a chance to survive. As Amber said in the commentary for S7 "Every leg is a race in itself" but 3 in a single leg, and then punishing a team that makes a mistake at the end, but essentially granting teams a free pass to screw up at any point before the very final task in a leg? IMO they should just put bunching points at the Pit Stop if they want to play like that.

For example, Freddy and Kendra in Sri Lanka took the slower Detour, even knowing that playing elephant polo would take longer than doing the ropes course. They took that task because they would probably never be able to ride an elephant again. Okay, that's fair enough. But what about all the other teams that worked to gain an advantage by doing the potentially scary task? They get royally screwed because they didn't arrive at the Temple of the Tooth within a four hour window, and eventually, Lori and Bolo, who (I think, don't quote me on this) arrived at the temple first, lose out because of a simple oversight.

And that, is my really roundabout way of saying levelers that late into a leg are stupid and evil.

I remembered how Adam and Rebecca were dead last and saved by an Hours of Operation, and eventually won the leg with an FF...

[woden]

Dubai episode was this season's problem in a nutshell:

1. Go up a tall building. Do... nothing. Find a clue to go to... a parking lot.
2. Go sledding. Inside.
3. Preview for next episode: a waterslide at an amusement park. Which makes at least two amusement parks visited this season.

Really? This is all there is left to do? For all the talk about the race on a budget, Tokyo and Dubai aren't cheap. For the money, go somewhere I haven't seen and do something I can't do. Whole thing feels so touristy this season.

I agree, Puddin - I liked season nine. Might be my favorite of the post-family edition seasons. Season 10 had that incredible route but such a weak cast/finish.

[Hooky]

The whole problem with this season that I find to be a disturbing new occurence (and a little bit of last season, too) is just how stereotypically they are portraying the countries with the tasks.

Go to Japan and do...a game show (Phil: "The Japanese are well known for their wild and outrageous game shows.").
Go to Vietnam and...get muddy. And herd ducks. In a course set up just for the race.
Go to Cambodia...monkey this, monkey that, that's all that you can see in Cambodia.
Go to United Arab Emirates...worlds tallest building, too much emphasis on the desert, indoor ski resort (which is cool but not when combined with everything else this leg).

And it looks like Leg 6 will be about waterslides and stereotypical oil barons. Great. I didn't already know about that. *sarcasm*

In short, I expect the race to portray something I didn't know about the countries, rather than what I already knew.

And the Legs are just too centralized in one location. It seems less amazing because there are no "24 hour train rides", no self-driving that can spread teams apart and make the race seem bigger. There is no mystery to it. Everyone knows that the teams will all end up safe in the end. Nowadays there are no risks. Older seasons had much more of the unknown to them.

And yes, Seasons 9 and 10 were still great. How Season 10 turned out can't be helped; they obviously had an excellent cast if you look at all of them together. 10 had a wonderfully unexpected route, unexpected results, and did seem "larger than life". It was very well planned; it just turned out lousy in execution. And I loved the tasks and locations in Season 9. They were beautiful!

All-Stars had a lousy route, but all the crazy and unpredictable things that happened still make it one of the better seasons, in my opinion, regardless of the winners (and the fact that we already knew the boot order). The problems came with the major condensing of Season 12.

[Dånooky]

And the Legs are just too centralized in one location. It seems less amazing because there are no "24 hour train rides", no self-driving that can spread teams apart and make the race seem bigger. There is no mystery to it. Everyone knows that the teams will all end up safe in the end. Nowadays there are no risks. Older seasons had much more of the unknown to them.

I agree with this point. For example, while I was lloking for a screenshot of Peach (Season 2) I went through the episode when they went to Langa in Cape Town, as I was trying to get a good shot I kept repeating a confessional where they said "the locals told me not to go there because I would die". It was exciting to watch then. I think the biggest problem of the current TAR is that tasks are becoming fake and safe. It's not that bad when done with moderation, I loved the "Build a snowman in the desert" challenge, I found it creative, but I think the epitome of lameness was the Lithuanian Detour in Season 12: stilts or counting pickets = BORING! On the Japan leg, OK, the sushi roulette was something unexpected, but it would've been better had it not been 70% of the whole episode (the starting line task shares the fault of showing too little of Tokyo). On the cast: Enough with Malibu mactors already. But I think the casting crew got better beginning S14.

Summing up: fire the new task designers and bring back the old ones. Don't let the new casting crew fall asleep. Bring back the charity tasks. Show more of the country (extend the show if you must). And no more starting line tasks.

[puddin]

One of the biggest letdowns to me were the tasks TAR14 Romania, fake gypsy village, drag the coffins and break the plaques filled with blood to find a clue
 . .Tammy and Victor looking for the detour for what seemed like 30 minutes screen time. The Roadblock/Gymnastics was cute though.

[Caelestor]

OH YES. Time for me to rant.

There is a trend that I've noticed in later seasons, which is the legs staying in one city -- ESPECIALLY this season. That makes for quite a bit of lost taxi situations, which I dislike. Compare TAR 5 with a whopping 31 cities to TAR 13 with only 18. (Looking at this season, we may end up with only 10-15 cities.)

What happened to the legs in which we traveled through the country and ended up in some place in the countryside? Take for example, TAR 14 Switzerland and TAR 13 Cambodia. We visited a whole bunch of cultural landmarks, traveled away from the city and took in some of the culture not usually thought of as being related to that country.

Unfortunately, I find that there is no one perfect TAR season. Most often, the season fizzles out towards the end, since I'm always feel odd about a certain team having a lot of screen time (That's why I say 6-8 teams make for the best episodes). From what I've watched about Season 9-15:

Season 9-11: The endings were all ruined because the teams ended up at their final destination midway through the episode, thus leaving them to only do one task at the final destination.

Season 9: An excellent race route with generally competitive teams. (What's so bad about this season? Alpha males were entertaining.) I shall compare the Tokyo leg of this and that season. Although TAR 9's visit to Tokyo was marred by an overnight stop at the capsule hotel, we did see not only the bustling city of Tokyo, but also the countryside. Compare that to an odd Japanese game show and herding tourists through Shibuya, where we've already been. You could remove this episode and I wouldn't care. This year's premiere would have been much better if they started with a double-length Vietman leg.

Season 10: The style was like Season 9, except the teams were like those from TAR 14 (more on that later). Dustin and Candace are the most competent FF racers I've seen on the Race. We got the horrid intersection (lucky it was removed after All-Stars). Once again, flights from Paris to NY ruined the last half of the episode.

Season 11: Too much time in South America! Otherwise, it wasn't too bad. Some old favorites brought their magic back. Worst TAR finish ever.

After Season 12, TPTB fixed the problem of the multi-area final legs. I don't have to see so much Alaska/Hawaii again! Then, we got the LA starts, the decline in tasks, and questionable casting (which has improved lately).

Season 12: This season gets a lot of flak for its bland cast and tasks. Still, I like this season better than 13/14/15. There were a few gems, as the boring team were eliminated quickly. Goths + Asian Family + Grandad = Awesome. Nate and Jen were good villains too. We had 5 new countries to visit, which is always good. I liked this season's finale (though I disagree with the winners), since I felt they actually went places and raced.

Season 13: The general route was pretty nice. There were a few gems in there, such as the Cambodia leg. In contrast to Phnom Penh this season, it felt like we saw a lot of the country (Tonle Sap and Angkor Wat). Boat-riding was fun! However, this season had terrible teams that I could care less about. Nick and Starr were too strong, and that took away a lot of the drama. And don't get started on Dandrew...

Season 14: At first, it seemed as if the race was revitalizing. The Europe legs did go places and had relatively interesting tasks (even though they're somewhat stereotypical, at least they were slightly challenging). Then, we got hit by boring Asia legs, especially after Mike and Mel left. There were some bright teams that brought quite a bit of action (it's your opinion whether it detraced from the show). The TAR 14 finale wasn't half-bad either, though I've grown tired of Hawaii. Why not Canada?

Season 15: Oh dear. Teams are slightly above those from Season 12/13, but the tasks! Despite the "indirect clues," I have not been intrigued by any of the detours so far. I would say only the duck task was fascinating so far.

For a change, why not have the race immediately start in the first country visited (and end on the East Coast/Canada)? This gets rid of the obligatory flight drama at the beginning of the season. Less blatant bunching as well please! Signs of improvement will include the countryside and boats/buses/trains/self-driving instead of cars/planes.

[Coutzy]

Season 15 has included some lackluster areas, but lets remember that the race was run under the threat of swine flu, so WRP had to be very careful about where they went and what they did because obviously they didn't want racers or production crews getting infected.

[mswood]

There are things I like and dislike about every single season.

I do agree that three of the largest things are Cast, Locations, and tasks.

On the cast aspect, that always seems to be the factor that has the largest disagreements on what makes a great cast.  I know people who love the characters that are brash, over the top, or in your face.  I am not one of those fans (though on occasion characters that fit that mold I do like or even love), and there are many people that hate the easy going racers (usually the ones I like).  And not only is it the specific racing teams, but also how they interact on the race.  I do think the smaller number of casting sessions in different cities is probably a budget choice.

The course.  This is probably my single biggest complaint since season 11.  After season 1, teh producers really have tried to make sure that teams remain together, but even after that they have allowed the teams episodes to go seriously off course, in either flights or more importantly to me driving.  In a race around the world being able to navigate should be one of the most important aspects of the race (and for the first 11 seasons it was often a bigger factor then selection of tasks, and performance of tasks).  But with the budget cuts, the producers have to fit as much travel in, and control teh time that travel takes.  The best way to do that is limit driving.  Its my single greatest complaint of what I would call "Budget TAR".

Tasks:  This  is often a mixed bad, each season and each season has had a few weak tasks.  THough hell in season 13, who knew dressing as a cow or marching in formation would make such awesome tv.  But I do miss the "wow" tasks.  The "extreme Sports" type of tasks (Season 7 a season I really liked didn't have any of these type tasks.  Tasks that are both rushes for the racers but offer beautiful sights for the viewer (like the Zip Line in the Alps).  But they still do manage some great tasks (the cheese wheels last season, the ducks this season, searching for water in the desert.  Again many of these could all be budget related.  Oh on the tasks I also miss the interaction with authentic locals (we don't need many just one or two a season, but they had so much character to the show and the racers).  On this leg for example I loved the roadblock, thought the detour was fine (Nice contrast), the Fast Forward was lame (like stunt driving or putting out a fire, YAWN!!!), and I like using the Burj, but they should have made it a spot the clue type of route marker, instead of just take an elevator and walk over and get the clue (that was a big mistake in my opinion) and one that probably wouldn't have cost hardly any more.

[Caelestor]

Well said mswood. I understand that TAR is clearly on a budget, and buying wrong plane tickets does waste quite a bit of time and money (a la Brad and Victoria from TAR 14)! And of course, the racers do damage their cars on occasion. (They need to penalize them, shame on the racers!   )

However, there are some obvious ways to save money:

Taxis from Narita to Tokyo? SERIOUSLY? (Another reason why the Japan leg was useless.) Taxis drain the most money on the show after plane tickets.
Removal of Fast Forwards completely (there needs to be at least 3 per race or none at all).
Replace the NEL penalty from Speedbump to mandatory U-turn. (Although speedbumps look pretty cheap, half of the time they're lame.). U-turns look cheap too since the tasks are already set up, and enough of them allows for strategic racing -> interesting TV.
Fewer detours (a bit drastic though, let's not go there)
Force teams to take public transport where it's possible (Europe, Japan, etc.). Navigation is paramount!
Make two legs in same country into one to lessen the cost of pit stops. (You could've easily done that with this season's Dubai legs!)

This brings me to another issue this season: bring back the 12-hour pitstops! In Vietnam, you left half the teams waiting at the airport for half a day. That hardly makes for great television. (And cut it out with the "will this team get on the flight" unless a team does epically screw up or the teams go on different flights; go back to TAR 14).

And from that, there is an evidence issue about the planning of the races. A spotting task a la New Zealand TAR 13 would have been great at Burj Dubai (and force Mika to confront her issue of heights ). As Josh Wolk over at EW says, the Burj was too anticlimactic.

TAR should take a few pointers from HaMerotz LaMillion. (They don't need that many destinations/tasks, but at least the teams do something!)

[Zack.]

The funny thing is they try to cut costs by going down to 11 legs and have two legs in one city, then they do this near the start of TAR 14:

1. Take a taxi ride to Zurich.
2. Fly from Zurich to Munich.
3. Drive (Mercedes'!) from Munich to Ruhpolding to Salzburg.
4. Drive from Schloss Helbrunn to the train station of Salzburg.
5. Travel by train from Salzburg to Munich.
6. Fly (Lufhansa!) from Munich to Bucharest.

in spite of the fact that they could've been given the cars at Stechelberg and easily driven from Switzerland to Germany to Austria (and then flown out of Salzburg) - Google Maps has the drive as 2 hours from Stechelberg to Zurich, 3:20 from Zurich to Munich, and 1:30 from Munich to Austria. They could've also given out the cars at Zurich's train station if they were concerned about driving in the dark, or had them continue traveling by train.

[Neobie]

I notice a general trend towards laziness on the part of TPTB.

Which always start with a discussion of LAX. Nothing much more that hasn't already been said here.

But behind the scenes, we see Phil getting rest days between practically every leg (which leads to the non-12h Pit Stops) and racers being directed which city to fly through to get to their destination. Add that to the general inability to look for good, genuine tasks.

With the Japan, Dubai, Europe legs and the over-reliance on taxis, costs are apparently not of concern to TPTB as much as it is made to be. They're just lazy.

Just hire me, CBS.

[puddin]

Just hire me, CBS.

I'll sign that resume for you Neobie

[Moo]

One of the biggest letdowns to me were the tasks TAR14 Romania, fake gypsy village, drag the coffins and break the plaques filled with blood to find a clue
 . .Tammy and Victor looking for the detour for what seemed like 30 minutes screen time. The Roadblock/Gymnastics was cute though.

LOL, it turned out to be one of the best episodes though (followed by Leg 4)...  (Even though I love T/V so much <333)