Tag Archives: Gary and Matt

November 15, 2009 · 11:04 pm

The Amazing Race Season 15 – “Episode 9 (Estonia)”

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“We’re Not Meant For the Swamp”

November 15th, 2009

When you’re down to five teams, all bets are off on The Amazing Race.

This is a sentiment that goes for the teams themselves, certainly, but also for the race producers. This is a stage in the competition where there are no more non-elimination legs, and where a single mistake will cost you the race, so the teams certainly need to be willing to play this game to the fullest. However, for the producers, this is when the creation of race-ending narratives becomes their true goal: now, the teams that go home are largely perfunctory, while the teams that stay are integral for building tension in the finale to come in only a few weeks.

This is why this week’s leg becomes more about what the producers want, and don’t want, us to see than what’s actually happen: the results of the leg are never particularly in doubt, as the producers are worried about viewers spotting something far more…indiscrete than the end of the episode.

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Tagged as Blurring, Brian and Ericka, CBS, Censorship, Crotch Blur, Detour, Editing, Entertainment, Episode 9, Estonia, Flight Time and Big Easy, Foot Race, Gary and Matt, Harlem Globetrotters, Megan and Cheyne, Phil Keoghan, Producers, Reality TV, Rivalry, Sam and Dan, Season 15, Speed Bump, Stockholm, Television, TV, Volleyball, We're Not Meant For The Swamp

November 9, 2009 · 12:43 am

The Amazing Race Season 15 – “Episode 8 (Sweden)”

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“This is The Worst Thing I’ve Ever Done in My Life”

November 8th, 2009

At the heart of every solid episode of The Amazing Race is a narrative of fall and redemption. It is morbidly entertaining to see a team fall apart in the face of pressure, watching as an individual turns into a blubbering mess right in front of us, and when they eventually triumph over adversity (or, at the very least, come to terms with their predicament) it’s even more engaging. There’s something about the Race that brings this out in people, which is why this week’s trip to Sweden is particularly intelligently designed: it is all about creating a scenario where teams will fall apart, and as such given an opportunity to redeem themselves.

It’s also a chance, through the use of the new Amazing Race “Switchback,” for the show to right one of the wrongs in its past by revisiting a particularly infamous challenge. By returning to the scene of the most gruelling roadblock in the show’s history, the show gets to demonstrate how it should have done things last time, in the process creating a good combination of pathos and tension that justify the way in which the task makes the rest of the leg largely irrelevant.

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October 25, 2009 · 10:55 pm

The Amazing Race Season 15 – “Episode Six (Dubai)”

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“Do it for the Hood! Do it for the Suburbs!”

October 25th, 2009

Every now and then, The Amazing Race turns mean. In most episodes, there is a moment when everything bunches together so that previous mistakes are erased, but in the sixth episode of the show’s fifteenth season throws the teams to the wolves of Dubai in an effort to test both luck and skill in ways that previous legs might not have. Where some other episodes seemed to be decided by pretty major mistakes, in this instance any small mistake is going to fundamentally alter your position in this race in a way that would doom even a good team.

In the end, the episode is a reflection of how both strong alliances and some less than strong relationships are tested when you place them under this kind of pressure, this kind of tension. The result is a really ugly moment, a really unfortunate personal collapse, and a really smart Wal-Mart purchase.

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Tagged as 835, Atlantic, Brian and Ericka, Briefcase, Calculator, Canaan, CBS, Detour, Do it For the Hood! Do it for the Suburbs!, Dubai, Elimination, Episode 6, Exchange Rate, Flight Time and Big Easy, Gary and Matt, Gold, Harlem Globetrotters, Hookahs, Leap of Faith, Maria and Tiffany, Meghan and Cheyne, Mika, Mika and Canaan, Phil Keoghan, Reality TV, Roadblock, Rowing, Sam and Dan, Season 15, United Arab Emirates, Water Slide, Waterslide

October 18, 2009 · 11:14 pm

The Amazing Race Season 15 – “Episode Five (Dubai)”

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“I’m Like Ricky Bobby”

October 18th, 2009

I like to think that this, the fifth episode of The Amazing Race’s fifteenth season, is the reality television equivalent of speed dating. You see, last week, we saw the unfortunate departure of Zev and Justin in the worst of circumstances, the kind of circumstances (a lost passport keeping them from checking into the pit stop) that make you want to stop watching (or, say, dating). And yet, the nature of the my love for The Amazing Race (and people’s desire for personal connection) is such that you can’t abandon it entirely, and you’re left to sort through the remaining options, albeit with a skeptical eye.

As such, “I’m Like Ricky Bobby” is really about a re-evaluation of the remaining teams, avoiding comparing them to the dearly departed Zev and Justin but also not giving them a free pass just because they’re all we have left. In the end, I’d say that they aren’t the worst group of contestants the race has ever seen, and that they are perhaps an even stronger group (if not quite as morbidly entertaining) considering the results of this week’s leg in the United Arab Emirates.

I’m not about to propose to any of them or anything, but I wouldn’t be entirely averse to spending a few minutes chatting with them, and I guess that’s a good enough start to my recovery.

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Tagged as Brian and Ericka, Car, CBS, Desert, Detour, Dubai, Entertainment, Episode 5, Fast Forward, Flight Time and Big Easy, Gary and Matt, Lance and Keri, Meghan and Cheyne, Mika and Canaan, Oasis, Reality TV, Roadblock, Ski Dubai, Snowman, Television, TV, United Arab Emeriates, Water, World's Tallest Building, Zev and Justin

September 28, 2009 · 1:07 am

Season Premiere: The Amazing Race Season 15 – “Japan/Vietnam”

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“They Thought Godzilla was Walking Down the Street”

September 27th, 2009

There’s a point in the 15th Season Premiere of the 7-time Emmy winning The Amazing Race where Sam and Dan (the gay brothers) note that they have a problem: at various point in the race, both of them step up to be the leader and the result is a heated argument in Vietnam and a delayed arrival at the pit stop. At heart of that moment, and this episode, is the idea of leadership, of being able to find an individual dynamic that allows two teammates (who could be very similarly or very different) to trust one another to get to the mat in first place.

Leadership was the central theme in a premiere that challenges racers to herd large groups of both people and fowl, something that is challenging for one person when they don’t speak the language but which becomes even more difficult when you have two people who can’t decide who the leader is, or when you have one teammate completing a task while another yells at them from the nearby gazebo. The teams that succeed on the race are those who are able to establish a team, which operates in such a way that they each lead one another, and where splitting them apart or asking them to lead others sees them shifting roles to fit the situation.

This year’s premiere isn’t quite as emotional as last year’s, nor does it feature such an intense finish line dash, but over its two hours we get to see a good balance of tasks which test the fortitude of these teams, challenge their ability to handle both luck and the game’s contrivances, and perhaps most importantly answers the question of whether or not Phil Keoghan would make a good Japanese Game Show host (the answer? Of course he would.). It’s an enjoyable return for a show that I really enjoy, although one which is particularly tough to cover in the early going.

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