Of course ever-anxious Tivo recorded NBC’s response to CBS’ Amazing Race – Treasure Hunters. Off the bat, I have my reservations about a program that so obviously is the television version of the 2004 Nick Cage car-accident National Treasure and the Tom Hanks-starred Da Vinci Code.
Unfortunately, it’s much, much worse than that.
Aside from being a straight forward Amazing Race rip-off – complete with Orbitz.com playing the part of Travelocity – it’s like NBC asked the producers of Deal or No Deal to clone last year’s crappy-tacular Amazing Race family-edition. The contestants are completely flat and stereotypical – more soap opera than reality. The pairings made this painfully obvious – ex-CIA with Air Force, Young Professionals with Geniuses, Miss America with Brown Family. The Southie Boys were the worst – stereotypical southern boys edited to be searching Mt. Rushmore as if the hunted treasure was the forgotten batch of moonshine (see Carl’s comment below). I kept expecting David Sedaris’ brother to bring out a fuck-it bucket.
Cause after this, I need one.
While I agree with you that the show sucks… I will point out that The Southie Boys are not stereotypical southern boys.
They are actually from Boston. South Boston. Hence The Southie Boys. They aren’t “stereotypical southern boys” and wouldn’t be drinking moonshine because thats south as in deep south… Georgia, Alabama, etc.
Carl,
Thanks for the clarification – I missed the premiere and the teams’ backstory.
I’ve also never seen a more Shatner-esque reading by a host in my life. It’s like the only way he can add drama to a string of Orbitz and cellphone product placements is to . . . pause . . . between . . . phrases.