Two-hour kick off to Season 9. Premieres are tough, lots of people to meet right away, 11 teams, 22 people. Nobody jumped out at us during the introductions. They all talked smack in the same way, “Everyone else will underestimate us, and we’ll beat them.” Blah. Once is bravado – 11 times is scripted insipidity.
Destinations without any task associated with them feel pointless. Feels more like an ad, in this case, for the Unique Hotel in San Paulo than a valuable, useful piece of the race.
Detour: Motor Head or Rotor Head
The ‘rotor head’ task sounds really time consuming. True to the race, this one will give you a better flavor of place. Rebuilding a motorcycle from the frame won’t teach you about San Paulo – but it sounds faster. Based on the editing, it wasn’t.
Religious ceremonies in some nondescript Brazilian warehouse? Hmmm. Maybe that’s what we can turn our big boxes into when retailers are done with them – churches for snake worshippers.
Garrick’s Favorites
- BJ & Tyler – #2
- Dave & Lori – #4
- Ray & Yolanda – #7
Feels good to be blogging about the Amazing Race again.
Huh, I have to aggree with you about the “Unique Hotel” now that I think about it.
I’ve got an “Amazing Race Discussion” over at my place, too… stop by and say hello! 😀
I’ve bookmarked your site, I’ll be back!
There were a few teams that stood out right away. The “AG Duo” of John & Scott annoyed me from the beginning. Glad they didn’t survive the first show. The “Double D’s” are nice eye candy, but they can’t put together a motorcycle. I really like “Team Einstein,” their obvious love for each other will take them far.
Regarding the Unique Hotel, I didn’t mind it. I also didn’t mind the pitches for Mercedes, Denver, United, Continental or American.
I DVRed the show and skipped through all of the traditional commercials. Probably gave me an extra half-hour to do real-life stuff. However, recognizing that someone needs to pay for this show, I’m fine with the Amazing Race style of product placement. Feels much less intrusive to me than than Coca-Cola on American Idol. Not that I watch American Idol…
Also, how cool is Phil? I love that guy.
I’m all for product placement and sponsorship that moves the races along literally, as with Mercede Benz and the airlines, or figuratively as the IKEA challenge a couple races ago (poor example, but first one that came to mind). It’s the go-here-then-leave bits I dislike. I much prefer the go-here-then-do-something-culturely-relevant.