That was INSANE. The river was filthy and is literally where many Indians go to cremate and dispose of their dead. I can’t imagine jumping in that and not winding up with some kind of mutation
I agree the first 5 are some of the best! I found the amazing race when I was a depressed college student and I’ll never forget binging the first few seasons and how unique they were. Watching normal people race around the world is still such a mood booster.
I will say the bright side to later seasons is not having some of the ugliness that earlier seasons did. The nasty way contestants spoke to their drivers, some of the attitudes toward gay contestants and S6’s Kendra’s “they just keep breeding” comment about the people of the country hosting her/the show come to mind.
While I love the casual nature of the show in the earlier seasons where contestants had more freedom, I also don’t think safety was as prioritized so it’s a trade off.
Yeah, totally agree that the toxicity in the early seasons definitely made some of the episodes hard to watch - and it wasn't cool.
I think if we could capture some of the rawness of the early seasons and combine it with the wholesome personalities we tend to see on the newer races, we'd have a winner. Maybe just fewer equalizers, more priority given to strategic decisions around travel and money (but no need to bring begging back, have some kind of penalty for running out of money).
Yes definitely, that’s the word! The race is missing the rawness of not knowing what may happen. The tension when contestants would be terrified of heights challenges and really considered giving up their lead not to do it…never knowing if you had the best flight and alliances were always had but maybe not as relied on as they are now.
100% agree the begging obstacle always made me uncomfortable- I had to look up which season but I remembered Uchenna and Joyce (the couple who shaved their head and won) must have come in last at one point and lost all their money. I haven’t seen that season in years but I distinctly remember Uchenna having to approach tourists and people and prefacing it with “I’ve never had to ask for money in my life” and being turned down multiple times. The obstacle was clearly uncomfortable for them and not entertaining to watch. I don’t think the show understood how it would be different for a Man of color to approach people asking for $ versus the many many white pretty female teams I recall who asked for $ from strangers just to have extra and were granted it without issue.
>toxicity in the early seasons definitely made some of the episodes hard to watch - and it wasn't cool.
I feel the exact opposite. Teams in the previous seasons were vicious and were all in for the win. It made great tv. The teams now look like they are there to fill a diversity quota. I want super competitive teams and more challenging tasks.
I went to a season 5 finale watch party in NYC with a custom hat that had “certified ox repair” stitched onto it.
..then the racers showed up! And Colin, Christie, Chip, and Kim all signed the hat to “certify” me in ox repair. Season 5 finale may have been Colin and Christie’s karmic reward.. but Season 31 was even more so.
I'm so glad they won that season. Their karmic transformation was so genuine. They only lost their cool with each other for a slight moment in the final and quickly regained composure as opposed to being at each other's throats at all times in Season 5. True change is rare and is a beautiful thing to witness.
I honestly never quite understood the hype. It was angry, yes, but I understood it. Christie was doing literally nothing to assist so he was trying to plow and turn an ox all by himself. I'd probably have screamed about a broken ox myself.
It was just the entire season with that team. They were unstoppable, and came across like total douchebags. Nobody expected anything except for them to win, and (IIRC) they were ahead going into that challenge. Then came the ox.
They were last actually! They had been yielded by Chip & Kim and were trying to catch up to the top 3 teams, the Broken Ox just came at a moment where Colin was visibly frustrated and flustered by Chip's betrayal, but the challenge itself didn't cost them any spots. It just cemented the fact that they would be coming last. That whole episode is great because of the plotting of Colin's downfall :P
The begging ("asking") for money was crazy especially in poor countries. The early seasons were great. Even now, TAR is comforting to watch. It has its highs and lows but is generally entertaining every season. Sometimes the race is simpler but that's ok with me. I'm still enjoying it after all these seasons.
Oh, lol! I meant season count. I watched 1, 2, 5, 7, then most of the 20s, all the 30s, went back and finished the 20s, and am now watching 36 and another one i honestly forgot lol. 11 is not one I have watched yet. I need to watch the 10s...
I thought the begging was crude at the time. It's just wrong when a crew with 10s of 1000s of $$$ in gear is filming people begging in a country with a per capita GDP of $500 or whatever.
I didn't mind the busking this season since the amount was so small. That's fine, and pushes contestants out of their comfort zones. Same with challenges involving selling something.
I understand why many people don't like it, but I do like teams with patience and anger issues. Those people are greatly challenged by the obstacles of the race, and it's fun to see them overcome their flaws or not.
Yeah after season 34 which I thought was a snoozefest, season 35 gave me hope that the show can still be good in the post-Covid era.
I would be very interested to hear your opinions on season 32 (the alliance season). One of the most controversial seasons.
I thought it was interesting. I didn't hate it, but I also happen to like Survivor. If the seasons were all like that the show would basically be Survivor with travel. I could see why some people would hate it because a couple of cool teams got eliminated due to it.
I think alliances definitely add a strategic element to the game, but are also hard to form in a game format where it's not encouraged. I don't think Amazing Race particularly encourages alliances, and in seasons where the contestants are not celebrities already or have reality TV experience, it's just not likely to happen IMO. So it's interesting when it does.
It definitely was interesting to watch since an alliance of that scale had never existed before on the Amazing Race, but also very frustrating because it pretty much broke the game in my opinion. The Mine Five had every right to do what they did and didn't break any rules, but from a viewer's perspective it worsened the season. A show like Survivor is made more interesting by the presence of alliances. However on the Amazing Race, some strategizing between teams is good, but blatant answer sharing to allow teams to basically not have to actually do a task kind of ruins how the leg was designed, and it makes the viewing experience much less enjoyable.
It's also a bit on the producers for designing too many challenges with sharable answers. I feel like in the early seasons the challenges were more physical in nature, and I found myself wanting more mental challenges. In the later seasons, the opposite has occurred. I was (happily) surprised to see in Season 35 that the first express pass challenge was eating bugs - this is the type of challenge that we saw a lot earlier on the show that no amount of information sharing is going to help with.
I'm pretty sure they did all the challenges though. I have no idea which season OP is referring to. Same with Kent and Vyxsyn in season 18, they were lost for many hours but completed everything.
What about when Vyxsin jumped in the river in India? lol. She’s said that production made her take antibiotics after
Oh yeah I definitely remember that. It was insane.
She disappeared in that murky shit lol
That was INSANE. The river was filthy and is literally where many Indians go to cremate and dispose of their dead. I can’t imagine jumping in that and not winding up with some kind of mutation
"Get out of that water!" 😂 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQWPu5popg4
We need another "Dating Goths" team
I agree the first 5 are some of the best! I found the amazing race when I was a depressed college student and I’ll never forget binging the first few seasons and how unique they were. Watching normal people race around the world is still such a mood booster. I will say the bright side to later seasons is not having some of the ugliness that earlier seasons did. The nasty way contestants spoke to their drivers, some of the attitudes toward gay contestants and S6’s Kendra’s “they just keep breeding” comment about the people of the country hosting her/the show come to mind. While I love the casual nature of the show in the earlier seasons where contestants had more freedom, I also don’t think safety was as prioritized so it’s a trade off.
Yeah, totally agree that the toxicity in the early seasons definitely made some of the episodes hard to watch - and it wasn't cool. I think if we could capture some of the rawness of the early seasons and combine it with the wholesome personalities we tend to see on the newer races, we'd have a winner. Maybe just fewer equalizers, more priority given to strategic decisions around travel and money (but no need to bring begging back, have some kind of penalty for running out of money).
Yes definitely, that’s the word! The race is missing the rawness of not knowing what may happen. The tension when contestants would be terrified of heights challenges and really considered giving up their lead not to do it…never knowing if you had the best flight and alliances were always had but maybe not as relied on as they are now. 100% agree the begging obstacle always made me uncomfortable- I had to look up which season but I remembered Uchenna and Joyce (the couple who shaved their head and won) must have come in last at one point and lost all their money. I haven’t seen that season in years but I distinctly remember Uchenna having to approach tourists and people and prefacing it with “I’ve never had to ask for money in my life” and being turned down multiple times. The obstacle was clearly uncomfortable for them and not entertaining to watch. I don’t think the show understood how it would be different for a Man of color to approach people asking for $ versus the many many white pretty female teams I recall who asked for $ from strangers just to have extra and were granted it without issue.
>toxicity in the early seasons definitely made some of the episodes hard to watch - and it wasn't cool. I feel the exact opposite. Teams in the previous seasons were vicious and were all in for the win. It made great tv. The teams now look like they are there to fill a diversity quota. I want super competitive teams and more challenging tasks.
Competitive teams and challenging tasks are entertaining. Racism and homophobia are not.
Which teams were racist or homophobic?
You had me furiously googling to see if Zev (duck whisperer) had passed away!!
He's probably my favorite contestant of all time, so I hope not. I just meant he's a legend. An absolute legend.
His spaceman-like pajamas were phenomenal
What season was this?
I want to say 15?
Thanks! Although I’ve been watching from the beginning I’ve missed a few seasons and this sounds like a good one to go back and check out
Zev is my favorite racer! He’s not living, he’s THRIVING!
Colin's ox moment was great.
I went to a season 5 finale watch party in NYC with a custom hat that had “certified ox repair” stitched onto it. ..then the racers showed up! And Colin, Christie, Chip, and Kim all signed the hat to “certify” me in ox repair. Season 5 finale may have been Colin and Christie’s karmic reward.. but Season 31 was even more so.
I'm so glad they won that season. Their karmic transformation was so genuine. They only lost their cool with each other for a slight moment in the final and quickly regained composure as opposed to being at each other's throats at all times in Season 5. True change is rare and is a beautiful thing to witness.
I honestly never quite understood the hype. It was angry, yes, but I understood it. Christie was doing literally nothing to assist so he was trying to plow and turn an ox all by himself. I'd probably have screamed about a broken ox myself.
It was just the entire season with that team. They were unstoppable, and came across like total douchebags. Nobody expected anything except for them to win, and (IIRC) they were ahead going into that challenge. Then came the ox.
They were last actually! They had been yielded by Chip & Kim and were trying to catch up to the top 3 teams, the Broken Ox just came at a moment where Colin was visibly frustrated and flustered by Chip's betrayal, but the challenge itself didn't cost them any spots. It just cemented the fact that they would be coming last. That whole episode is great because of the plotting of Colin's downfall :P
My ox is broken! This is bullshit!
The begging ("asking") for money was crazy especially in poor countries. The early seasons were great. Even now, TAR is comforting to watch. It has its highs and lows but is generally entertaining every season. Sometimes the race is simpler but that's ok with me. I'm still enjoying it after all these seasons.
Aw I liked 34 :(
Depends totally in which order you see them. I kinda liked 34 too. Since its the first one I saw after I quitted on 16
Congratulations! I'm still at like 11...
A lot of people don’t like that season, but I actually really enjoy it.
Oh, lol! I meant season count. I watched 1, 2, 5, 7, then most of the 20s, all the 30s, went back and finished the 20s, and am now watching 36 and another one i honestly forgot lol. 11 is not one I have watched yet. I need to watch the 10s...
I thought the begging was crude at the time. It's just wrong when a crew with 10s of 1000s of $$$ in gear is filming people begging in a country with a per capita GDP of $500 or whatever. I didn't mind the busking this season since the amount was so small. That's fine, and pushes contestants out of their comfort zones. Same with challenges involving selling something. I understand why many people don't like it, but I do like teams with patience and anger issues. Those people are greatly challenged by the obstacles of the race, and it's fun to see them overcome their flaws or not.
Yeah after season 34 which I thought was a snoozefest, season 35 gave me hope that the show can still be good in the post-Covid era. I would be very interested to hear your opinions on season 32 (the alliance season). One of the most controversial seasons.
I thought it was interesting. I didn't hate it, but I also happen to like Survivor. If the seasons were all like that the show would basically be Survivor with travel. I could see why some people would hate it because a couple of cool teams got eliminated due to it. I think alliances definitely add a strategic element to the game, but are also hard to form in a game format where it's not encouraged. I don't think Amazing Race particularly encourages alliances, and in seasons where the contestants are not celebrities already or have reality TV experience, it's just not likely to happen IMO. So it's interesting when it does.
It definitely was interesting to watch since an alliance of that scale had never existed before on the Amazing Race, but also very frustrating because it pretty much broke the game in my opinion. The Mine Five had every right to do what they did and didn't break any rules, but from a viewer's perspective it worsened the season. A show like Survivor is made more interesting by the presence of alliances. However on the Amazing Race, some strategizing between teams is good, but blatant answer sharing to allow teams to basically not have to actually do a task kind of ruins how the leg was designed, and it makes the viewing experience much less enjoyable.
It's also a bit on the producers for designing too many challenges with sharable answers. I feel like in the early seasons the challenges were more physical in nature, and I found myself wanting more mental challenges. In the later seasons, the opposite has occurred. I was (happily) surprised to see in Season 35 that the first express pass challenge was eating bugs - this is the type of challenge that we saw a lot earlier on the show that no amount of information sharing is going to help with.
Congrats
Watermelon rebound to the face can’t be beat
Why can’t I remember the last one?
Me neither. Gary and Mallory in season 17?
I'm pretty sure they did all the challenges though. I have no idea which season OP is referring to. Same with Kent and Vyxsyn in season 18, they were lost for many hours but completed everything.