TV Series Lounge

What I like about The Amazing Race Unfinished Business is the difficulty level of the tasks. I mean, they are really hard and some things are really pushed to their breaking point. Below is the recap for episode 4.

TV Fanatic: At first glance, this week’s leg wasn’t all that difficult.  The travel between Tokyo and Lijiang, China was interesting, but mostly because Vyxsin had her first of many emotional break downs to come.  The Roadblock was difficult solely for Zev and Vyxsin with the latter once again breaking down.  The Detour didn’t seem to be hard for anyone, particularly if they chose the candy option.

But, that’s the best part of this episode: the leg’s not over!  The moments when Phil told the teams that they were still racing were simply tremendous.  Ron’s reaction obviously takes the cake when he erupted in joy upon learning he and Christina arrived at the mat in fourth and then crumpled when learning he was still racing.  The man was starving, after all!

Equally hungry was Big Easy who’s first reaction upon learning he and Flight Time had to keep racing was “We don’t get no food?”  Similarly endearing was Mallory who couldn’t hide her classic southern personality with an “Aw Nuts!”  The only team unfazed was Jet and Cord who simply uttered “Sweet” at Phil’s news.

In previous seasons there were eleven legs for eleven teams, but three non-elimination legs.  With two fake Pit Stops in the first four episodes perhaps the plan for The Amazing Race: Unfinished Business is to go with just eight legs, no non-elimination legs, but three two-part legs in the place of the non-elimination legs.  If that is the case, it’s one of the best ideas The Amazing Race has come up with in a while.

While I love the idea of longer legs and no non-elimination legs, if Kent and Vyxsin somehow defy the odds and rally to not be eliminated in this leg, perhaps the idea is too redeeming.  It has been a while since a team who was trying 100% has been this bad for this long.  After all the errors they’ve made (and we’re not even done, they still need to find their fanny pack) they do not deserve to stay in the race.

And yet, they’re not dead.  Even with this latest mistake that we were left with as a cliff hanger, they’ve erased much of the six hour deficit they had to start the leg and are not far behind Zev and Justin.  The previews of next week show us that a double U-Turn is coming and no one is going to give Zev and Justin a chance to U-Turn Kent and Vyxsin.  At least two teams ahead of the trailing teams will have to do both halves of the Detour.

On second thought, if Kent and Vyxsin somehow beat Ron and Christina, I could live with that.  I didn’t understand why they were included in the first place and they’ve done nothing since to warrant their inclusion.  In fact, they’ve become even more annoying than I remember, which I didn’t think was possible.

So what do you think will happen on next episode?

You can check other The Amazing Race 18: Unfinished Business Reviews and Poll HERE.

Sometimes no matter how hard we work or fight, there are just things out of our hands. This episode of The Amazing Race Unfinished Business is an example for such. So what happened?

Ok, I get it.  Mel is 70 years old and probably should not be wallowing around in the mud in 30 degree weather for hours on end wearing a diaper.  Mike quitting for his father this week was a totally different scenario.  One I can not approve of.

Had Mel been the one to give up because of his age, everyone would have understood.  It certainly was crazy for a 70 year old man to be rummaging around in mud at night.  But, he didn’t!  Mike gave up first and then pressured his father in to quitting when he didn’t want to.  Mel even had a great quote about it:

Better to die here with you than home in bed.

Amen, Mel, we love that spirit.  Sadly, your son, 30 years your junior, can’t handle as much adversity as you can.

Mike’s decision to not finish the Detour (and Mel finally giving in to Mike’s pressure) was the worst of a number of puzzling moves and decisions by the teams on the race this week.  The first culprit to discuss has to be our favorite, the cowboys, Jet and Cord.

As good as Jet and Cord were in their first run on The Amazing Race, they’ve been equally as bad this second time around.  Time and time again Jet and Cord continue to run the race seemingly without thinking.  Oh yea, they keep getting bailed out of their bad decisions as well.

First in the opening leg Jet clearly did not read the clue thoroughly at the flag detour and spent an absurd amount of time trying to finish the challenge.  This week, the duo drives aimlessly through Tokyo blowing a 1.5 hour advantage.  Each time, either through a fluke of the leg set up or some other team being equally foolish, Jet and Cord rally from behind and finish the leg in good position.

The sloppy race running is not isolated to Jet and Cord.  Another fan favorite, Flight Time and Big Easy, had two perplexing moments as well.  First they blindly followed Gary and Mallory because they didn’t buy a map.  Second, at the Detour, the Globetrotters grabbed the first fanny pack they saw (Ron and Christina’s) and then didn’t put it back when they realized their mistake, incurring a completely unnecessary 30 min penalty.

Who else joins the list this week?  How about Mike and Mel, Jaime and Cara, Kent and Vyxsin and Margie and Luke for deciding to caravan to out of Tokyo to the Detour?  As Mike eventually figured out, it made no sense to do that considering they were all playing for last place.

Despite all of the head scratching moments, one that does not make my list is the decision by five teams to travel with a connecting flight that landed in Tokyo fifteen minutes earlier than the direct flight.  Every time the teams that did not take the connecting flight route kept down playing the significance of fifteen minutes I kept looking at the starting times this week.  Fifteen minutes was the difference between first and fifth.  Seems like something worth trying for, right?

Sure, a delay with the second flight was possible.  However, it was just as possible with the direct flight.  Or with the first leg of the connecting flight option.  Teams can’t make decisions on the possibility of a flight delay.  Every edge you can get during the race is worth trying for.  Especially in an All-Star edition where the race is clearly more challenging than a normal season.

Any dissatisfaction with this week’s episode (and to be clear, I loved it, even if it wasn’t well played) should have been washed away by the awesome moment with Jaime and Cara at the Pit Stop with Phil.  They played the part at the Pit Stop perfectly by assuming they were eliminated and attempting to take Phil’s words out of his mouth.  After Phil gave them the good news, their reaction was priceless.  Their interview as even better, with Cara giving it with a huge hunk of mud still on top of her heard.

So what do you think of this episode?

You can check other The Amazing Race 18: Unfinished Business Reviews and Poll HERE.

On this week’s episode of The Amazing Race Unfinished Business, I know many of you are all wishing that Jet and Cord will survive the leg. Well, you’re wish is granted!

Heading in to this week’s episode of The Amazing Race: Unfinished Business, the finale of a very long first leg, Jet and Cord were waaaaaay behind 10th place Kent and Vxysin.  The dating Goths themselves were told by Phil that they were waaaaay behind ninth place Mike and Mike.  Safe to say, things did not look good for everyone’s favorite cowboys advancing to the second leg.

Despite the huge deficit, we received great news that after meeting Phil at the faux Pit Stop, the teams had to race to become one of six teams on the first flight or five teams on the second flight which departed 30 minutes later.  Hurray!  There’s no way Jet and Cord can’t catch up to at least four teams, right?  And, look!  Amanda and Kris are on that last flight and have a U-Turn to deal with.  Jet and Cord are still alive yet.

Would The Amazing Race producers let us off that easily?  Of course not.  Jet and Cord didn’t help by continued their run of ineptitude when they were unable to solve the clue “To Sail, to Stop”.  Cleverly, we’re not told when the flights depart and as Jet and Cord’s search continues in to the evening, worry starts to build that they won’t even make their charter.

In vintage The Amazing Race fashion, the build up of drama is all for nothing.  The second flight departs at 6:30am the next day.  Based on daylight, they had at least twelve hours to figure out the clue, if not more.  Clearly they did not need all of the time and made it to the airport in plenty of time.

Once on the second flight, Jet and Cord were no longer in the grave danger of being eliminated that they were to start the episode?  Is getting bailed out like they were fair?  On the surface it doesn’t seem that way, but The Amazing Race has been designed to prevent huge leads and large deficits for many seasons now.  If this were an earlier, potentially fairer, season Jet and Cord would have easily been eliminated.

With everyone’s favorite theme music safe, we can focus on the rest of the episode.  One of the best aspects of this first leg was how challenging the leg was.  Perhaps the challenges themselves were not as dynamic as they could have been, but the clues were phenomenal.  Catch phrases that are not easily found on the internet.  Finding a street corner using the Periodic Table.  These were both awesome clues.

I hope to see more clues that require thought and solving a puzzle of some sort going forward.  There seems to be an emphasis on making the season tough for the competitors because this is there second time around.  If the opening leg is a taste of what they have in store, we’re in for a treat.

In the end, Ron and Christina got the last spot and Amanda and Kris were eliminated. I know that the latter has still a lot of things on their sleeves to show but sometimes Amazing Race is all about luck and timing.

You can check other The Amazing Race 18: Unfinished Business Reviews and Poll HERE.

We’re back with the first episode of The Amazing Race 18: Unfinished Business!

11 teams are back to grab the second chance in winning the million dollars. So what happened on the first episode?

First Task

Before receiving their first clue, teams had to search through hundreds of paper airplanes for one airplane that matched the clue “Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services” (the full name of Qantas Airways), and return it to Phil to receive the clue and tickets. The first eight teams to would be on a flight that left LAX for SYD 90 minutes before the last 3 teams. The last team to find the correct airplane would also be penalized by having to perform a U-Turn sometime during the Leg.

Kris and Amanda finished the task last so they need to perform the two tasks on the next detour.

Roadblock
In the first Roadblock of the season, one team member  had to scuba dive in the Oceanworld shark and ray tank and search the tank for a compass. The compass included a guide to read a series of nautical flags outside which told them to go to the Manly 16ft Skiff Sailing Club, find the Commodore, and tell him the passphrase “I am between the Devil and the deep blue sea” to receive their next clue.

At the sailing club, teams had to join a sailing crew and ride a 16ft Skiff through a race course to a series of buoys that had their next clue. Then the clue tells them to go to Shelly Beach for the first Pit Stop.

Gary & Mallory arrived first and they got the Express Pass, this pass is so relevant that it can be used to automatically finish any task in the future. Kind of an advantage huh!

However, the leg doesn’t end there as Phil gave them another clue to continue the race.

My favorites are Jen & Kisha, and Ron & Christina. Who are yours?

You can check other The Amazing Race 18: Unfinished Business Reviews and Poll HERE.

We all know that there was a previous Amazing Race All-Stars already, but now the best reality show on Earth brings another all-star experience. So who will be the cast?

Below are the list of participants for Amazing Race 18 All-Stars:

• Kynt and Vyxsin (Season 12)
• Ron and Christina (Season 12)
• Amanda and Kris (Season 14)
• Mel and Mike (Season 14)
• Jaime and Cara (Season 14)
• Margie and Luke (Season 14)
• Kisha and Jen (Season 14)
• Flight Time and Big Easy (pictured, Season 15)
• Zev and Justin (Season 15)
• Jet and Cord (Season 16)
• Gary and Mallory (Season 17)