The Amazing Race -- Taipei Leg
Confucius Say...
The Amazing Race is probably the only reality show I'm watching at the moment as scripted TV has made a pretty good comeback this season with some good and interesting new shows. That said, I notice that every season there seems to be similar racing teams: the gay couple, the father and son, the Barbies and the old couple. It's like they just fill certain slots each year. At least they stopped booking models. That nearly killed this show when they had all these models as racing teams.
Another repeating trend is the couples coming on this show together to test their relationship. Are they nuts? When I'm playing a game I'm cutthroat. You'd hear me carrying on like a banshee, myself, at my partner to get the task finished. The Amazing Race is not a good thing to do if you want your relationship to survive. It's not couples counseling.
Finally, I kind of got a perverse thrill when the other racers recognized Survivors Jenna and Ethan, who were hoping no one would, because as Team Survivor rightly guessed the other racers would label them as Greedy Gus's as they both each have won the million dollar prize on Survivor. I really wish these shows would stop bringing on old contestants from a past season or some other reality show. They had their fifteen minutes of fame, enough already. However, no one will ever eclipse Boston Rob who just won't go away.
Okay, this season the race has gotten a bit nastier. The person who finishes the first task last gets the new penalty called The Hazard. I don't know if it's for the first leg of the race or for every leg. Let's just say having to make a pitstop at another task right before you're supposed to head to the pitstop is nasty.
The race starts in the foothills of Los Angelos at the Shiloh Temple. The first task is to search for an umbrella in a rack of umbrellas with the right words written on it. After that teams are instructed to head to the airport to take one of two flights to Taipei. The Showgirls are last to finish and are told they'll be getting The Hazard, which they'll have to do before heading to the pitstop.
It seems like it's over for The Showgirls before its even began. Not only do they have to contend with THE HAZARD, while their at a gas station, Katyana drops her passport. Luckily, she realizes it before they arrive at the airport and they book it back to the gas station. Unluckily, it's gone when they get back to the gas station. But thanks to Twitter the man who found it arrives at the airport in the nick of time for The Showgirls to make the flight and continue on with the race.
Team Survivor hopes no one will recognize them, but at the airport, all the teams do. They think Team Survivor is beyond greedy. They already won two million dollars and still they want more?
The Ximendig Commercial District is the next destination where teams have to locate a sign direction them to their next destination. Big problem is all the buildings are covered with signs. It takes the teams quite awhile to figure out it's a video billboard telling them to go to the Confucius Temple.
Roadblock: Why are some of the simplest tasks the hardest? It's a pretty simple task. Listen to a Confucius proverb on the telephone and then repeat it verbatim to the monk who has the next clue. Unfortunately, that was easier said than done. Only the Grandparents and the Showgirls got it on the first try. The other teams had to repeat it over and over and over again.
The next stop is the Daija Riverside Park where teams must become members of a Dragon Race Boat team. One member must help row the boat, while the other beats a drum and must be in sync with the rowers. None of the teams have trouble getting through this task.
The Martyr's Shrine. After finishing the Dragon Race Boat team the Showgirls have to do the Hazard task, which is actually pretty easy. One member has to bungee jump.
The teams arrived in this order:
1. Ernie and Andy are awarded the Express Pass for coming in first.
2. Jeremy and Sandy
3. The Double J's who have already started to fight and it's only the first day of the race.
4. Team Survivor
5. Amani and Marcus
6. Laurence and Zac
7. The Snowboarders
8. The Flyboys
9. The Showgirls
10. The Twins
11. The Grandparents
The Grandparents are expecting to be eliminated, but Phil says it's a non-elimination leg. The bad news is the next leg will be a double elimination.
This game has just gotten a bit nastier. Will there be a Hazard task every leg for the team that comes in last at a task? Last season, several of the teams teamed together against The Cowboys. Will the same thing happen against Team Survivor?
