The Amazing Race - Season 1
Reality shows' first seasons often have the most interesting casts; one that can never be quite matched again. The Amazing Race is no exception. It was extremely refreshing to see a show that had people who don't fit the neat stereotypes that you'd expect. New York frat boys who bicker like an old married couple. Gay men who aren't saints, but who clearly love each other. Mother and daughter whose relationship is strengthened by the stress of the journey, rather than devolving into screaming matches. The race itself was also very cool, because it was so new and the format had to evolve. The clues that the teams received were actual clues. The teams that made it to the final three made it because they were all extremely intelligent and capable. It was an incredible season with deserving winners.
Overall Grade: A
The Amazing Race - Season 2
The second season slid a bit backwards in quality. I'm not sure if the producers cast Wil and Tara because they were trying to achieve Frank and Margarita, part II or because they got overzealous in their search for the season's "villain" (the search for which got even worse in later seasons). Either way, it was a mistake. Reality show villains are supposed to be fun to hate. Wil was just tiresome. And the casting to type didn't stop there. You could almost see the producers going down some sort of "reality checklist". Do we have our requisite "old people"? Check. Hyper-religious types? Check. Muscly pretty boys? Check. It wasn't all bad. Mary/Peach and Oswald/Danny breathed some very fresh air into the race. Still, the season suffered from trying to replicate the first, rather than just being its own entity. If you compare the intelligence, drive, and capabilities of the final three from this season to those of the first season, it's easy to see how inferior this one was.
Overall Grade: C
The Amazing Race - Season 3
The producers seemed to learn their lesson from Season 2, and as a result cast some much more engaging people. Now, we didn't just have "old people" and "requisite jerks". This time, the old people were the requisite jerks. Not only that, but they were not pushovers like the inept grannies of Season 2. They raced their asses off, landing in a completely deserved second place. With far more people to root for than against, I liked this season immensely. The tasks were interesting and the locations beautiful. True, the eventual winner was a nice, but bland young man and a shrill, lazy woman, but it was certainly an improvement overall. Special mention has to go to Ken and Gerard, billed as brothers who were complete opposites, yet got along famously and were hilarious to boot. I'd have to say they are my second favorite team ever.
Overall Grade: B+
The Amazing Race - Season 4
Season 4 holds a special place in my heart, because it is the first one I saw. Looking back, I can see how people who had been watching all along don't like this one as much, because it's the first season to start casting a bunch of beautiful, vain, stupid people instead of the "real" people populating the first three. There were certainly a lot of pretty whiners in this bunch. Chip. Reichen. Kelly. Jon. David. Jeff. Tian. Jaree. Russell. All of these people either did model, or could. But pretty doesn't equal engaging. David and Jeff were so boring that I'd forget they existed when they weren't on screen. But. I loved it. I loved this season. I loved that I started off hating Tian and Jaree (well, mostly Tian), and wound up liking them. I loved the way the clowns started off as annoying and ended up as wonderful. I loved the rivalry between Kelly/Jon and Millie/Chuck. I loved seeing the snots (Josh), the slow (Steve/Dave), and the jerks (Russell) eliminated. And I loved Kelly and Jon. I have no idea why. They were obnoxious. They yelled. They weren't particularly smart about their choices. They lamely made fun of other people. But for some strange reason, they burrowed their way into my heart and stayed there: my favorite team of all time.
Overall Grade: A-
The Amazing Race - Season 5
When I first saw this season, I thought it was kind of disappointing, compared to Season 4. Looking back, though, I realize that it was pretty damn good. I don't enjoy stuntcasting, to put it mildly. I'd prefer the show to be populated with a bunch of nobodies that I get to know, so when I learned that the show had cast someone from Big Brother (which I never watched, but gathered that I'd hate it and everyone in it), and a dwarf, I was upset. Surely, the show was good enough on its own not to have to resort to such measures. But it worked out well, first with the annoying Alison and her equally annoying boyfriend being unceremoniously eliminated in the second episode, and second with Charla being a very interesting contestant. She was loud, and her cousin was louder, and they were enormous fun to watch. Not because she was a dwarf, but because she was an interesting woman. She said she had set out to break stereotypes about dwarves and she did. The overall storyarc of "good" (Chip/Kim) vs. "evil" (Colin/Christie), was very well done, ending in the joyous victory of Chip and Kim. A middle-aged black couple winning, rather than the blandly pretty youngsters who had won the previous four races was huge. Still, the season did have major problems. 1) The introduction of the Yield, which turned the race from a contest where luck and merit got you ahead to a contest where you tried to screw over other teams. 2) The whittling down the Fast Forwards to two. When there was one on every leg of the race, the strategy involved in when to use it was very cool. With two? There's no reason not to take it. None. Why have it at all? 3) The introduction of volume eating challenges. I have no problems with making the teams try something unfamiliar to them. But this is not Fear Factor. Two pounds of caviar? An entire ostrich egg? That is gross, and not just physically gross, but gross that a formerly classy race had turned into a such a spectacle.
Overall Grade: B-
The Amazing Race - Season 6
There's only two words to describe this season: Jonathan and Victoria. What would have been a great season was completely tainted by these "villains". They willingly played the jerks, knowing it would bring them notoriety and screentime. What they didn't realize was that these were not "fun" villains like Colin and Christie or Team Guido. They were wretched. When I think of Season 6, all I can think of is how much they sucked. And that itself sucks, because Kris/Jon, Gus/Hera, Don/Mary Jean, Kristy/Lena, Lori/Bolo, and Meredith/Maria were all extremely cool people. In fact, I think this season had the greatest number of teams that I liked, and yet I look back on this season with disgust. The abusiveness of Jonathan. The continuation of volume eating, to the point where people had to ingest their own vomit (classy, huh?). The winners being Freddy and Kendra, who were not accomplished racers in the least, and kind of jerks to boot. Just bleh. The only good thing about it was the introduction of the rule that teammates had to split the Roadblocks evenly. Good idea.
Overall Grade: C-
The Amazing Race - Season 7
Hoo boy. It was depressing that a single team could permeate a season with their crapitude, but at least everyone hated Jonathan as much as I did. What if a team permeates an entire season with their crapitude, but they're revered for it? Even worse. The stuntcasting of Rob and Amber was horrible, not only because I didn't like them, but because none of the other teams did either. So what was supposed to be a show about, you know, RACING, became a show about how mean Rob and Amber are and what are they doing now and how could they do that to me and SHUT UP. There was almost literally not one interview that didn't revolve around what Rob and Amber were up to, and that was just revolting. Rob himself didn't help matters, because he was more about scheming his way around rules and challenges than actually performing well at them, which is what I watch the show for. It may be intelligent to have locals do all your work for you and to take a penalty when the (admittedly gross) challenge doesn't appeal to you, but it is no fun to watch. Add to that the bickering "all-American" couple that we were supposed to love (and didn't - shut up, Kelly) and being "represented" by self-righteous assholes (shut up, Lynn and Alex) and you get one joyless experience. I'm glad Uchenna and Joyce won. But that doesn't redeem the season.
Overall Grade: D
The Amazing Race - Season 8
Who knows? It hasn't started yet. But looking up at the grades, and how they're starting to slide, I really hope it's a good one. I'm not optimistic about this family format, but I'm willing to give it a chance. Please, Amazing Race. Go back to being a good show.
No comments:
Post a Comment