The Amazing Race

So I guess I'm the only one commenting? I couldn't love the hockey players more but busting out a quote from So I Married an Axe Murderer was icing on the delicious cake.
(As they were doing the barrel task, one of them busted out with If it's not Scottish it's CRRRRRRAP in Mike Myers' dad voice.) I hope they win just for that alone.

I don't have much hope for the moms or singers but if the boys don't win I'd love it if either one of them beat Dead-Eyed Katie and Overcompensating for Something Max.

Same here! I love the hockey brothers. They're good Racers, plus they're upbeat and positive all the time. Even when one of them had his backpack stolen, he was all "Ehh, all the thief will find is dirty underwear. And now I can travel lighter."

I like the hockey brothers too. I also like the roller derby moms, but I don't think they'll win. Max and Katie make me cringe. They seem to take no pleasure in the places they visit.

Dead-Eyed Katie and Overcompensating for Something Max

That's the best description of those two I've seen this season. She especially seems utterly joyless.

I'd much rather see the hockey brothers or the roller-derby moms win. I think the former have a good shot, the latter, not so much. But you never know.

I'm very OK with how that turned out. Mostly I didn't want Max and Katie to win. Thank you, randomly meandering faux FBI agents!

Roller derby moms: You were so very frustrating with the silly mistakes tonight. Especially when the hockey boys gave you the GIANT HINT by mistake about the food course list on the Titanic and you did not immediately go try to puzzle that out.

I watched the first episode of Amazing Race Canada and quite liked it! The first place prize is hilariously downgraded from the US version. And only nine teams! (Edited to add: I thought they just got a trip and a car, but apparently they also get $250,000, so that's pretty good.)

Hopefully they'll continue going to interesting Canadian locales and have good tasks, cos half the fun of TAR is the exotic locals, so if those are removed...

I've been to that butterfly conservatory, and I've been to Kelowna wineries! The ending was very sad! I'm glad the second to last team stated they didn't want to win like that, cos, yeah, that was a sucky way to go out. Read your clue!

I saw it, too, and I'm enjoying it. It's fun to see locations that I've been to (hello, Niagara Falls!). The host is a bit of a tool, though. He's no Phil.

I'm really enjoying it too, and I instantly liked the host (Jon Montgomery) more when I realized that he was the Skeleton racer who won an Olympic gold medal in Whistler and then, in celebration, wandered around Whistler village cheerfully swigging from a pitcher of beer that a random woman in the crowd had handed him.

I've continued to really enjoy it! I think many of the tasks are challenging and fun. Taking the crepe order in French was hilarious.

Apparently the ratings are really good, which pleases me, as I've persuaded my husband and his friend to make a video audition to submit for season two, if there is one.

I really hope there's a second season! I'd love it if they visited Winnipeg (although at least they have a Winnipeg team).

Man, that igloo-building task looked brutal. And the blubber-eating made ME want to hurl.

Is it just me, or does the Canadian version seem more physically difficult and grueling, in general? There seems to be a lot more running and climbing, and often the detour tasks are both really physical. Last night's episode was brutal, and the leg in Regina looked really exhausting as well. I'm not complaining, it's better than the spoonfed transportation and clues we usually see on TAR, but I can kind of understand how the doctors went into it with a "we're not a physically strong team, so we'll just avoid those tasks" attitude and were surprised by how hard it was. (Mind you, she's still really whiny and irritating, so I'm not really defending her, either.)

All in all, I'm enjoying this season. I was a little concerned when they said that it would all be in Canada, given how awful TAR Family was that season when they stayed in the US, but I think they've done a good job of bringing in different cultures and languages, and taking teams out of their comfort zones even while staying in Canada.

Jon Montgomery! I was working near his hometown when he won and partied with him at his parade. Hes super nice. Really hot in real life too.

I also worked with the guy from the Winnipeg team. He is also very nice. And mysteriously disappeared from the hospital and then couldn't talk about where he went, lol.

I am happy for the existence of this show because somehow had told me Joanne McCloud and Hal Johnson had a contentious divorce two years ago and it basically scarred me and I'm glad its not true.

That's really cool, Kiran! Now you know what happened to him. He and his son are doing so well, too - being in the top four is nothing to sneeze at.

Is it just me, or does the Canadian version seem more physically difficult and grueling, in general?

Not just you, MLIS. My family and I have been saying the same thing. Figuring out crepe ingredients based on their French names, AND creating perfect crepes out of those ingredients, AND plating them just so? Lordy. And that was one of the easiest tasks of that particular day.

Its actually the son I know! He is really nice.

Anyone get caught up on the premiere after finishing the rest of everything else that was on Sunday?

We are concerned the exes will be with us till the bitter end, because they couldn't just cast the usual bickering asshole straight couple, it had to be a bickering asshole straight couple who have already broken up and thus have no reason to pretend to be nice to each other.  Yech.  

So far I like the doctors, and the bingo guys surprised me by coming in near the top of the pack.  The Afghan boys are either going to be amusing or insufferable.  

I wish there was a better story for the all-female teams than "We want to show we're more than just a pretty face" or "more than what our husbands do."  Something about that as primary female motivation reeeeeeeeally rubs me the wrong way.

I still love TAR, and we're on the 23rd(?) season.

The bickering exes were horrible. I was annoyed they got the express pass, cos they'll be around for a while.

Quite a few mistakes made on the first leg. Read the clue!

The Afgan guys - one of them was continually making a scream/yodel noise that was extremely irritating.

The road block fake-out was a first in my memory. That the person who chose to do the roadblock wasn't the one doing the major task.

I think I've seen the roadblock fakeout maybe once before. Very very sneaky.

I also hate the bickering couple -- when they were introduced I was like "well, it's happened, they've cast a team who literally has no reason to associate with each other other than to constantly fight WHO ENJOYS THIS SERIOUSLY WHO" -- and was filled with existential despair when they won the first leg.

I am scared of heights but I really, really, really want to hang-glide one day. I have zero impulse to skydive or bungee-jump, but hang-gliding, sometime, I would love to do. Maybe. Except I would be scared. But I'd still like to. I think.

Off-topic, I'm terrified of heights--can hardly stand on a chair--and I used to be a pilot. (Gliders, but not hang-gliders.) I find once I get a certain distance above the ground it's all unreal, and if you're strapped in properly there's no fear of falling, which is why I feel sick to my stomach at the idea of skydiving or bungee-jumping. So you should definitely look into the possibility, because you might just love it!

Also, I completely missed that a new season had started, so I'm very glad this thread has let me know!

Usually when they show a Racer's-eye view of being about to bungee-jump, or parachute, or walk across a tightrope between skyscrapers or something, I feel sort of vertigo-y and I think "couldn't do it, nope, I could not do it" (since I spend a large percentage of my TAR-watching evaluating what kind of success I personally would have on TAR, as I imagine many of us do). But when they were hang-gliding, and they had to like run and jump off a sort-of cliff, it was just exciting and awesome to me. I really do think it's because there's no "falling" part (er, if everything works properly at least), or trying-not-to-fall part. You're headed towards the ground, just slowly. It's much more like flying. And I want to fly REALLY BADLY. Of course, I feel like people get hurt hang-gliding all the time. But it FEELS safer to me, gut-wise.

On-topic: I'm also undecided on the Afghan dudes so far. They MIGHT be fun but also I feel like they could very easily take a turn into super annoying. I also like the football guys, for the moment at least.

The road block fake-out was a first in my memory.

Every once in a while they pull that trick. In the very first season, they had a camel RB and the one who said they'd do it got to ride the camel and look for flags that led to the pit stop while their partner had to lead the camel. And I think there was even a bungee fake-out.

Not a lot of teams that I instantly like. I'm sincerely hoping the Bickersons were just using that as their hook to get on the show, but I doubt it. She didn't bother me but he seems like a real asshole. The Afghan boys didn't impress me with their misogyny and yelling. Glad the father/daughter left. Wasn't impressed by the hipsters or either girl/girl team, although they still have time to make me like them.

Rooting for the doctors (READ YOUR CLUES!) and the NFL players (I remember they did a commercial when they were playing. The bag checker was playing oboe in the marching band when the other guy was like, "Dude. Strap on the pads.")

Corollary to "read your clues" should be "triple-check your information."  Bus FAIL!  Impressive that the Bingo guys made it anywhere even close to not getting axed but...oh boy.  Watching him shanghai that random shoeshine guy was funny, and then cringey.

I continue to not see the point of alliances on TAR, and to be annoyed when they waste show time showing people jockeying for Express Pass favors.  However, I was amused when someone referred to the exes as Pinky and No Brain.

I'm very pleased to see that they must have added a rule about not being able to check in until the cab fare is settled properly. Big improvement.

I continue to not see the point of alliances on TAR, and to be annoyed when they waste show time showing people jockeying for Express Pass favors.

I love the idea of the first leg winners getting an express pass because I think you should get a one task pass for coming in first when no one knows what the hell they're doing. The second one, oy. It's a double-edged sword. It pays to give the 2nd EP to a weak team that you think you can beat but if someone helps you out and you feel like they deserve it, chances are they are a tough team who was probably beating you, so then if they don't get it you've made a powerful enemy. I think the two best ways to use it is to either A) immediately give it to the 2nd place team and get that stress out of your race, damn the consequences or B) announce that you definitely aren't giving it away until leg 4 when you have to. That way you can get benefits from teams trying to curry favor and truly give it to someone you want to. And if you get eliminated without passing it along, it'll make the teams you didn't give it to happy.

I do love the fact that some teams aren't even trying to get the EP because Pinky and NoBrain are so loathsome teams can't even muster up enough fakeness to engage with them.

I get that the adreneline gets pumping, especially if you know you're one of the last teams and you're trying to go as fast as possible, and it's hard to take a minute and think things through, but at what point when the "helpful local" is actually arguing with you, blocking you, and generally refusing to allow you to complete the task do you not stop and go, "You know what? Maybe this isn't right." Sheesh. They deserved to be Philiminated for that alone, if not for the other stupid errors they made along the way.

I was liking the football guys tonight. I loved when they were breaking the salt apart, and someone on another team commented that he figured they'd just be breaking the rocks across their knees. Cut to football guys all "Hulk SMASH!" with the salt boulders.

Cringing in second-hand embarrassment over Team Bingo's roadblock. I hope the shoeshine guy was compensated by the producers for the work time he lost.

That "Race wives"/"Race husbands" thing is already old and needs to stop.

Off-mat Philimination!  Feels like it's been awhile since we had one of those.  I like it when things on TAR go phenomenally off the rails, though I'm sure it gives the producers fits.