Been a busy week with all the stuff that I have had to write, but I wanted to squeeze in my thoughts on The Amazing Race before the next episode.
I have to say that I was immensely disheartened that the Race has gone the way of the dreaded Survivor twist. People have often asked me which of the two shows is better, and despite the shimmer of Emmy gold, for me it is a no-contest. Survivor will forever be the greatest reality show of all-time, but I have always had one fundamental problem with it, and it was a problem that I thought I would never have to see on The Amazing Race.
It’s the twist.
I have never liked twists on reality shows. This is primarily because I really could not care less as to what makes for interesting television viewing. My attraction to these types of programs has always been their ability to let the spirit of the game ride above everything else. Kind of like Monopoly in the sense that in most cases, the best player wins.
Unfortunately, this couldn’t work on Survivor because the game could be predicted (just ask yours truly), weeks in advance. So they decided to do all these early tribal swaps and merges. I hated it because it punished the strong and rewarded the weak. The ones who were unable to win any sort of challenge.
Anyway, in the season premiere of The Amazing Race, they introduced a twist that was eerily similar to Survivor: Palau where two tribe members were voted off before the game really even began.
That’s what happened on the Race as brothers and my brothers Bilal and Sa’eed were knocked off on what was not even an elimination leg. It was horrible. While critics will argue that Phil said that this season of the Race would change, objectively this was not necessary. The show is not in danger of losing any viewers (as Survivor was) and clearly it was just meant to shock audiences. To me, it was just another case of punishing a team when no punishment was necessary.
To make matters worse, this was the first reality show that I have seen where two East Indian teams were cast. While I was excited and thought it was a step forward for the genre, my excitement didn’t last long as Vipul and Arti joined their brown counterparts and also were promptly dismissed.
It sucked. It wasn’t fair and I am bitter.
Sure, you can say that neither team raced well, but there is no rational argument for Bilal and Sa’eed being sent home that early.
I am pissed!
