Recap: 'The Amazing Race: Unfinished Business' Premiere
With an Express Pass and an U-Turn up for grabs, 11 favorites return
These two people are Amanda & Kris of 'The Amazing Race: Unfinished Business.' What? You don't recognize them?
Credit: CBS
I really don't know why this is so hard to understand: "Amazing Race" premieres need to be two-hours. Or, at the very least, they need to be 90 minutes.
And I say this every premiere cycle. Or at least I say it in every premiere cycle that doesn't begin with a two-hour "Amazing Race" premiere.
Of course, the reason I say it is because "Amazing Race," unlike "Survivor" or "America's Next Top Model" or most of the shows in the competitive reality universe, has the responsibility to at least vaguely introduce every single competitor in the initial episode. With "Survivor," you can have a castaway pull a Kelly Purple and go the duration of the game doing nothing. But on "Amazing Race" every team is doing the same thing at the same time and while some teams might perform tasks in less interesting ways, they're invariably going to be temporarily spotted in action. So in a premiere, you have to find a way to introduce people and let Your Friendly Neighborhood Bloggers figure out names and quirky nicknames.
"Amazing Race" has found a couple ways to circumvent this issue. The show has periodically cast J-list celebrities, people who are vaguely or plausibly familiar to some portion of the audience, but who aren't distracting enough to dominate the game (for the most part). There have been former Miss Americas, ex-reality show contestants aplenty, YouTube staples, poker stars and writer-actor Mike White, plus a couple other folks who were recognizable for certain viewers with certain points of reference. The other occasional solution utilized by "Amazing Race" and pretty much every other reality show these days: All-Stars!
Maybe that's why Sunday (February 20) night's "Amazing Race: Redemption Island" -- Ooops... "Amazing Race: Unfinished Business" -- premiere was so disappointing. Despite providing me with 11 teams I could easily identify, including at least eight or nine teams I was genuinely pleased to see return, Sunday's premiere *still* left me muttering about the annoyance of not getting a two-hour or 90-minute premiere.
More thoughts on the "Amazing Race: Unfinished Business" premiere after the break...
I just don't think you can have a competition reality show that doesn't send somebody home in Week 1, so Sunday night's "You've reached the Pit Stop... But you've got to keep racing!" and "To be continued..." conclusion was a dud. "Survivor" didn't really send anybody home this week either -- fans will note my lack of a regular weekly exit interview -- because of the Redemption Island twist, but the show still went through the mechanics of an elimination which, coupled with ongoing confusion of how Redemption Island will operate, was sufficient to make Thursday's premiere feel resolved. With Sunday's "Amazing Race," I got to the end and... yeah. I felt like I wanted to see the whole episode.
Unless the whole point of the episode was to set the season's "Unfinished Business" theme with an unfinished episode. If that was the case... Not a great idea.
I felt like the episode had promised certain things that never materialized, which prompted me to go back to my screener and rewatch the episode's opening scenes. I was wrong. Phil Keoghan doesn't just "say" things. The things Phil Keoghan says have meaning. He's deep like that.
So I rewatched his initial instructions and while he very clearly said that the first team to the Pit Stop would receive the all-powerful (but wasted last season) Express Pass [sadly not yet sponsored by Panda Express], he never said that the last team to the Pit Stop "would" or even "may" be eliminated. But he did say, which seemed a little interesting, is that the season will have 12 Legs. With 11 teams and already one not-quite-non-elimination leg under our belt, does that mean that we're not going to have an actual Non-Elimination Leg? That would be terrific. Or at least we've got fewer Non-Elimination Legs to look forward to? In some seasons, Phil has definitely told teams how many NELs to anticipate. In this instance, he made no mention of that dreaded cop-out.
Thus, Phil never promised an elimination in this episode/leg and any assumptions to that effect were made by me. Mea culpa.
The other part that confused me was the nature of the automatic U-Turn. The season began with a task. Teams had to run out into a field of paper airplanes and they had to realize that "Queensland and Northern Territories Arial Services" means "Qantas." [I'll confess that I hadn't known that previously. All I knew is that Qantas never crashes.] Anyway, though, the deal was that the first eight teams to complete this preliminary task would get to be on a first flight to Australia, with the other three teams on a second flight leaving 90 minutes later. The last team to finish would get stuck with a U-Turn penalty. [That ended up being "funny" (it's not ironic, but some people would incorrectly call it that), because the last team ended up being Amanda & Kris, who we were reminded early in the episode were eliminated the first time around because Margie & Luke U-Turned them.]
This confused me for two reasons: The first is that I kept waiting for a Detour to come up and, in the episode, it never did. The second was that in Australia, heading for the first task, Amanda and Kris referenced their desire to win the leg so that they could get the Panda Express Pass and Amanda referenced that the Panda Express Pass would then mean they wouldn't have to worry about their U-Turn. In that moment, I just assumed that she and Kris were misunderstanding the power or timing of the Panda Express Pass, which I just guessed wouldn't become relevant until after they'd weathered the hypothetical U-Turn.
In this respect also, I was wrong. Phil's words were that "that team will have to complete both sides of the first Detour you encounter on the Race." That's obviously quite different from "that team will have to complete both sides of the Detour on this leg." I don't know if Amanda and Kris also parsed Phil's words carefully, assumed this was a Detour-free leg and leapt at the opportunity to make their penalty moot, or if they really were unclear on the Panda Express Pass concept and just got lucky.
Either way, these are the things that confuse me and the things that send me scurrying to rewind.
This dilemma only became relevant because of an extraordinary piece of travel awesomeness, the sort of counter-intutive strategy-screwing genius that "Amazing Race" experiences all too rarely. There were supposed to be eight teams arriving in Sydney 90 minutes early and three other teams lagging. Instead, the first flight had to take an unexpected stop after a passenger had a heart attack. Thankfully the passenger was OK, but it meant that suddenly the second flight got in 27 minutes before the first flight, meaning that Amanda & Kris, Gary & Mallory and Kisha & Jen went from last to first thanks to the fickle finger of fate. Under any other circumstances, Amanda & Kris would only have been thinking of basic survival, rather than fabricating a plan to get the Express Pass and negate their penalty. [Totally irrelevant side note: The Panda Express Pass gets you out of a task you don't want to complete. If a Panda Express Pass were used by a team that was simultaneously U-Turned, should the Panda Express Pass really get them out of both tasks, or just the first one? As of now, we don't need to know.]
Once in Australia, there was only a Roadblock, built around the question "Who's ready to get tanked?" and, disappointingly, having nothing to do with consumption of Fosters, which any true Australian would really like to clarify for you is actually Australian for "cat's piss" and not for "beer." The Roadblock asked one player from each team to don SCUBA gear and locate a huge, bulky compass in a vast tank populated by sharks and rays and other aquatic creatures. None of the aquatic creatures came into play in the task, which was too bad and also contributed to making the first piece of the Roadblock into a non-factor. [Am I saying I wanted Kent or Vyxsin to be eaten by a shark? yes. Yes I am.] Even Kisha and Jen, who struggled with water in their season -- "Not to fulfill any stereotypes, because we are African-American, but no, we cannot swim," Jen cracked -- raced through it. The player then had to take the compass and use it to decipher a code using nautical flags.
Here's where things got interesting, albeit not immediately. Mallory & Gary, then Amanda & Kris and then Kisha & Jen all finished the SCUBA, finished the puzzle, finished the subsequent sailing task and reached the Pit Stop in that order, with Gary & Mallory receiving the Panda Express Pass before being told they had to keep racing. [For a fun game, rewatch Malloy's face as Phil tells them they have to keep racing. Gary gets it immediately. Mallory... Not so much. Her feet are moving one way, her mouth is moving a different way and I'm still not sure that she understood what happened.]
The eight teams that were initially in first and became last thanks to the ill-timed heart attack -- as opposed to all of those well-timed heart attacks -- then became a surprisingly bunched pack and we were reminded of one of the most interesting parts of any All-Star season of any show: Some people come into the game with relationships with other teams, which means that a strategic aspect comes into play that is absent in most "Amazing Race" seasons, where you might get a half-hearted alliance or two, but it rarely impacts the game. In this case, the leg was totally impacted by alliances. You can decide if that's "good" or "bad," but I definitely thought it was interesting.
We saw the good side of alliances: The Globetrotters, who were eliminated in their season because of Big Easy's difficulties with puzzles, just couldn't handle the post-SCUBA code. So they quit and, as they were running, the asked Justin & Zev for help. Well, Justin & Zev are such Friends of the Globetrotters that they were even wearing Globetrotters t-shirts earlier and without hesitation, Justin gave them the answer. I like the Globetrotters and I like Justin & Zev, so I'm OK with this. And then when Margie & Luke and Jaime & Cara asked for help seconds later, Justin declined. "We don't know them really from a hole-in-the-wall," Justin correctly observed. Those two teams needed the help becuase...
We saw the bad side of alliances: Jaime & Cara and Margie & Luke had worked together in their season and they worked together here. They were just stupid and screwed up the puzzle, so they got the answer wrong and had to go back to the Roadblock. They, in turn, were helped by Ron & Christina, who had no valid reason to help them, but figured "What the heck?" And then, in turn, Luke & Margie helped Kent & Vyxsin for no good reason. And I'm 100 percent certain that none of this helping would have occurred in a non-All-Stars season. Because on the first leg of the Race, who's going to help a stranger for no reason? Few people.
Sadly, that left nobody to help poor Cowboys Jet & Cord, who had one of those classic Jet & Cord legs where even though they were initially bunched in a big group, they made one little mental mistake after another until they went from a pack of eight to a pack of three and then a pack of one. And when we left the episode, Jet still was giving no indication that he'd cracked the puzzle.
That was the only reason why I was the tiniest bit relieved that we ended without elimination. I like the Cowboys.
Since this is something I do every "Amazing Race" premiere, I might as well do it here as well. It's my quick breakdown of the teams I'm rooting for, the teams in Dan Limbo and the teams I'm rooting against.
TEAMS I'M ROOTING FOR:
The Cowboys, Jet & Cord: "I don't think nice guys always finish last," Jet said. And nobody would disagree that Jet & Cord are very much nice guys. They're funny, likable and they do well in physical challenges. They're just prone to mental gaffes both repeated and minor (as in this episode) and major. They were lucky they were in "The Amazing Race: All-Stupids" season and I fear they're going to be less lucky here.
The Globetrotters, Flight Time & Big Easy: I like how Flight Time blames Big Easy (justifiably) for their first elimination, but they're such darned jovial guys that it doesn't seem malicious. Their size and their own mental gaffes will probably stand in their way again.
Team Aspie, Zev & Justin: Their first elimination, with Justin misplacing the passports in a leg they won, remains one of my saddest "Race" moments. I love the dynamic of their friendship and Zev, whose Aspergers went unmentioned in this episode, as one of my all-time favorite attitudes towards the game.
Mel & Mike: They're a father-son, but they're just Mel & Mike. You know they won't win because Mel's 70 and that's going to mess him up at some point (some point very soon, it would appear), but I'll root for them as long as they're around.
The Cheerleaders, Jaime & Cara: Jaime was right that people either loved her or hated her, but I'm not sure how many people other than me fell into the "love" camp. She just doesn't like people. She's not xenophobic or racist or sexist. She treats Americans the same as Africans the same as the Australian sailors navigating their skiff. This consistency has endeared her to me. I'm not sure Cara even exists.
TEAMS IN DAN LIMBO:
Gary & Mallory: "Amazing Race" has had many parent-child teams over the years and Gary is one of my favorites among the Race Dads. He's just gung-ho for anything. I'd find Mallory's bubbly personality cute if she didn't resort to begging Jesus for help IMMEDIATELY. On the puzzle, she barely even looked at the flags before seeing if her Savior would be her savior. How about trying yourself first?
Ron & Christina: I have nothing against Ron & Christina. They're fine. They're guaranteed to have at least one moment that will make viewers cry this season. I just don't love them.
Team Pee, Kisha & Jen: Another of the all-time crushing Race eliminations. I want every episode to show Kisha and Jen ducking into a bathroom at least once. I also can never remember which is Kisha and which is Jen. And please don't think this is racist, because I also can never remember which is Jet and which is Cord. It's not that I can't tell them apart. One has short hair and harder features, while the other has long hair and softer features. They don't look anything alike. I just don't associate "Kisha" with "short hair" in my mind all of the time, just like I don't always go "Cord has lighter hair and he's taller."
TEAMS I'M ROOTING AGAINST:
Team Seven Other Pairs We Wanted To Be On The Show Passed, Amanda & Kris: The other 10 teams, I know exactly why they were chosen. I really don't know how many teams turned the show down that we were left with Amanda & Kris. I don't dislike them and I didn't dislike them in their season. I just could probably pick at least five losing teams from past years that I'd rather have. So far as I can tell, their only piece of "unfinished business" is getting me to remember who the heck they are.
Team Faux-Goth, Kent & Vyxsin: Some people find them colorful and entertaining. I find them affected and irksome.
Margie & Luke: I like Margie. She'll do anything and she's fiercely protective of her son. Good for her. Luke complains, gives up and willingly lets his mother do things that he'd be better suited for. He blames himself for their first elimination... and he's right. Maybe he'll be better this time, less crying and whining.
OK. This recap has gotten really long. That's what happens if I have screeners in advance. And as I wrote the recap, I began feeling less disappointed by the unfinished aspect of the leg and more pleased with the teams I was happy to have back...
What'd you think of the premiere? And for those of you who watched in HD, how'd the show look?
A long-time member of the TCA Board and a longer-time blogger of "American Idol," Dan Fienberg writes about TV, except for when he writes about movies or sometimes writes about the Red Sox. But never music. He would sound stupid talking about music.
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Login or create a HitFix account Login SignupJoe
February 20, 2011 at 10:15PM EST Reply to CommentI will be very depressed if the cowboys don't make it past the first leg.
conrad agreed. such sloppiness from jet. you'd think he was new to t.a.r.
February 21, 2011 at 12:01PM ESTspoiler from the "tune in next week" - will mel's health be the only thing that saves them? i hope mel's alright, but mike's emotion in the spot was undeniable.
this isn't sepinwall's blog so i figured the previews are fair game.
Boothe
February 20, 2011 at 10:16PM EST Reply to CommentOf course it's only one episode, but the Cowboys are experiencing a drop off of Colby Donaldson type proportions. It hurt to watch them struggle as they did.
Upgrade to HD was great. The windmills and the shark tank shots were great.
Not a fan of helping other teams, but someone (can't remember who) made an interesting comment about helping teams along they think they can beat. Of course, you never know what sort of challenges the race will throw at you, so it may mean nothing.
My position with the teams are similar to yours, Dan. I would swap Margie and Luke with Christina and Ron (who i find unbearable)
dan Boothe - I'd say the difference is that Colby never really WANTED it in either of his two All-Star seasons. I think Probst guilted him into doing both of them. But the Cowboys? They just did exactly what they did in their season: Make inexplicable stupid mistakes when all they had to do was follow smarter people. It's part of why we love them!
February 20, 2011 at 10:40PM EST-Daniel
RedFi
February 20, 2011 at 10:19PM EST Reply to CommentA pretty good first episode, although I agree it would have been nicer had it been two hours. Even already knowing the teams, it felt rushed. Particularly since the race didn't begin in earnest until 8 minutes in what with Phil having to give the world's most complicated instructions at the outset of the race.
I don't really understand Kisha and Jen not being great in the water on their second time at the rodeo. In every season of TAR, contestants have to drive a stick-shift, swim, and do something scary involving heights. If you can't do these things, why did you go out for TAR. And if one of these things posed a problem for you your first race, perhaps you might want to learn to swim / drive stick / row / go down a high waterslide before you agree to go on the race for a second time.
I could have sworn from their original season that the male goth's name was Kynt, but they displayed his name as Kent on-screen.
dan RedFi - Agree completely on Jen not taking the time to get over her water issues... And yeah, Kent was Kynt before, but now he's Kent... I don't have a clue why that is...
February 20, 2011 at 10:38PM EST-Daniel
February 21, 2011 at 12:38AM ESTCarrie
February 20, 2011 at 10:35PM EST Reply to CommentThis was such a confusing hour for me. I definitely agree that it would have been better as a 90 minute or two hour premiere.
And MAN, does this show look amazing in HD. The Australian tourism board should use some of these shots in their next campaign.
dan Carrie - Boo. I'm only rarely gonna get to watch in HD, cuz mostly I recap on Slingbox, which is like the opposite of HD. I will, however, get to recap on HD next Sunday when my primary 5 p.m. attention will be on the Oscars. WOOT!
February 20, 2011 at 10:42PM EST-Daniel
eric
February 20, 2011 at 11:03PM EST Reply to Comment"On the puzzle, [Mallory] barely even looked at the flags before seeing if her Savior would be her savior. How about trying yourself first?"
And yet you give the (inexplicably) much-loved Globetrotters a pass for ditching the task entirely. How consistent of you.
dan Eric - Asking for assistance from Justin & Zev, active participants in the game, isn't exactly the same as asking for assistance from Jesus, generally not considered an active participant in the game...
February 20, 2011 at 11:35PM EST-Daniel
eric Yes, okay. One is just a silly but harmless superstition. The other is closer to outright cheating. Getting "assistance" implies at least making some attempt.
February 20, 2011 at 11:38PM ESTdan Eric - Is it cheating any more than Ron & Christina telling *two* teams the answer? Or Kent and Vyxsin getting the answer from Margie & Luke? That's three additional teams that didn't get the answer legitimately. They *tried*, but Kent & Vyxsin weren't CLOSE. They could have fumbled around for weeks. It becomes a different part of the strategy, because as I said, there's no chance anybody would have helped anybody in an "Amazing Race: Strangers" edition. So if you know there's no requirement that you "show your work," and you're confident you have an alliance that will give you a hand, why not try? It was a gamble. If Justin & Zev had turned them down, the Globetrotters would have been double-screwed...
February 20, 2011 at 11:48PM EST-Daniel
David D.
February 21, 2011 at 12:14AM EST Reply to CommentAnd when did "Kint" become "Kent"?
Brandon
February 21, 2011 at 12:40AM EST Reply to CommentI'm not sure everyone would agree the Cowboys are nice guys: http://www.realityblurred.com/realitytv/archives/the_amazing_race_16/2010_May_11_dan_jordan_jet_homophobic
lori
February 21, 2011 at 12:49AM EST Reply to CommentMy comment is on Mallory prayers, since praying contestants always seem to confuse. Deeply religious people saying prayers are not a sometimey in need thing. If you depend on the God at all times in your life that will still apply on a game show, at every instance you need strength and support. It's not that God only helps you win, he's always there for you in everything you do, so you are always talking with him.
PR
February 21, 2011 at 1:39AM EST Reply to CommentDoes anyone know if Phil was on one of the flights to Australia or if he takes a separate flight?
I don't understand why they brought back Margie/Luke and Christina/Ron.
dan PR - Last season they got a lot of mileage out of the First Female Team To Win. Based on the composition of the 11 teams competing this season, it's obvious that they wouldn't mind a parent-child team winning this time around, which would be at least part of why Margie/Luke and Christina/Ron would be back...
February 21, 2011 at 2:09AM EST-Daniel
rachelmed
February 21, 2011 at 1:46AM EST Reply to CommentIt really needed to be 90minutes. I was just as confused as you were and was waiting and waiting for the detour then thought TAR might have pulled one of those lame "we didn't do/show the speed bump because it wouldn't have mattered" cop outs. I guess it will come into play on Leg 1b next week.
I'm rooting for Zev and Justin, Mike and Mel and Kent and Vyxsin (since I'm one of those people who find them entertaining). I am also strongly in the "hate" column for Jamie and Cara. When she started to yell at the guy for sitting on her foot I let out the loudest groan like "here we go again!". I find her berating of people much more irksome than Luke's whining and giving up.
So happy this show is back!
dan RachelMed - It's possible that in her first season, I found Jaime's personality appealing because I also found her hot. She seems to have come back a little... brown? I dunno. She may wear on me this season... We'll see!
February 21, 2011 at 2:08AM EST-Daniel
Jon88
February 21, 2011 at 10:37AM EST Reply to Comment12 legs, 11 teams, but only 8 teams will be eliminated, so yes, there will be non-elimination legs.
dan Jon88 - See, this is why I asked. I didn't want to flick the "math" switch in my head. But it means only two, right? Still not flipping my math switch!
February 21, 2011 at 12:28PM EST-Daniel
Glitterous
February 21, 2011 at 2:10PM EST Reply to CommentI'm rooting for Kent and Vyx (I know Vyx from when she worked as a waitress at one of my favorite restaurants, my husband knows them both socially and they are really amazing people.), Gary and Mallory (from my home state), and Kisha and Jen (played for my Alma mater). It's hard because I have "ties" to a lot of these players; I know sign language, so while Luke can be annoying, I love Margie; the majority of other teams are my favorites from years past...
Ron and Christina better give us a new catch phrase. Every time something goes wrong, my husband and I yell, "Ow, my hernia!" at each other. We still laugh each and every time.
conrad ever cheered for an nfl team or ridden a bull?
February 21, 2011 at 3:28PM ESTRobin I root for M & G and K & V for the same reason (my home state - TAR does love Kentuckians doesn't they?), but I could just never grow to like Kisha and Jen. Maybe it's because I went to that OTHER state school :-)
February 21, 2011 at 3:44PM ESTRobin
February 21, 2011 at 3:53PM EST Reply to CommentAlthough I am still against the idea of an "All-Stars" TAR, I did like that the tasks/clues this time seemed to be a little more difficult than the run of the mill Race tasks. The initial challenge to find Quantas was only difficult if you didn't quickly solve the riddle, but it was better than "here is your clue, go." While there was nothing inherently dangerous about the shark tank (and OMG would I have killed to do that task), putting on SCUBA gear for the first time is intimidating, it's hard not to panic in the water, AND they had to search for something. Usually mind-f tasks (like jumping off a bridge) are straight bull through it tasks, there's no thinking involved. This one you had to stay calm, do a physical challenge, search for something, and then had to use your brain (sorry Cowboys) to figure out the puzzle.
So, all in all, I was encouraged by the tasks and am hopeful that in giving everyone a second chance, TAR will expect them to all bring their A games.
Robin F
February 21, 2011 at 4:03PM EST Reply to CommentIt seemed that everyone thinks the Cowboys will not be eliminated when they make it to the pit stop and will continue racing. I missed the coming attractions. Did they show them in next weeks show?
dan Robin - Why would they not show their elimination if they'd been eliminated? There's no relevant purpose to leaving them out on the course if they're going to be sent home in the first five minutes of next week's show. Also, the "Race" has done this kind of "You've reached the pit stop, but you have to keep racing" thing before and I don't believe they've ever eliminated anybody.
February 21, 2011 at 4:10PM ESTIt's safe to say the Cowboys are still alive, at least for another week...
-Daniel
HF
February 21, 2011 at 11:24PM EST Reply to CommentDid no one else notice that Kent slapped the Aussie on his bum when he and Vyxsin left the Pit Stop with their next clue?
Nigel
February 22, 2011 at 3:05PM EST Reply to CommentI didn't even remember Amanda & Kris; call me racist but I have a hard time distinguising between the many blonde haired white couples they've had on the show throughout the years.
Anyway, my fiance tells me that at the time they were U-turned, which led to their loss, they were far and away the strongest and most consistent remaining team. That obviously could have changed in one leg, but if they were the easy money favorite to win it all when they lost that's a good enough reason for me to bring them back, even if they're boring and don't do anything to really stand out from the pack in my eyes..
dan Nigel - Not to quibble with your fiance, but Amanda and Kris were eliminated in the fourth leg of their season and they hadn't won any of the first three legs. They were an upper tier team that season, but it wasn't like the first All-Stars season where Rob & Amber won three straight legs and then bombed out...
February 22, 2011 at 3:44PM EST-Daniel
Nigel Fair enough. That's probably why I didn't remember them. My fiance probably just liked them in their season (or what little we saw of them) and wanted me to like them this time so we could root for the same team.
February 25, 2011 at 2:13PM ESTI'm hoping for Zev & Justin. But if I had money on it, I'd bet that Gary & Mallory coming off a pretty good performance last season will get it done.