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***Official "The Amazing Race 4" Thread*** (1 Viewer)

Lew Crippen

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True enough about getting in line. But who else thought that going sightseeing instead of just queuing up was not too bright. Win that million and you can tour in style.
 

Jason Seaver

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But who else thought that going sightseeing instead of just queuing up was not too bright. Win that million and you can tour in style.
True, but it looked like they were going to have to wait six hours - didn't people start arriving at that place at around 11am? I would have at least given some thought to checking out the Fast Forward or getting something to eat.

Speaking of that - could a team have left one person at the door while the other got some take-out, or do they have to remain together at all times?

I have to admit, I probably would have played tourist for a couple of hours. Sure, you can come back later if you win, but you might not have another chance, either.
 

Kong Chang

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Aigh.. I think this was one of the worst episodes of the series. Not one but *2* methods of bunching the teams up, one right before the pit stop. Horrible! Made the outcome less about skill and more about getting in that line first.
Watching two bunch stops is different than being in a bunch stop. Actually these 2 bunch stops are interesting placed early in the game. I think the show is trying to confuse the players to believe there will be other bunch stops in the near future so everyone can equal out. But if it's true they're making it harder for the contestants, my gut feeling is that there will be less bunch stops later on, that no one will be on equal ground anymore. It's probably to psyche the contestants out early on to believe there will be more of these opportunities when there will be less (and probably more physically straining than ever).

However, the Italy one opening up at 5PM is pretty normal. Europe shops and stuff don't open between certain hours in the afternoon (I think it was 2-5PM, most stores in Italy (and most other European countries) are closed for rest and relaxation). Remember, we can't place American ethics of 9 to 5 OR 24 hours open into European way of life.
 

JasonB

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I watched the final 2 or 3 episodes from last season for the first time and gotta say that this is, by far, the best reality show out there.

What a blast to be able to do something like that. Did it bug anyone else how immature the gay couple was about the hold-onto-the-door thing?
 

Jeff Kleist

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What a blast to be able to do something like that. Did it bug anyone else how immature the gay couple was about the hold-onto-the-door thing?
And they admitted so, but Team Geek had already screwjobbed them once, they weren't going to let it happen again. And had Geek not been immature as well they would have let it goooooo
 

Kenneth_C

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I guess I'm in the minority, but I like it when the teams are bunched up. It forces them to stay on their toes constantly and never take anything for granted. And it can also serve to drastically shake up the lineup and keep things unpredictable. Nobody would've guessed after last week that Chris & Amanda (tied for 1st) would be eliminated this week, or that Reichen & Chip (9th to 2nd) and Tian & Jaree (11th to 4th) would move up so much in the standings. Without bunching, the front runners from the previous leg would be in no danger, and the only real race would be between the 2 or 3 teams at the back of the pack.

Furthermore, the Masquerade Roadblock could only work with the teams bunched together. The whole design of only letting 4 in at a time, and sending the ones who goofed back to the end of the line, was unlike any other Roadblock in the previous 3 races. This was, in effect, a TAR "twist" -- just like the ones Survivor does to vary the game from season to season. The pressure this put on the teams was obvious, both in their gameplay and in the comments some of them made.

It's really only with 20/20 hindsight that we can see that the train departure times and the Waterway/Pathway Detour was "meaningless" to the ultimate outcome of this leg. The teams participating in the Race don't know that, and so they must make an all-out effort, all the time.

I much prefer seeing them go at the tasks and obstacles head-to-head, than have them tackle things one team or person at a time. Things like the Snow Raft in this episode, or crossing the chasm last episode, do nothing to change the order of the race. The teams complete those challenges in the same order they arrive at them. Too much of that would make for a pretty boring Race.
 

Tim Markley

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And they admitted so, but Team Geek had already screwjobbed them once, they weren't going to let it happen again.
I don't agree. Team Gay didn't get screwed in the airport, only Team NFL Wives did. Team Gay wasn't going to get tickets on that flight anyway. Besides, there's a definite difference between a team that's already at the front of the line bringing another team to the front with them and a team in the back simply pushing there way up to the front using physical force.
 

Jason Seaver

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I guess I'm in the minority, but I like it when the teams are bunched up. It forces them to stay on their toes constantly and never take anything for granted. And it can also serve to drastically shake up the lineup and keep things unpredictable. Nobody would've guessed after last week that Chris & Amanda (tied for 1st) would be eliminated this week, or that Reichen & Chip (9th to 2nd) and Tian & Jaree (11th to 4th) would move up so much in the standings. Without bunching, the front runners from the previous leg would be in no danger, and the only real race would be between the 2 or 3 teams at the back of the pack.
Well, I just think it's sort of a downer when doing well doesn't really have a reward - you bust your butt to come in first, only to find the next morning that even the guys who were four hours behind you are just given a chance to pull even. It comes across as unsporting and sort of drains the drama - a team jumping from 11th to 4th isn't as exciting when they'd been pushed equal with other teams by outside forces than their own hard work.

I like a tight race and big position shifts as much as the next person, but I'd rather see that accomplished by having a variety of tasks that test different skills (physical ability, endurance, navigation, interaction, puzzle-solving), so that a team that's strong in one area might not be so strong in the other, as opposed to a bottleneck that forces teams to wait for everyone else to catch up.
 

Graeme Clark

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I agree with Jason.

The problem with the bunching is that it seems so forced. I can understand that bunching up is going to happen at the airport, or train station, but "Here's you're next task to accomplish.... by the way, you can't do it for 5 hours, appears as deliberate manipulation to keep things as close as possible.

One thing I have liked with the first two episodes of this season is that the detours didn't have one which was obviously faster than the other. In the past they have seemed to fashioned the detours around one being quick, yet something one may not want to do because they were afraid, and another which was easy, but slow.

Even though every team chose Rescue in the first episode, I think the long walk surprised most of them. If one of the teams had been able to hop on one of those snowmobiles... they might have gotten a bit of a jump on the other teams.
 

TheLongshot

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Even though every team chose Rescue in the first episode, I think the long walk surprised most of them. If one of the teams had been able to hop on one of those snowmobiles... they might have gotten a bit of a jump on the other teams.
I did think Team Parents probably should have taken Search, since that was the best chance of staying in the game.

I disagree about Search and Rescue. Rescue was pretty obviously the better choice, and the maskerade kinda proves my point. Search was too much of a gamble for most people, which is why they didn't take it.

Jason
 

Daniel Kikin

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I think the bunching up needs to happen to even up the field a little, it would be boring if the same teams were in the same place all the time. That being said, it didn't have to happen twice in this episode. The second time was necessary, like Kenneth said, since that roadblock is not as effective if teams arrive in a staggered manner. But that made the whole train thing even less necessary, because even if the teams were more balanced on the two trains, it wouldn't have mattered anyway.
 

Kenneth_C

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I can understand that bunching up is going to happen at the airport, or train station, but "Here's you're next task to accomplish.... by the way, you can't do it for 5 hours, appears as deliberate manipulation to keep things as close as possible.
The long wait for the Masquerade to open was unusual, but it really didn't create any additional bunching. All the teams were already bunched up. So, why didn't it open at noon, for example, instead of 5:00?

I think there may have been other considerations at work in the scheduling. Since it was the last task on this leg, if the Masquerade had opened earlier, the teams would have all been at the Pit Stop by, say, 1:00 p.m. After their mandatory 12-hour rest, they'd all be trying to leave Venice after midnight. And there's very little you can do at 1:00 a.m. Nothing would be open for additional tasks, and there are virtually no trains at that time of night to get them to their next destination. So, unless TAR wanted to put together more charter busses, they would've been faced with a bunch of people with nothing to do and nowhere to go. I wouldn't be surprised if TAR decided it was better that the teams have a long wait in the afternoon, rather than in the wee hours of the morning.

Along the same line: Because the Air Traffic Controllers were spared the long afternoon wait by using the Fast Forward, they will now be the only team leaving the Pit Stop around midnight. If it does indeed turn out that they cannot really do anything at that time of night, their current 5- to 6-hour lead will effectively vanish. And everyone will still be bunched heading into the next leg.
 

Tim Markley

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Well, I just think it's sort of a downer when doing well doesn't really have a reward - you bust your butt to come in first, only to find the next morning that even the guys who were four hours behind you are just given a chance to pull even. It comes across as unsporting and sort of drains the drama - a team jumping from 11th to 4th isn't as exciting when they'd been pushed equal with other teams by outside forces than their own hard work.
I agree and this is one of the problems that I have with this show.
 

Patrick Sun

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But in the end, it was the team who could not do that last roadblock in a timely manner who got the boot. I think anyone who's familiar with past TARs will know that each leg of the race is a race to not finish last, no matter what position you start in, there's always going to be bunch-ups and the hope that some team stumbles on either the detour or the roadblock. So, it's never a good idea to try to and create a lead, a la the Tour de France, where you can coast on a leg here or there once you get plenty of time between you and the next fastest biker. Bunch-ups didn't bother me one bit on last week's episode. It's how you deal with them that separates your team from the rest of the pack.
 

Graeme Clark

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I disagree about Search and Rescue. Rescue was pretty obviously the better choice, and the maskerade kinda proves my point. Search was too much of a gamble for most people, which is why they didn't take it.
Yes, it may have been a gamble, but that was it's disadvantage and it COULD have paid off if whatever they were looking for was found quickly. In the past, The Rescue would have been the two highwire acts and that's all, making it the fastest choice no matter what.... you just had to have the guts to do it. In this case it had the disadvantage of a long walk afterwards.
 

Daniel Kikin

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Bunch-ups didn't bother me one bit on last week's episode. It's how you deal with them that separates your team from the rest of the pack.
Well said Patrick, the race is designed to see how teams will react to situations just like these, especially when it helps create more tension when the teams start fighting over who was first on line. While the I agree with some that it's silly to create bunch-ups for the sake of bunch-ups, the way it was used at the end of last week's episode (and in most other episodes) only helped enhance it, not take away from it.
 

Chris Lockwood

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> If I was a producer, I'd want to keep the affluent people out.

Yeah, let's skip the race & just give the check to the neediest team in a one episode season. Or just send Phil directly to skid row with the prize.

"Bob & Linda, congratulations, you are the poorest." :frowning:
 

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