TAR-Australia ep1
May. 23rd, 2011 05:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hnpccSo The Amazing Race Australia started last week. So far my impressions are:
The opening sequence cracked me up entirely. I've no idea whether Americans start laughing at montages of their home city, but having Melbourne be the starting point, with jump shots and long views across the city ending with Grant Bowler standing on the roof of the MCG? I was almost falling off the couch laughing. (Then both Dean and I started wondering how he got up there and whether he was roped in, which was almost as amusing.)
Bringing the teams in by helicopter was kind of cool. I had no idea you could get hold of about 13 helicopters to hire in Melbourne, even allowing that channel 7 has at least one. Pity we didn't get to see them actually landing on the MCG though, that would have been ace.
The teams:
Tracy (46) and Anne-Marie (53) are from WA, where they work at Big W. So far I've been referring to them as the Big W Ladies. They're one of my favourite teams so far, although I doubt they'll last very long. Then again, stranger things have happened.
Alana (25) and Mel (28) are sisters from SA. Their hook is that Mel ran away from home when she was 15 and effectively destroyed her relationship with her younger sister (who was 12 at that point.) So far I don't mind Alana - Mel on the other hand has managed to irritate me already. And it's only episode one. Given that one of the reasons they irritated me was Mel claiming they'd lost the race already in the middle of leg one I'm not sure how well they'll do. They also claim to fight a lot. Hm.
Anastasia and Chris are a very young couple (21 and 23 respectively) from NSW who met at Uni and who are planning to get married. During their intro Chris described the race as 'kind of a trial pre-nup' - which seriously? No. They do otherwise appear so far to be quite nice, despite Chris being a bit of a tool mid-leg.
Dave (52) and Kelly (37) are bikers from WA, who claim to be complete opposites. She's into shopping, he's into fishing. They think they might have problems because they won't be able to take a break from each other, which bodes well. On the other hand I still liked them at the end of leg one!
Jeff (60) and Luke (32) are a father and son team from Queensland. Jeff walked out on the family when Luke was 15, effectively destroying their relationship. Does this sound familiar? Didn't we already have a dysfunctional family team? Their opening interview was actually quite awkward at times, as Luke looked to be on the edge of tears. God knows how this team will go. Theoretically they're alpha male and so should do OK, but Jeff is the oldest competitor and if Luke still has issues... well he wouldn't be the first Luke on The Amazing Race to have issues.
Joey (30) and Richard (29) are "Married Entrepeneurs" from NSW. OK this team freaked me out to start with as Richard looked scarily like a guy I used to work with in their opening shot. The last TAR team to be described with the 'married entrepeneurs' label was Johathan and Victoria, which is a bad, bad sign. They didn't irritate me during their intro but had made it to the bottom of my list by the end of the episode.
Matt (26) and Tom (26) are from Queensland/Northern Territory/WA, aka 'the middle of nowhere'. They both work on stations, and Matt has never left the country. Actually he only went to Melbourne and Sydney for the first time for the race. I'm kind of hoping this team makes it to India. Because that could be amusing. So far they're harmless.
Mo (26) and Mos (25) are the Melbourne local boys. They're both of Egyptian heritage, are both Muslim and have a great sense of humour. Their opening intro cracked me up, when it showed them praying at Federation Square, of all places. Then their opening credits cracked me up further, when they had them catching a tram to... Federation Square. Must have been prayer time. (God knows what cliche they're going to do for the next Victorian team now they've used the trams - hook turns?) Currently they're my equal favourite team - and unfortunately they're unlikely to last long either.
Tyler (25) and Nathan (25) are surfer dudes from NSW. I haven't worked out which is which yet. One's got dark hair, one's got light hair. So far innocuous.
Sam (22) and Renae (23) are bikini models from WA. They are a lot less dumb and far more down to earth and practical than they want the other teams to think. Will probably go far. I was prepared to be annoyed by them but they ended up on my like list.
Ryot (23) and Liberty (27) - no really - are a brother and sister team from NSW. I was also prepared to dislike them but they seem OK so far. Apparently Rebel Wilson's their sister, unless that's just rumour. I'd believe it on a names only basis, I have to admit.
The leg:
Loved the opening roadblock, with abseiling down the light towers at the MCG. Not least because of Mo or Mos's comment about being amazed no one called the terrorist hotline - "there's some Arab climbing the MCG light tower!" Laughed at people navigating to Melbourne airport, laughed a lot at the reaction to Matt and Luke asking how to buy tickets to Indonesia. I don't think the airport lady has ever had someone quite that clueless rock up before. Not with a film crew in tow at least.
The village at Lombok was good, even if the leg was mostly a repeat of one from TAR-Asia (same production company. Not that I mind repeats - and they fixed a few problems with it from last time, so that was good.) I'd love to know what the clue actually said as teams rushed past the fishing boats where the clues were hidden (and which were adorned with amazing race flags just incidentally) and started frantically searching the village for a cluebox. The rice throwing war was good, although I do wonder about how much those rice and flour balls hitting you would hurt. The detour was actually half decent - a choice between balancing a basket filled with vegetables on your head and walking through a marketplace or making and selling a set number of bowls of soup. The Entrepeneurs proved that they are probably not the world's best business people, as they arrived at the soup detour as one of the first teams and left it as one of the last teams, not least because they sold the soup for the wrong price to start with. The surfer dudes proved that wax in your hair makes baskets slide off your head. Also making baskets slide off your head? Tilting your head to check out the bikini models as they pass you. At least three teams proved that changing accent won't help with people understanding what you're saying to them. Neither will dancing. Chris and Anastasia proved that bad cabbies are everywhere, when they managed to get dropped off at the wrong beach. Why they didn't get back in the cab and get the driver to drive them the rest of the way I'm not sure. Money perhaps.
The bikini models earned respect by correctly identifying the biggest engine and therefore picking the fastest boat to get them across to a small resort island that I can't remember the name of. And then we got into the money counting. The last task was a bitch, and therefore a good one to put in at that point when all the teams were tired. Dive down to retrieve a briefcase, open it and correctly count the money inside. Which is in low denomination notes. Persistence and an ability to shut up while counting proved important. Ryot and Liberty also impressed by just focusing and getting it done quickly. The Big W Ladies had a post-leg interview freakout about being on national television in bathers. Bit late now!
The bikini models came in first, winning the Express Pass and $10K from NAB. Dean and I had already picked them as a sponsor in the opening sequence - either that or they were getting a hell of a lot of exposure from having hoardings up at the MCG. Mo and Mos came in last, but were spared elimination - unfortunately they're going with the 30 min penalty rather than the speedbump in this race. Hopefully they can last another leg... and even more hopefully the married entrepeneurs can't. Still, I'm up for leg 2. And while Grant isn't Phil, he's also good at the role I think. At least his dress sense so far has been better!
The opening sequence cracked me up entirely. I've no idea whether Americans start laughing at montages of their home city, but having Melbourne be the starting point, with jump shots and long views across the city ending with Grant Bowler standing on the roof of the MCG? I was almost falling off the couch laughing. (Then both Dean and I started wondering how he got up there and whether he was roped in, which was almost as amusing.)
Bringing the teams in by helicopter was kind of cool. I had no idea you could get hold of about 13 helicopters to hire in Melbourne, even allowing that channel 7 has at least one. Pity we didn't get to see them actually landing on the MCG though, that would have been ace.
The teams:
Tracy (46) and Anne-Marie (53) are from WA, where they work at Big W. So far I've been referring to them as the Big W Ladies. They're one of my favourite teams so far, although I doubt they'll last very long. Then again, stranger things have happened.
Alana (25) and Mel (28) are sisters from SA. Their hook is that Mel ran away from home when she was 15 and effectively destroyed her relationship with her younger sister (who was 12 at that point.) So far I don't mind Alana - Mel on the other hand has managed to irritate me already. And it's only episode one. Given that one of the reasons they irritated me was Mel claiming they'd lost the race already in the middle of leg one I'm not sure how well they'll do. They also claim to fight a lot. Hm.
Anastasia and Chris are a very young couple (21 and 23 respectively) from NSW who met at Uni and who are planning to get married. During their intro Chris described the race as 'kind of a trial pre-nup' - which seriously? No. They do otherwise appear so far to be quite nice, despite Chris being a bit of a tool mid-leg.
Dave (52) and Kelly (37) are bikers from WA, who claim to be complete opposites. She's into shopping, he's into fishing. They think they might have problems because they won't be able to take a break from each other, which bodes well. On the other hand I still liked them at the end of leg one!
Jeff (60) and Luke (32) are a father and son team from Queensland. Jeff walked out on the family when Luke was 15, effectively destroying their relationship. Does this sound familiar? Didn't we already have a dysfunctional family team? Their opening interview was actually quite awkward at times, as Luke looked to be on the edge of tears. God knows how this team will go. Theoretically they're alpha male and so should do OK, but Jeff is the oldest competitor and if Luke still has issues... well he wouldn't be the first Luke on The Amazing Race to have issues.
Joey (30) and Richard (29) are "Married Entrepeneurs" from NSW. OK this team freaked me out to start with as Richard looked scarily like a guy I used to work with in their opening shot. The last TAR team to be described with the 'married entrepeneurs' label was Johathan and Victoria, which is a bad, bad sign. They didn't irritate me during their intro but had made it to the bottom of my list by the end of the episode.
Matt (26) and Tom (26) are from Queensland/Northern Territory/WA, aka 'the middle of nowhere'. They both work on stations, and Matt has never left the country. Actually he only went to Melbourne and Sydney for the first time for the race. I'm kind of hoping this team makes it to India. Because that could be amusing. So far they're harmless.
Mo (26) and Mos (25) are the Melbourne local boys. They're both of Egyptian heritage, are both Muslim and have a great sense of humour. Their opening intro cracked me up, when it showed them praying at Federation Square, of all places. Then their opening credits cracked me up further, when they had them catching a tram to... Federation Square. Must have been prayer time. (God knows what cliche they're going to do for the next Victorian team now they've used the trams - hook turns?) Currently they're my equal favourite team - and unfortunately they're unlikely to last long either.
Tyler (25) and Nathan (25) are surfer dudes from NSW. I haven't worked out which is which yet. One's got dark hair, one's got light hair. So far innocuous.
Sam (22) and Renae (23) are bikini models from WA. They are a lot less dumb and far more down to earth and practical than they want the other teams to think. Will probably go far. I was prepared to be annoyed by them but they ended up on my like list.
Ryot (23) and Liberty (27) - no really - are a brother and sister team from NSW. I was also prepared to dislike them but they seem OK so far. Apparently Rebel Wilson's their sister, unless that's just rumour. I'd believe it on a names only basis, I have to admit.
The leg:
Loved the opening roadblock, with abseiling down the light towers at the MCG. Not least because of Mo or Mos's comment about being amazed no one called the terrorist hotline - "there's some Arab climbing the MCG light tower!" Laughed at people navigating to Melbourne airport, laughed a lot at the reaction to Matt and Luke asking how to buy tickets to Indonesia. I don't think the airport lady has ever had someone quite that clueless rock up before. Not with a film crew in tow at least.
The village at Lombok was good, even if the leg was mostly a repeat of one from TAR-Asia (same production company. Not that I mind repeats - and they fixed a few problems with it from last time, so that was good.) I'd love to know what the clue actually said as teams rushed past the fishing boats where the clues were hidden (and which were adorned with amazing race flags just incidentally) and started frantically searching the village for a cluebox. The rice throwing war was good, although I do wonder about how much those rice and flour balls hitting you would hurt. The detour was actually half decent - a choice between balancing a basket filled with vegetables on your head and walking through a marketplace or making and selling a set number of bowls of soup. The Entrepeneurs proved that they are probably not the world's best business people, as they arrived at the soup detour as one of the first teams and left it as one of the last teams, not least because they sold the soup for the wrong price to start with. The surfer dudes proved that wax in your hair makes baskets slide off your head. Also making baskets slide off your head? Tilting your head to check out the bikini models as they pass you. At least three teams proved that changing accent won't help with people understanding what you're saying to them. Neither will dancing. Chris and Anastasia proved that bad cabbies are everywhere, when they managed to get dropped off at the wrong beach. Why they didn't get back in the cab and get the driver to drive them the rest of the way I'm not sure. Money perhaps.
The bikini models earned respect by correctly identifying the biggest engine and therefore picking the fastest boat to get them across to a small resort island that I can't remember the name of. And then we got into the money counting. The last task was a bitch, and therefore a good one to put in at that point when all the teams were tired. Dive down to retrieve a briefcase, open it and correctly count the money inside. Which is in low denomination notes. Persistence and an ability to shut up while counting proved important. Ryot and Liberty also impressed by just focusing and getting it done quickly. The Big W Ladies had a post-leg interview freakout about being on national television in bathers. Bit late now!
The bikini models came in first, winning the Express Pass and $10K from NAB. Dean and I had already picked them as a sponsor in the opening sequence - either that or they were getting a hell of a lot of exposure from having hoardings up at the MCG. Mo and Mos came in last, but were spared elimination - unfortunately they're going with the 30 min penalty rather than the speedbump in this race. Hopefully they can last another leg... and even more hopefully the married entrepeneurs can't. Still, I'm up for leg 2. And while Grant isn't Phil, he's also good at the role I think. At least his dress sense so far has been better!
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no subject
Date: 2011-05-24 09:29 am (UTC)I hate the 'pre-nup' couple, but maybe that's because I watched the first ten mins of the second episode straight after! Agree about the rest of the teams. The entrepreneurs will be surprised that they're actually duds. The Egyptian guys are lovely. The farmers who don't know how to buy plane tickets - worrying! And I heard another team refer to them as "the cowboys". The models are surprisingly likeable, although the fact one of them is a mechanic should have been a giveaway that they're not your typical bimbo team. I felt sorry for them watching their very exploitative intro video with them rubbing lotion on each other at the beach - erg.
And what's with the prize money being only $250,000? Who's going to scream at their dying partner over losing $250,000?
no subject
Date: 2011-05-24 11:23 am (UTC)The prenup couple... are young. Very young. Don't know how far into that episode you got, but there were a couple of comments along the way that had me going "you've really not been in many relationships or for very long now have you?"
For $125,000? I'd scream at my partner. ;-)
no subject
Date: 2011-05-24 11:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-25 03:13 am (UTC)The Big W ladies are my favourites at the moment, closely followed by the farmers and the models. I really loved the 2nd episode (except for who was eliminated, boo) and am really enjoying the series overall. I hope it keeps up the standard!