The Amazing Race for Money!. Review on The Amazing Race

Imagine if you are in a foreign land, say a place like Thailand or Rajasthan, would you be willing to sleep on park benches or in bus stations & traveling on buses, trains, boats, taxis, bicycles & even camels? Are you saying ''No Can Do''?

Now would you agree to do all this for a million dollars? There are some people who would oh-so-gladly agree to go through all this and more for the said prize. In The Amazing Race- an adventure reality series like no other, Producer Jerry Bruchkheimer brings these people to us where we can watch them go through hell, so that they can compete for a chance of hitting the jackpot.

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What is The Amazing Race?

In the 4th Race around the world, twelve teams compete with each other for a grand prize of US$1 million! These teams have been chosen from thousands of applications & each team member should have a existing relationship with his/her partner; they maybe a married couple, father-son, mother-daughter, fraternity brothers, even gay-lesbian partners. The teams are helped by Phil Keoghan who guides them to the next step.

All the teams start off in New York, unaware of their next destination. To get to their first stop the teams have to decipher cryptic messages & compete in daring challenges to proceed further. Each team is provided with a limited amount of cash for resources, except the airfare from one destination to other, which is covered by show. A Route Marker - a yellow & red flag - marks the locations of further instructions.

At each ''leg'' teams are presented with Detour envelopes which gives them a choice between two different ways to accomplish a goal or reach the next destination. On the surface, one task may seem easy but involves some sort of twist; the other may seem difficult but in the end may be the quicker choice. For eg. in one of the episodes the team was required to collect some hens & deliver them to a particular shop, details of which is given to them on a map, this task would be difficult to complete in a place like India [a small kerala village] where due to the language barrier people weren't so good at giving directions to the contestants. The other task of this detour was simpler where the two members needed to collect some colored clothes & hop on for a elephant ride. It may seem easy at first but the contestants had a tough time sitting on the back of an elephant [for obvious reasons!]

Once they complete the detour the next lap is the Roadblock a task which can be performed by only one member of the team; in most cases, the other member must wait for the partner to accomplish the goal. In the last episodes roadblock, on a Malaysian island, one team member had to hit three different targets using three traditional Malaysian weapons: a bow n arrow, a blowpipe & a spear. After hitting all three targets successfully, the team member with his/her partner runs down the beach to the Pit Stop.

In each leg one team can take the fast forward which will enable them to proceed directly to the pit stop at end of the leg, by passing all tasks in between including the detours & roadblocks & standing to gain time over other teams. The trick is that only the first Team to find the fast forward on the leg may use it; any subsequent team who finds it will have wasted their time & must go back to complete all tasks. Each of the team may claim only one fast forward during the entire race.

The aim for each team is to try & get to Pit Stop the end destination for each leg of a race, at which point a team must ''clock in'' - a Team will leave the pi stop at the same time they clock in, only at the opposite time of day; for eg. a Team that clocks in at 9 am will leave at 9 pm for the next leg. Each time must try reach the pit stop without wasting time & not be the last team as at end of each leg, the team arriving last will be eliminated from the race. The rest will compete for the grand prize of US$1 million.

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The Race So Far:

All the 12 teams began their journey of 40,000 miles from a New York stadium to the snow-capped peaks of Italy, which was to be their first Pit Stop. As soon as this journey begins the teams experience competitiveness as one of the father-son team form an alliance with the other guy team & strategically deprive a naturally tempers flare as the ladies accuse the two teams as being cheaters! So the war begins in the first round itself. Later the teams face many bewildering obstacles trying to outdo each other in a foreign countries. They have traveled from Italy to Austria, France, India & are now in Malaysia.

Of all their travels the India experience was definitely the worst as the teams had to travel in our local trains, sleep on platform - with dogs n beggars- waiting for the ticket counter to open, being cheated by cab drivers. This experience shocked some of the teams who were also emotionally affect by the extreme poverty & living conditions [even though they were in our metro Mumbai! lolz]. The other amusing occurrences were to see the reactions of other teams as a team - Reichen & Chip - announced their gay married relationship to the others & of course, no one could keep themselves from chuckling on dating for 12 years team Millie & Chuck's virginity revelation! And so, the race for money continues.....

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My Word:

Of the many reality shows on telly I try not to miss only two: Fear Factor & The Amazing Race; both the shows are excellently presented by Joe Roncon & Phil Keoghan, respectively. While the former has new contestants in each episode, Amazing Race goes on with the twelve teams & yet both are similar in many ways as they play on the fear of the contestant, testing their confidence & capability. Many times the contestants themselves aren't aware of what they could end up doing but each contestant does try to put in his/her best effort to win the game. I can relate to this fear with one of the rounds the contestant had to endure during the 2nd season of Amazing Race; this was their visit to the Karni Mata temple in Deshnoke [Rajasthan]. The teams were required to walk shoeless through throngs of sacred rats being pampered & worshipped as reincarnations of the devotees of Karni Mata. I had visited this temple [not for the billion dollars] & had a tough time keeping my mouthshut!

The contestants on The Amazing Race in their earth-crossing chase never know where they are going next or what they have to do once there. As they go through the series of tasks, restricted plane travel with strict budgets the teams are forced to rely on wit and ingenuity, and yes they also sleep on park benches, train/bus stations & travel on buses, trains, boats, taxis, bicycles & smelly camels. It's very interesting to witness the dramatic conflicts & deepening friendships that develop between the teams & within the teams throughout this grueling competition. Each pair's relationship would be forever impacted by their experience in this once-in-a-lifetime round the-world experience.

Catch this race every Friday 9 pm on AXN.