And while I love my country, it's beautiful, majestic, full of wonders, but it's only one country. And a large part of the excitement of the TAR format is the foreign aspect, teams struggling with language, odd road signs, culture shock, airport drama, bad cabs who lie about where they are going, all that. It's really hard to build that kind of drama when to get from one leg to another teams must drive 2.5 hours from Kamloops to Revelstoke (as noted in the teaser for Ep. 2). And that in Canada trend will continue especially at least or more than half the legs taking place in just two provinces. I mean, if you are looking to showcase Canada, then really, showcase Canada. Don't have three legs in BC, and more in locales a couple hour or so drive outside of Toronto.
I wasn't even keen on watching the episode live but was invited to a viewing party put on by James and Anthony. Other racers would be there like Joel and Ashley, plus Frankie from Season 4. And Anna and Todd from Season 6. There would also be beer. So Gord and I went, were recognized by the Season 4 racers and introduced to the others. We even hung out afterwards for beer with Frankie and her husband. That was exciting.
As for the Episode, not so much. The teams were introduced and save for James and Anthony, maybe the dude and his granddad, and possibly the boxer and his partner, teams were pretty generic. There seems to be a tendency for teams to think that shouting or acting super excited about something creates personality and drama. It doesn't. Not sure if that's a direction they are getting or something they think needs to be done, but volume doesn't always equal entertainment or stage presence. Don't get wrong, I like loud things, I play drums in a punk rock band for god's sake, but there's got to be something behind all that noise, not just more noise for the sake of making noise.
Take Jet and Dave, the team chosen to return. Watching them, compared to the Shouty Mcshoutyshouts, shows why they were chosen for Season 1. I liked them in that season, they were goofy but strong. And while they got excited, it wasn't overdone. It was natural. And that's how they acted in this episode, like themselves and by doing that, they showed tons more personality than most of the other teams on this episode except James and Anthony. Too bad they got eliminated on this leg but they should have known to get a map. Tough that the first team ever invited back gets eliminated in the first leg but you can't control those things. And it seems that one of the key elements that the race promoted for this season, a former team invited back, has no more bearing at all on the race. Shouldn't put a large chunk of your promo into one basket.
As for the tasks, they were just meh. Hard to get excited when you just finished an Amazing Race season that had teams flying to Tokyo in the first leg and then you have to spent the first half of the episode of seeing teams take cabs from one location of Toronto to another. It's like one of those local Amazing Race type things they have to raise money. We have a couple here in Edmonton and while it might be excited for teams participate, does it make good TV? The Lion King task were original but the other one just seemed be a time waster so teams wouldn't show up at the airport earlier. Or did they just sign in at the airport that first day, go into a hotel for the night and take off the next day?
The first Kamloops task was a typical Episode 1 height task. Probably interesting to try but it's like drag-racing or tractor pull: the first couple of times watching are neat but over time, it becomes monotonous. And no amount of shouting, be it encouragement or screams when one hits the target makes it any less so. There was something with a cow, not what you'd expect in Kamloops, but hey what do I know? It wasn't much of a task either. Though the drive did make Jet and Dave get lost, which in the end was the only real drama in this episode.
I have a hard time distinguishing teams in the first episode so all I remember is boxer and his partner came first, James and Anthony along with dude and grandpa are still in it, and Jet and Dave are gone. One team spent a lot of time walking about the bike park. I thought it would have been nice for teams to ride a bike around a bit, try a jump but insurance was probably too much. And if there is one thing I know about TARC, they do not have much of a budget. And unfortunately, that's starting to show. Especially, when just a week before, fans have just finished watching a pretty decent US season.
Next episode, teams drive from Kamloops to Revelstoke. It's a two and half hour drive but surprisingly, people get lost. I'm going on vacation, will be driving through Revelstoke so I'm not sure if I'll blog soon.