"Swing, you fat bastard, swing!" - former frat boy Kevin to his best friend, Drew, as he bungee jumps over a gorge
The Amazing Race: The First Season DVD Review
By Jude Clement
I love television.all kinds of television. Whether it's a classic sitcom like I Love Lucy or a feathered hair '80s detective drama like Remington Steele, I'll watch it. Like the rest of the country, I fell under the spell of Survivor during the 2000 summer doldrums. This blend of The Real World, cheesy game show, and Gillian's Island proved to be irresistible. Then reality set in.literally. The show proved to be such a hit that reality TV soon became a seemingly unstoppable genre. Numerous newspaper and magazine articles touted the death of scripted television. Would there ever be another Mary Tyler Moore Show, Charlie's Angels, or Buffy the Vampire Slayer? I did what any rational TV fan would do: I vowed not to watch reality shows. When The Amazing Race premiered to rave reviews in September 2001 on CBS, I simply ignored it. Boy, was I stupid. As The Amazing Race: The First Season proves, the series is as dramatic, entertaining, and fun as even the best of scripted shows.
The premise is relatively simple: eleven pairs of teammates race around the world, completing various challenging tasks along the way. The last team to cross the finish line each week is kicked off of the show. The teams are comprised of pairs such as best friends, married couples, and separated parents. These relationships give The Amazing Race a dynamic that other reality shows lack. Just beneath the surface, for example, many of the couples seem to hate each other. If they can't even handle reading a map, how will they deal with the traumas of ordinary life? A few - Paul and Amy, an engaged couple for example - yell and snipe at each other the entire time. Of course, she also tends to throw fits worthy of a three year old and he believes he spots a "jack-o-lantern" (when he really means the fictional creature the "jackelope") in Africa, so neither is exactly a model of emotional maturity. More heartening is the fact that separated parents Frank and Margarita start off being barely civil to one another, but eventually reach a new level of mutual respect.
The race starts and ends in New York City. It encompasses nine countries, four continents, and 35,000 miles. Part of the fun is in seeing how the contestants react to their destinations. Mother and daughter team Nancy and Emily nearly have breakdowns when confronted by the horrifying poverty of India.right after they have to walk through a temple dedicated to the sacred rat. The series combines the best of travel shows with sometimes brutal competitions. The scenery is often beautiful, even if the contestants are bungee jumping past it at forty miles per hour.
Another lesson that the show teaches us is that other people's parents are just as annoying as yours. And they also don't listen. The older you get, the more your body and brain slow down, and here's video proof. They don't notice marker flags as winds snap them in their faces. They choose intense physical challenges like trying to retrace Quasimodo's route up and down Notre Dame's 350 step belfry - rather than choosing less intense tasks that might take a few minutes longer. Don't expect too much of an inheritance with choices like these, friends.
Interestingly enough, both the first seasons of Survivor and The Amazing Race feature nasty, unlikable homos in their premiere seasons. In Survivor, Richard Hatch was the kind of guy NASCAR fans dreaded moving in next door: a slobby exhibitionist who can't wait to shuck off his clothes and run around naked in the backyard. This time, however, we get Joe and Bill - otherwise known as Team Guido - snooty Frasier and Niles types who are extremely easy to dislike. Whether trying to deliberately screw up their fellow players or forcing other people to listen to lame "inspirational" quotes they've picked up along the way, this will be the team you love to hate.
Other breakout stars include Drew and Kevin, a pair of ex-frat boys who put a positive spin on the phrase "ugly Americans," and Rob and Brennan, a pair of lawyers and best friends. Drew and Kevin take the competition seriously, but they also remember to have fun. They are also the source of many amusing quotes ("There's definitely potential for an international incident"). Rob and Brennan are likable in that they show how teamwork and cooperation are invaluable in a competition like this. For all we know, they argued the entire time, but there's no evidence of it here.
The thirteen episodes that make up the first season are divided onto four discs. Each disc is decorated with the same images from the race. The discs are housed in four slim, clear keepcases. The front covers are decorated with small photos of the contestants and the competition. The back covers include episode titles and plot synopses. The keepcases slide into a cardboard sleeve which again showcases the competitors and images from the race itself.
The static menus are simple to navigate. Viewers can play all of the disc's episodes or pick an individual one. There are no scene selection menus, but the episodes are divided into chapters (including one immediately after the opening credits).
