TV: Amazing Race 10 - Episode 7

Rob summed up how the show has developed so far by observing, "It's amazing how this race flips, dude!" [Yes. All people in California address each other as 'Dude' or 'Man']. The coal miners went from last to first and back to last place, but were spared from elimination once again. They seem to be following the BJ and Tyler tactic of winning by losing and lulling their competitors into complacency. If these folks reach the final three, I imagine David and Mary will remove their sandbags and start running sub-10-second 100-meter dashes to finish first. Then they will reveal an evil laugh as they receive their million-dollar check. But I will continue rooting for them.

By odd coincidence, I recently researched the island of Mauritius on the Internet a few weeks ago after hearing that the company I work for was going to open an office there. It looks like a nice place to visit; I would consider myself lucky if I ever have a business assignment there.

I will have to remember that there do not seem to be many direct flights to Mauritius from Kuwait. It could not have been fun for teams to fly all the way to London, UK to Mauritius. The Beauty Queens were most incredulous that it was the fastest route. I suppose it was in frustration that they set up a conflict between the Models and the 'Bama Moms. In the end, all the teams ended up taking the same plane.

Next I have to remember that Mauritius is another country that drives on the other side of the road. On my only trip to London, I did try driving a company car with a stick shift around a parking lot. Between driving on the other side, rarely driving a car with manual transmission particularly one with the stick on the other side, and being completely unfamiliar with the rules of the road and the street signs (particularly at roundabouts), I opted to just use hire cars and the train to get around. I am impressed that the teams did not get more lost other than the Models.

Finally I have to remember to avoid sprinkling salt on my food in Mauritius. Most of the teams chose SALT at the Detour, but it did not look like any of them washed their hands before starting to dig into the piles of salt and stepping all over it with their dirty shoes. Also, the decoy salt shakers were filled with soil that was just poured into the pile.

So even with a car break down (and another Rob meltdown) and a car accident (Beauty Queens perhaps earning some bad karma), the final order was determined by how long it took for each team to give up on SALT and switched to SEA.

Humorous moments:
Phil saying "Uhh..." when Dustin asked him if he wants to ride with her on the scooter she just won. Classic. He practically walked into that trap. He may still have been too off-balance to fully execute his fake 'Philimination' routine with the Miners.

Speaking of traps, someone had fun setting up the pit next to the sails. I am pretty sure I would have fell into that thing and died laughing after freaking out for a little while.

Mary has a fear of fish? I had never heard of that before, but it does have a name, Ichthyphobia. She probably watched Piranha before becoming a Steven Seagal fan.

TV: Amazing Race 10 - Episode 6

Congratulations to the Miners for leaping from over 5 hours behind in last place to first with an assist from the Chos and a Fast Forward where Mary improved to 4 out of 6 in the unofficial episode naming contest. Maybe someone needs to inform her that Steven Seagal has starred in only one or two slightly successful movies in the last 10 years. Audiences cheering as his character fell to his death from a plane an early scene of 1996's Executive Decision indicated his career was headed in a similar direction.

The Miners won a trip to Negril, Jamaica. I visited the island (coincidentally around 1996) to attend a wedding, and had a great time. I remember parasailing over the long beach of Negril. The almost perfect scenery from up there was besmudged by what I initially thought was a hairy ugly albino manatee. Then I became horrified when a second glance revealed it was actually a fat old man who was completely nude with white fur all over his body except for the top of his head. Then, a rather attractive much younger woman with much less covering her waded into the picture to ... "greet" him. After I landed my parachute on a rather small platform in the water, I made sure to stay on the more modest section of the beach.

The episode scared me at first as a throwback to Treasure Hunters. The racers received their first clue via a cell phone (shameless product placement), and it was not that difficult. Basically, all they had to do was ask someone if they recognized some towers in Kuwait, only to find out they were called The Kuwait Towers. Then one member of each team had to climb up the outside of a tower to retrieve a satchel that contained some puzzle pieces that had to be combined with other puzzle pieces found in a "treasure chest" back on the ground. The feelings of deja vu continued as Erwin channeled the spirit of Sam from The Geniuses team who also a fear of heights. I guess someone behind the show wanted to prove they could do this better than the upstart competition.

Navigation once again determined the outcome of this race. The teams arrived in Kuwait at the same time. The Queens thought they had good directions to the Towers and left the airport first but still managed to get lost and lose a few spots. The Chos redeemed some karma points by getting a police escort to one clue and moving up a couple of spots out of last place. The ex-junkies / male models showed intelligence in being the first to complete a tricky puzzle. Then they avoided getting "Lost in Translation" by thinking of carrying the clue to a local to tell the name of a street writing in Arabic. However, they still got lost looking for the next clues and avoided elimination only because one other team was more lost than they were.

As the Coal Miners moved from last to first, the Triathletes fell from first to last and were eliminated from the race. I was more gratified by that result as Peter has been coming across as a loser. Perhaps it was due to editing, but the other teams did not trust him either. The Triathlets also lost points by trying to use Sarah's condition to cajole travel agents into finding a faster flight. Peter also seemed content to lie back and root for Sarah on the tougher Road Blocks. Those challenges and world travel experience helped Sarah grow up and realize that she deserves a real partner; not just some guy who supplies prosthetics (I had predicted this as early as week 1). The inability to navigate the streets of Kuwait City ended their $1,000,000 hopes. They must have gotten as lost as any people could get in an area the size of
Kuwait.

Other random notes:
The pit stop didn't seem to be the normal 12 hours as teams appeared to finish during the daytime the episode before but did not leave until the next afternoon. Either that or I'm losing my memory.


The view from the Kuwait Towers did look neat.

I am a little bit pyromaniac and a little bit pyrophobic, so the fast forward of grabbing a clue next to a simulated oil well fire would have been made for an interesting thought process.

The camel racing by remote jockey looked pretty fun. I am surprised more teams did not go for that Detour unless it was much harder to find or sounded like a trick. Camels could be stubborn and the one at the race track was snarling and baring his teeth, but overall, it appeared to be an easier Detour to complete than packing and hauling camel chow.

I've been noticing the T-shirts a little more this season. The Miners wore T-shirts that displayed a miner with the caption "Friends in Low Places". The Queens had shirts representing their home states, but I wonder how many people were trying to figure out what "CANY" meant or otherwise pretending to read those T-shirts very slowly. The Chos wore their Lost Phil shirts again, but also had one that said "Let's Hug It Out" which reminded me of a recent (and yet another hilarious) episode of The Office, where Michael was paying props to Entourage.

TV: Amazing Race 10 - Episode 5

I cannot remember the last time a team could not get seats on a plane and having that put them into last place for the whole leg. The bad news is that is what happened to the Coal Miners. The good news is it was the first non-elimination leg. They must now face the interesting challenge of keeping their possessions and money, but having to go from last to first and/or possibly facing a 30 minute penalty or something like that.

Most of the tense and funny moments happened on the way to the airport in Chennai. Peter acted a little slimy trying to form an alliance with the other teams and was basically rebuffed by everyone. The Chos played a mind-game on the other teams by pulling out a fake phone and pretending to make reservations. It looked like the joke would be played on them when Peter found someone willing to lend him a phone so he could make real reservations. Then things looked even worse for the Chos when the first travel agency they went to had moved. Somehow through that mess they ended up finding the earliest flight to Chennai while the Triathletes and the Barbies were booked on a much later flight. I thought that might be "bad karma" due to Peter making fun of the Coal Miners, but the tables turned once again when those last two teams were able to get an earlier connecting flight from wherever they stopped along the way. This let them finish this episode #1 and #2 despite not helping each other.

I've never been to Chennai, India. I just had one day stay in Mumbai (Bombay) followed by two weeks in Bangalore. There are subtle differences between all those cities, but one thing they definitely had in common was crazy traffic and associated pollution. I had fun riding in an auto rickshaw, while cars, trucks, motorbikes carrying whole families swarmed around me with centimeters to spare creating about five or six lanes of traffic where there should have only been two. I did wish I could cover my nose and mouth with a handkerchief though.

Yes, at least in some parts of the cities I visited, a fairly skinny cow would pop out of nowhere and wander across the street. They are just like squirrels in the U.S. except much bigger and slower.

It would be interesting to find out what they really teach in traffic school for a license. It seemed like some teams were getting a lot of help driving from their instructors. One beauty queen was only half joking when she said, "I'm so excited she didn't die." after her partner finished the driving lesson. I was surprised the show producers allowed the teams to take that sort of risk (which I almost considered more dangerous than handling the crocodiles). One good thing about the heavy traffic is that cars are generally moving so slow that an accident will likely not hurt you if you're in a car. I don't know if that applies to the pedestrians or bikers though. Apparently traffic fatalities are a leading cause of death of young people in some of these emerging countries.

I wonder how many different T-shirts the Chos squeezed into their backpacks.

Next week, the teams get to play with some contraption that makes a camel run down a sandy race track. I want to tune in just to see what that is all about.

In other semi-related news, my local PBS-HD station just rebroadcast the Dave Matthews Band performing at Red Rocks, where last Amazing Race started and ended. I guess they had to splice together songs from concerts that took place over a whole weekend. Otherwise, I'm not sure they would have been able to find more than 4 live songs short enough to fit into just one hour.

TV: Amazing Race 10 - Episode 4

I now see why so little action took place last week. I think the race planners were letting the contestants gather some strength for some pretty tough physical challenges this week. Each team looked exhausted and relieved as they reached the mat; they could barely celebrate not being eliminated.

This stage of the race was particularly tough on Rob. He was treated for heat exhaustion before leaving the pit stop. While the cold water may have cooled off his body, his emotions were still running high. He freaked out in the taxis whenever he realized one driver after another was lost and driving in circles. The blurred out faces were a big clue that they had the wrong driver :-). Of course, I guess the cameraman or producers may not have had time to ask the drivers for permission to show their images on TV while trying to keep up with the Rob / Kimberly team. Later, Rob climbed an ascender rope up a tall, steep cliff. Then he bumped his head while searching a cave. Then he had to do a bunch of rowing. Under all this duress, he yelled a few times at his girlfriend -- something I would not advise to any guy who wants to date a woman who is smart, strong, and fairly attractive. Kimberly has stuck with Rob for reasons that have not been fully revealed. One is she seems happy to yell back. Another is that she feels she has gotten Rob to change a bit in the past (temporarily dumping him until he took classes so he can leave his bartending job?). He also did admit at the finish line that he had to "chill" out - literally. That gives one hope that this relationship lasting a bit longer, and finishing in first helps tremendously.

Apparently finishing last also can cement a relationship. Team TNT came in last by what may have been a wide margin as other teams finished during the day while TNT came in under what must have been a beautiful sunset over Ha Long Bay.

So, I suppose that means the triathletes are in the lead on the road to dunzo.

Unlike the last edition where it was pretty easy to spot the top two teams from the start, this race has been very difficult to predict. Teams randomly shuffled positions again even during the episode. First there was the taxis whose drivers either were getting lost or driving slow. It cost the Chos their 30 minute lead and practically dropped them to the back of the pack again.

Then there was what may have been the first use of an audio clue in this series that I thought was pretty inventive. The place names the racers were told to go to sounded pretty similar. The male models showed they also have brains by being the first to ask their taxi driver to listen to the directions. Anyway, the audio clue was fun for a while but turned out not to be important as the bus stop they were directed to ended up being another bunching point. At most maybe some teams lost more taxi fare than others, and who knows if money shortage will come up again in the race.

But this whole ordeal made me remember yet another story about my Beijing trip. I told a taxi driver to take me to the Yanshan Hotel, and I fortunately noticed pretty quickly that he was driving northwest instead of northeast. I tried to repeat my destination several times. Finally he pulled over to have someone translate what I was saying. Turned out he thought I wanted to go to the Yanshan Mountains.

Next the teams had to pick speed boats to take them to an island to climb a rope up an island cliff. This time it was the relative speed of the boats that determined the order teams arrived at the Road Block. Then it was stamina getting up the ropes that helped some teams pass others. I was impressed by Sarah using her one good leg and the Alabama mom in getting up the rope. Godwin Cho apparently did not learn his lesson from the Great Wall climb and relied on arm strength thus burning out his forearms again instead of using his legs more.

Rowing the sampans in some rolling waters with a stiff breeze would have been extremely difficult for me. I tried rowing in the very calm waters of the Foster City lagoon once and never could do anything other than go in circles. In the open water, I would probably be spending more time throwing up than rowing. I guess the good news is that the water related tasks allowed the episode title spouting Mary (3 for 4 now) to give her ankle more time to heal. Hopefully, the beauty queens will realize that they need to take better care of their clues and/or expand their vocabulary to know, for example, the difference between a junk and a sampan. From this point forward, any mistake is like flirting with elimination.

CBS was sort of flirting with an FCC fine by allowing references to picking up dongs (the Vietnamese currency) and looking for junk. The other funny moment was when the models found out other teams were beating them to the finish line because their junk crew forgot to raise anchor. They were remarkably forgiving about that. Perhaps like me, they have driven cars some pretty decent distances with the emergency brakes still engaged. I even have an "idiot light" for that directly in front of me, and one time, it even took a passenger to complain about an unusual burning smell before I realized what I had done.

Next week, fun with crocodiles.

Movies: The Departed

I'll start right off and say that The Departed is the best crime movie that I've seen in a long time. V for Vendetta and Inside Man are the only other movies I remember this year that kept me entertained from start to finish.

The story, adapted from a Hong Kong movie called Infernal Affairs, adds an interesting twist to the usual the undercover cop infiltrating a crime gang story by spending equal time on the criminal mole within the police department. The writers did such a great job of opening up so many possibilities about who would get caught first that I gave up trying to guess what would happen next and just enjoyed the ride. It made me recall some of elements I enjoyed about shows like Donnie Brasco, Wiseguy, Face/Off, and No Way Out and still added heaps of other interesting aspects on top of it.

The actors delivered great performances all around. There was only a scene or two (or three...) where Jack Nicholson reminded me he was Jack Nicholson (or worse some actor doing a Jack Nicholson impression), but then he'd turn around and do something that would make me forgive him. So, to say Jack Nicholson was the weakest link of a cast is saying alot. Actually, I'm starting to get fascinated about how different this movie would look if various actors switched roles, in particular Jack Nicholson and Alec Baldwin. Mark Wahlberg steals some scenes and says some of the best lines that cannot be repeated in public (or under most circumstances for that matter). Leonardo DiCaprio's acting skills somehow keep improving. He puts just the right amount of intensity during his close-ups whereas I get bothered by Tom Cruise who sometimes comes across as trying too hard.

This brings us to director Martin Scorsese, who many people argue is overdue to win an Oscar. I haven't seen all of his movies, but the bits and pieces I've seen have been great but slightly uneven, too gritty to watch, or missing something. I imagine though that some of his movies are required study for anybody attending film school. His more recent attempts like The Aviator and Gangs of New York were good but maybe over-ambitious or just not easy stories to work with. I get the sense he reigned himself in with The Departed, and created a movie that had me leaning forward in my seat and not want to turn away from. If another movie comes out this year to leave Scorsese without an Oscar once again, I want to be first in line to see it. A

Movies: X-Men: The Last Stand

The latest X-Men DVD was released this week, but my review is based on what I saw on the big screen this past summer. If I remember correctly, the movie set a box office record for an opening weekend. I think Bryan Singer deserves most of the credit since he did such a great job building expectations with the first two entries of this series. The director and producers of X-Men 3 may have only contributed to the record by keeping the running time under 1:45 long, so theaters could replay it about twice as frequently as Lord of the Rings or Titanic.

The short running time + large cast + pre-requisite comic book action and effects = little room for plot or any major character development. The debate around a cure for mutant powers was kept fairly simple. The Cyclops - Jean Grey - Wolverine love triangle was replaced with a less interesting Rogue - Iceman - Kitty Pryde triangle. There's also a father-son conflict involving Angel. I suppose the producers were trying to target a younger demographic.

Outside of Magneto, Storm, and Wolverine, a bunch of other mutants just make brief appearances bordering on cameos. It reminded me of the final episode of Seinfeld where there was much hype and antipation building up to the air date. Then all they did was parade a long string of memorable characters from past seasons and somehow managed to make the whole show flat and forgettable. Otherwise, the special effects were pretty decent with nice performances by Ian McKellen (who salvaged yet another summer movie) and Rebecca Romijn with a few funny lines uttered by Vinnie Jones as Juggernaut. Maybe others can tell me if the DVD version benefits from showing previously deleted scenes and alternate endings. C+

There will likely be comparisons between X-Men and NBC's new series Heroes. There may even be comparison's to USA's The 4400, a show that I've enjoyed once or twice but not enough to be addicted.

The good news: the writing and acting seems pretty good even though I sort of have to turn off some of my logic circuits to buy into the premise (but that's a given for just about every Sci-Fi series). Seemingly ordinary and mostly well drawn out characters from different walks of life discover that they are developing special powers, and have varied reactions (mostly negative for some reason) to what consequences that might have.

The bad news: compared to the premiere, the second episode seemed to move at a slower pace and lost the humor (especially from the Japanese character who was thrilled that he can bend the space-time continuum).

Heroes may have to don their capes faster for me to keep tuning in. This is funny opinion considering I just complained that X-Men: The Last Stand moved too fast...., but I sort of have my hands full trying to keep up with the mysteries and convoluted plot lines of other TV shows trying to follow the footsteps of Lost. Hopefully it will keep exploring the ice-breaker question, "If you could have a superhero power, what would it be and would you use it for good or evil?" B

TMI: My Viewing Habits This Fall

Some day, I may post reviews on this season's new shows, a few of which may eventually earn a slot on my Must See list. Some may get canceled or get relegated to 'online only' status before they get a real chance. But so far it looks like this:

Must see TV
Sunday: The Simpsons, The Amazing Race, Desperate Housewives
Monday: Prison Break
Tuesday: House
Wednesday: Lost
Thursday: My Name is Earl, The Office, CSI, Grey's Anatomy
(DVR and VCR sales must be skyrocketing because of the CSI vs. Grey's conflict)
Friday: Whatever is on Sci-Fi Channel
Saturday: nothing - catch up on DVR / OnDemand or actually get a life

On the bubble
Six Degrees, Heroes, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, Standoff, Kidnapped, Justice, The OC, Shark, Men In Trees

Yet to be checked out
Ugly Betty, 30 Rock

Still waiting on
The Sopranos, Rome, 24

TV: Amazing Race 10 - Episode 3

Actually I had written this up much earlier, but the computer swallowed my posting (Perhaps I shut down my browser before saving anything). So now I have to rewrite this from memory.

This week's episode was not as action-packed as the previous episodes, but it was still nail biting. Most of the teams were so close together that a 30-minute penalty moved one team from second place to near elimination. The team that finished last this week was yet another victim of having no sense of direction.

I was rooting a bit for Duke and Lauren given that parent-child teams have not fared well on the race and their team seemed like the strongest entry of that type so far. But at least it was nice to see that their relationship was completely patched up. They probably saw the writing on the wall once they ended up choosing what had to be the least helpful local ever. It was not even clear if their "guide" paid her fair share of the cab fare to take a huge detour to be dropped off at her brother's place. Duke and Lauren were at least an hour behind the "peloton," but did get lucky that the taxi driver was willing to take what little money they had left without a fuss while the first clue box turned out to be a bunching point. That was probably the only good break they received in this leg of the race.

I had only heard a few things about the Hanoi Hilton, but seeing it on TV was a sobering experience. I cannot imagine what POWs had to endure in there. I probably would have stayed a few extra moments like the Cho Bros. They temporarily fell into last place doing that, but somehow they catapulted all the way to first by such a wide margin that they apparently even found time to clean up between making some coal bricks and the finish line. With luck and barring another brain freeze moment, they will be a force to be reckoned with the rest of the way. Go home team!

I was more worried about the coal miners. David seemed preoccupied with memories of his father telling stories about Vietnam while Mary nursed a sprained ankle. She may have to heal fast to stay in the race. I think Mary was the source of 2 of the 3 episode titles so far. I wonder if the contestants get a bonus for quote of the week.

The triathletes managed to finish pretty high despite taking the wrong bus. It was inspiring to see Mary practically crawl across a rice paddy with a defective prosthetic leg.

While watching the teams try to cross a busy street, I thought of the game Frogger just before one of the racers mentioned it. That was maybe the only "laugh out loud" moment of the evening.

Next week it looks like the tension brings some relationships to a boiling point. Can't wait.