TheAmazingRace

I’ve decided to rewatch every Amazing Race and rank them all.

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SEASON 15 gets a 6/10

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Another middle of the road type season. It had some big moments and memorable eliminations (starting line elimination, Zev/Justin’s lost passport, Mika and the waterslide, Maria/Tiffany failing both detours, Big Easy taking a penalty) but had some dull sections too, with a dull route and dull challenges. I found this season lacked big over the top or humorous characters. But a 6 still means it’s a good season and most of the teams were entertaining enough (Brian/Ericka and Sam/Dan had some fun moments, and Flight Time/Big Easy were fun to root for).

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General Thoughts

- This season continued the modern editing style from TAR14 with less airport drama/navigation and a bigger emphasis on tasks. It can make it tedious when the tasks aren’t that interesting though. TAR2’s boring elephant washing challenge was only like 2 minutes of the episode but in TAR15 the boring VCR smashing challenge is longer and duller to watch. Many of the earlier legs felt like “people robotically doing challenges without much else happening”. But this season was saved with some lucky circumstances like Mika’s waterslide meltdown, Zev/Justin’s lost passport and Big Easy’s penalty. However you could not predict those things would happen so lucky for production. So these memorable eliminations saved some duller episodes as well as some fun rivalries and bickering towards the end (stealing taxis, leaving teams at challenges, Sam/Dan and Flight Time/Big Easy colliding on a foot race to the pit stop, etc). And the final 3 all had some bickering moments!

- This season also has more gimmicky casting than TAR1-TAR13 (minor celebrities or individuals with very unique qualities or backstories). They have Flight Time/Big Easy (Harlem Globetrotters and the first team to use nicknames), Maria/Tiffany (2 professional poker players), Mika/Canaan (a country music singer with a girlfriend who clearly didn’t care about being on the show haha), and Ericka (former Miss America). Not as bad as modern day but we’re getting to the point where they aren’t casting as many regular teams - the father/son has to have crazy hair and a “we weren’t as close growing up” story, 2 friends but one has to have Aspergers, and 2 brothers but both are gay. Gimmicky teams aren’t necessarily bad, for example Miss America Ericka is arguably the best character this season. But I don’t like when they cast based on a gimmick rather than that team being genuinely interesting. It also can feel less satisfying because it’s harder to relate to gimmicky teams, and it’s harder to support Miss America or rich basketballers. Overall I found this cast and TAR14’s cast not as great as most of the casts from TAR1-TAR13 (the less gimmicky era).

- Meghan/Cheyne winning was another case of “Okay the least interesting team wins…let’s just move onto the next season”. Not much need for discussion or any feelings at all afterwards (compared to a Uchenna/Joyce vs Rob/Amber discussion). Most fans would forget about them a month later. They did dominate so were deserving winners and were likeable enough though. The final 3 were interesting in that they all had likeable and unlikeable aspects to them. But not really a likeable cast overall.