The Amazing Race 12: TAR Brings The "Real" To Reality TV
Commentary by Professor Dan
November 13, 2007
The Amazing Race is one of my top two favorite Reality TV shows (the other is Survivor, in case you don't read my recaps of that show.) I love the exotic locales, and the interaction within and between the teams.
It also seems to me that TAR is one of the "purest" Reality TV shows. I love Survivor, but I'm also aware that hours-long Tribal Councils are distilled into 10 minutes for us, and that the Challenges, which seem to be filmed in "real time", are actually filmed several times and artfully edited into the linear form we see. But I also know that Mark Burnett is faithful to what happened-it's not like he refilms a Challenge and changes who won. And I at least hope that Burnett captures the essence of those Tribal Councils, although obviously he also wants make it interesting, and build suspense when he can.
But on The Amazing Race, it really is filmed in "real time". Each team has their own cameraman and soundman accompanying them. Obviously when teams are together, the producers have a choice of what footage to use, and I'm not saying that they may not choose that footage based on entertainment value. But when we see Ron and Christina arguing, hey, they really were arguing, that was real, and their cameraman and soundman simply recorded it. And obviously, the producers of TAR can't do "retakes" of anything that happens, because that would impact the race. So I think that TAR is possibly the most "real" Reality show there is.
The other thing that makes TAR "pure" to me is that it is, at its heart, a race-plain and simple. Personalities don't matter. Interpersonal relationship skills don't matter. While sometimes teams form alliances, it's not necessary to be in an alliance to do well in TAR. You can be total assholes-Rob and Amber come to mind-and do just fine, because nobody can vote you out of the Race. Instead, your fate depends on your own wits, your ability to perform well in the Roadblocks and Detours, and, to a pretty large extent, on pure dumb luck.
Great teams get Philiminated because their car breaks down, or they get a moron for a cab driver, or for any of a dozen other reasons totally beyond their control. It is unpredictable-a team can go from first to last in one leg of the race. In many ways, that makes it even more entertaining than Survivor, which occasionally has spells of, well, predictability. Because Survivor is based in large part on interpersonal relations, it doesn't stay predictable for long-otherwise the tribe that gets to the Merge with superior numbers would just calmly and coolly Pagong their rivals out of the game. Instead, people flip, priorities change, and suddenly it's anybody's game.
The other great thing about TAR is how quickly we get to "know" the teams, and start to pick our favorites. In Survivor, there are people who get very little airtime in the first few weeks, and it's like they're invisible. On TAR, we see every team on every episode. We see each team leave the Pit stop, and we see each team arrive at the next one. And in between, we see at least some of what they do.
Sure, some teams will get more airtime than others-Ron and Christina in the last episode, for instance-and often this is based on the conflict between teammates, or between teams. A team that functions smoothly and has little or no conflict won't be on our screens quite as much. But we do see everybody, at least at the key points in the Race, and so we can form our opinions quickly.
Speaking of which.....
Dan is a college professor who somehow got hooked on Reality TV, especially ones with lots of strategy and twists. You can contact him at Daniel1953@hotmail.com.
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