The Amazing Race: Season One

For those suffering in the drought of summer television, The Game Show Network offers up sweet relief. Each weeknight brings a new episode from the first season of The Amazing Race, the reality/game show that actually manages to be entertaining and real without resorting to cheap tricks. The last few seasons have exemplified the best of what "reality" TV can be. The episodes of this first season that I've seen so far have revealed an ambitious if somewhat rough version of the show I've come to love.

On the down side, it's pretty obvious that the producers hadn't yet figured out how to edit the series. There are a lot of slow moments and awkward pauses. Even worse is the realization that the show has actually worsened in some ways since its early days: the clues have been dumbed down somewhat in the succeeding seasons, which is really too bad. The only chance some of these older or slower teams have is when the more agile team misinterpret a clue and go off on a wild goose chase; nowadays the clues leave very little to chance, at least when it comes to destinations. Not that contestants never get lost in current seasons (they do), but it seems like it happened on a more entertaining and a more frequent basis in this first season.

On a more positive note, the players are as disfunctional as always, and there's plenty of tension crackling within and between teams as the pressure starts to get to them. Sometimes it can feel like being trapped in a bad relationship yourself (I was ready to break up with Karyn and Lenny after about twenty minutes), but it's always a pleasure to see a malfunctioning teammates suffer the misfortunes they so richly deserve. Growing pains, warts, and all, The Amazing Race is good TV.

And the even better news? GSN has picked up all seven seasons and will air them all in order, so we'll be able to watch the show's evolution in a relative (ahem) Fast Forward.

Tags: tv , amazingrace