S27.E08: Krakow, I'm Gonna Get You

[blackwing]

Unfortunately, I hate to say this, but I am fast losing interest in this season.  It seems inevitable that Justin is going to win.  The other time I distinctly remember thinking that the winner was a foregone conclusion was when Megan and Cheyenne won.  The editing seems to point towards it.  Superfan dominates the race, all of the other teams know he is a threat, but can't do anything about it, and we get a supposedly fairytale ending where the Superfan lives his dream.

 

Except he is thoroughly irritating.  His arrogance is unmatched.  Texas seems like the toughest competition for them.  Unfortunately, because of Josh's chivalry, they get stuck with a speed bump, in a leg where there will be a U Turn.  I could easily see Justin U Turning them out of the game, and then he will just win every leg from here on out.

 

I've never thought about quitting watching mid-season, but I don't know how much more Justin I can stomach.

[Lemons]

Not to sound like a prissy old lady, but perhaps it had something to do with the way they were dressed?  They were scantily clad and very aggressive, people might have been avoiding their advances because they got the wrong impression about why they were asking for money.

 

I also think a lot of Europeans are turned off by loud, obnoxious Americans who are poorly dressed.  Stereotype of the Ugly American.  The Amazing Race used to do more Ugly American things at the beginning but toned it down lately. 

[nomodrama]

I think its hilarious that Justin and Diana keep dominating legs of the race, at this rate it would be unfair if they did not win because they are literally leaving all of the other teams in the dust. Justin may be annoying but seriously, which of the remaining teams are not. If Justin and Diana continue to play the game intelligently and ultimately win, then all the power to them. 

 

I would have picked the mine challenge hands down! Having to ask strangers for money terrifies me. It was painful having to watch the teams do it, especially the cheerleaders failing miserably. The one cheerleader crying....that would be me.... I did think it was hilarious when the one lady asked Denise "How much do you need." And then when Denise said "100,"  she awkwardly replied, "uhhh well heres 20."

 

Poland looked beautiful. I would have been ugly crying thru that who Schindler's Museum tour, things like that just totally hit me in the feels. Couple that with fatigue and stress and I don't know how these people are able to keep it together. 

[RCharter]

The Schindler factory was incredibly moving, but I couldn't help thinking if the race were tighter whether any team looked at their watch and wondered how long they "had" to stay there - and whether production would have showed it. Yes, I'm a bitch.

I didn't want to be the one to say it, but I got that vibe from some of the racers.  Like they all wanted to show the proper level of respect and deference, but at the same time their mind was on the race.  I think it was a great thing for the viewers at home, but it was hard knowing that some of them were probably itching to look at their watch.

[green]

I suppose I feel like that violates the spirit, if not the letter, of the law. "Each with its own pros and cons" seems like it should refer to the skill required to accomplish the tasks, not "This one requires brute strength, but it's 20 miles from the next destination" and "This one requires precision, but it's 2 blocks from the next destination." I mean, if Logan and Chris arrived fifth because they had bad taxi luck, that's a variable the show can't control. Distance from the next task is something the show definitely can control. If that's the case, they might as well start randomly force teams to stop racing for 10 minutes halfway through the leg, just because: bad luck!

 

I guess it's academic, since it's a Detour (and they're seldom followed by a pitstop), but in a show with so many uncontrollable variables, I'd think they'd want to make the rest of the playing field as level as possible.

 

Throughout the history of the show it has pretty much meant just that.  One of the most common types of detours is always been straight forward task some distance away vs more complicated task nearby.  Nothing has changed over the years with that.  The distance to the detour and navigation there has always been part of the game of pros and cons. 

 

It would be really boring to me any other way because it would descend to some silly task thing (think the endless, silly Survivor puzzles, knots, balls, keys boredom) when the Race is about traveling around the world which includes navigation and asking for directions (and getting hilarious lost at times) etc. 

 

And it's tiresome, which is what the season has become. Honestly, I'm watching to see if Justin and Diana are going to take the whole thing or if they're getting a bit of an ironic edit (which is my hope).

 

I don't know what you mean by an ironic edit but the Green Team has been getting a strong losers edit all along.  So nothing ironic about a set-up for a fall edit to me.  It's one of the main edits you get on both TAR and Survivor and it's like a flashing neon sign with the Green Team.  And if that edit is because they go out via  contrived crap like a u-turn (endless Phil allusions to same, no spoilers stuff) I will be pissed.  Because I hate really good teams losing to artificial "trash tv" stuff TAR has added (degraded itself with) over the years.  And also because the editing with this team has been soooooooooo heavy-handed about pointing to same happening it has taken any surprise out of the Race for me.

Edited November 16, 2015 by green

[ProfCrash]

A part of me thinks that Justin and Diana are driving Production crazy and Phil is playing up their dominance to increase the likelihood that they are U Turned and hopefully eliminated. At the very least, they are hoping to get them back with the pack.

 

I was happy that they took folks to the Schindler Museum. I like when they toss in a historic task and actually wished that they did more of that. It would be a great way to expose Americans to a piece of the history and culture from countries that most of them have never been exposed, myself included. I suspect that everyone knows when they get there that they are all going to get the same tour, that takes the same time for everyone so essentially there is no chance for people to lose any time at the stop. It might after be a bit relaxing for folks because they know are not in danger and simply absorb what is in front of them.

 

I actually think it would be a great end task to remember some important facts from the location that they visited.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

One thing I liked about the Schindler's Museum stop (aside from the educational/historical aspect) was that, like the challenge where the racers had to balance the bowls of fruit on their head, this forced them to stop rushing. I'm all for RAAAAAAAAACING but I also like when the racers are required to take a breath and slow down, if even for only a few minutes. And due to the serous subject matter, it puts things into perspective. As one team (Texas?) noted, being faced with all those names makes you see that the race isn't the most important thing in the world. If they're going to give the racers tasks that don't require any skill whatsoever (and it feels like there have been more of those than usual this season), at least this one may give them a few moments of reflection and appreciation.

[Maysie]

I wished the museum had been a field trip or something along those lines after the leg. I seem to remember a season when the teams actually did some physical labor or something at an orphanage at the pit stop after the leg was over. It wasn't discussed until the following week when some snippets were shown of them doing stuff with some talking heads about what they'd done/learned (if I remember correctly!). As it was, I felt like the racers had to interrupt the race for a Very Special Moment and I am sure every single one of them felt like they had to show the proper mix of empathy, respect, emotion etc. because it was all being filmed. In the end, no one was getting delayed by the tour because they all had the same experience, but when you're in the momentum of the race and all you're thinking about is keeping in the game, it must have been jarring for everyone to be taken out of that context so suddenly and then thrown back into the thick of competition.

 

I just think there could have been a better way to get Schindler's museum into the episode.

 

 

I don't know what you mean by an ironic edit but the Green Team has been getting a strong losers edit all along.

 

The ironic edit I refer to with Diana and Justin is if the "invincible super fans who win every leg and are the target of all the other teams" turns out to lose in the end. I'm not getting a loser edit from Justin and Diana - maybe it's the new Supah Fan edit. I don't know; I suppose we interpret it differently. I don't like him and when she weepingly apologizes for being a less than awesome teammate, I don't care much for her either. I started giving him the stink eye in the first episode when he cried over the fast forward and he's been on a slow, steady decline ever since. To me, he comes across as a dick, but he's cloaking it in his fan boy love, which I guess is supposed to excuse his behavior. Part of it is I don't like playing for a camera. I'm sure it's hard to have a camera on you all the time and everyone wants to put their best foot forward, which is hard to do when everything you're doing is documented - we all have our dickish moments. However, the rest of the teams seem to have become accustomed to the cameras and don't seem to be as "on" and showy as Justin is. I don't get the vibe from Diana so much, however.

 

It's ironic to me that the racers who appear to work the hardest to come across as likable usually seem the most obnoxious to me. Justin fits that category, for me.

[Hanahope]

I was wondering if at the pitstop they got to eat dinner, consisting of the foods they just delivered.  Well, maybe not the exact ones they delivered, but the same dishes.  I knew most of the foods just by having some Jewish friends in college.

 

I had to laugh at Logan and Chris fighting about who would do the Roadblock when he was saying she's done too many and there could be some future roadblock he couldn't do.  Usually its the man doing too many roadblocks and the woman getting stuck with some very physical task she can't do.

 

Was surprised by the cheerleaders having such a hard time busking.  They're entertainers, why was she having such trouble being entertaining and getting money?  The one was definitely doing more pathetic begging rather than 'hey, help us have fun and enterain" and the pathetic begging really turns people off.  Lol'd at the one woman giving James earl the money to "go away." Also, is Poland not part of the European Union and using the Euro?

 

That salt mine task was very grueling.  Guess we know that 'working in the salt mines' is as bad as it was always rumored to be.

 

The Schindler museum was very moving.  Do they not have school kids read Anne Frank anymore?  My 11 year old had never heard of it.  Guess I'll do it myself.  And netflix Schindler's list too.

 

The Travelocity app looked very easy to use.  But I so rarely book flights with an OTA.

[A Boston Gal]

Jewish confirmed! Fakakte. :D I love that word.

 

And I thought the food looked DELICIOUS. Some of my family is Jewish and ugh it made me have a yen for kugel and latkes.

I thought it looked yummy, too, but I call foul on the gefilte fish shaped like matzoh balls! ;)

[proserpina65]

Why don't they just rename the show this season to the "Justin and Diana Show" or oh.. sorry The JUSTIN show?  Ugh.. A LOT of screen time on these people... damn.

 

I had to mute a lot of this week's show - the only time Justin shut up was at the Schindler museum, and even then only briefly.

[zoey1996]

 Also, is Poland not part of the European Union and using the Euro?

 

Yes, Poland is a member of the European Union, but they do not use the Euro.  They will eventually be required to change to the Euro, but there is no target date for that.

[proserpina65]

One thing I liked about the Schindler's Museum stop (aside from the educational/historical aspect) was that, like the challenge where the racers had to balance the bowls of fruit on their head, this forced them to stop rushing. I'm all for RAAAAAAAAACING but I also like when the racers are required to take a breath and slow down, if even for only a few minutes. And due to the serous subject matter, it puts things into perspective. As one team (Texas?) noted, being faced with all those names makes you see that the race isn't the most important thing in the world. If they're going to give the racers tasks that don't require any skill whatsoever (and it feels like there have been more of those than usual this season), at least this one may give them a few moments of reflection and appreciation.

It reminded me of the stop at Nelson Mandela's prison cell on Robben Island on the second AR; all they had to do at that stop was get a clue from the clue box, but they had to do the Mandela-related tour first.  They got a little history with their race.

[Jersey Guy 87]

It has nothing to do with them being "girls". Another racer helped them catch up and they thought it would be wrong to take advantage of her kindness by running past her to the judge. It would have been the same if a male racer had done it.

They showed outstanding sportsmanship and honor.

Good manners would be holding the door open for a lady or letting her off the elevator first.

 

I think the Texans showed poor racing skills - you are in a race, you should race as hard as possible the entire time.  They didn't, and they deserved to go home for it.  I didn't see any sort of honor or sportsmanship being exhibited, just poor racing.

 

The green team is going to be very difficult to beat unless they run into some hours of operation bunches.  Which they will.

[Hanahope]

I'm sure there will be an HOO bunch coming up in order to set up the u-turn.

 

My daughter laughed when the green team won the trip to china, which included dinner in a french restaurant.  She's like, they're in China, eat chinese!.

[Tara Ariano]

In case you missed it, here's the Previously.TV post on the episode!

 

The Amazing Race Is Not All It's Krakowed Up To Be
In Poland, a couple of teams choose the wrongest possible time to team up, and another teaches us that latkes are basically just Jewish hash browns.

[blackwing]

I agree that I didn't understand why Josh wouldn't pass the cheerleader.  It's not like she knew what she was doing and gave him all the answers.  She was just as clueless as he was.  Choosing to "work" with her to ask some people to google pictures on their phones was just a poor decision.  He knew he was in last place.  It was amazing they even caught up.  He should have just said, "good luck" and went off on his own to ask people for help.  She had trouble with every aspect of that task but particularly the carrying of the tray.

 

I think this decision could very well end up costing them.  The Speed Bump takes at least 15 minutes and that's more than enough time for Justin to U Turn them.

[scrambled eggs]

My people, my food!  Although not all of it looked very appealing on camera, I must say.

I liked them taking a moment to reflect at Schindler's factory. I also appreciated some of the racers identifying with their Jewish roots.

 

Chris & Logan aren't even pretending to be in a relationship anymore, and I like it better this way.

 

Reporters did the reporting schtick - meh - but their driver's face, going along with the gimmick, was pretty funny. Also, their piano was the only one that wasn't fakakte, and I still like them, so that made me happy. 

 

I have never felt more suited for a Roadblock. 

 

Just finished watching the episode. It seemed appropriate that an episode that honored Oskar Schlinder ended with an NEL--the episode was about saving people, though for much, much lower stakes. 

[SnideAsides]

Throughout the history of the show it has pretty much meant just that.  One of the most common types of detours is always been straight forward task some distance away vs more complicated task nearby.  Nothing has changed over the years with that.  The distance to the detour and navigation there has always been part of the game of pros and cons.

Yeah, that's always been the case. They just used to be more open about it, but now they're in a mindset that all viewers care about is whether the tasks sound like they take the same amount of time. Covering for shitty design is actually part of the reason they started doing that "pick a Detour without knowing the tasks" thing - the first time they did it, both tasks were the same distance away but one was basically impossible; the second time, both tasks sounded even but any team with any racing skills would have soon realised that one task was randomly an hour away in congested Manila traffic and took the other one.

 

I just think there could have been a better way to get Schindler's museum into the episode.

I think it probably would have worked better in an earlier season where the editing wasn't so bombastic. Like, the previous Krakow leg in TAR11 began with an after-dusk trip to foggy Auschwitz, and it's still one of the show's best moments - but now the show is so set on being The! Amazing! Race! all the time that the mid-episode tone change just failed. It's not even that it felt out of place (tonal shift is something the show can do very well; the Auschwitz leg also included sausage innuendo, Miss California vomiting, and a little person falling over in a suit of armour), it's just they're so intent on selling the Race part of the show (and setting up quick, four-hours-at-most legs most of the time) that the Amazing part is being lost in the edit.

[Subrookie]

I was glad the busking task took the cheerleaders longer. As a man, women like that are a huge turnoff. This may have been one of the few times in their life they couldn't use their looks to get whatever they wanted. The woman trying to collect money was rude and aggressive. 

 

I personally thought the Texans made one of the classier moves in TAR history. It ultimately is just a game and once the game is over I'd hate if I was running in it to look back and think I totally gave someone the shaft because they helped me. 

 

Count me in the group that would love to see Justin in a position well behind all the other racers. That would be good tv. Much better than what we're seeing now. IMO there have been a lot of better seasons than this. 

[RCharter]

I was glad the busking task took the cheerleaders longer. As a man, women like that are a huge turnoff. This may have been one of the few times in their life they couldn't use their looks to get whatever they wanted. The woman trying to collect money was rude and aggressive. 

 

I personally thought the Texans made one of the classier moves in TAR history. It ultimately is just a game and once the game is over I'd hate if I was running in it to look back and think I totally gave someone the shaft because they helped me. 

 

Count me in the group that would love to see Justin in a position well behind all the other racers. That would be good tv. Much better than what we're seeing now. IMO there have been a lot of better seasons than this. 

With almost all reality shows, I think the contestants are smart to consider their image.  Especially on a show like this where there will be 30 losers and 2 winners.  Most people are going to lose, and thats just a fact.  So you should be worried about your image when you have to head back home, or when you have to try to stretch this appearance on TV into 15 minutes of fame.  I think the Texans would have been absolutely slayed in the court of public opinion if Josh had raced ahead of Tiffany after she had helped him.  I think a lot of people think about the purity of the race, and I think that's great and an important point of view.  But I think for a lot of viewers, it would not have been seen as something good.  Especially since I think the editing would have made it just look terrible.

[LizBug]

What I'm liking about this season:  with the exception of Justin & Diana, most of the other teams have yo-yo-ed up and down the leaderboard.  Just because you're next-to-last one week doesn't mean you're stuck there.  There's been enough bunching of teams and enough dumb moves to keep positioning fairly fluid.

[gunderda]

 

The Schindler museum was very moving.  Do they not have school kids read Anne Frank anymore?  My 11 year old had never heard of it.  Guess I'll do it myself.  And netflix Schindler's list too.

 

 

 

The first time I saw Schindler's List was in high school in history class and the teacher basically showed it to us on the down-low.  I'm sure it's nearly impossible that school administrators didn't know he was showing it but he told us that if someone pops in the room while we're watching it he had to turn it off real quick. 

[gunderda]

It's interesting to me how much the green team is dominating. Even when they're behind they catch up and i'm like HUH????

 

So it's keeping me tuned in to see how long they can last. 

[TheOriginalDonald]

Actually a stupid move but they have proven themselves not to be too bright. I especially can't stand to look at the shorter of the two, I find him to be the nasty one who was obsessed with Justin. That obsession also caused some stupid moves on their part.

And why are they calling themselves "the boys" and "the girls"? aren't they grown adults?

Just good old boys, never meaning no harm..........

[TheOriginalDonald]

Actually a stupid move but they have proven themselves not to be too bright. I especially can't stand to look at the shorter of the two, I find him to be the nasty one who was obsessed with Justin. That obsession also caused some stupid moves on their part.

And why are they calling themselves "the boys" and "the girls"? aren't they grown adults?

Just good old boys, never meaning no harm..........

Actually a stupid move but they have proven themselves not to be too bright. I especially can't stand to look at the shorter of the two, I find him to be the nasty one who was obsessed with Justin. That obsession also caused some stupid moves on their part.

And why are they calling themselves "the boys" and "the girls"? aren't they grown adults?

Just good old boys, never meaning no harm..........

I also think a lot of Europeans are turned off by loud, obnoxious Americans who are poorly dressed.  Stereotype of the Ugly American.  The Amazing Race used to do more Ugly American things at the beginning but toned it down lately. 

And NO ONE represents the Ugly American better than Justin

[aradia22]

I appreciated the challenges this episode. A tough physical challenge in the mines. A relatively OK music challenge mixed with collapsing pianos and a begging challenge which is never easy. I did find the Schindler museum to be an odd incongruent note, particularly with the way the show is edited. I don't think it was disrespectful but it was just odd tonally. The final memory challenge combined with carrying the plates a decent distance was also good though I disliked all the help and the looking at phones. I guess that's to be expected in this day and age but I would have preferred if they'd given them some kind of clue or a description of each dish instead so they'd be more motivated to work it out without begging to use a stranger's phone.

 

With the harder challenges I should have known it would be a NEL but I thought they might have let the Texas boys flame out.

[aradia22]

 

I don't have any Jewish background, but I do know food and I'm surprised that most people weren't familiar with some fairly common items like latkes, kugel, hamentaschen, and gefilte fish. Even the people who said they had Jewish ancestors had to look things up.

New Yorker. Like others, I would have gotten latkes and gefilte fish. For some reason my brain can never remember what kugel is. I think it's like 5 different things. Including rugelach. Even living somewhere with a large Jewish community, a lot of these dishes are acquired tastes. I feel like people tend to stick to things like bagels and deli sandwiches and matzoh ball soup.

[Kelda Feegle]

I don't want to see Justin uturned, I want to see him fall behind on a decision he made himself. Uturning him will only give him the opportunity to brag about it being done because the other teams are scared and how good he is. I'd much prefer to see the inevitable meltdown if he was behind because of something he did himself, that, I suspect, would be epic.

[RCharter]

I don't want to see Justin uturned, I want to see him fall behind on a decision he made himself. Uturning him will only give him the opportunity to brag about it being done because the other teams are scared and how good he is. I'd much prefer to see the inevitable meltdown if he was behind because of something he did himself, that, I suspect, would be epic.

true, your scenario would be more satisfying.....and there would be the tears, which would make me laugh.  But at this point I would take anything.

[Marvin]

Did anyone notice that in the mine one of the mine carts had "Reality Show" written on the side !! 

[Camera One]

Another close call for elimination of the Paparazzi team and they survive yet again.  Arrrghhh!  

 

I've been cheering for the cheerleaders lately but the defeatist attitude came back big time, especially with the taller one.  Working with the "boys" in this case actually helped her, since he could very well have pulled ahead of her since she had so much trouble carrying the heavy tray.  

 

I too didn't like Phil insinuating that they should all U-Turn the Green team.

[Delwyn]

Did anyone notice that in the mine one of the mine carts had "Reality Show" written on the side !!

Definitely. I screencapped and linked it on page one of this thread, because the editors switched carts mid-task so there's also a second inscription. A surprising continuity fail on their part.