7 replies to this topic

[legaleagle44]

The Philippines just started airing its version of The Amazing Race on October 29. The legs are broken up into 20-minute daily episodes, which can be seen starting here.

Just a word of warning: the show is half in English, half in Tagalog, and unlike with China Rush, there are no subtitles for the non-English parts.

So far, the tasks and the teams look pretty good, although right off the bat there's a casino task that I'm pretty sure was lifted from the US version. And the host, Derek Ramsay, is somewhere between Allan Wu and Grant Denyer in terms of his ability.

I just finished watching the second leg, and let me tell you, this version of the Race is hardcore when it comes to dishing out the time penalties. The second team to be eliminated (Anton and Armand, the "football brothers") actually finished in fourth place, but because they broke a fundamental Race rule by contacting someone outside the Race, they were slapped with a 24-hour time penalty at the Pit Stop, which naturally killed them.

This show is interesting in the way everyone mixes Filipino and English throughout. Even though I don't speak a word of Filipino (and there are no English subtitles), I can follow the race quite easily. And I really like Derek as the host; he's one of the better ones that the franchise has given us.

Oh, and here's the breakdown of the teams:

Marc & Kat - "Gym Buddies"

LJ & CJ - "Celebrity Best friends" -- and pretty strong racers, too!

Boom & Cheng - "Buddies"

Saida & Jervi - Amigas ("Friends" in Spanish, but I have a feeling that it means something a little different in the Philippines)

Sheena & Gee - "Reunited Friends"

Dani & Mish - "Bombshells"

Ed & Angel - "Father and Daughter"

Fausto & Dayal - "Brothers-in-law"

Pamela & Vanessa - "Alabang Housewives"

Anton & Armand - "Football Brothers" (Second team eliminated, due to that 24-hour time penalty)

Crystel & Mykey - "Dating Couple" (First team eliminated)

Edited by legaleagle44, Nov 11, 2012 @ 8:21 PM.

[SnideAsides]

I guess this is the final nail in the TAR Asia coffin.

And the host, Derek Ramsay, is somewhere between Allan Wu and Grant Denyer in terms of his ability.

Grant Bowler? Denyer's hosting makes first-season-of-TAR-Asia Allan Wu seem brilliant.

[legaleagle44]

Egads -- did I say Grant Denyer? I should wash my mouth out with soap for that slip of the tongue! Yes, I meant to say that Derek Ramsay is somewhere between Allan Wu and Grant Bowler.

[SnideAsides]

Most of these tasks are probably going to be lifted from other versions. It's run by the same people who did TAR Asia, HaMerotz LaMillion, and TAR Australia. They usually come up with some cool original ideas, but for the most part they'll be recycled. Which is especially frustrating here because they can't use the "they haven't seen it yet, it's still new for them" excuse they used for recycling tasks on TAR Australia.

[legaleagle44]

Yeah,I recognized several of the tasks as having been ripped-off -- er, I mean recycled -- from other versions. Also, it looks as though this is going to be more of a race around the Philippines than an actual race around the world, but I don't have a problem with that because the Philippines are gorgeous.

[SnideAsides]

I think it helps they're showing different landscapes, the same way China Rush works when it could so easily be twelve city-based legs in a row. To some extent, what this show is doing right is exactly what the US version is doing wrong at the moment.

[legaleagle44]

The fifth leg had an interesting use of the greeter at the Pit Stop. She was the Mother Superior of the convent that served as the Pit Stop, and she was also the judge of the final task, in which the teams had to count the number of steps they had to climb in order to reach the Pit Stop, and then tell her the correct number before Derek could check them in. If they got it wrong (which several teams did -- repeatedly), she'd send them back down to the bottom of the steps to start over.

I've never seen a greeter used that way before on any other version of TAR, and I have to say that I liked it.

[SnideAsides]

Ooooh, that sounds like a good idea. (I think the closest we've had before is that lantern-arranging task TAR Asia and TAR Australia both did in Macau, where you had to get the puzzle right for the door to the Pit Stop to open.)