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by Raul Burriel Published: September 26, 2005
The Amazing Race, in a nutshell, takes several teams of two people, each couple with a pre-existing relationship (married, brother and sister, divorced parents, frat buddies, etc.) and sends them on a race around the world. The teams are provided with a series of clues and must complete challenges along the way. At the end of each week, a team is eliminated until one team is finally declared the winner of The Amazing Race. The premise is stunning in its simplicity. It's a modern day Around the World in 80 Days and host Phil Keoghan is your Passepartout. The initial season of The Amazing Race was filmed in March and April of 2001 and started in New York City. Watching the bus carrying the contestants cross into Manhattan with the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in background is eerie. The first episode of the series aired a week before the tragedy of 9/11. The next episode aired two weeks later. The show was a welcome respite from the non-stop "end of the world" coverage and was also a window into a more innocent time. The boxed set of The Amazing Race: The First Season does great justice to this incredible reality show and is a must have for any fan of reality TV. In addition to collecting the entire first season (if you missed it on GSN, this would be your first chance to catch it since it originally aired), it also includes commentaries on selected episodes, several featurettes, deleted scenes, and an entirely omitted Roadblock! Bonus Features Reality shows are great water cooler fodder. They're also great to watch with friends. Watching it on a DVR like a Tivo or ReplayTV makes it even better because you can pause it to comment, or rewind to catch something you've missed. DVD gives you all these features. Plus, the commentaries make it feel like you're actually watching the episodes with these people. You get four commentaries on four pivotal episodes. Lovable lummoxes and frat buddies Drew & Kevin and divorced couple Karyn & Lenny comment on the first episode, "The Race Begins", and the episode that takes the teams to India, "Triumph And Loss". Pretty-boy lawyers and buddies Rob & Brennan and the infamous gay couple Team Guido (Bill & Joe) comment on "Whatever It Takes To Win" (the episode featuring the infamous scene in the Tunis airport) and the finale, "Race To The Finish (Part 2)". Listening to the commentaries, I'm not at all surprised at how much dislike Drew & Kevin and Karyn & Lenny had for Team Guido, but I'm surprised at how much they disliked Rob & Brennan as well, so it makes sense to have paired the lawyers with Team Guido for their commentaries, as they complemented each other nicely. You get a lot of behind-the-scenes information from the commentaries but you also get the feeling that they're forbidden from talking about some elements. Maybe it's because they're just regular people and not part of the production crew, but listening to the commentaries feels like you're watching the show with buddies. It almost feels like you're discussing things with them, as they always seem to hit on just the right subject. My only disappointment with the commentaries was that there weren't more of them. Certainly having all the teams comment on all the episodes would have been unfeasible as there would have been too many voices, but commentaries on only four of the 13 episodes isn't right. Nine episodes go without commentary. I would love to have heard from Frank & Margarita or Nancy & Emily. In addition to the commentary, we get 90 minutes of additional footage which is accessible through branching in each episode. Hit Enter or Select when the icon appears and see stuff you hadn't seen before. There's a lot of stuff involving contestants addressing the camera directly, but you also see a lot of the camaraderie in the race (like Nancy bandaging Drew's cut hand only minutes into the initial stage of the race). Featurettes include interviews with the same four teams found in the commentaries, as well as with the co-creators and executive producers (including Jerry Bruckheimer) and host Phil Keoghan. Again, it's a missed opportunity to not have had all the teams involved here. In fact, during the commentary to the final episode, Rob & Brennan lament on how the entire cast hasn't been reunited since the finale. Finally, you'll also find "The Lost Roadblock", an entire segment that was cut from the first episode. In it, contestants must cook a giant ostrich egg and eat it. And now we know why Kevin was covered in raw egg when he crossed the finish line in the first episode. The Amazing Race is an incredible series and the first season was among the best of the lot, rivaled perhaps only by the seventh season when ex-Survivors Rob & Amber competed. This set has almost everything you would want from a DVD collection, and it's the next best thing to having Drew & Kevin sitting next to you on the sofa. |
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