Delve Into Lunacy

I read an article today on MSNBC.com that is making me dread the show even more than I already had been.

For starters, I’m just not a fan of “family” editions of shows. They tend to focus on the idea that everyone in America finds all children and their zany antics cute. Unfortunately, there are enough jackasses out there that really do feel this way that the networks keep making these shows to cater to them. Now I know some of the things kids do really are cute and humorous, but these shows tend to focus on children that act so horribly that they deserve a good caning along with their parents for allowing the behavior. I originally thought the show was limiting kids to no younger than 12 which in my opinion is too young. Do the family thing but require them to be at least 16. The rumor now is that they have allowed kids as young as 8 which is just ridiculous.

My second fear with the show is that they wouldn’t be able to go anywhere interesting. I was getting tired of the requisite trip to India every season but a lot of the best episodes occurred in places where the local culture combined with a language barrier put the contestants as far out of their comfort zones as possible. The locations in the world that typically do this (and that are safe enough for them to travel to) also tend to be backwaters where you don’t have huge vans and such available at the drop of the hat. With teams of four people, be it families or otherwise, along with at least one cameraman per team it just becomes too difficult logistically to take them somewhere like that and keep everyone together.

Well, now it seems that they possibly won’t even be leaving North America. I guess they’ve repeatedly been seen filming in numerous areas in the Northeast and also in Canada…far more often than if they were just there for one or two legs of the race. To me the “amazing” part of the race was the fact that they were traveling around the world and I was pissed last season when they didn’t actually circumnavigate the globe. To stay in North America is even worse since it turns it from being an amazing race into just a wild family summer vacation and nothing more.

I know I’ll end up watching the show, but damn it feels like a kick in the nuts that one of most acclaimed reality shows out there is going this route. Thank god we already know that season 9 will be back to just two person teams.