The time to capitalize in the "keep a secret, break the code" fever after the undeniable selling success of Dan Brown's novel is right now. Hollywood did it first, so focused in seizing the heat of the moment that almost completely neglected any quality control despite the millions it poured on that lousy film.
Now is TV time. Would it spoil it as Hollywood did?
TV approach looked to maximize results by melting in the reality-show factor, an ingredient that by these days is very convenient to include in the mind diet of TV producers and managers.
I have to be honest; I was waiting for the same mediocre Hollywood-like outcome. The promotions already showed too elaborated scenes, too many high quality shots, too much convenient camera angles, and too bright and immaculate artifacts imprinted with codes and clues, that seemed to drift away that reality ambiance so well delivered by jewels of the genre like Amazing Race.
I gave the new show a chance anyway. Of course, it is not the Race, but after the tedious introduction including all the sponsors paraphernalia it was easy to realize that many millions were poured here too. With half of the teams starting in Alaska, and the other half in Hawaii, with no shortage of helicopters, boats or airplanes, soon it was clear this was not going to be a cheap show and that the stakes were high.
The selection of the teams followed some simple standard rules: some hot chicks, some hot guys, the Afro-American team, and some other grouping stereotypes we are already used to see. That's how you have the Miss USA team and the Grad Females covering the brainless-pageant and the party-girls slots, the Geniuses and Young Pros to fulfill the intelligence-college-success fantasy trilogy, the pastor and family, the ex-CIA and the Air Force teams, and the Afro-American buddies because this show has to be so politically correct as any other. One fresh addition though are the red necks from Texas (hard to believe they can even crack how not to lose on the tac-tic-toe but they might surprise later in the show).
All these said, I've to concede that even the too long two-hours premiere, this is not a completely disposable show, and might be a decent exercise to avoid desperate boredom until the new season of the Amazing Race launches.
The pros: excellent production, outstanding imagery and locations, acceptable tasks and tests (code-crackers don't expect any challenge here though), and what seems will be an ambitious journey that will extend beyond borders. You also will receive a little refreshment of high school elemental history as a bonus.
On the other side not very convincing participants. Hard time believing they are "real", some scenes were too obviously mounted and acted, some cameras shots very improbable in an actual low-scripted reality race. And of course so many things so neat and bright that's hard to figure out how the participants get to look more than decent even though in the same day they had to swim, climb, rappel, get soak, etc. Another thing I didn't like is that although this was supposed to be a more brainy contest than usual, again most of the success relies on demanding physical tasks closer to Survivor than to a family-friendly race. And that's why casting an overweight member for the Afro-American team seems an act of cruelty, even more when you see the guy actually can barely transport his body on a horizontal surface, and watch him drowning not once but twice, and suffering to climb a mountain after.
As I said before, nothing new or outstanding will be achieved by this show, but suitable for the low expectations of summer TV.
"Watchable".
