I used to love the TV show, "The Amazing Race." It's the only reality show I could even tolerate. Every series starts out with about a dozen couples -- spouses, brothers, sisters, friends, parents-kids, whatever -- who have to chase clues to get around the world. In order to get their clues, they perform various tasks, like eating weird food, jumping out of airplanes, bungi jumping, constructing replica offerings to the gods of various cultures, etc. Every show, they end up at some checkpoint, and the last pair to arrive is eliminated from the race. At the end, there's usually only three couples left, and whoever finishes first wins $1 million.
I loved the show because it goes to so many different countries and cultures, and through the tasks, the contestants usually have to participate in some way in that country's culture and traditions. Very cool, I thought. But there's occasionally little incidents. I remember one episode where a cabbie in Morocco drove one pair of racers to what proved to be an enthusiastically jihadist village and left them there. Apparently the show's producers had to hassle with the embassies to ensure the racers' safety and get them back in the race.
Anyway, tonight the racers went to Hanoi, Vietnam. The show has sent people there in earlier series. No big deal. Except....
The task they had to do there was to watch a little live show of singing and dancing, memorize a couple lines from the show, and go into an adjoining room and find a poster -- one of dozens -- that displayed the words from the song.
Well, the racers only heard the songs in Vietnamese, but a translation ran at the bottom of the screen. One of the lines went, "Praise to the glorious communist party!"
What? she asks to an indiffierent TV set. Another entertainment, The Manchurian Candidate, came immediately to mind. Also visions of US POWs in various places being filmed as they mouth kind words and swear loyalty to a varied range of vicious dictatorships -- their other alternative being torture and death. And, of course, Hanoi Jane Fonda playing house on an anti-aircraft cannon. Among other things.
I turned the channel at that point. Went to the show's Facebook page and like dozens of other viewers, left a message about how disturbing this episode was. And the others had watched the whole show. Stronger stomachs than mine.
I learned from them that after the racers got hold of the correct poster, they were sent to a crashed B52 that had been shot down during the war to retrieve the next clue. The shattered plane is apparently a memorial of some kind. (I doubt it commemorates the same thing to the Vietnamese as it does to me, however.)
And the at the end of the show, it seems the producers decided to replay the "I love communism" song over the ending credits. Nice touch, nicely adding injury to insult.
I'm really appalled. Some people at the Facebook page talk about how the show is intended for us all to experience other cultures, and after all, the USA "invaded" Vietnam and the Vietnamese have every right to hate us.
I suggest that people who want to "experience" Hanoi should consult Senator John McCain about his very extended stay there. And, gosh, he even arrived via a crashed USAF aircraft!
The show is produced by Bruckhimer Films, heavily sponsored by Travelocity.
I'm never going to watch it again.
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