Review: “Take the Money and Run” is Good Combination of “Law and Order” and “The Amazing Race”

I love when networks take risks with shows.  They don’t do it very often.  With reality or game shows, nine times out of ten we see either a Millionaire clone or an Amazing Race clone.  The risk takers are remembered.  No one outside of the genre-focused people remembers a show like Set For Life.  People remember shows that didn’t last that long, like The Mole, for being different and unique.  ABC’s taking a chance on a new spy thriller-styled game/reality show Take The Money and Run (Tuesday, August 2nd at 9:00PM ET), and I’m glad they did.  The Wild Rover-created competition is very intense, very different than anything on American television, very fun, and hopefully very successful.

Take The Money and Run could not be any simpler.  However, it’s cinematic nature adds great layers and depth.  A couple is given $100,000 in a briefcase by a mystery man.  The man handcuffs the case to one of them and gives them the key.  The couple is given a car and cell phone, and has one hour to hide the briefcase literally anywhere they can.  It can be hidden behind objects, buried in the ground, or really anywhere they can creatively hide it.  After the hour is up the couple is “arrested” by their competitors: two actual law officials, and taken to the station.  The couple is finger printed, placed in typical prisoner clothing, and locked up in jail cells apart from each other.

Rebecca Albano, an outlaw on ABC's "Take The Money and Run"

The law officials have 48 hours to find the briefcase of money.  Helping them are actual interrogators and law professionals Paul Bishop and Mary Stone.  These two go through intense interrogations with the contestants trying to break them down until they either give enough clues as to where the suitcase of cash is, or until they flat out say it.  Another item of help given to the team of detectives, since the case could literally be anywhere, is GPS coordinates of where the car went and cell phone records.  The team needs to be strategic and use both wisely in order to throw everyone off.  If the law officials find the briefcase of cash in 48 hours, the two split the $100,000.  If they don’t, the outlaw couple keeps the $100,000.

As you can tell from the description and the pictures we showed off earliery, the show shines because of its cinematic nature.  If they didn’t go through great lengths it would just be a typical hide-and-seek style reality show.  However, the careful details they add to each element of the show make it an hour long unscripted spy/crime drama each week.  You see the contestants actually break down in solitary.  Some of them can’t take it and crack.  Some play it up and make it through.  It’s treated like it’s real, and you get sucked into the action instantly.

Special mention should go out to Paul Bishop and Mary Stone.  These two play up the roles of interrogators perfectly.  They start out nice and we get to know the two outlaw contestants.  It’s like a host introducing contestants.  However, as the game progresses, you see the interrogators get more intense and try to break these two down to pieces.  They treat it like it’s real, and you can feel the tension.  Perfect casting with those two.

The action on screen is divided as well as they could.  The first act or so is spent watching the couple hide the money.  After that we

Paul Bishop, an interrogator on ABC's "Take The Money and Run"

see the couple being taken in, going through the prisoner routine, meeting the police, and initial interrogation.  The action is then split with the interrogations and clue-hunting with Paul and Mary; and police officials running through the city searching for the cash and canvasing the landscape and people on the street.  The only lull I felt was right when the couple went through the process of getting arrested and taken into the station, but it was a necessary evil.  It’s not enough to make me turn off at all.  It’s just something I’d fast forward if I have DVR.

Take The Money and Run is the perfect link connecting a crime drama and a reality show.  It’s Law and Order meets The Amazing Race.  Again, most of this is due to the great attention to detail the producers pump into the show.  You can tell when producers just go through the motions, and things like this make of break shows.  It makes this show.  There’s nothing like this on American television.  I’m really hoping people accept it, and they’re marketing it correctly.  If you’ve seen Law and Order‘s detective section, then you are instantly sucked in.  It’s tense, intense, and great summer fun.

Take The Money and Run debuts Tuesday, August 2nd, at 9:00PM ET on ABC.