When I last blogged about this season of “The Amazing Race”, it had just premiered, and I gave some preliminary thoughts on the racers and the series. I got a few things very right (“Brook and Claire seem nice enough, but I think they’re this season’s token “Teams That OD on the Adrenalin Rush and Chest Bump After Every Small Accomplishment”) and a few things very wrong (“Nick and Vicki will be gone next week”)…but looking back, what do I think now that they’re down to the top four?
For starters, I stand by my assertion that the more the racers drive themselves around, the less interesting the race gets. Gary and Mallory’s elimination was almost entirely without suspense, despite the best efforts of the Race’s editing team, because when you spend nine hours driving around looking for the first clue, it’s a pretty good bet that everyone else gets a free pass to the next leg. Admittedly, taxi roulette isn’t much better, as Andie and Jenna found, but I think that maybe the challenges need to be a little more challenging in order to give late racers a chance to catch up. There have only been a few really tricky challenges this year; most have them have been time-consuming in a way that doesn’t allow the racers’ skills to give them a chance to shave off much time. A task that takes everyone an hour is a task that might as well not be there.
Still, there have been some good innovations. The Double U-Turn changed the U-Turn from a “fuck you, you’re eliminated” to a real race-leveling tool; since two teams got stuck with it, you were still racing against someone on the same terms as you. I still don’t feel any need to have the U-Turners need to put up their picture itself–I think it creates Drama in one of the few reality shows that’s a lot of fun even when it’s totally Drama-free–but if someone really feels like holding a grudge against the person who U-Turned them instead of going after the strongest competition, I can’t stop them.
As to the remaining racers…well, I’m thrilled beyond belief that Chad and Stephanie are gone. I was seriously starting to think of them as the cockroaches of the Amazing Race, thoroughly unpleasant and yet somehow surviving everything that was thrown at them. I was slightly saddened that Gary/Mallory and Michael/Kevin got eliminated, since they seemed to be having fun with the Race (and doing better than most parent/child teams do) but such is life. And now, I’d like to see Jill/Thomas and Nick/Vicki gone, or at the very least not winning the Race. Both guys are nasty and mean to their girlfriends (especially Nick, who really does behave like he’d like to hit Vicki if the cameras weren’t on them) and I don’t want to see them anymore. But with three episodes left (I’m guessing that this week will end with a split leg) I still can’t say I know who will win. Which is at least one thing they’re doing right.
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Tonight will probably be non-elimination. Hopefully, one of the female teams (Nat & Kat, Brook & Claire) will end up with the win, because the alternatives (Jill & Thomas, Nick & Vicki) are nowhere near as attractive.
You better enjoy this season now, because we’ll be getting an “all-star” season next year. Here’s the list of contestants. Note that one of the pairs lasted two episodes. TWO. There’s also another that was out in three legs, but there was a big tragedy (well, big in reality TV terms) connected to it). Hopefully, we won’t have an ending as ugly as the odious Eric & Danielle winning like in TAR11, despite the fact that the former was a closet case, and the latter had zero business being an “all-star.”
Aw, shit. I had heard somewhere that Ron & Christina from TAR14 was in there. But Amanda & Kris only lasted four legs . . . the same as the “tragic” Zev & Justin from the ensuing season. Sorry for not checking things out beforehand.
Ron and Christina from AR 12 you mean? As far as I can tell, they’re in. Did you mean to say Steve and Linda, who only lasted 2 eps in 14?
Yeah, I meant Steve & Linda. I can be really confused at times.
In other news, if Nick & Vicki win, it might go down as the worst ending ever . . . perhaps in the history of reality television. Nick is the douchebag to end all douchebags. He’s a jerk, a numbskull, and he friggin’ quit the Detour. Get him and Vicki the hell out of there.
Some perspective, folks.
1.) Thomas isn’t even one of the fifty worst guys to ever Race. He’s a bit of a jackass, but he’s generally supportive and he and Jill don’t fight much. They’re just an unremarkably competent couple, that’s all.
2.) Nick probably makes top five worst guys in Race history, but no way does he beat Wil from TAR 2, biggest passive-agresshole in TAR history; Eric and/or Jeremy, the fratboys from TAR 9; and especially not Jonathan from TAR 6, who was all but beating his wife on-air.
Well, it was non-elimination, as you thought. My wife noticed that Phil wasn’t doing his big “You’re team # in the finale” speech as people arrived at the pit stop. I was happy to see the winner this time around.
Actually, if that’s the real list of contestants for 18, there’s a few I’m happy to see. Marge and Luke, for one, and my gf will be thrilled to hear that Kynt and Vyxsin are back.