The Final Three

As another season of The Amazing Race was coming to a close I wasn’t sure how to react. I know that I missed the days of the winner being undetermined until the last minutes. Remember all the taxi paying debacles of the past? The last few years it has always felt like one team takes the lead early on and no one can catch up. Here a fatal mistake (thinking a random home furnishing superstore would be stop on the race) cost one team the million. Also, the team everyone feared (home field advantage) ended up taking themselves out of the race on the first task. Click through to see how the Season Finale of The Amazing Race 19 ended. Read the rest of this entry »

Finally someone goes home!

Has everyone come out of their turkey comas? Recovered from getting pepper sprayed for Black Friday deals? Trying to wade through 150 items in their Google reader? Thankfully, Sunday rolled around and I could finally get new TV episodes. I was getting antsy after an entire day of American Picker.

The race starts where we left off last week. Amani and Marcus got to the Pit Stop and were told the next leg was starting immediately. Ernie and Cindy were hot on their tails and Team Who weren’t far behind. Team Snowboarders and Old People were still trying to show off their muscles correctly. Once again teams had to drive themselves to their next destination, the Ford Proving Grounds in Belgium.

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Not again...

Another Monday morning and once again there are the same number of teams left in The Amazing Race. For once it’s not about a team getting a reprieve. We get a “to be continued” as soon at the first team hits the mat. I really enjoyed the episode, so there’s that.

We begin the leg where we left it and the teams are given their first clue. They must drive and find the statue of Hans Christian Andersen.

ROADBLOCK The statue has a very apt quote about traveling (Get it? They’re on a race!) that they have to memorize. Then they use the map on the wheel of their bike to find a theater. There they must perform the poem with “dramatic flair.” Which for some racers was just throwing their arms around. If they screw up they have to go back to the statue and start over. Cindy and Ernie are the first to arrive (they had a 1 1/2 hour lead on the next two groups and a 3 hour lead on Team WHO.) It’s pretty hilarious when a tour bus full of people shows up and blocks her view of the statue. I thought it was part of the race, but it looks like she was just unlucky. She quickly gets to the theater and performs with more dramatic flair than I thought she was capable of. Cathi and Tommy both get lost trying to get to theater. Amani, with distraction training from Marcus, is able to memorize the poem, find the theater, and get her clue before the other two could find the theater. Marcus is really proud of her and of course used a football analogy to explain it.  Cathi finally finds the theater but has to complete it again because she screwed up one word. Tommy on the other hand forgot to do it with any drama at all. He seemed pissed about it but Cathi even said as they passed each other to do it with drama. He looked like he was trying to remember his grocery list. Sandy also lacked drama so she had to go back too. Read the rest of this entry »

*Can I just say I’ve never heard of a shot ski and had to look it up on the internets. Am I really that sheltered?

Finally we get some action and a finish that was unexpected. The race begins in Africa but they are soon on to an Amazing Race first, Copenhagen! While they are told they have flights already arranged most try to find something faster. Team Adventure immediately decide to just go to London and figure it out from there. Everyone else remains on the flights to Amsterdam. Once in Amsterdam everyone but Team Ex-NFL find a flight that gets them to Denmark that night. Amani & Marcus don’t even think about checking on different flights and decide to sleep. Must I reiterate the number one rule on TAR. Always make sure you can see another team at the airport. Especially if you were all together at some point. It’s called a race for a reason. If not for a desination in Copenhagen that opened in the morning, Team Ex-NFL would have been SOL. Lucky for them they were only an hour or two behind and not twelve. The race would have been over before they even got on the plane.

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Looks like being on the Left is bad juju. Watch Team Ex-NFL!

I thought last night’s show was actually quite entertaining. Not only did one of my least favorite teams go home, but they brought back the Double U-turn. Too bad no one actually used it to change the game. Baby steps, people.

This week were still kickin’ it in Malawi. The racers get their clue and find out “Caution Double U-turn ahead.” They must go to a bus station and hop on a very overcrowded bus. It’s obvious the 7am bus isn’t leaving until all team members are on it. They wait until Amani and Marcus show up before taking off. It could be they just want every bus to be full before taking off, but I’m skeptical. Once they arrive at their destination, there is an immediate Roadblock.

ROADBLOCK One person must hop on a bike and become a taxi driver to a Malawian delivering fish. Because the roadblocks in the past have been so physically demanding a lot of the girls chose to perform this task to even out the numbers. Some teams had problems. Andy’s bike broke down and he had to have some of the locals help him patch it back together. If not for his misstep they would have been quite a bit ahead of the rest of the group. Laurence and Sandy got lost looking for their delivery point and Jennifer, aka annoying sister, didn’t take her clue with her. She decided, instead of heading back to get the clue, to wait around at the road to the village. She was hoping one of the other teams would ride by and she could ask to see their clue. They don’t say how long she waited, but I can only guess it was a really long time. I would have stuck around for five minutes then gotten out of there. It is really, really bad news if you don’t know where the other teams are. I understand her not wanting to have to ride back,  but not knowing is much worse. Cindy and Andy are the first teams done and they rush off to the next task. Read the rest of this entry »

Elimination? We don't need no stinkin' Elimination.

Ugh, I have a confession to make. I was really, really disappointed by The Amazing Race this week. Do you realize that we’ve been at it for a month and a half and we’ve only had three elimination legs? Three. That’s insane! I expect people to GO HOME. They expect to go home. Why is no one going home!?!?! Don’t get me wrong, I really like Amani & Marcus. There are teams I would like to go home before they do, but this is ridiculous! I’m not sure I can put up with much more of this. I’m approaching this post without a whole lot of enthusiasm so excuse me if I miss any of the good stuff.

The teams begin the leg with instructions to fly to Malawi. You know, Madonna’s African country of choice when picking out a cute brown baby to adopt. I can see why she likes Malawi so much. The people seem genuinely nice and all the kids at the school were super cute, but I’m getting ahead of myself. All teams end up on the same flight so it’s luck of the draw, in both airplane seats and taxi cabs, as to who gets to The Roadblock first. Read the rest of this entry »

The production team seems to be trying to save money in more ways than one this season. Not only are they staying in Thailand for a another leg of the race (therefore giving Team Twins a snowball’s chance in Hell of catching up), but they also didn’t give the teams enough money to complete the leg. If I heard correctly they gave them $86 at the start, but the truck cab drivers charged them $150 US/4500 baht for all the driving around Phuket. While most of the teams had no problems because they’ve been hoarding their money, Team Twins were out of money and struggling.

Team Snowboarders came away with a pretty decent lead last week as they left an hour before Team Annoying. The brother/sister duo had a 45 minute lead over the next group. Team Twins were 3 hours behind Team Snowboarders and an hour behind Team Old People. I’m really not sure why they had a non-elimination last week. Though I’m sure Team Twins didn’t care because they were in hog heaven. Read the rest of this entry »

Yeah, that's right, another non-elimination leg!

It’s time once again to hop on a plane and get out of Dodge. It’s off to Phuket, Thailand. Team Snowboarders and Team Adventure decide to head to Jakarta to have more opportunities for flights. Right away I’m telling them through the TV that it’s pretty risky. Always book a through flight and then try to find a faster one later. They fly off and the rest of the teams get a flight with just one layover. Once at the airport “the boys,” as the rest of the teams call them, find out they have to fly through Bangkok.  When they arrive in Phuket  the Taxi Lady of Doom delivers the bad news that all the other teams have been through an hour ago. Their only chance is having something that doesn’t open til morning.  Luckily that is the case and all teams have to wait until 8am to get their next clue. Of course, Team Snowboarders are the first to get to the clue. Those boys are scrappy.

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Another one bites the dust!

Argh!  I don’t know what is going on with these contestants this season.  Most of them can’t read the clues properly and even when they give the answer to the Roadblock, they muck it up.  I don’t want to use the “dumber than a box of rocks” phrase, but damn they are earning it left and right.

This week, instead of getting on a plane and therefore having all the teams catch up to one another, they get on bikes.  They wear cute safari hats/outfits and pedal through town.  The only notable chance in placement was when Team OCD were sidelined by a bike malfunction.  Cindy, of course, flips out and they fall to second to last.  After a talking head that told us all about Cindy’s Amazing Race boot camp-language instruction, geography lessons, exercise training, you name it-I was sure they were goners.  Everyone got their instructions to take a taxi to a restaurant and I was hopeful they would have to eat something gross.  Unfortunately it was just a regular Detour.

DETOUR-Rice Field OR Grass Fed  In Grass fed they had to get a full bag of grass, a couple sheep, and then head to a well where they filled a water trough.  It was a bit tricky for some as they didn’t get their bags filled to the brim with grass and had to go back.  Team snowboarders were first to the Detour and had to go back.  That allowed Team Adventure to catch up.  While getting water the Dad suggested they get more buckets.  Unfortunately for them, it specifically stated in the rules they could only use two buckets.  Team Snowboarders tried to tell them, “Read your clue, guys,” but they didn’t listen.

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