Territorial Bloggings

I’ve held off on writing anything about the latest all-star installment of The Amazing Race. Why? Well, mainly to see how things shake down, given the somewhat strong impressions that each team created during their first stints on TAR. I had ideas going in on what I would like & dislike about each team, but I didn’t want that to (overly) color what I wrote, so I decided to wait until after the second episode, which aired last night.

I find TAR to be about the most interesting and enjoyable of the realitytv shows. For example, it has an integrity that The Apprentice doesn’t. It’s not as angsty, clique-y, or manipulative as Survivor, and it’s nowhere near as all-consuming as American Idol. It’s not perfect, but it’s darned entertaining to watch, especially when teams know that — as Rob pointed out last night — running against the course is the main point, not running against the other teams.

That all said, my three favorite teams are: Rob & Amber (aka Romber), Dustin & Kandace (aka the/my Blondes), and Danny & Oswald (aka, Team Cha-Cha-Cha or Cha3). I would quite happy if any of these three won. They’re all strong, smart racing teams, who understand the main purpose of the race. Cha3 is great because they bring a genuine niceness & laugh-out-loud snarky sense of humor (”I must’ve been a man in a previous life!) to the race. Romber is, well, Romber — they psychological sense they inject into the race is hugely fascinating, and they are funny to boot. I just like watching them, and I don’t find their status as realitytv royalty to be problematic (like so many folks seem to…). My Blondes are almost as good as Romber in terms of understanding the advantage of psychology in the race, and they race smart & hard. And they look good, too…
The next group are teams that I respect and don’t mind seeing on my tv: Terri & Ian, Joe & Bill (aka Team Guido), and Eric & Danielle (aka Team Mashup). Terri & Ian are a love-or-hate-em team, and I like them. They race hard, but they don’t whine about other teams being “not nice” or “unfair.” Ian is brusque, but neither gives, nor asks for any quarter — and I respect that. The Guidos are a good team and I respect how they race. I could do without some of their more “life-partnerish” stuff (but that’s probably just because I find the more “Birdcagey” gayness of Cha3 to be more tolerable…). Team Mashup is interesting because they are the one new team, and while I liked the Double-Ds far more than the Frat Boys in TAR:9, I think that as Team Mashup, they work well together.

Joyce & Uchenna get their own mention, as a team that isn’t all that annoying/offensive, while still being one that I don’t like or respect all that much. I find their just-barely-under-the-surface tension & unhappiness to be sad, and I don’t like to be genuinely sad when watching realitytv. That they’re subjecting their relationship to another round of “This race will make or break this floundering relationship.” is sad. Oh yeah, and I find them somewhat annoying. I’d rather have seen Chip & Kim.

The final two teams left in the race fall into the “Get them the hell off my tv! ” category: David & Mary (aka Kentucky/KY) and Charla & Mirna (aka Shmirna). KY is annoying mainly because I can’t stand Mary. She’s a shrew, a defeatist, a self-deluded elitest of the trailer-park, and purveyor of fine whines & double-standards. Other than that, she might be ok now that she’s gotten her teeth fixed. In a way, it was fun to see KY gravitate to the final team, only to turn on them shortly after feeling dissed. Shmirna truly are what many mistakenly accuse Romber of being: deluded realitytv whores. They were almost endearingly annoying in their original season; now, however, they have fully crossed the line into delusion & darned-near psychotic drama. It was bad enough last night that they fought with my Blondes, or that so much drama was generated by dragging the step-stool at the detour (”I’m bleeeeeeeding!”), but to add the scarily psycho behavior with the cab driver and the hella-delusional holier-than-thou busting on the Blondes (Raging about morals, plastic surgery, & purity of heart? Seriously? Really? Yikes!), well that was just off the charts wacko. And it’s even scarier that they meant it seriously.

As for the eliminated teams, it was too bad to see Jill & John Vito eliminated first - that was just bad luck for them, because they looked to be a pretty good contender. Kevin & Drew’s elimination last night was neither surprising nor unwelcome. It was pretty obvious that Drew was not up to the rigors of the race, and contrary to his contention last night, he seemed to have pretty clearly given up (albeit not in a bad way, if you know what I mean…). What’s surprising is that the producers didn’t know about Drew’s frailties beforehand — the race would’ve been better served if a more physically ready/capable team had been included, say Kris & Jon or even (shudder) the Hippies.

I think that this is going to end up being a very entertaining installment of TAR, despite what many critics are saying. I like what the producers did, by going with a good mix of personalities rather than just by going with top finishers. This was a lesson that the Survivor producers either didn’t learn, or chose to ignore when they put together their all-star edition.

I’m more than happy to just sit back & enjoy the fun of watching some old favorites race & interact…

-ghp