March 22, 2005

Let me start off by saying that a lot of the tension of the Race is philiminated when you dislike all three of the lagging teams. Let's review:

Ray & Deanna: are hateful. Ray hates Deanna, old people, skinny people and even horses. Deanna probably should hate Ray, but apparently doesn't. At least today (hence the "dating on and off" tag). They have this incredible sense of entitlement about where they should be in the race but have done nothing other than follow Rob's coattails in a leg to earn it. You've got to earn it, baby. Although, to balance this all out with something nice, I did giggle when Ray assured Deanna that her horse wasn't broken. Any reference to Colin's classic "My ox is BROKEN!" exclamation from Season 5 is a good thing.

Meredith & Gretchen: seem like a perfectly nice couple, but they're so damn inept. Tonight they had to be told to catch a cab at the taxi stand. The taxi stand? Who would have thought of THAT? Once you hit a certain age, you must also clearly lose any sense of what the word "hurry" means. Of course, perhaps that just means that Meredith has a "slow hand" if you know what I mean. And believe me, Gretchen does. She's something of a dirty old woman, isn't she? Last week it was asking Meredith if he wanted mouth to mouth, not to mention her sly insinuation of the ways she makes it up to him for being so annoying. This week she referred to the three trailing teams as a "menage a trois". I shudder to think of what she'll come up with next.

Susan & Patrick: are whiners. Well, I shouldn't say that about Susan, but Patrick certainly is. If he "whatever"ed one more time tonight I was ready to leap through the TV screen to give him a piece of my mind. But, to his credit, in his post-Philimination comments, he did seem to gain a little self-awareness. I laughed out loud when he said that maybe he needed to lighten up a little bit. Maybe? You think?

Now on to the teams with a real chance of winning.

Rob & Amber: were simply awesome again. Sure they lucked out in finding the roadblock so easily, but Rob did it quickly enough for them to catch up to the top four teams. I loved the moment where they boarded the plane. The other teams can bitch (and to a certain extent, rightly so) about Rob giving up on the meat roadblock, but the simple fact is that when the teams start at the same point, Rob & Amber inevitably find their way to the lead.

Brian & Greg: have regained their spot as my favorite team. I don't think they're anywhere near the racers that Rob & Amber are, but they're not bad and I'm a sucker for their dorkiness. However, it seems like they're not very careful sometimes. I worry that they'll be the team that misreads a clue and totally blows a detour one of these times.

Uchenna & Joyce: are continuing to charm me. I thought she showed admirable spunk when she got bucked off her wild horse again and again, but got right back on and kept trying to complete the roadblock. I suspect that Deanna would have completely fallen apart in that situation. Of course, Uchenna is a much better partner than Ray too. These two just have an engaging quality about them that I enjoy watching.

Ray & Kelly: are still non-entities to me. In fact, I nearly posted this recap before I realized I had forgotten about them. They're this year's Team Who.

Lynn & Alex: Ugh. These two bug the hell out of me. Their boat is sinking and all they can think about is how happy they are that Rob & Amber aren't near them. Newsflash fellas: the name of the show isn't "The Amazing Race To Beat Rob & Amber". They've got to get over this fixation they have with those two. It's annoying to watch and I think teams have enough to do worrying about themselves, without having to constantly keep an eye out for another team.

Overall, I thought tonight's episode was the worst of the season, although it's still much better than last year. The tasks weren't that interesting and the teams didn't really have any interaction with the locals. Even the animal-related task was a little disappointing.

Next week, on the other hand, looks well, amazing. The teams head to Africa and, in the 30 second preview we saw: Meredith falling and bleeding badly, Uchenna and Joyce (who haven't been able to conceive) on an emotional visit to an orphanage and Brian & Greg in a terrible car crash (oh no!). It looks fantastic and I can't wait.

Previous Recaps:

Episode 1
Episode 2
Episode 3

Another take on the episode from the Viking Pundit.

Posted by kris at March 22, 2005 09:26 PM

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