Memories of Amazing Races Past

The Palamino, er, Palermo leg just proved what we already know about this season's crew: The Hippies and the Frats are way, way better than all the other teams. Rolanda are strong physically, but it doesn't make up for their weaknesses in other areas, i.e. everything else to do with the race. Lake is more strange than evil. Franimal does just fine when the leg is stupid easy and involves no serious physical challenges (now if only the producers would stop hiding those darn clue boxes in plain sight. . . ). Nerd Love are in lurve, but that doesn't change the fact that they are s-l-o-w. Monica is blonde and not dumb at all, no matter how she's edited (did you giggle when her voiceover about not being a dumb blonde was dubbed over footage of her mispronouncing "Palermo" repeatedly? I did.) And the Pink Ladies had no business being in this race. And now they're gone.

Watching the Pinks mutilate the clutch on that Eurotrash pseudocar, I couldn't help but think that if a) I knew I was going to be on the Amazing Race, and b) I didn't know how to drive stick, I'd spend every waking moment between the time I got the news until I left to start the race doing nothing but PRACTICING DRIVING STICK! (I think the same kind of thing when I see yet another season's worth of Survivors struggle to make fire. If you knew you were going to be on the show, wouldn't you run out to the back yard and figure out how to make fire? It seems like a no-brainer.) Anyway, since they couldn't even drive a fracking car, there was no hope for those two. Adios. Surprisingly, it did take a yield by Lake and Michelle to knock them out. But it's funny that the yield actually served to keep a team in the game that, despite running one stinker of a leg this time, is probably slightly more of a threat to Lake and Michelle over the long haul. Oh well--it really doesn't matter. None of the other teams can compete with the Frats and the Hippies.

Speaking of the Hippies, they won major points this episode with their "Bowling Moms" t-shirts, a fun shout-out to a great team from one of the Race's best seasons (I think it was season 5). And I say that as someone who's seen every episode of every installment of this series (minus Family Edition, which I stopped watching after a few episodes). Man, that season had it all. Good (Chip & Kim) vs. Evil (Colin & Christie) in a race to the very end, with bumbling Good celebrating an improbable and immensely satisfying triumph over the ruthlessly efficient Evil ; big-haired eye candy ("The Dating Christian Virgin Models"), the self-esteem team that was also competent (the aforementioned Bowling Moms, who finished 4th), and a trash-talking, sh*t-kicking midget and her bad-attitude, Russian Mafia cousin (Mirna & Charla). Now THAT was a cast. Also, they had to spend a lot of time slogging through Third World countries, which this season's crew hasn't faced yet. In short, I've seen better from The Amazing Race than what we've seen so far. Maybe things will pick up soon. If not, well, I guess I could always start buying the DVD sets of previous seasons, when The Amazing Race truly was amazing. But it's still a good show, so I'll keep tuning in religiously.