The first shall be last, and the last shall be first. Chip and Kim won because they came in last on the events in Canada and so got on an earlier flight than Colin and Christie, and Brandon and Nicole who’s flight was delayed because the fog in Calgary kept their plane from landing the night before. So despite the maniacal efforts of C&Cs taxi driver in Dallas, C&K were able to hold the lead they got from the earlier flight. The two later teams also learned a lesson about airline safety — you can’t fly on a different flight from your bags (unless the airline goofs). 

I like Chip — he just seems like an easy going guy. My wife wasn’t happy with him because he lied to Brandon and Nicole, but I thought B&N were being lazy in letting Chip do all the work, and they shouldn’t have put that million dollar temptation in front of him. How hard was it to get out of the boat and jog over to the route marker? So my hats off to the big guy, and Kim, you’re along for the ride just like you were on the show (except for the hike up the mountain to the Continental Divide).

I was happy it just wasn’t Colin and Christie who won. Colin doesn’t think much of the editing of the show, but I’m sorry, it didn’t make up your multiple psychotic episodes. Colin proposed on the Early Show, and Christie accepted. Good luck to both of you, and I hope you never have the unrelenting stress that you experienced during the show.

I was bummed the Bowling Moms didn’t make it into the final three, but then they had to face the wall of death. OK, it wasn’t exactly that, but being strong and fit sure did help one scale that cliff. Is it just me, or have they increased the difficulty of a lot of the detours, roadblocks, and fastforwards? They always got your heart racing, but it seems that they also require strength, stamina, athleticism, all that stuff I have in such short supply. It was really nice to see a mature team keep up, play smart, and be such nice people.

The amazing thing in this episode is that my wife and I stayed in the hotel at the Calgary airport on our honeymoon. The one that the teams crossed the street from the terminal and then sacked out in some room. We went to Lake Louise for the honeymoon, and spent the first night of our marriage in Calgary.

I thought the finale was pretty taut, with good guys, villains (yes, Colin, I mean you), and some along for the ride (as much as my wife likes Brandon, I find him and Nicole a little, well, clueless). Jenspeaks also liked it, and has much more.

Tags: Amazing Race

Watching Colin rage while trying to plow up a clue in the Philippines was must see TV. I have to admit it was a guilty pleasure, since I know I can get pretty steamed when frustrated. In Colin’s defense (I never thought I’d write that), Christie sure didn’t help. If Kim could get down and dirty leading the Ox around (just like the other teams where both members worked together), why couldn’t Christie?

Watching them both fume at getting yielded was priceless, but what did they expect? The other teams aren’t going to do nothing to stop their string of first places. I have to wonder if the producers didn’t derail C&C in Singapore by asking (paying?) the airline to not board them. All that enjoyments was salve for C&C non being eliminated when they came in last. I guess they put those non-elimination legs in the race to pad the show out to the proper length while keeping the number of teams to a manageable level.

Next week we have the 2 hour finale to look forward to. I like 3 out of the 4 teams, and if Colin and Christie do win, at least they’ve provided a lot of the entertainment value of the show. I have to admit though, my wife is leaning towards the Brandon and Nicole team while I’m hoping for Linda and Karen AKA the bowling moms.

Tags: Amazing Race

Tuesday night I got back from working on the parade float (will Saturday ever come? — and will there be pictures?) and flopped down too dazed to realize that The Amazing Race was on. Lucky for me, my wife was on top of things and we got to see the twins come in last and get booted off. Yeah! Now I’m only rooting against half a team — Colin and Christie are the new Flo and Zach.

The most amazing thing this time around is how well the bowling moms are doing — Go Linda and Karen! The middle-aged lady teams never make it this far. No surprise from Chip and Kim though, when they got to the detour Kim told Chip “you’re doing it!” Come on Kim, do more than one thing the whole show. And what was this, Colin behaved himself? Colin was nice to Christie? No screaming fits, no stalking around glaring at people? The scenes from next week promise a big Colin meltdown, so there is that to look forward to. 

And what was with the fast forward on last week’s show? It just isn’t right to have people cut off all their hair as part of the show. At least they had the decency to make it a non-elimination leg, but what were they thinking? It is nothing like the other stuff contestants have had to do in the past and just seemed gratuitously cruel. I’m also getting tired of having the female contestants getting groped on trains in India, but at least that’s an unfortunate part of actual travel. Nobody’s using the fast forwards this time, so why discourage it with a stupid requirement like that?

It’s only a TV show. It’s only a TV show. It’s only a TV show. Yes, that helps.

Tags: Amazing Race

I have to admit I was disappointed that the last leg was a non-elimination leg on Amazing Race. Here was a chance to eliminate the twins, Kami and Karli, whose collective IQ seems to be lower than their independent IQ. Whenever they seem to just charge off and do something stupid, luck rescues them, whether in the form of Chip taking them where they need to go in Egypt or a non-elimination leg. 

Now that the truly obnoxious people are out except for Colin, he seems to be going out of his way to compensate. Maybe there was important footage left on the cutting room floor, but it sure looked like Colin tried to screw a poor taxi driver out of $50 – not a large sum to us, but I’m sure a large sum to a Tanzanian taxi driver. Getting into the taxi he agreed to a $100 fee, and happy to do so over the $150 demanded by the other drivers. Getting out of the taxi, he was inventing conditions like not driving on a spare and arriving in the same position he left. Not content with raving at the driver who went and got a police officer, he went ballistic at the police station and the police officers there. I think that without the camera’s rolling, Colin might have suffered a different outcome. What kind of lunatic risks jail in Tanzania over $50 that isn’t even his? What kind of women (that means you, Christie) puts up with someone as abusive as Colin? Colin and Christie just make me long for the days of Terry and Ian.

Last week I cheered when Mirna got the boot. It’s too bad Charla was partnered with her and so lost as well. Mirna was weak, whiny, bossy, obnoxious, a drama queen, in short, a Flo clone. Charla was the exact opposite. What helped them the most was the combination of Charla’s can-do spirit and their language ability. My cousin Linda should go on the show – I think there’s still one language out there she doesn’t know.

Two weeks ago I cheered when the brothers Marshall and Lance were eliminated, although Mirna and Colin came on strong in the obnoxious department after their departure. And it was too bad that they had to drop out due to one of them having a painful leg injury (OK, I couldn’t keep track of which was which). This week would have made it three in a row of teams I dislike being eliminated.

At this point, I wouldn’t mind a win by Brandon and Nicole, Chip and Kim, or Linda and Karen. Kami and Karli are too clueless and Colin is far too obnoxious — including being a complete jerk towards Christie after his meltdown at the police station. Given their track record, I don’t think Linda and Karen are going to pull out the victory, although if you get the right taxi driver in the final episode anything is possible. Chip has clearly emerged as the most likable of the contestants still in it, what with Bob and Joyce and Jim and Marsha gone. Kim is pretty quiet and seems content to let Chip do almost everything. Brandon and Nicole are too pretty, but otherwise pretty unexceptional.

Even on the fifth season, we’re still all hooked on Amazing Race in the Murphy Family.

Tags: Amazing Race

This week the latest Amazing Race debuted. In the first show, you’re just getting to know the contestants, but at an hour and a half, I think we got a good look at them. So of course my favorite is the father/daughter team of Jim and Marsha — they get along, Jim didn’t seem to be slowed by the injury to his knee he got from falling at the pier at the start that took 20 something stitches to close, and Marsha is a law student and NFL cheerleader. My least favorite — the evil humpty dumpty clones Marshal and Lance.

After the Teutonic partners, Reichen and Chip, won the last race, for the first time CBS doesn’t have any gays on the show. Instead, we have a little person, Charla, who’s certainly got spunk, and wears better than her cousin Mirna. In past shows, there were always some tough young male teams that did well, but this year forgoes that risk and gives us mostly male/female teams. So far, so good — only one really annoying team, and no powerhouses you know will be in the top three. But there is still time for a Flo or Ian to emerge.

Speaking of past Amazing Race contestants, the incomparable Kevin and Drew have a show on Discovery (thursday at 9PM CST). I saw most of the first half and it was good: the buddies are at an alligator wrestling farm. The second half they were harvesting cranberries. Apparently they travel around the country in an RV doing odd jobs — sounds like The Simple Life 2 with funny bald guys instead of annoying spoiled chicks.

Tags: Amazing Race

The Race is over, and Flo and Zach won. After Zach carried Flo, not letting her quit in the second to last leg, she should give him all the money. I suppose one of the things I like about the show is how its about people in pressure situations. And Flo crumpled like a cheap suit whenever the going got tough, while Zach not only had to deal with the situation, but with a crybaby five year old in a woman’s body. You have to wonder what Flo thinks when watching the show – does she cringe right along with us? Hopefully my wife will tape the interview on the Morning Show so I can clutter up my mind with more trivia, oops I mean find closure on the whole sorry spectacle.

It would have been nice if Ken and Gerard had won, as they seemed to be a couple of nice guys; I would have been OK with Terry and Ian who, to my amazement, got better and nicer as the race went on. It ground down some of the teams (see Flo), but Terry and Ian seemed to get stronger and nicer as the race went on. Yes, they had annoying tics (hey Ian, just once couldn’t you have put on your reading glasses and read the clue?), but he did stop wearing that goofy hat, he cut back on the yelling and bellowing, he did the road blocks instead of making Terry do them, and they did far better than any other married couple on the show — the marrieds have had a pretty dismal performance record. Instead, we got uber-geek Zach — the headband and light was even more annoying than Ian’s goofy hat — and crybaby Flo (an even odder couple than Oscar and Felix). The race isn’t always to the swift blah blah blah life isn’t fair yada yada yada there’s always next season.

I like all the home improvement shows in part because I’d like to improve my house into a mansion, but I don’t have the money so I’m contented to do so vicariously through TV strangers. I like to travel, so it’s fun to watch a show with all the travel in it that Amazing Race has. The contestants have all the stress, I actually get to enjoy the sights and sounds, but unfortunately they get the experience (and the money).

The race part is fun, but lets face it, there is a huge element of luck to it. Often elimination or victory comes down to the taxi driver, or the helpful stranger on the street. The format constantly levels the playing field as the participants bunch at airports or locations that have set operating hours. It makes for good TV as no lead is permanent; really it isn’t one big race, but thirteen separate ones. That’s enough analysis – it’s only a TV show.

Tags: Amazing Race

I’ll have to put up with Flo’s yelling and complaining for another 2 hours. Why couldn’t Zach still be stuck in the line at customs? Why couldn’t John Vito and Jill have made it this far? There was a couple that knew the value of silence. Is it just me, or are Terry and Ian arguing less as the race goes on? Maybe they are too tired or something, but they seem to be working much better together – Ian’s actually stepping up to do the road blocks and such. Since Terry showed us her paper undies, they’ve been a whole different team. My wife for some strange reason was bummed that the twins got eliminated. That leave me with Ken and Gerard, the other brothers, to root for. Actually, with Aaron and Ariane gone, the only person I can’t root for is Flo. Next week, the the grand finale.

Tags: Amazing Race

We watched the Amazing Race right after getting home from Harry Potter. It was one of the better episodes, as the teams were bunched together the whole time, and it went to a couple of places my wife and I have been – the Rheinfalls, and Grindelwald. Before kids, we had the opportunity to take a tour in Europe, and we did. We started in London, crossed the channel to Belgium, took a cruise down the Rhine river, visited the Rheinfalls, spent a couple of days in Lucerne, got off the bus and spent a week in Interlaken, Switzerland, got back on the bus and went to Paris, returned to London and flew home. So it was a lot of fun to see the teams at the Rheinfalls, get our photo album out, and show the kids that their parents did some fun things when they were young. The first day in Interlaken we went to the Jungfraujoch which is a railway station on top of the Jungfrau, the mountain two over from the Eiger. On the train ride up, you stop and look out a window in the Eiger. Here is a picture of the two Murphy Fearless Leaders atop the observatory atop the Jungfrau:

After we went up the Jungfrau, we came back down to Grindalwald, which sits at the foot of the Eiger, and spent a delightful afternoon. It was neat to see the contestants running through Grindalwald, and when they were going down the main street all crowded with shops, it brought back happy memories. As the contestants ran past, I recognized the hotel where we sat out on the terrace and ate soup while relaxing and admiring the view; they surely went past the little shop where I bought the deer leather dress shoes. One thing the show hasn’t portrayed is how unstandardized the plumbing is in Europe. By that I mean in the US, when it’s time to flush, the handle is obvious and located in the same spot every time. In Europe, the handle was rarely obvious and never in the same place twice. More than once I had to walk away from an unflushed urinal because I couldn’t figure out how to flush it. It’s the simple things in life.

OK, time for a snarky comment – what’s Flo thinking? She’s annoying, whiny, complaining, Zach puts up with her for no apparent reason, but Drew gets her all hot? Honey, you’ll see the difference the first time you come between Drew and his mirror.

Tags: Amazing Race