A Week of Recaps...

So, I know that I am way behind on my blogging. No real reason other than the fact that there have been lots of Red Sox games on tv the past week, so I watched nearly all of the reality shows later on tivo. Come on – the Sox are in first place and just pounded the Yankees last night. It really doesn’t get better than that. So a few thoughts from the last week…

American Idol was rather anti-climatic as Elliott was finally voted off. It’s a shame really, since he has such an amazing voice. They really dragged out the results show, with all the footage of the top three’s visits home. In all that though, I felt really bad for Katharine. I know she lives in LA, but it seemed like no one really did anything for her. (especially compared to the hoopla surrounding Elliott & Taylor) And Ryan tried something new to drag out the results, giving the percentage of votes that each of the three contestants got. It was close, but no one should really be surprised that it was Elliott that went home. And even though I think that Chris should be in the finals, a Katharine-Taylor showdown will be pretty darn good.

The finale of The Amazing Race was fantastic. The hippies started with a definite advantage with the leg in Japan (who knew that they spoke Japanese?), and it really helped as they did the amusement park task (which, by the way, was amazing…I love coasters, but I don’t think I could have done that!). Even though Ray and Yolanda caught up at the airport, they had no money. I also loved that the race ended where it started – who saw that coming? Oh – just in case you were wondering where they all got the snow gear (because all of a sudden, the two teams who had no clothes or money were wearing parkas and snow pants), the teams are provided with snow gear from the producers (thank you Brennan for the info…Brennan, of course, won AR1). And the final roadblock was fantastic…it can’t always come down to luck! I was rooting for the frats, but I’m glad that the hippies won. They always had such a positive attitude, and really seemed to soak up the cultures of each place they went. It was a really fantastic season.

Finally, there was yesterday’s episode of The Apprentice. It’s been a good season, but the editing lately has been disappointing. It was clear early on that the girls were going to lose, and I was even thinking before they went to the boardroom that Trump might fire them both. Even though both teams asked the employees what they wanted, the guys actually listened to what the employees had to say. It seemed like Allie knew what she wanted to design, and was going to use that regardless of what the employees wanted. Culottes? Puffy sleeves? Does Allie live in the 80s? And Roxanne was right – she was unprofessional towards their designer…she didn’t even call him by the right name! So, no surprise that the boys won (although I was kind of surprised by how bad the girls’ designs were), and I wasn’t surprised to see Trump fire them both. It sets up a really good final next week – Lee and Sean are so different, it will be interesting to see how they both handle the final task (and what will happen if Sean is able to put Tammy on his team). There’s also some sort of element of audience voting this season…this might just be the sign that The Apprentice has jumped the shark. Back to baseball…

An Amazing Play on the Amazing Race

I think I just saw one of the dirtiest, craftiest, most brilliant plays ever on The Amazing Race. And I think I liked it.

After bunching up at the first clue box of the leg, the teams were all pretty smart – they called for taxis to be waiting for them after they finally got in to get their clues. Pretty good use of your time as you’re sitting and waiting for the site to open. But Eric & Jeremy took it one step further. They actually called the cab company and cancelled the cabs for the hippies and Ray & Yolanda. As I was watching it, I couldn’t tell if I thought it was the dirtiest play ever, or the smartest. What’s to stop a team from doing that? (clearly nothing!) And if it had worked (I’m telling you, karma always comes back to get you in the end…) or caused a team to miss that flight, it would have been brilliant. I know, it was really mean. But there have been so many teams before that do little things to hold up their competitors…I guess I kind of liked it.

Ray and Yolanda might be my new favorites. I loved hearing them talk about the fact that a black person would never just jump into a pit of crocs. And the fact that they have been keeping to themselves really worked out for them this leg. They surged ahead (and they picked the clearly easier detour) and beat out the three bickering teams. Good for them.

Speaking of bickering, what is the deal with the hippies? I though that everyone loved them. Perhaps something happened that we didn’t get to see (at a pit stop maybe?), but I don’t think so (it’s not like CBS to show us something like that!). If MoJo should be mad at anyone, it’s the frat boys (nice work, by the way, pinning the cab fiasco on MoJo and hitting on Monica…nice…). And Monica – stop being so dramatic. We get it. You’re upset you got yielded.

The finish was probably the best finish ever. Three of the four teams hitting the mat at virtually the same time. I always wonder if the “non-elimination” rounds really are determined ahead of time, since they always seem to fall when teams are really close or have faced something that was out of their control. How much would that have sucked to be eliminated by a fraction of a second? And will they let the hippies (or BJ at least) get their shoes? That would seem like something that they would just have to let them go get. Either way, this may be the best final four on the show ever.

TTOW!!

What an episode of The Amazing Race!

The hippies made a nice recovery from last leg’s last place finish. I was glad to see them not beg for money until they got on the plane, and picking up a hitchhiker seemed to really work out for them. But I’m wondering about the whole “TTOW!” thing…it’s on their shirts and is their rallying cry. But what the heck does it mean? Hmmm…

At what point did Mo Jo become so obnoxious? It’s one thing to not want to help out the hippies with money, but you don’t have to pretend you’re going to. And what was the deal with the taxis after the ferry? Joseph actually said that he was going to take the first one he saw, regardless of whose it was.

I liked the sights on this leg as well…Australia looks amazing. I so want to go! I also liked that there were several spots where the contestants bunched up – it’s nice to not know in advance which teams will come in first! And I loved the comments from Fran and Barry at the hostel…although the fact that the race is cramping their sex life may have been just a bit too much information!

What I didn’t like was the product placement roadblock. The task itself was fine…especially the fact that it just took so long to find the tunnels. But did we need the “find the Duracell batteries” part? Ugh.

I was sad to see Fran and Barry eliminated. Of all the “older” teams that have run the race, they were one of the best. I’m sorry to see them go.

Some Thoughts...

First, can I just say how happy I am that NBC has realized the error of their ways in putting Celebrity Cooking Showdown and pulled the final episodes from the air. They actually (around here, at least) put on a re-run of Deal or No Deal instead. Really.

I just had a chance to watch this week’s episode of The Amazing Race, and I’m glad that I finally did. It was a great episode. I loved the location – it was so beautiful, and I was really glad that so many of the contestants stopped to notice and appreciate their surroundings (rather than complain about them). I didn’t hear anyone moan and groan about people not speaking English, which was really refreshing.

Eric & Jeremy’s luck looks like it has finally run out, which couldn’t be worse timing. How they got so lost delivering their camel is beyond me. The one thing I did learn is that even though we heard the voice-over letting us know that they had to drive 1 mile, they most likely didn’t know that. According to Brennan (who won season 1), a lot of times the contestants don’t know that sort of information – it’s added in production for our benefit. So the frat boys didn’t know how close it should have been, but still – they should have realized something was amiss much earlier. And then they tried a “shortcut” to the pit stop? That just seems ridiculous.

I was so glad to see that this was a non-elimination round (finally!). I love the hippies – they play with such enthusiasm and a fantastic attitude. Hopefully the way they have treated the other teams will come into play and they’ll be able to get some donations at the beginning of this next leg.

The other show that I caught up on today was Unan1mous. I know, I am such an idiot for continuing to watch. My only defense is that at least I am watching it on tivo, so I’m not wasting quite as much time. But it really is just a time drain. Nothing happened. Really. It’s like watching a soap opera – you can miss a week or two on a soap and it’s like you never left. I keep thinking that I’ll stop watching, but now I actually care what happens. I’m such a sucker.

Where are the blogs?

Ok, so I know that there were some GREAT episodes of reality tv this week, yet no new blog entries. Well...it's Passover. So I spent Wednesday, Thursday, AND Friday nights with family. What an adventure. So I've been spending some quality time today with my tivo catching up on tv. Some thoughts...

American Idol...that might have been the cruelest results show ever. Did they really need to string those kids along for a full hour by showing family videos? And having everyone in the bottom three singing? (poor Elliott…he just didn’t know what to do with himself!) I was kind of surprised that Elliott was in the bottom three, but not shocked at all that Bucky went home. Idol does Rod Stewart does American classics should be interesting next week…

Amazing Race…LOVED the fact that Lake & Michelle are finally gone. I was so worried that it would be the hippies. Am I the only one who wonders what sort of impact Lake’s behavior has had on his dental practice? I certainly don’t want to go to a dentist that acts like that. And why haven’t we had a non-elimination round yet? Are we just not having them this season?

Unan1mous…yes, I wasted my time with this again. I am such a loser.

Survivor…this is the only show that I watched during the week…I just couldn’t wait! And it was totally worth it. The reward challenge rocked…I really thought that Shane’s team would win after he bawled from seeing such a short clip of his son. Him and Cirie seemed to be the most motivated to see videos from home (and a great food reward to go with it). Just a guess that getting to diagnose Shane’s “problem” wasn’t how Cirie wanted to spend her afternoon! And can I just tell you how much I love Cirie? She will be nearly impossible to beat in the final two. What I didn’t like was the immunity challenge…it was absurd that the responsibility of beating Terry fell solely on the shoulders of Aras. And I really could have done without seeing Shane’s mouth full of cheeseburger. I’m sad (but not surprised) to see Sally go. Hopefully she’ll cause some trouble on the jury.

American Inventor…ok, I’ve been saying all along that my biggest problem with this show was that they never explained what the next rounds were. And now that I’ve watched the next round, I still don’t know. It just seemed like they wanted to hear the presentations one more time to decide who the top 12 were. Although I did like that it wasn’t dragged out – we went from 50 to 12 in one night. Thank goodness. There are a couple of the inventions/inventors I really like. I like the receiver’s training pole, the bathroom clip, and the word game. Hopefully they will all make it to market. Personally, I’m just hoping that I’ll understand the competition before the show is over.

Phew! Can you believe that I had time to watch baseball too? What a weekend...

Amazing Race? Maybe....

Is it just me, or do the tasks on The Amazing Race seem to get easier and easier each season? If you watch the first season (they re-run episodes on GSN all the time), the tasks were really hard. Most of them were puzzles to even figure out where to go next. And the roadblocks were hard – so hard that there were teams that couldn’t finish. But now it seems that if you have a good sense of direction you can win the race hands down.

Tonight’s tasks were softballs. Neither detour choice was very hard…gross, but not hard. If you didn’t mind getting covered in fish juice (is that the right term?), carrying a swordfish 1/3 of a mile isn’t that bad. And the roadblock was a joke…it looked like they really just had to get into the kayak and throw the ball in. And what happened to the rule where no member of a team could perform more than a certain number of roadblocks? I love that rule…sure, it can hurt some of the female teams, but it’s boring to see the same people always do these tasks.

Speaking of rules and things gone by, where is the beloved fast forward? Early on in the show (the first few seasons) there was a fast forward on every leg of the race. And since you could only use it once, there was a lot of strategy involved with going for it. It also mixed up the game. Even though I like Eric & Jeremy and BJ & Taylor, it’s getting boring to have them so far in the front. It’s no fun if you can never really get out of the back of the pack.

Oh the hippies. I loved the move at the beginning with the “official sign-in list.” I don’t know what was funnier, them making the list, or Eric & Jeremy thinking it was real. “Boy, this list is really ghetto…” Hee hee!

The other innovation the past few seasons has been prizes for coming in first at each pit stop. I know, it’s just a way for the sponsors to get some more airtime. But in the game, the goal is to not come in last…coming in second or third out of eight really isn’t a problem at all.

Anyways, to the producers of The Amazing Race – bring back the fast forward and the difficult tasks! Make these people earn their million!!!

It’s time for The Amazing Race! Speaking of AMAZING, did you see my hometown Patriots this weekend? That’s right, the George Mason Patriots are in the FINAL FOUR! Everywhere you go around here are GMU signs…lots and lots of those highway signs have been set to say “GO GMU!”, and there is confetti all over the median strip near the Patriot Center. But my favorite is a giant banner across the street near campus that reads “Congratulations GMU! Good Luck in the Final Four!”. Except that “Final Four” is in a completely different color on a completely different color background – kudos to whoever realized that they could reuse the Elite Eight sign by pasting over the words “elite eight.” Nice cost cutting Mason fans. But really, go GMU! I’m totally on the bandwagon (but, to be fair, I’ve been on it for a few months…I even went to a game this season…) and they really do have a shot against Florida. Woo hoo!

Anyways, back to The Amazing Race. The frat boys seem to be one of the luckiest team to ever play this game. The only team that I can think of that had the same kind of lucky run were Rob and Amber. The big difference though is that the other teams like Eric and Jeremy – they all sort of ganged up on Rob and Amber. (this being said with the knowledge that I may be the only person outside of their families who loved Boston Rob on each of their shows). Even though they made a mistake at the beginning with booking the flights, they somehow managed to still get on the early flight. Of course, Lake and Michelle couldn’t – they went from being one of the first teams to one of the last. If only Michelle knew how to work that pesky internet.

Once again, a detour with a choice that involves luck. I know that the choice with the bell was hard, but if you’ve watched any of the other seasons, you know that choosing the detour with the finite amount of time is a better choice. And that was true with this one too – a team like Lake and Michelle could have done the physical task much faster than the laundry. Of course, there was the gratuitous shot of Fran and Barry walking past the clue box again. I wonder how many times they’re going to do that. Funny how that never gets old.

So, there’s a yield ahead, but there’s only two on the race. I don’t understand why – having more than two yields means that there’s actually strategy involved. Same with the fast forwards – I loved how in the early seasons they were on every leg. There was a lot of strategy involved with choosing to go for one. It also meant that a team in the back could actually get out of the back pretty quickly. Without it, a team that makes a big mistake early on can get stuck at the back. And with only two yields, I’m a little surprised that a team earlier on didn’t yield one of the stronger teams in the back. And why Lake and Michelle yielded Dani and Danielle is beyond me. They aren’t a threat to them – why do it? Other than the anger issues that Lake has, of course. Seriously, that guy has got some serious issues.

Speaking of issues, why did Lori and Dave have so many problems with the puzzle? It boggles the mind that Lori worked for so long to try to put those random extra pieces into the puzzle. Why didn’t either of them notice that all of the other puzzles had two extra pieces sitting on the ground? For nerds, you’re not as smart as you think.

So, after getting pointlessly yielded, Dani and Danielle came in last and were eliminated. A show of hands of who thinks Eric and Jeremy might yield Lake and Michelle to get back of them? If you don’t have your hand up, maybe it’s time to…

The camera work on tonight’s episode of The Amazing Race showed why this show keeps winning Emmys. As Wanda and Desiree were looking for an exit for Munich, their cameraman shot to their rear windshield and caught the sign to Munich the other direction. Brilliant.

But before we could get to that piece of fun, we had what the contestants thought was the end of thought the last leg. Instead, it was just Phil giving them a clue to fly to Germany. But once they got to Germany, they had another detour and roadblock. So I’m not really sure what the difference was between a “to be continued” leg versus a non-elimination leg (which was what the Russia leg really was).

Anyways, I loved the tasks in Germany. The test track was amazing, even though there is no way I could have done it without losing my lunch. I loved that the teams were having a blast and screaming, while the drivers had the look of “this is what I do for a living." Just a normal Tuesday for the test drivers.

So then we get to the brilliant piece of photography, as Wanda and Desiree drove around in circles. And for some reason, Dani and Danielle followed them. Really – once you realize that the team you are following is lost, maybe it’s time to go at it alone. And really, this is a lesson for life, not just the race…see, you learned something today from my blog. You’re welcome.

Speaking of learning lessons, anyone who watched the season with Rob and Amber should know that it’s perfectly acceptable to pick up a local to use as a guide. There were a few teams that did it before them, but Rob and Amber did it everywhere they went. So I was glad to see Lake and Michelle learned that lesson, even if the guy they picked up was a bit drunk. Having a local guide you will always help.

Anyways, after the product placement roadblock, we got one of the sillier detours. There’s no reason to have chosen the bottle breaking, other than the comedic value. The dancing was so much faster, and the dance instructors seemed to be extremely liberal when deciding if they did the dance perfectly to receive the clue. Of course, maybe you just wanted the chance to break a bottle over someone’s head. Always choose the roadblock with the defined time frame – the ones with the element of luck could really get you in the end.

And in the end, Eric and Jeremy continued to dominate, finishing with a big lead on the other teams. And their “friends” Dani and Danielle pulled it out in the end, meaning that a cameraman has been assigned to film them hooking up (which, depending on your perspective, might not be such a bad gig). And Wanda and Desiree were eliminated. Not such a surprise, since they weren’t one of the strongest teams, but they really were one of the more likeable teams. I’m sorry to see them go.

After watching tonight’s episode of The Amazing Race I’m a little confused. Are Eric and Jeremy looking to get some on the race? Meet a girl or two? Have a little sex? Because there’s nothing sexier than guys who would choose a night with a cute girl over a million dollars.

Am I the only one who thought that their constant pursuit of women was a bit ridiculous? It’s one thing to talk about how cute your competition is (and that’s their whole angle anyways) , but did we really need to see that much footage of what they hoped to do with them? Really?

Ok, so I just read that back and I do realize that I sound like I’m 90 (read it in an “old person voice” – it’s quite funny). I’m not even 30…ok, if you want to “tap that ass,” who am I to judge?

Anyways, this leg seemed really short. And while I know that they have to edit a leg down to an hour, it just seemed like they only made 2 or 3 stops. I did like the roadblock, especially the element of choosing which tower you wanted to climb. Why no one realized to climb the third tower is beyond me.

The rest of the leg just seemed really quick to me. They repelled down the building, rode on a bus, climbed the waterfall, and were done. Although I did enjoy that David and Lori chose the “press it” detour because he had done the experiment before. See – that’s nerd power coming right through!

So no real surprise (or loss for that matter) that Lisa and Joni were eliminated this week. It was a VW bug, not a time machine. It just shouldn’t have been that hard.

Why do I love The Amazing Race? Well, it’s the little things, really.

Like the fact that my husband isn’t the only one who gives each team a nickname. The contestants nickname each other too. There’s the frat boys (Eric & Jeremy), the hippies (BJ & Tyler), the nerds (Dave & Lori), Ken & Barbie (Joseph & Monica)…the list goes on and on. Of course, the nicknames aren’t always flattering. For whatever reason, Lake & Michelle seem to feel the need to keep calling Ray & Yolanda “the black team.” (which, while accurate, just isn’t very p.c.) Turnabout is fair play, of course, as someone called Lake “Scott Peterson.”

I loved watching Fran & Barry walk up and down the bridge, desperately searching for the clue box. The cameraman who managed to shoot them walking past the box over and over again, without ever having them notice him (or the box) is a genius. Give that man (or woman) a raise.

Then there’s the shock of traveling to a country where no one speaks English, and the culture is very different from ours. I’ll be honest – I’ve never traveled out of the country. But when I finally do (and I just got a passport, so I can’t wait to try that baby out!), I will know that not everyone in the world speaks English. And different doesn’t always mean worse.

Of course, how could I forget the joy of watching John & Scott, who are attempting to overcome John’s fear of flying. Boys – this is the reason I’ve never applied for the Race. I would LOVE to do it, but I am fully aware of the amount of air travel it would involve. It’s just not worth a nervous breakdown. Of course, if they use their genie power, the airplane thing might just be a non-issue.

Overall, this looks like it’s going to be a great season. They’ve done a great job casting characters – teams that you actually want to watch. So far, I like BJ & Tyler, Joseph & Monica, and Eric & Jeremy. And I was kind of sad to see John & Scott be eliminated so quickly -- I would have loved to have seen genie power for at least a few more episodes.