TV: The Amazing Race

I think the most amazing thing about "The Amazing Race" is that everyone involved (and potential witnesses to the filming) can keep the winner a secret despite the fact that the whole race is probably over before the first show is edited and aired.

I started watching the show in it's second iteration when it was a lead in to "CSI". And I've been hooked ever since despite my general distaste for what's been called reality television. What earns the show an exception is that it appeals to my interest in travel with great cinematography and manages to keep things moving with some wonderful editing to make some endings seem closer than they probably were.

I have no idea how people could prefer other reality shows watching people spend most of their time sitting on a beach and plotting against each other or worse just sitting around a house plotting against each other is beyond me. In "The Amazing Race", the relationship conflicts and humorous moments just add icing to the cake. The scheming is pretty minimal (Yields, Fast Forwards, withholding flight info, etc.) and usually ineffective. Only Boston Rob and Amber have managed to strategize successfully when they convinced a few other teams to take a four-hour time penalty at a challenge that required one member of each team to consume four pounds of overcooked random cow parts. This guaranteed that they would not finish last when Rob decided he could not eat the food.

Unfortunately, with the this "Family Edition" of the race, much of what I like is missing. They've mostly remained in America (admittedly some places have been added to my "To Visit" list, but I'll take a pass at the rest). The conflicts have not been very interesting, though I hope families learned lessons from watching how the Gaghans supported and encouraged each other. As for humor, the Weavers just come across as weird, the Linzes are sophomoric, and the Paolos looked like a Court TV case waiting to happen. And how much more of a bummer could it be for a team (the Rogers) to be eliminated on their home turf and then lose their house to Hurricane Katrina a few weeks later? [Though I know several people would have offered Brittney a place to stay] Production problems where a camera drained a car battery and put a team into last place has occurred twice! I think only the first season (which I've missed) had more technical issues.

That said, I'm looking forward to next week's finale, and cannot even guess at who the favorite will be. Word is the show will revert to having teams of two next time around. That race may have already finished by now (applications for Season 9 required passports be valid until September 2006), and hopefully they will have traveled to interesting international destinations again.