The Amazing Race 19--Episode 11 and 12--Love, Luck and Lollipops

No snowboarders here. Yay!

Episode 11 of Amazing Race 19 left me delirously happy because Andy and Tommy, the perfect, six-time winning snowboarders, were eliminated! I have nothing against them, they were perfectly nice and un-nasty so I didn't hate them like I did Rob and Amber, they were just so damned lucky and athletic that it was becoming monotonous. There's no tension or excitement when the same team wins every week, even when it's only because the team ahead of them screwed up (which happened once or twice). So the fact that they did not make the final three was exhilirating. That meant it could be anyone's game and it was.

My friend Diane disagrees. We had a debate over this topic just before we saw a Beckett play at BAM, the perfect setting for a discussion of a reality TV show. She felt it was not right that the best team, as she put it, would not make it to the last episode through a quirk of luck. As you may recall, the three other teams all made it to the pit stop in Panama City within seconds of each other because their cab drivers communicated with each other. Andy and Tommy had the misfortune of getting to the previous destination early and not having a taxi driver in league with the others. Well, they won several trips and a Mustang a piece, so they shouldn't complain. It just goes to show, luck plays a huge part in the Amazing Race.

The finale was exciting because once the last three got to Atlanta, it could have been any one of them who won the million dollars. Ironically, Marcus and Amani had the advantage since they are Atlanteans, but choked when they got to the flight simulator challenge. It came down to Ernie and Cindy and Jeremy and Sandy and it was pretty clear the latter lost too much time when they went to a furniture store rather than Margaret Mitchell's house. The producers tried to add suspense with that GSP recalculating bit, but it was clear who the winners were as soon as they were near the final pit stop.

This season I didn't dislike anyone and there were no embarassing rivalries like the one where the lesbians and the former beauty queen bitched at each other at the finish line.

In related TAR news, they advertised seasons 3 and 4 on DVD from Amazon during the show. I got all excited because I've been waiting 8 years for more seasons on DVD. CBS released seasons 1 and 7 years ago and failed to follow up. This always frustrated me because you can find DVDs of just about anything from Saved by the Bell to Bewitched to The Beverly Hillbillies. I went to the Amazon website and it turns out these new DVDs are cheap burned-to discs sets which Amazon will create on a per-order basis with no extras or special features.

Damn! I may order them anyway because I no longer have Season 2 on VHS (That's how long ago it was, before DVD burning and Facebook and blogging.) I think I may have only a few episodes left. I seem to remember still having the segments when they were in Australia and the blonde girl estranged from her asshole ex-husband joking with the gay Latin guy about being limp-wristed and he says "Shut up, bitch." I didn't start getting the season on DVDs myself until midway through the one with the hippies. (I still have most of seasons 5 through whatever that one was on VHS, which can break or wear out easily.)

Season 3 was a good one with Flo and Zak and the gay and straight brothers. Season 4 had Chip and Reichen, which started Reichen on his journey to fame whoredom ending sadly on the A-list. The straight couple who came in second to them popped up on a ped-egg commercial. Remember that?