The Amazing Race 21 Episodes 9 and 10: Moral Quandary in Amsterdam

James and Jaymes in Amsterdam. Is it hot in here?

It's always OK to U-Turn someone on The Amazing Race. It's a competition for heavens' sake. But the goody-goody Chippendales got all moral and whiny when faced with U-turning Abby and Ryan (Team World Domination) in last week's episode (ep. 9, Amsterdam). It made perfect sense for the Chippendales, Trey and Lexy, and those annoying Sri Lankan twins to form a pact to U-turn Abby and Ryan and then have the next team U-turn whoever did the first U-turn so that Abby and Ryan couldn't U-turn the Beekman Boys. The front pack obviously wanted the weaker team to stay in. Team World Domination was a stronger unit, plus they had the extra motivation of $2 million. Of course, they should have been U-Turned.

But Ryan and Abby didn't see the logic of that, they thought the Sri Lankans or the Texans would take them down just because they didn't like them. So when they got to the mat in Amsterdam they got on the Whaaa-ambulance and cried all the way through the organ grinder challenge ("Why don't you just run me over and get it over with faster," sobbed Abby) and dragged themselves to the finish line after Brent and Josh. Usually even if a team loses they say stuff like "Even if we didn't win, we had a great time and saw so many wonderful things, we're so thankful to have this opportunity to travel the world." But instead Abby and Ryan said "I don't know what to say. It just feels so wrong and I'm so disappointed." Granted it was probably crushing to lose out on not 1 but 2 million and to be beaten by the Beekmans who have been last or near the bottom for most of the show, but they knew they were going to lose as soon as they hit the U-turn, so they could have dregged up a little bit of a positive attitude. They got to be in 9 legs of a TV show and they took an amazing trip.

I was so glad Josh did not talk Brent into helping Ryan and Abby as they drove to ditch-jumping. The Beekmans are nice, but not stupid. As Brent correctly pointed out, Team World Domination would not have let them step on the mat before them. As far as I'm concerned, the Beekmans have already won, if their goal was to be on as many segments as possible and gain exposure for their brand and their own show on The Cooking Channel (The Fabulous Beekman Boys) in order to get a third season, they've succeeded. Plus everyone loves them.

Other highlights of this episode included seeing Jaymes and James shirtless--for the 110th time--and the reactions of the Amsterdamers; some of whom may have been gay, like the guy taking a picture with his phone. I loved it when Jaymes said "Then all these dudes started coming up." Which brings up the question, don't they know gay men are going to stare at them when they disrobe? (BTW, I have just learned through an interview Instinct Magazine that Jaymes, the blonde one, is gay. He said so himself. Why didn't they mention that on the show? Are they afraid it might decrease their audience at the Chippendales in Las Vegas?)

Episode 10 moved to Majorca, Spain and the loud-mouthed Sri Lankans finally got a karmic payback for taking the money from the longhairs back in Bangladesh. One of the twins didn't bother to learn how to drive shift and they lost valuable time while the Beekmans used their farming skills to repair the windmill quickly and finish ahead of them. I did have a feeling it was non-elimination when Phil did not say "You are in the final three" to Trey and Lexie who came in first after the bullfighting challenge.

So the Sri Lankans' asses were saved and they'll have to carry a cup of tea across a street or something for their speed bump (we don't know where the last two legs will be held). The preview for next week's two hour finale seems to indicate that the Texans, Chippendales, and Sri Lankans will team up against the Beekmans in the 11th leg which doesn't make any sense to me. If I were one of the top 3 "alpha" teams, I'd want the Beekmans in the final 3 because they would be less of threat. It would be great if the Sri Lankas slipped up again and Josh and Brent made it all the way to the end. But even if they did, I'm afraid the Chippendales or the Texans would beat them. I like both of those teams and wouldn't mind if either won, but I'm getting a little tired of Jaymes pulling out the sympathy card every time he gets on the mat. Are the producers preparing us for a Chip win?  

The Amazing Race 21 Episode 8: Russian Cab Drivers Rule!

I love Russian cab drivers and I loved this episode of The Amazing Race. These Moscow cabbies should have their own show. Trey and Lexie's guy was such a character: clashing pink shirt and checked tie and jacket, cigarette dangling from his mouth. And then the Chippendales' driver was a hoot, too, leisurely getting coffee and pastry--and a cigarette, of course--as James and Jaymes were pushing him, "We're in a race, let's go!" The Sri Lankans' driver was sort of cute too, admonishing them that he knew where they were going as the loud girls panicked behind him.

In addition to the most memorable Amazing Race cabbies ever, there was a lot of drama and action and heart in this week's episode. The Fabulous Beekman Boys have more lives than a roomful of cats. Last weeks they joined with Team World Domination as they were trailed several hours behind the other four teams because of a delayed flight. The boys were unable to complete the synchronized swimming task and had to take a four-hour penalty. But they were saved because James and Abba lost their possessions and Abba's passport. In yet another twist, leg 7 was a non-elimination round and they had the whole leg to retrieve the passport. The Long-Haired Guys were also lucky that this episode continued in the same city so they wouldn't need the document to get out of the country.

So not only did we have the usual tension of roadblocks and detours, but there was the tension between the Beekmans and the Rockers. Could the latter could find the passport before the Beekmans' four hour penalty ended. Oh yeah and the Rockers had a Speed Bump as well.

We also witnessed the reversion of Team World Domination to their old arrogant ways (at least on Ryan's part). Last week Ryan and Abby were all lovey-dovey and singing Kumbaya with the Beekmans as they cheered them on at the pool and then Josh helped Abby finished the lock and key challenge. There were hugs and kisses and everything was winning the Nobel Peace Prize. Then Ryan returned to his alpha male jerk mold at the Time Zone challenge. He thought he had the whole thing nailed and even got up with his backpack after he turned in his test the first time. It was so good to see him get shot down by the overacting professor ("Wrong! The next round!") and have to take the test 20 more times. I think the professor saw his big opportunity to become a star on American TV and exaggerated his sternness ("Ah, Team Vorld Domination, I vill cruch you like ant!"), but I didn't love him as much as I did the cab drivers.

Several hours later, the Beekmans breezed through the time zones. Brent figured it out right away, making up for his lack of swimming ability the night before. Then they had fun at the costume cocktail party while everyone else was sweating their guts out at the military dance doing seated kicks and coffee grinders. They managed to survive to take fifth place and James and Abba were eliminated. We never did find out what their speed bump was, except it involved driving around in a limo with a Russian Orthodox priest.

The previews for next week show Team World Domination stuck on a delayed flight--AGAIN!--and a double U-turn. Here's a cool prediction. What if Abby and Ryan get stuck several hours behind everybody else, nobody U-turns the Beekmans because they aren't seen as a threat, and they wind up being in the final four.

 

The Amazing Race 21: Episodes 6 and 7: Bye, Bye Beekman?

The Beekman Boys try to get synchronized.

You never know what's going to happen on the Amazing Race. The last two episodes have provided more highs and lows than in recent memory. I do love it when you never know who's going to win. Last season, Dave and Rachel won nearly every leg despite their being that year's Bickersons and it was pretty clear they were going to take the big prize. Now the lead keeps switching between Team World Domination, the Long Hairs, the Texas kids, and the loud Sri Lankan twins. And just when you think you have a team all figured out, they switch personalities on you. For example, last week sweet and innocent Trey and Lexie from Texas turned into accomplices in near larceny when they failed to tell James and Abba the rockers that the Sri Lankans had found their money on the floor of the travel agency in Bangladesh. I'd like to think that's something I wouldn't do, that I'd say, "Hey did anyone lose all their money?" But in the heat of competition, who knows?

To further add to the moral confusion, Team World Domination whom I had decried as too competitive in previous blog posts, turned into nice people this week by staying to cheer on the Beekman Boys as they attempted the synchronized swimming challenge in Moscow.

But let's go back to where we left off in the last blog (I've had a real life since then, thanks very much.) At the starting line in Bangladesh, the teams are given instructions to fly to Istanbul and they all head for a travel agency. How do they decide when to go right to the airport and when to go to a travel agency? It's here that James and Abba drop their money and the Sri Lankans don't exactly steal it, but they do pick it up after it has fallen on the floor. Heinous behavior. Once I did find a wad of cash on the floor of a bar. There was no one else around, so my friends and I said "Free drinks!" It was the 1980s when people did that kind of thing. But this is entirely different. I was not on TV! So James and Abba go begging for money in one of the poorest countries in the world and discover having a film crew following you around makes panhandling relatively easy, especially in the financial district.

Once in Istanbul, teams have to take a ferry ride to the Asian side of the Bosporus (Vicky Edyie gets preposterous on the Bosporpus!--Bette Midler reference) and chose between getting a massage and carrying bagels on their heads.

If you had a choice between a relaxing in a Turkish bath while muscular masseurs soothed your body or carrying a huge tray of bagels on your head while trying to find three different addresses in a foreign language in the sweaty Istanbul streets, which would you do? I'd take the former in heartbeat even if I were in a race around the world for $1 million. But our beloved Beekman Boys and the Monster Truck couple chose the latter while everyone else went for the massage. I guess they thought it would be quicker than lolling in a sauna with suds and steam. It turned out to be a race for last between them.

The Beekmans and Monster Truck got to the next challenge dead last within minutes of each other (even though Josh and Brent had the super difficult Speed Bump of eating two ice cream cones--twice since they went to the wrong location the first time.) At the last minute, Josh got out and directed traffic to clear out a jam and they just made it. Mr. and Mrs. Monster Truck were eliminated, though the big, middle-aged husband showed some graceful dance moves.

In this week'e episode, teams had to fly to Moscow, which you wouldn't think would be that much of a schlep from Istanbul, but there was no such thing as a direct flight. The Beekmans and Team World Domination were on a delayed flight and got stuck in Frankfurt until the next morning, several hours behind the other four teams. All looked hopeless for these two teams who agreed to travel together, but they have one possibility for salvation and they don't even know it. James and Abba, who were in fourth place, left all their stuff in their taxi and cannot check in unless they have their passports. (Remember that happened to Zev and Justin on Season 15?) In what looks like an Amazing Race first, we have a cliffhanger and were not told who would finish fourth, fifth and sixth when it was not a two-part leg. The episode stops with James and Abba having to find their taxi and the Beekmans and Team World Domination at the swimming challenge.

The preview for next week seems to indicate that everyone stays in Moscow and Abby and Ryan are still in it since they are doing some kind of test challenge. I would hate to see Josh and Brent get eliminated because of a lack of choreographed swimming skills. It would be kind of ironic since Josh's drag persona was named Aquadisiac. I just finished his second memoir The Bucolic Plague and identified with him since I have a house in upstate NY too (but I never did drag.)  Either way, at least they will be in eight episodes, which added to their FBBs on the Cooking Channel adds to their media saturation.

Maybe it will be another non-elimination round, maybe James and Abba will get the boot. We'll have to wait and see.

The Amazing Race 21: Episodes 4 and 5 Catch-up

The past two weeks have a bit crazy so I've fallen behind, loyal blog reading public of 30, in my vital mission of recapping reality shows. I went to my place upstate with my friend Diane where we watched Esther Williams and Van Johnson in Easy to Love and three episodes of Dark Shadows (it was a festival of bad art), then I caught a bad cold and there was a little hurricane called Sandy.

Project Runway ended (Dmitiri or Boris or Vladimir or whatever his name is won), I tried to DVR the first episode of Project Runway All-Stars and the latest of The Fabulous Beekman Boys, the damned thing didn't do it. Fortunately, it did get The Amazing Race. Episodes four and five both took place in the same city in Bangladesh which shows that the producers are still trimming the budget. But they are also trimming extraneous scenes which is a good thing. When they began in Indonesia not every team was shown opening their envelope and we didn't waste any time viewing the rush for the airport ticket counter. Once they all got to Dhakka, the first task was to repair a damaged bus. The Sri Lankan twins make the most noise, while Mutt and Jeff trailed behind.

The next challenge was a choice between sewing a mattress or banging out a crowbar thing. Naturally the Beekman Boys chose sewing, but so did alpha teams World Domination and the Chippendales. At the mattress sewing challenge, Chippendale dancers James and Jaymes brightened right up when Josh mentioned that he had been a drag queen and made his own costumes. Interesting. I had just finished reading Josh's memoir I Am Not Myself These Days in which he recounts his adventures playing Aquadisiac, a drag creation with goldfish swimming around in her plastic tits by night, and working in an ad agency by day, all while living with a drug addict-hustler. I'd say that was more life experience than most of the alpha teams have probably had. In addition, Josh is running a farm in Sharon Springs with Brent while he still holds down an advertising job. James and Abba, the rock and roll guys, went for the Fast Forward--a relatively easy job of rounding up dead rats--and won, Mutt and Jeff were eliminated.

In episode five, James and Abba were ahead the whole time, benefiting from the Fast Forward the week before, which was kind of unfair. They rarely put a fast forward in if they are not going to change cities. Usually there is some levelling event, like an airplane trip or park or a location that doesn't open until the next morning. James did receive some bad news at the top of the leg that his father had inoperable cancer. They came in first and Ryan of Team World Domination proved what a jerk he is. There I said it and I'm glad. It's not enough that Ryan and his love slave Abby are the only team who could possibly win $2 million for coming in first in leg one, he has to break the record set by Dave and Rachel last season of winning the most times. He opened up leg five by declaring this ambition. Then when he and Abby come in second at the end of the episode, he acted all downcast because they were only second and his dreams of being the most powerful Amazing Race contestant ever were dashed forever! (they can't possibly break the record now since there aren't enough legs left.) This caused poor Abby to tear up since she sweated bullets all day and thought she'd actually done a good job. But no, it wasn't enough for Mr. Super Alpha Male. He forced himself to smile and accept second place.

The Beekman Boys were almost eliminated having lost their way in trying to find a cab and then having trouble with building a gigantic scale with bamboos and ropes. But it turned out to be a non-elimination round   and they will make it to Istanbul nest week which we have not visited season seven with the accursed Rob and Amber. Since then I have visited Istanbul myself and am looking forward to this episode.