I love The Amazing Race and I am excited to go on another journey around the world with a new set of teams. This season we’ve got some of the more stereotypical teams like the blondes who could turn vicious at any moment and the couple with an alpha male with rage issues. So far, the behavior from all the teams has been pretty outstanding. I can’t remember a group being so welcoming to each other as they waited for their first flight of the race, but we’ll see how quickly that will change. I’ve already got a few favorites like the green team, Connor & Jonathan, who have been nicknamed Team Glee for their youth and a capella singing, and mother/daughter team Andie & Jenna. Neither team has been outstanding from the start with Connor & Jonathan being navigationally challenged (though not as bad as others), and Andie & Jenna basically having just met but working well together.
I was really happy to see the race start someplace other than Los Angeles this season. The last couple of seasons have had the teams fly south and then west but this season the first leg left Massachusetts and went east to the country of London according to Vicki, who with team mate Nick aren’t the sharpest tools in the bunch. Not only did she not know where she was, but she couldn’t find a flag or a boat even when the cameras were pointed right at them. They barely survived elimination so unless something major happens, I don’t see them being with us for much longer.
It looks like the bully of the season is going to be Chad. He’s overly aggressive, and I don’t know how his girlfriend Stephanie puts up with him. Saying he was a football player is no excuse for that kind of behavior, but it was nice to see Chad get humbled by some other, weaker (in his mind) teams and he took that lesson to heart by the end of the episode. How long that will last is anyone’s guess, but I give it till the airport on the next leg.
Of course the stars of this episode were Brooke & Claire, the hosts of some television shopping channel. They seem cool, a little high maintenance but not overly aggressive yet. Claire, as you may know, took a watermelon to the face at high speed and I’m surprised she wasn’t knocked unconscious. I’m also surprised she didn’t slap Brooke who seemed to show little sympathy even as Claire kept saying, “I can’t feel my face.” Let’s blame it on the editing … even if Brooke did giggle about the whole thing out of ear shot of Claire.
The balance of first to last shifted pretty quickly this week as Ron & Tony took their commanding lead all the way to elimination. It was a sad end for Tony whose dream it was to run the race in the first place. It will be interesting to see how the new twist affects the coming legs as Jill & Thomas came in first and won the Express Pass, which they can use up to the eighth leg to propel them past a task they may not be able to accomplish. It could mean the difference between winning and losing. For now, we’ll just try to keep track of who’s who and hope the producers take them, and us, to some new and exciting destinations.
“I’ve never speed-walked this fast in my life.” – Brooke, uh, racing to the first clue box at Stonehenge
“You’ve got this. Right in the kisser.” – Brooke to Claire, trying to knock down a suit of armor, right before she took a watermelon to the face
“They looked like a couple of carnies in a dunking booth.” – Gary on Michael & Kevin’s attempts to stay afloat in a tortoise shell-shaped boat
Clacked by Chuck Duncan 
on Sep 27, 2010 @ 09:15 EST5EDT
%20shot%20heard%20round%20the%20world){kind=link}