Lingo

Yeah, he's genuinely annoying, but I still can't help liking them and feeling sorry for them when I watch all the online videos of the other teams talking shit about them behind their backs and ostracizing them a bit. And you can tell that they can kinda sense the vibe, but they're not exactly sure about it and they wonder if they're just "paranoid". It's a little bit sad to watch.

Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if they won either. I smell a winner's edit. I like them, particularly Kelsey, but I'm distracted by Joey's newscaster-like voice. It's like he's doing a perpetual imitation of Phil Hartman or Zapp Branigan or Ted Knight. But apparently that's his normal voice: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-yWcqAN-z4

Out of the 4 teams in the back, they were the only ones not to make a bone-head mistake this week (if you don't count the u-turn), and that more than anything else is why they came in 5th this week. But good for them! I think they're sweet and fun.

I think the problem is that they were right behind Cindy and Rick, who were the first to make the mistake of leaving immediately, and so they just assumed that Cindy and Rick knew what they were doing and just followed them. Which is an understandable mistake -- if I were on the race and in Panic Mode I would follow other teams too and assume they wouldn't make such a boneheaded mistake. But they need to settle down, read their clues, and run their own race.

These two are dorky and adorable. Adorkable. They're just so chill, enjoying the race and enjoying each other. Maybe too chill. If they raised their game a little bit they could be contenders.

I'm bummed that they're gone. They were classy and fun and had the athleticism needed to win.

I'm betting the reporters will win. The green team will be knocked out at the second u-turn, then the reporters will beat the boys in the final leg. Alabama is actually a pretty good team too, but I do not see any of the other three teams winning.

They actually only did last week's Detour on the same day as this leg. But yes, it was a lot of stuff packed into a single day. It's unusual for the Race to pack not just one, but two additional tasks at the end of a leg after the Detour and Roadblock.

Ah, but my cable subscription doesn't include Bravo, actually. :(

Well THIS is definitely the episode they should submit to the Emmy board this year! It was the most fun I've had on the Race for a while. It had everything: scary stunts, wild animals, gorgeous scenery, not 2 or 3 but 4 different tasks for the teams, and 3 separate teams making big dumb mistakes. Plus the added comedy of watching Team Texas being smoked at the canoes by the green team. Although I was bummed that the lovable Track Stars were eliminated instead of the bickering Paps, simply because I hate watching bickering. Yes, THIS! I always say that the gorge jump is the scariest thing I've ever seen on the race, and it was the FIRST task! It's just too bad that they didn't make both teammates do it like last time. Also, I am shocked that they didn't label the thing a "Switchback." Have they done away with that concept? They get new money at the beginning of each leg. Usually.

I'm a big Race fan, have seen the TAR 1 a few times, and remembered all of the locations from TAR 1 (I even remember Kevin exclaiming "Mukuni Village! Mukuni freakin' Village!"), but I actually don't remember the face-spitting. And I don't expect these racers to be familiar with it either, because even if I were cast, there's 26 seasons to re-watch and I'd start with the most recent ones because they're more relevant to the game as played now. I felt a bit of sympathy for Team Texas, because placing that Hours-Of-Operation bunch in the middle of the leg, when there was still plenty of daylight, sure felt (as I was watching) like some buuuuuuuuullshit, some serious producer meddling to make the end of the leg extra-suspenseful. Now in retrospect it seems like they did it so that the teams could get through both this week's Detour AND next week's challenges all in one day, but even so, I'd think they could have packed this week's RB into that long day as well. After all, it didn't seem to take anyone much time to do. I was also temporarily upset about the Bunching because it meant that any team who gets U-Turned would have almost no shot at not being last (except by U-Turning another team). But now since this leg is almost certainly a Non-Elim, it appears that whoever is u-turned will have a full leg to catch up. So it's not as bad as it first appeared. I'm still not 100% satisfied with this course design, though.

I'd never heard of The People's Couch before seeing that video. I ended up watching at least 9 hours straight of those YouTube excerpts yesterday. THANKS VYAS! (Work, what's work??) Justin may be a "schmuck" but I liked that that one guy appreciated his passion!

OK yeah, Justin is annoying! I agree with the comparison between him and the Afghanimals -- just too loud and handsy with the poor locals who just want their check. The biggest difference between them is that the Afghanimals acted kinda gross with the women (both locals and other teams). Justin's not much like that (though he did grab that dancer to dance with her), though if that's just because he's with his fiancee, who's to say. I wonder who his favorite team was. I was originally going to guess the "Hippies", though the Afghanimals are a better comparison IMO.

PS I did enjoy the fact that the show went to Argentina and did challenges so similar to what TAR just did there (tango, beef and horse stuff). Oh, it was cool that the penultimate chill zone was at the water fountain in Central Park where TAR began its first race. I don't know if it's a coincidence that this show went to so many places and did so many things that TAR did -- it may just be because both chose to go to the most obvious places and do the most obvious things -- but I prefer to think of them as shout-outs.

WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT! I am BEYOND pissed that they allowed an ELIMINATED TEAM TO WIN THE RACE!!!! ARGH!!! AND IT WAS THOSE STUPID FUCKING SURFERS!!!! AUGH!!! WHAT AN UNSATISFYING ENDING! THEY MISSED 3 LEGS!!! I would have preferred to see the ICE DANCERS win than those two! Maybe! Uggh, I can't believe they did that! Sanders and Macarthur were the bestest! The superhero team! They deserved to win! Well I predicted the Haters would be eliminated next, but I was SO WRONG about the rest. I was sure either Carrie and Devin or the sisters would win, and if not either of them, then the cadets. I guess I'm not as good at predicting the minds of cartoon writers as I thought. Ugh! I enjoyed this show a lot, but this ending blows.

Hey, that's a really good point! I liked that addition to TAR last year, and I hope they keep doing it.

Well as entertainment, I liked most of the teams. The ones I were particularly wishing would be eliminated were the Surfers, the Rockers, and to some extent the Stepbrothers, as they were boring and had annoying speech patterns. The Goths were a little one-note but provided some funny moments, particularly when they lost their makeup. Sanders and Macarthur rock. The Ice Dancers are excellent villains. Towards the end I was beginning to think that Carrie could do better than Devin, so it was a welcome twist when she got over him and started showing interest in Ryan. The Daters/Haters got annoying at times but Ryan also had some of the funniest lines. (My favorite was when he just left an interview saying nothing but "Nope nope nope..." over and over.) The romance storyline between Noah and the sister was drawn out a little too much, but I was surprised when he and Owen got eliminated. I liked the father/son storyline. I'm a tennis fan so I was initially tickled by the Tennis Pros, but their jokes were really corny so I was happy they were eliminated. Everyone else is kind of a blur.

So after hearing this show mentioned in the TAR forums last weekend, I binged the whole season this week. I mean, the whole season up to this point. (I thought it was the whole season because Comcast On Demand describes Ep. 21 as the "season finale"! Did anyone else see that? I assume that's a mistake?) So this show is fun! I do wish it were more like TAR -- more tasks, more taxis, more interaction with the locals, more TAR shout-outs -- but I'll take what I can get. Most of the show is silly jokes aimed at children, but once or twice an episode they get a REALLY good joke in that makes me glad I'm watching. Macarthur is the best damn thing on this show. She is a shining jewel. I love that team and HATED seeing them lumped together with the Ice Dancers as "Team Evil", because as you guys said, they're not evil, Macarthur is just very enthusiastic about the race. If she and Sanders get an "evil" edit in the final 5 episodes I will be sorely disappointed. I was SO glad to see Geoff and Brody finally eliminated because I couldn't take any more of their "dude/bro/gnarly" speech patterns (I had enough of that with the Rockers already). Given their screen time and plot lines, I was most surprised to see Dwayne and Junior, and Owen and Noah get eliminated as early as they were -- like Donny Ketchum, I'd assumed that they'd be in the final 6. As for the winners: based on the editing, I'd honestly assumed from the beginning that it was likely to be Carrie and Devin, because they're "good guys" and they've had the most drawn-out plotline. Though given the amount of screen time the sisters have gotten, at this point I wouldn't be very surprised if they won. I'd love to see Macarthur and Sanders win, though now that they've been branded "evil" I doubt they'll be allowed to win. They might even go out in a heart-breaking 4th place -- the traditional elimination point for fan favorites. The Ice Dancers will obviously get second or third. And I'm guessing the Daters/Haters will be out next -- not much story left to tell there.

Previous and Speculation -- the team to beat! Just behind Ratings and Scheduling and just in front of Thanks and Happy Posting! (Yes, I know it's a dumb joke.)

We don't really know how much time there was between the Green Team leaving the RB and the guys leaving. And it's always possible that the Green Team could have gotten really lost like the Cousins (who were taken to a shopping mall downtown). Even Team Paparazzi said that they thought they might have had a chance at first place if they hadn't been taken to the wrong entrance. I'd go all out to if I thought I had a chance at one of those sweet trips (especially one to Morocco, which seems particularly extravagant for an early leg prize on this show).

Watching this episode, it occurred to me that Logan reminds me of Maura Tierney. Apparently these two are already getting a reputation for fighting a lot and then laughing it off on the mat (ala Blair and Haley) as no big deal -- take a look at Tanner's face 2 minutes into this clip! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Os_T2YbzJ_Q Here's an actual argument, a pretty mild one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7U-VmqjZSAQ

Well, you know, they were first to the RB and given a very vague clue (something like "Who wants to go sideways?"). They had no idea. But yeah, I get that Justin is a loud spaz but so far I have no problem with them personally. And there's no comparison to Romber -- Justin has like 5% of Rob's cockiness, and so far 0% of his camera mugging. (This coming from a Rob fan!)

Their cab trouble was far worse than what we saw on air: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2r0GafYStY In another clip Alex compared himself to Matt Damon, and yeah, he does look like him! Now I'm reminded of MD every time I see him. I wish these two weren't out so early!

Poor Adam and Alex couldn't find the "Cathedral of Polo". Their cabbie called someone (maybe his daughter), who directed them to a "Galeria Apolo" downtown: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2r0GafYStY Hands-down best Web Extra of the week is Ernest and the Cheerleaders teaching each other dances and entertaining the rest of the racers in the airport: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gb8LLrwXrxs

I found this Web Extra of theirs from last week very funny: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pycejp_JaAw