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Well, this team is getting increasingly painful to watch. That was a fast turnaround. I'm on Nici's side. Maybe it's because I'm closer to her age and I would never go on the race with my own mom but it seems like Shelley knows her daughter's triggers and was passive-aggressively pushing them so she'd appear worse in front of the cameras and so she could reprimand her. That wasn't helpful, supportive behavior. As much as Nici's behavior might irritate her in the moment, I think she likes putting her back in that child role. Now, of course we didn't see a ton of them except for the most dramatic parts since they spent a lot of the episode at the back of the pack. So it's totally possible that Nici had been bothering her mom all day and she'd finally had enough. Or maybe Shelley had spent the whole day undermining her daughter and by the end of the day Nici was ready to have a meltdown at this final act.

I'm inclined to chalk this up to her being a former pageant girl. Maybe I'm being nicer to Jim that I would have been if I hadn't seen so many seasons of this show but I think the worst we saw from him was just him shutting down. He looked really intense when I think Shelley was like "tell me about it" and in the interview with Misti. But after the day they had, I'm not going to start hating him because he couldn't muster up a smile for the camera. It seemed like he was supportive of Misti the whole time she was failing to get that part of the clue and throughout the day and their little frustrations he didn't yell at her or blame her for their failures. Oh, and kudos to her for going with a song to help her remember the ingredients. It's what I would have done if I couldn't come up with a pneumonic.

I'm enjoying not hating people this season. It allows me to be happy for the wrestlers when they didn't give up on the cake challenge (even if Brooke does complain...loudly...a lot). And I can also be happy for the food scientists for acing the what's the difference challenge. Kudos to Adam and Tim for figuring out the flower pot thing. I still don't have a team I'm really rooting for but because I don't hate anyone I can celebrate all the little successes. The way Robbie described the Bombay sandwich was so dorky. I loved it. I have been waiting for Amy and Maya to get more of a personality and this was the episode. Amy's reactions were that of an adorable little pixie. It'll get annoying if she does it all the time but for now it was pretty cute. And Maya's eyebrow was all I needed to make me like her. ;) Also, I appreciated that nothing this episode was really a physical challenge. I didn't get the best sense of who did really well at the memory challenge but I hope there are more mental challenges as it seems like it will really play to multiple teams' strengths this season. Shelley and Nici seem to have such a toxic relationship. I would never go on the Amazing Race with my own mom even if I thought we'd be any good at the challenges. Don't you know these things about your own relationships before you sign up? For me, it's not Marcie and Luke. It's not like the daughter is being childish. The mom is taking a small thing and passive aggressively provoking her so she'll behave even worse and then she can reprimand her/show her bad behavior to other people. That's not good parenting. I give Jim points for getting frustrated during their struggles in all the challenges but never seeming to take it out on Misti. Though I agree that if they handed over the pass, they shouldn't have gotten it back.

Results: out beat in the sing off Kromm, you should be pleased.

Longtime watchers of the show, how does the airport vs. travel agency thing usually break down? So I guess Phil giving the descriptions while the teams are there is just a new thing? I suppose we've answered the question about whether or not Bethany can drive. How did the genius dentists not know those capitals? I feel like the female wrestler doesn't get to judge the male wrestler for not knowing if Sweden and Denmark are different countries when she thought a handicapped parking spot was called a handyman. I'm happy Kym and Alli were smart enough to assemble the cake just before going to the restaurant and that they brought extra icing. Professional decorators do sometimes assemble on site. I'm also glad it wasn't somehow against the rules. I'm starting to like Kym and Alli. They have fun but they're not obnoxious.

1. Fleur East 2. Lola Saunders 3. Lauren Platt 4. Ben Haenow 5. Andrea Faustini 6. Paul Akister 7. Stereo Kicks 8. Only the Young 9. Stephanie Nala 10. Jake Quickenden 11. Jay James 12. Stevi Ritchie 13. Chloe Jasmine 14. Jack Walton

Jack Walton: Breathy. Then whiny. Then breathy again. Jack is working his way towards tolerable. Oh, wait. He abandoned the guitar. This is so much worse. He's just a slightly less shite version of Sam Callahan, isn't he? Does that mean he's going to last as long as Sam Callahan??? Stephanie Nala: She was a breathy but overall fine. On key. You know. Andrea Faustini: Fine. Good. I just don't like Andrea. He's not Whitney. He doesn't take me to church. He barely gets me to the 7/11 around the corner. I just don't feel anything when he sings. Lauren Platt: Very pretty vocal. But it was way too slow and had no energy. If you're going to slow down a song to give it meaning you have to imbue it with energy so it vibrates with power. I still say she's too young and doesn't have that power and weight to her voice. It felt like the performance that comes at the end of a teen movie where the shy girl finally takes the stage and wins the talent show/pageant/scholarship. But straight tones don't impress me. Also, her voice cracked. Ben Haenow: I thought he sounded pretty good. But he should try harder. He doesn't bring a lot of emotion to songs and he kind of relaxes on the vocals too much when he's not singing the big notes. Fleur East: I love Fleur. She's ready to go. She seems like the professional act who comes to perform on the results show. Flawless. She raps and dances but isn't breathless when it's time to sing. She doesn't perform a terrible slowed down ballad. Fleur's not going to win. God damn it. Lola Saunders: It took me a while to figure out what was off with Lola's performance. She holds notes but she doesn't hold all the notes and she still trails off like she's marking. Also, she doesn't enunciate. It's like another version of Andrea where I don't know if she cares what she's actually singing. Compared to everyone else though I think she sounds good. Chloe Jasmine: So Gatsby. The movie. I don't think started singing until the chorus. She was just talking and making noises. And even once she reached the chorus it wasn't great. It's like a little Madonna and a lot of Katie Waissel and quite a bit of a drag act. This is like that final number in the movie where the singer has been ravaged by booze and pills and she's unrecognizable but she's still put on her makeup and gone out to give one last performance. And then she dies at the end. I am not convinced she was singing during most of the song. Stevi Ritchie: Oh that spoken opening? So cruise ship. What are you doing, Simon? That said, perfect song choice for the way Stevi sings. However, he didn't sound nearly as good as Rick Astley and I think the melody was getting away from him at times. Also, the staging makes zero sense to me. This could have been more fun than it was. Jay James: Jay is getting more tolerable. I get doing a very stripped back arrangement to not overwhelm his very weak voice. But this was still boring as hell and took away all the good parts of this song. I don't want to hear this as a slow song without the da-doo-doo's. Jake Quickenden: I love this song. He needs to find a way of singing where he doesn't cover his mouth. It's distracting. He's not a very strong singer. But he's also not the worst in the bunch. Pleasantly mediocre. Stereo Kicks: Yay! The one I like made it into the top four. There are still too many of them. I feel like it's distracting me from paying attention to the vocals or stage presence. I wish there were more harmonies and I do think their stage presence is weak. However, they sound pretty good. I didn't come here to listen to choral music though. I think I'm going to concentrate my efforts on figuring out which 2 or 3 guys should be kicked out. Only the Young: The only cover of this song I need is from Save Ferris. I think the first girl needs to focus on how she's positioning her head and where she's trying to pull the sound from. It's making the notes sound strained when they shouldn't. I'm getting more of a read on the blonde one. They should pick songs that play to her strengths. I think that would be more interesting that trying to get her to blend. Yay, harmony. I think they have an issue where if the girls take the lead, the guys fade and if the guys take the lead, the girls fade. You only have to sing for two minutes. You can't mark until it's time for your solo. Also, they're totally a band for a kids show and not a real group. Paul Akister: Fine. They posted this video way too late for me to care. But his stage presence was a lot better.

It's 80's night. You've been warned.

I think they need to do these kinds of glamour shots all the time because they actually kind of looked like models this week. Talk about 'same look'. Running through Denzel's portfolio it's clearly he has almost no range. Tyra? How are you letting them eat soul food? Even for a few minutes? I do not understand how they keep their figures with the way they eat and drink. Yay! Ben is almost back! Please let it be Ben! For the individual shots the only ones I like are Raelia and kind of Will. Everyone else is either doing something weird or boring or just doesn't look like a model.

When we started with the wedding I thought that would be the focus of the episode but they couldn't get them offscreen fast enough. One girl was shot and I think the other had less than 10 lines. Great job!

I didn't feel like watching Pete Kelly's Blues so I just fastforwarded through the narrative and watched the musical numbers with Ella Fitzgerald and Peggy Lee. They sounded gorgeous but they didn't really sparkle on film. I think it was partially the way they were shot during the musical numbers and then just their stage presence. I don't know if it was something that didn't translate to film. Weirdly, I thought Ella was better in her second more somber number than first one which should have been more upbeat. I don't know. I've listened to a lot of Ella Fitzgerald but not a lot of Peggy Lee. There are like a bajillion Spotify albums because they keep re-releasing different compilations. Any recommendations?

Top Chef starting off with a bang. Mise-en-place for the first quickfire. My favorite quickfire after Hung's season. A fairly good showing at the food festival. I don't hate the sudden death quickfire because sometimes people are just awful and you have cull the herd quickly. The second cook-off might get a little annoying though. I'm not sure if they'll make all the contestants hang out for judging every week. On the one hand, at least you get to hear some feedback from the judges, even if it's for other people. On the other hand, eh... not as dramatic as they want it to be. I don't like anyone yet but I feel like I'm going to hate Aaron. I'm not decided on Blais as a judge. I think he's fine so far but he could get into Hughnibrow territory where he's just a little too much. The other judges don't have anything to prove. The new judges always do. I thought his feedback this week was pretty good except for say the motorcycle thing and I worry about him being super articulate on the spot.

This was a very solid episode. I was thinking about not watching this show anymore but this won me over. If they can maintain this level of mildly amusing, well structured storytelling, I'll stay with it. I've got to quit some of these MTV shows. I've wasted too much time on bad episodes of Awkward, Faking It, and Finding Carter just so I'll be caught up.

Yeah, I don't have the highest hopes for Into the Woods just because he's vouching for it. I'm not sure if it's about thinking his work is going to die but I think he likes knowing that people appreciate it. My issue is that it's all well and good for high schools and regional community theatres to do what they want but a movie has legs and it might put a stop to both remakes of that specific musical and future movie musicals in general.

So, erm, not really a stalker. Again. Also, thanks for that plinky-plonky minor key cover of Don't You Forget About Me. I really needed that in my life. Too much pointless violence and horror movie tropes. Forget, Stabler's Internal Affairs issues, how many perps is Dylan McDermott going to shoot dead? Did the "stalker" have to assault a surgeon instead of just going to a storage closet or something to get a pair of scrubs? Is Maggie Q never going to tie her hair up? Is the entire cast of Devious Maids going to show up this season?

Emma Stone Cabaret promotional photo: http://racked.com/archives/2014/10/15/emma-stone-cabaret-crucial-update.php I know I say this about everything but I swear I'm going to try my best to see her in this. This is the only time I've ever wanted to see Rock of Ages. I still probably won't see Rock of Ages. http://www.broadway.com/buzz/177918/dont-stop-believin-youtube-star-chester-see-will-make-his-broadway-debut-in-rock-of-ages/ Whaa....? http://www.broadway.com/buzz/177891/stephen-sondheim-teams-up-with-david-ives-to-pen-new-show-at-the-public/

I just watched the actual Sing Off performances. didn't actually sing that well but absolutely better than . Not good though. It's was a toss up between "I can't even finish listening to this" and "Wow, that was bad but I got through it."

Yeah, I still don't hate them, especially as much as other people seem to. There are no real villains this season which is a big relief and makes the show much more watchable. That said, unless he's trying to be a motivational speaker, he needs to cool it. I did like that he told Misti to keep back so she wouldn't get kicked by the Shetland pony. Unless he gets injured, I can see them making it far on his physical strength though I'd like to see her take on a few tasks. We could get anything in Copenhagen so hopefully it'll happen sooner rather than later. Maybe puzzles or dancing or something.

I don't think it's a bad idea to use your downtime to relax and recuperate but it was nice to see someone choose to have some fun instead of just going to sleep. They seemed to do really well at the detour. We still haven't seen enough for me to really decide how I feel one way or the other but I'm starting to like them more.

Yeah, I'm worried for them in the non-English speaking countries if they're already struggling. Eh, I'm willing to forgive them since those kinds of vocabulary words can depend on where you grew up/your life experiences. I was expecting someone to get tripped up over "puffin." I'm glad they're still in it over the firefighters but yeah, they need to shape up.

I love that they didn't give up and figured out the peat task. They seemed to interact well with the animals, too. Maya telling the sheep to get into the pen in "an orderly fashion" was very cute. And it was nice to see them get lost but not defeated. They got to the church and didn't argue or freak out. They just refocused and apparently got to the pit stop shortly after that. I could easily see another team being upset or chiming in with "we'll do better next time" but they really won me over with their reaction.

Brooke needs to chill. I cannot take many more weeks of this.

This team is amusing without trying too hard. I'm worried about them next week though. So dramatic!

Too much bickering. I wonder if it was worse than we saw. Were other racers complaining or was it production? It seemed weird that Phil brought it up.

I continue to appreciate having this competent, positive team on the race. Bethany didn't really need to help out on the peat task but it was nice that she found a way to be useful on a task that could have been all about Adam. Even though they had a bit of trouble with the sheep they didn't get angry at each other or defeatist.