It was great that karma got both snarkers so quickly.
It kind of bothers me that Jordan, who has already won Big Brother, is now on The Amazing Race. I know you see lots of reality TV contestants show up again and again, trying to become famous, but she’s already won one show, isn’t that enough? Give someone else a chance.
It’s a toss-up so far – all the teams seem just as stupid as the ones they are racing against.
What a way to keep up that opinion that the rest of the world has about Americans!
I was a huge fan of Jeff and Jordan on Big Brother, so I’m going to be rooting for them hard this season.
In fairness, Jordan isn’t on the show because she won Big Brother. She’s on the show because she and Jeff formed a real honest-to-goodness relationship as opposed to the typical Showmance you often see on reality shows. I’d bet good money they’d still be on even if Jordan came in third on Big Brother.
heh, as soon as she said “I guess I can do it” I was like oh shit, they’re toast. Then I remembered the 4+ hours on the rotating log and figured she had decent enough balance that maybe it wouldn’t be a total disaster.
Jeff had a couple great lines:
When they started painting: “Just like Karate Kid”
Jordan: “We’re going to China!”
Jeff: “No, Sandiego Chile…”
heh, nice callback to the “Didn’t you ever watch Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego?”
I was heartened to see them win the first leg, as I kind of assumed their collective stupidity plus Jordan’s general incompetence would get them eliminated in the first leg in humiliating fashion. Hopefully they make it a few more weeks. Not too long, though, because when they start yelling at each other I’m going to be majorly bummed out.
I wonder if the cameraman knew they were in a private residence unrelated to the show. Because if so I love that he did nothing to stop trespassing and vandalism.
I doubt they’ll win. Besides, Jordan is entertaining.
Not quite as good of a start as Survivor: Heroes and Villains, but I can see this being an entertaining season.
Snap judgments after one episode ahoy (in reverse order of a predicted final finish)…
Dana & Adrian (Black couple) - Called their early demise before the credits.
Carol & Brandy (The lesbians) - Brandy (the dark-haired one) sounds really delicate. Talking about designer clothes, fearing public tranportation and basically sounding exhausted on the first day. Never a good sign.
Steve & Allie (Father/daughter) - They painted the inside of someone’s house before realizing it was wrong! This team is a 24-hour penalty waiting to happen.
Jody & Shannon (Grandmother/granddaughter) - Gotta go with zut on this one. There’s no way a 71-year old woman, no matter how fit, even sniffs the final four.
Louie & Michael (The Cops) - Big, slightly-older, all-male teams never fair well on TAR and I doubt Louie & Michael will be an exception. They’ll go far enough though.
Jordan & Jeff (Team Big Brother) - They’re not as stupid as I expected Big Brother contestants to be, but they still seem pretty dense. I think this 1st is a fluke.
Jet & Cord (The Cowboys) - Another team of not very bright brothers. Their physical fitness will probably take them far, but they won’t win.
Brent & Caite (Miss Teen USA) - Oh boy. “We’re going to China!” Although Brent seems like a competitor, so we’ll see.
Dan & Jordan (The Brothers) - A tad dim, but top four for sure.
Monique & Shawne (Lawyer Friends) - We didn’t get a real feel for these two yet which makes me guess they’ll go far.
Joe & Heidi (Asian couple) - Calling it now, they win.
That was Jordan (Big Brother), not Caite.
When watching her intro footage, I just kept thinking “what must it be like to be considered so pretty that it doesn’t matter that you can’t tell time.”
It’s just a totally different life than mine.
I wonder how hard it was to find the street? And painting the inside of the house killed me, but it wasn’t a penalty, and they seemed to recover.
I laughed heartily several times. Jordan saying China, The Cowboys exchanging all their cash for the wrong currency, painting the inside of a random house–all great moments.
One that Caite did that no one’s mentioned yet: When the local gave her the clue after the housepainting, she said “Danke” to him.
Are the racers unusually stupid or incompetent this season? There seems to have been an unusually large amount of FAIL. Aside from everything that’s already been mentioned above, they’ve already assessed two penalties as well as the last team utterly failing to complete the last task, forcing Phil to come out to eliminate them. It’s only the first Pit Stop!
Stupid is entertaining. I’m liking this season so far. So many chances for Fail, and all attributable to the racers themselves.
Esp. since they’re from Oklahoma. 
Agree that the ages skew high this season – but that’s balanced by the fact that IQs skew low. No, wait, that doesn’t balance anything.
Lots of dumb people, and lots of really dislikeable people as well. (The dykes came across as really entitled and obnoxious, if significantly smarter than about half the field … not that that’s saying much.)
Agree that the Asian couple will do well; they and the black moms should go all the way. Third pick … the straight/gay brother duo, just because they seem less iditioic than much of the competition. Oh, wait, weren’t they the ones who lost a paintbrush? :smack:
I absolutely loved the indoor painting. The chief painter was completely nonplussed when they showed him the clue. It killed me.
I’m willing to cut them a little slack on that. If I go to Canada, most places, especially those close to the border, seem to have figured out how to accept American currency. Maybe that was their plan for Chile, that they’d be more accustomed and more likely to accept currency from a close neighbor like Brazil.
The down side is that you lose a little bit in the transaction every time you change from one currency to another, and saving for later legs is usually smart.
And the cowboys must have kicked ass at the painting task. They were one of the last teams on the wire and finished the leg in third, so they must have something going for them.
Heh–Good to know I’m not the only one who does snap judgements. Swiping Jordan’s list…
Dana & Adrian (Black couple) - Can’t we have a non sob-story black husband and wife team? Uchenna and Joyce were childless, Frank and Margarita were separated, and these guys lost all their money in a bad business deal. I knew they were doomed when he called himself the “Big dawg”.
Carol & Brandy (The lesbians) - The dark haired one thinks God’s a lot more interested in her than I think he is. Praying for God to break the other team’s plane is hubristic at best and kinda sociopathic at worst…
Steve & Allie (Father/daughter) - Despite seeming dumb as rocks this episode, I kinda like them.
Jody & Shannon (Grandmother/granddaughter) - Gotta go with Zut and Justin. The only reason that the Grandfather/grandson team made it as far as they did a few seasons back is that Grandson carried grandpa through much of the trip–(literally carrying his bags much of the way, etc). Not that grandpa didn’t rock, but still…and this lady’s like 10 years older than Grandpa and the granddaughter isn’t nearly as tough as the grandson.
Louie & Michael (The Cops) - IF they don’t get overconfident (like the beefy lawyer last season), I think they might make final three. That said, they’ll get overconfident/arrogant and do something stoopid.
Jordan & Jeff (Team Big Brother) - She seems dumb as a rock but they (so far) seem supportive of each other and that will help. Plus they both have a good attitude. They rose in my estimation this ep-I was expecting to loathe them. (How do you win on Big Brother anyway? Is it Survivor-esqe where people are voted off? Based on what?)
Jet & Cord (The Cowboys) - If the Brazil money=Chile money thing was a fluke, they’re my pick for the win. They went from 9th or 10th place getting to the rope challenge to 3d. That’s pretty impressive. My money’s on them for the win.
Brent & Caite (Miss Teen USA) - I have no feel for these two at all, except that they started the race by not following directions. This isn’t a good sign.
Dan & Jordan (The Brothers) - A) I’m really sick of “I loooove you, bro!” and it’s only the first ep. B) I hate the gay one. The bitchy, catty queen thing is an ugly stereotype and the gay one is buying into it. Pull in your claws and raaaaaace bud, this isn’t Survivor.
Monique & Shawne (Lawyer Friends) - Got a good vibe about these two, but yeah, I agree with Justin: no real feel for them.
Joe & Heidi (Asian couple) - I predict big, BIG meltdowns. EVERY time a competitor has described themself as “Intense”, what they mean is “I’m an unrepentant, immature asshole who will throw tantrums.” That said, they (and the gay/not gay brothers) will go far because of the luck of the evil.
A couple of other things–have we ever seen the safety stuff actually used before? I mean, people wore it, but we’ve never seen it come into play.
I also have always wanted someone to do what coach/daughter did: go to the wrong place and start doing the task. Heh.
To call them overconfident isn’t quite it, at least, not in the same way as the guy last season.
I remember hearing something about adventure racing that may apply here. There would usually be some military teams; and not regular grunts, but hardcore SEALS or special forces types. They’d be in phenomenally good shape physically, but the culture of the teams was such that they couldn’t stop, get input, think, and make good decisions. All their training tells them to act fast, be decisive, and press on. I’ll be watching to see if they fall prey to that.
I don’t know - you don’t even have to be an arrogant American to assume that every airport in the world that has incoming flights from the USA will also have a place that lets you convert US currency to local. When they found that the LAX currency exchange didn’t have Chilean cash, they really should have just bailed. This seemed too much like “I’ll try out my Spanish skills in Germany” to me.
First episode, and they’re off! But not, as my wife pointed out, without making a whole raft of errors. A fact that makes this episode tough to assess, because no one really looks like a winner. Luckily I have uninformed speculation to fall back on.
Taxi Assessment: (Thumbnail Descriptions included to enhance your viewing experience)
Stuck in the Desert and Officially Detained - or, Philiminated with extreme prejudice.
Dana & Adrian (TD: Black couple) (down from “Rapido!”) - I was all set to give Adrian props for jumping of their delayed flight and onto the Miami flight (not that it was all that brilliant, but it was probably the smartest thing anyone did all episode), but he goes and blows it on the cable-walking Roadblock. Way to not overcome challenges, Adrian.
Flat Tire - or, not likely to get anywhere soon.
Jody & Shannon (TD: Grandmother/granddaughter) (down from “Stopping”) - Jody’s getting the “tough granny” edit, where all the other teams emphasize how strong and competitive she is. I take that to mean this team gets eliminated in the next episode, and I don’t see anything in this episode to change that opinion. They didn’t do anything very dumb, at least not on-camera, yet they were consistently behind all the other teams (most of whom did do dumb things), and only Adrian’s crash-and-burn kept them in the race. That just doesn’t bode well.
Stopping for Gas - or, not broken-down, exactly, but not a good sign.
Brent & Caite (TD: Dating models/ Miss Teen USA) (holding steady) - I’m more than a little sympathetic to Caite’s plight, in that if I was forever associated with some embarassing gaffe I made when I was seventeen, I might be focused on living it down. Especially when every snarky gay guy I meet starts repeating it back verbatim. But proving you’re not a ditz is gonna mean doing all those hard things like reading the clue, Caite. “Funicular” might be an unfamiliar word, but you can’t just ignore it. Add to that their struggle to find Templeman Street (you can’t just ask a local?), and this team turned a cab-assisted cruise to first into a middle-of-the-pack finish. It’s certainly valid to point out that this team must have done something right to jump into first place to begin with, and Caite did flawlessly dance across the high wire, but I’m not impressed overall, so I’m keeoing them ranked here. Perhaps I, like Jordan, am underestimating this team, but there will be plenty of time later to find out.
Carol & Brandy (TD: Short-haired dating lesbians) (holding steady) - “Public transportation to us is like not using a valet parking.” OK. High maintenance and the Amazing Race do not mix. To Brandy’s credit, she pushed through and made it to the other side of the ravine. In addition, they did finish in the middle of the pack rather than near the bottom, so perhaps I’m underestimating them, also. But this is still an under-athletic all-female team, and I just don’t see them competing for the whole Race. We’ll see.
"Rapido! Por Favor?" - or, making meaningless ineffectual comments from the back seat, but in no immediate danger.
Louie & Michael (TD: Mustachioed buddies) (down from “Passing”) - Painting grafitti? WTF? Come on, I thought this team would be smarter than that. They were taking up the rear of the pack much of the way, and the only reason I’m not dropping them even further is because of their inordinately high preseason ranking.
Dan & Jordan (TD: Frat-boy-type brothers) (holding steady) - Oh no! Where’s the paintbrush? Heh. I wish I knew if the teams had a good feel for the magnitude of the time penalties awarded. Did Dan & Jordan luck out and only get 15 minutes, or did they have reason to believe the penalty would be that short and made an informed decision to take the penalty? Either way, they could have avoided the penalty by not dropping the damn brush to begin with.
Steve & Allie (TD: Father/daughter) (holding steady) - My wife thinks that Steve & Allie painting some random dude’s house is just about the most hilarious mistake ever. Other than that, we don’t learn a lot about this team in this episode, so I’m keeping them ranked in the middle.
Jordan & Jeff (TD: Big Brother dating couple) (up from “Stopping”) - It’s quite possible I underestimated this team; they were ahead of the other teams from start to finish, and there was no bickering in sight. But they still get points deducted for Jordan’s hilarious fixation on getting tickets to China instead of Chile. Yes, I know, brain fart and all, but those last two letters are really really important when you’re racing around the world. I’m tentatively bumping them up a notch, but I’m going to be taking a hard look at how they react when things aren’t going their way.
Joe & Heidi (TD: Asian couple) (down from “Passing”) - We didn’t see much of this team, and they didn’t seem to make a lot of mistakes, but they didn’t show any flashes of brilliance either. I’m bumping them down on the strength of their mediocrity, but I kind of expect them to go back up later.
In the Passing Lane - or, ahead of the pack, but not quite comfortably.
Monique & Shawne (TD: Black lawyer moms) (holding steady) - One of the few teams that (apparently) didn’t make any real mistakes on this leg, they finish in second place. We didn’t see a whole lot of this team, but what we did see (like successfully finding their house to paint) looked pretty good, and I’m cautiously optimistic. Plus, about carrying a long heavy wooden object through the streets: “If Jesus can do this, I can do this.” That inspirational analogy is all kinds of awesome. Because, really, what can Jesus do that she can’t?
Jet & Cord (TD: Cowboy brothers) (holding steady) - Brazilian money? Seriously? Ouch. I can see the logic behind that decision, made by someone who’s been near the US/Mexican border occasionally but nowhere else internationally, but the logic is clearly faulty. I’m not yet willing to conclude this team is pure dumb, but they’re certainly inexperienced in this whole “travel around the world” thing, and that might be critical. However, on the upside, they recovered nicely from their mistake, going from battling Jodi & Shannon for last place all the way up to number three at the mat. Know how they did that? They didn’t make any more mistakes. A critical skill, and I’m leaving them here at the top for now.
Cruisin’ with Earl - or, drivin’ on the shoulder, takin’ shortcuts, and generally kickin’ butt.
No one for a few weeks yet.
[sub]Props to Mullinator and his Raj Ratings.[/sub]