I don’t have time for a proper analysis, but someone has to start the thread.
I’ll only say I saw this coming.
I agree. Somewhere an English teacher is wondering where she went wrong! I’ve come away from this episode liking the brothers less and even more convinced that Brian married for looks rather than character. On the other hand, the strategic blurring was amusing. There’s no way I would have chosen to play volleyball in the mud. First, moving around in all that mud is going to be exhausting. Second, I’m a little short. I could just see myself neck deep in the mud telling the gentleman I am hitting it up!
Yeah, what was that? Were his shorts especially tight or something?
Didn’t one of the brothers say those Estonia guys were hot?
I thought the strategic blurring was proof positive they thought the Estonian guys were hot.
Yeah, that thought ran through my mind as well. I wonder if Matt had the same problem on the SaunaBus.
Both brothers were blurred, weren’t they? Yeah, I’m sure they were visibly happy to see the hottie Estonians.
StG
Well, as much as I dont want to see two professional athletes win The Amazing Race, the Globetrotters are the only team left that overall seem like decent, worthwhile people (even if they are prone to a little self promotion or gloating)
The brothers are whiners, Megan and Cheyne are dishonest, and while I like Brian, I dont want to see his already concieted wife get any additional accolades, or her head will swell to be bigger than young Falcon Heenee’s balloonsaucer was…
BOOO! Pinky and the Brain were eliminated.
That said, they had every opportunity to make time up. There were no tasks (except the speed bump with is traditionally overly simple) that were of the “Stand in line and be ballast” variety* and they had every chance to make it up. So…if they had done their tasks faster (they always bled time with directions…they seemed very shy about asking people. Which I understand, 'cause I kinda am too) or had less killer fatigue (Pinky’s no dummy—I’d bet he knew what a ‘candelabra’ was but was just too fried to get it), they could have caught up. The possibility was there.
I’m sick of the gay-guys/Globetrotters drama. The gay guys started it but the Globetrotters are buying in. Inter-team drama is so incredibly unappealing to me. Run your own damned race. I’ve hated it since the “twin hunt” back in S3. Shut up and raaaaaaace.
I was impressed at how well Megan and Shane (I spit on the stoopid spellings) did this time around.
And Miss America’s attitude seems to have improved slightly (although she was still kind of a prima-donna bitch–the “you gave our cab away?” stuff.
Overall though, great leg, great tasks, really well-planned out.
I just rewatched S1 over the last few weeks and one thing I miss is the camraderie. Yeah the teams were racing, but they were racing for the best time, not against the other teams so much. That’s why the Guidos stood out–they WERE racing against the other teams. There were several occasions when the teams would stand around the elimination point and wait for the last team to arrive to hug/cheer/etc them. Or, in one case when they thought the team was lost in the desert and had been missing for hours, were making noise about going out to try to find them. Yeah, they were racing (and I’d put Loud Pushy Frank and Margarite or The Esquire Boys or the Frat Brothers up against any of the remaining teams for hard/competent play) but they were also having fun. That’s missing except for Pinky and the Brain which is why I’m gonna miss them.
*You know: “In this detour, the chosen member must [del]sit in a race car while someone else drives[/del]…[del]ride a roller-coaster[/del]…[del]sit in a centerfuge[/del]…[del]slide down a zip-line[/del]…prove that you’re gravity’s bitch in some way” task. There’s no skill other than the (usually) negligible courage needed to do the task. You just sit there.
You nailed it—The Amazing Race is the ONLY reality show I have ever watched (seriously, I have never watched more than 5 min. total of Survivor, American Idol, Dancing With The Sodomites, etc.) but a friend told me about Amazing Race in the second or third season, and I have been a fan since. In the first few incarnations of the show, it seemed to actually try and get the contestants to really experience the culture, and the tasks almost always had some real life connection to the country that they were travelling in, things that locals would need to know about.
The last few seasons, they have certainly been going downhill, with extreme gross out contests (eat 6 pounds of dolphin assholes) and tasks that were either just sheer blind luck or so simple that a retarded 4 year old from Idaho could complete them.
It was a great concept (especially for those who love to travel) but I think Amazing Race its on its last legs, at least as far as I am concerned…
I know what a candelabra is, but might have been thrown off by the fact that the item they were looking for with a number appeared to just be a candlestick, not a candelabra (or am I wrong that candelabras by definition hold multiple candles?).
yeah - I would second this, I loved the first two or three series, after that - a bit meh, mostly because the tasks seemed to lose their zing.
We loved the blurring of the brothers’ junk- either the tip of their peckers were poking out or they have a thing for Estonian Mud Bog Volleyball Players. I’m guessin’ the latter.
Exactly.
Remember the time we saw the teams (at a pit stop) dancing with nomads? Or the Frat guys teaching a bunch of strangers on a train in India to play gin rummy(?)
Or in another season, a bunch of the characters joined in a wedding ‘parade’(?) that a bunch of locals were having?
I miss that.
Considering how much footage must get shot before it’s edited to make each episode, could they not have found what they needed for that segment from a different camera angle?
Could be worse, I suppose. Someone could have had the same reaction to shooting radishes at moose.
Mrs. S. and I were sorely disappointed about P&B losing out- but they ran an awful leg when they knew they had to be on top form. The candleabra mistake put them behind a bit, but Pinky not seeing “garden” on the invisible ink clue doomed them. I think they would have been able to ace the slingshots much faster than the self appointed team Zebra, who I don’t mind, but could do without. At this point, the only team I really want to see gone are blondie and Bello the clown- I loathe everything about them, but they are good racers.
So when Phil described the Detour choices, I’m like, "holy crap, that slingshot task looks way easier than slogging through the mud playing volleyball. How hard could it be to hit a stop-sign-sized target exactly once, when a team can fire off about 20 rounds a minute between them?
I’d like to again pointedly call everyone’s attention to my TAR preseason rankings, where my top four preseason picks were Herbert & Nathaniel, Meghan & Cheyne, Brian & Ericka, and Sam & Dan, the current final four.
Taxi Assessment:
Stuck in the Desert and Officially Detained - or, Philiminated with extreme prejudice.
Eric and Lisa and Garrett and Jessica and Marcy and Ron and Zev and Justin and Lance and Keri and Mika and Canaan and Maria and Tiffany - Gone until season’s end.
Gary and Matt (down from “Stopping”) - Gary & Matt had a chance this episode, if only they had played their best. Their time lag was eliminated by a convenient forced bunching on the ferry, and their additional task took only a handful of minutes–they were, in fact, at the Blackhead Club before the Globetrotters left. In addition, they had a tailor-made Detour task: they should have (and probably did) rock the slingshot (ha! get it?). In fact, I was pleasantly expecting a tense and exciting finish where Gary & Matt come sailing to the Detour post with one or two other teams still there. Instead, they killed themselves with some slow travel, the whole “are you a candle-ubra?” debacle, and, most tellingly, their bumbling inability to find the tower and it’s associated clue (which, I think, is actually on Pinky: he missed revealing the last word in the hidden clue: Garden). With the extra Speed Bump, any one of these would be a killer, but all of them meant that Gary & Matt wound up far behind, and probably would have been eliminated even without the Speed Bump. This was a decent team with some hidden strengths, and they definitely deserved to end up in the top half this season, but they were just not quite as good as the four teams left.
Flat Tire - or, not likely to get anywhere soon.
No one this week.
Stopping for Gas - or, not broken-down, exactly, but not a good sign.
No one this week.
“Rapido! Por Favor?” - or, making meaningless ineffectual comments from the back seat, but in no immediate danger.
Brian and Ericka (holding steady) - Ericka said it all: this team still hasn’t won a leg. And they’ve only come in second once. Now, it’s true that the fundamental goal of all but the last leg is avoiding Philimination rather than coming in first, and this team has certainly done that better than eight other teams I could mention. However, realistically, they’re a half-step behind the other three teams that are still active. Brian & Ericka need only a little luck to slip into the final three, but if they do get there, I don’t see them beating any of the other three possible teams for the final million.
In the Passing Lane - or, ahead of the pack, but not quite comfortably.
Sam and Dan (holding steady) - Apparently both Sam and Dan have either prominently-sized or irregularly-shaped dangling junk, enough so that a non-blurred glimpse of its merest outline would have given half of America the vapors. Ironically, that makes me think of poor Cheyne, who’s relatively Ken-doll-like appearance apparently extends to both sides of the waistband. At least the Globetrotters have the excuse of baggy trousers. In any case, I think Sam & Dan have an edge over Brian & Ericka in finding a seat at the final-three table, but I don’t think they’re quite as smart as any of the other teams left, and that’s what might wind up dooming them. If the very final task is a memory-type task, as it has been more than once before, look for Sam & Dan to go down in flames.
Cruisin’ with Earl - or, drivin’ on the shoulder, takin’ shortcuts, and generally kickin’ butt.
Herbert and Nathaniel (holding steady) - I’m not really gong to comment on the pushing-and-shoving manufactured controversy between Herbert & Nathaniel and Sam & Dan other than to say this: over the last five legs, Meghan & Cheyne have racked up three firsts and two second places, and have kicked the Globetrotters’s ass four out of five times (as well as beating Sam & Dan 4/5). If y’all really want to concentrate on beating someone, how about setting your sights on the team that’s consistently ahead? More to the point, I think these little pissant rivalries, although probably unavoidable in million-dollar competitions, don’t do the participants any good. It’s not about eliminating other teams, it’s about winning the game; don’t blur the priorities. And now that I’ve spent time not talking about the pushing-and-shoving, I still think the Globetrotters have an edge over Sam & Dan when it comes down to the wire.
Meghan and Cheyne (holding steady) - Another first place, and surprisingly (given the relatively short time needed to complete the tasks) they win it pulling away. I speculate that they must have had a superlative cab driver, but still they were quick, efficient, and didn’t make any errors. This team has been my favorite to win it all, and I’m not seeing much to change that. However, I’ll point out that if it comes down to a footrace, Meghan is considerably slower than anyone else from the other two top-rated teams, so in a tight finish they’re at a disadvantage.
[sub]Props to Mullinator and his Raj Ratings.[/sub]
Agreed that the whole elbow thing at the end seemed to be completely fabricated by the Globetrotters. At the very least, I didn’t see any such thing happening from the distance and angle that we got. All I saw was some unfortunate (and accidental) slippage by Flight Time that unfortunately ended up taking one of the Gaybros out, too. That the Gaybros had an easier recovery than the Trotter doesn’t make it a conspiracy to injure on the Gaybros’ part.
I’m with you. It looked to me like one of the Globetrotters fell into one of the gay brothers and it wasn’t the brothers’ fault.
Incidentally, I don’t think that was mud. I think it was peat. Speaking as a gardener, they looked a lot more like they’d just been rolling around in peat than mud…mud would have stuck more overall and been much pastier. They looked like they had a light coating of wet peat fibers over the areas that were sunk rather than mud.