I don’t remember any requests like that. The snarky nicknames were one of my favorite parts of these threads.
Just my opinion: If the snarky nicknames come about naturally and are obvious, fine. I don’t like forcing them, and I really hate them in the Survivor threads.
Something like ‘Team Ironleg’ for Peter and Sarah is okay, but I hate the idea of mandatory nicknames for everyone. We’re not that other snarky message board that practically insists on nicknames.
Actually, didn’t Duke and Lauren catch up enough to be on the bus to the village with about five or six other teams? I remember Duke commenting about how they’d managed to catch up at that point, since he sold the flowers so quickly. It was when they were in the village and were looking for the Detour location that they got lost, and I suspect spent quite a bit of time wandering around before stumbling across the birdcage option site. IMO, that’s what caused their downfall, not the anti-Fern – although I’m sure that messed their heads up pretty thoroughly at the time.
Mary and David’s bickering seems to me to be something they just do – there doesn’t seem to me to be any animosity behind it, it just seems to be their communication style with each other. Papa T. and I do a fair amount of bickering, too; there’s not any animus behind it, it’s just what we do. So thus far Mary and David’s bickering hasn’t bothered me – certainly not like the way Kimberly lectures the camera about Rob better not speak harshly to her and then is promptly shown jumping his ass about some innocuous comment about the map.
But perhaps I’m not having a problem wtih it because of the way Mary’s dealing with her sore ankle. Even though I see her saying a lot about her ankle problem, I don’t see her trying to take advantage of it except for not running and not doing the roadblock because she felt she couldn’t ride a bike; she’s done all the walking necessary without complaint. And as someone who’s had multiple sprained ankles, I’m definitely feeling her pain. I think she’s trying to give it as much rest as she can – although if it’s really sprained, with all the air time about it, I can see that as definite foreshadowing of problems it’s going to cause in the future for them.
The only two people I truly don’t like out of the whole bunch this time around are Peter and Kimberly. I get a total Team Who vibe from the models/addicts, but they’re just bland. And even the Alabama moms have redeemed their grumpiness by their concerns over passing Mary & David on the way to the pit stop because of the friendship they’ve developed. Peter, though, is still an ass, and Kimberly is still known around our house as the Eye-Rolling Bitch, and she’s done nothing to change that opinion thus far.
There’s a bit of a difference between leaving someone alone in terms of not over-encouraging them and leaving them alone in terms of dragging themselves on hands and knee through a rice paddy. What bothered me most about it was Peter’s VO in which he, yes, was praising her to the high heavens as she pulled herself along btu I am just barely willing to give him the benefit of the doubt that he asked her and she said no.
Gah, I hate this Sunday night time slot! I totally forgot it was on. Thank god I have my DVR programmed to record it. Will be back with comments after I watch it.
question: why is it that football has to delay network programming? are people who schedule football games not broight enough to realize that the games often run long? wouldn’t it be better to start the games early enough to finish without disrupting network programming for the rest of the night?
two seasons ago our local market preempted them for a local college basketball team. with no notice in the paper or weekly tv listings, they would just shift the amazing race to 2:00 a.m. so the ten or so basketball fans could watch our local team lose.
Give it an hour extra. We watch Cold Case and we have had it bumped back by nearly an hour by football.
Now this week we get a shakeup in the rankings. Previously smooth Duke & Lauren are out of it, and underperforming Erwin & Godwin come out on top. I don’t know about you guys, but I think this has been an awesome season so far–everyone’s mixed around in every episode, nothing gets sorted out until the last fifteen minutes or so, and there’s no teams that are clearly destined to be losers.
Taxi Assessment
Stuck in the Desert and Officially Detained - or, Philiminated with extreme prejudice.
Bilal & Sa’eed and Vipul & Arti and Kellie & Jamie - Who?
Duke & Lauren - (down from “Passing Lane”) - Oh, wow. I had pegged this team as a final three contender. Reasonably physical, despite being an older guy/petite gal; functioning well as a team, able to make good decisions. But this week, multiple mistakes doom them…or rather, they made multiple mistakes, and getting lost in the village really doomed them. I wonder how much later they finished than the other teams?
Flat Tire - or, not likely to get anywhere soon.
David & Mary - (holding steady) - They finished a comfortable two slots out of last place. However, David & Mary have been finishing in the bottom third in every single leg so far. Lucky for them, mistakes by two other teams leave them safe this week, but you can’t rely on that luck forever. On the other hand, my sense so far is that the gap between the weakest teams and the strongest teams is much narrower now than in past seasons, so a little luck and a lot of determination could get this team farther than I think.
Lyn & Karlyn - (holding steady) - I have essentially the same impression of this team as I do of David & Mary. They’ve gotten by due to other team’s mistakes, and not making too many of their own. Still, they too have been finishing near the back pretty consistantly
Stopping for Gas - or, not broken-down, exactly, but not a good sign.
Tom & Terry - (down from “Rapido!”) - All right, I’m knocking these guys back down a peg. You could probably argue that they made just one mistake and nearly finished second, but I’d argue back that the mistake they made was particularly egregious. If there’s one thing you must must must do on the Race, it’s RTFC. They’re lucky their penalty was only 30 minutes. A good leg next week and I might bump them back up, but for now…
"Rapido! Por Favor?" - or, making meaningless ineffectual comments from the back seat, but in no immediate danger.
Erwin & Godwin - (up from “Stopping”) - A good leg this week culminating in a first-place finish. They certainly deserve a bump up in the ratings. However, I’m not impressed with a single good leg, especially after two substandard ones. Can they keep up, or will they again slip to the back of the pack?
Rob & Kimberly - (holding steady) - We didn’t see a lot from this team this week. Not enough drama I guess. Middle-of-the-pack performance, middle-of the-pack finish, middle-of-the-pack assessment.
Dustin & Kandice - (holding steady) - Good work on the flower-selling, clearly. Not so good on the village navigation. Lucky for them half the teams wre wandering around in a pack, looking for the Detour.
In the Passing Lane - or, ahead of the pack, but not quite comfortably.
Peter & Sarah - (holding steady) - Dang; a top-tier finish despite being dead last on the trailing bus halfway through the leg. That makes two legs in a row that they’ve recovered nicely from mental errors (switching Detours/taking the wrong bus). Now, I’m of two minds about this: on the one hand, they shouldn’t be making the errors in the first place. On the other hand, they’re still blowing through the other teams. Erratic performances like this usually only end in tears, but if this team can straighten out, they’re definitely contending for final three. They stay atop the rankings this week…but we’ll see what happens next week.
Tyler & James - (holding steady) - Tyler & James finish uncharacteristically low, but still safely ahead of a number of other teams, doing nothing to dispell my impression that they’re the team to beat.
Cruisin’ with Earl - or, drivin’ on the shoulder, takin’ shortcuts, and generally kickin’ butt.
Still no one, really. With the parity this season, no one team pulls away from the pack.
Next week: Oh, Peter.
[sub]Props to Mullinator and his Raj Ratings.[/sub]
I dunno. Seems consistant to me. Last week he wasn’t actually helping Sarah, he was just being a patronizing doofus. This week, he wasn’t actually helping Sarah, he was just being a patronizing doofus. The non-stop rah-rah enthusiasm coupled with motivational lectures would be appropriate if Sarah was in fourth grade, but it seems a little weird in what I presume is a dating relationship.
Still, on a scale of one to Colin, Peter doesn’t blip very high for me. If he’s the biggest ass this season, it’s only because he’s not facing the stiff competition from earlier seasons.
[sub]I can’t help but wonder if Peter acts the same way during sex. “You can do it Sarah! Just as good as anyone with good two legs! You’re strong! You’re better!” Am I going to Hell for that?[/sub]
Every so often, it works out to live on the west coast.
Yes, everything gets tape delayed - but I didn’t even realize that football might conflict with TAR.
I really liked how close every one is. They’re all within 45 minutes of each other for the next leg, right?
And yes, zut, you are 
2nd is uncharacteristically low?
To all of you with Sunday timing problems: that’s what you get for living on the East coast.
I like how David was sharing his feelings with the camera, and Mary cut him off. “Dagnabbit, Mary! I’m having a moment, here!”
Was anyone else surprised that Mary & David’s favorites teams were the Black Team, the Asian Team, and the Gay Team? Way to go against stereotypes! OTOH, there’s not much left – 2 bickering couples, and the Pretty Boys.
Hey…where’s rockle?
Hee, hee, I was thinking the same thing.
I have a question: I thought they were supposed to be selling the flowers off the back of the bicycles. It seemed like most of the teams just stood in the doorway of the flower shop and sold them, and didn’t even get on the bikes. Did I miss something?
Ppbbhhth! 
We get to watch everything ‘first.’
So, neener, neener, neener.
From what the tWins* were saying, the later teams were getting mobbed right outside the shop so they didn’t really get the chance to get on the bikes.
*Just throwing out “tWins” as a possible nickname, even though they aren’t actually twins…
Oops, my mistake. I mentally jumbled together the herd of teams that finished 2-5 and thought that Tyler & James were on the lower end instead of the upper end. I usually double-check statements like that on the official TAR Leaderboard, but the Web monkeys at CBS haven’t yet updated it. I blame the faceless monolithic corporation for my mistake.
I’m going to come out squarely in the minority on a few points:
- I love the Sunday timeslot. I hate the 8pm timeslot whenever they’ve had it, because 8 is prime putting-toddlers-to-bed time around here, and it’s not as simple as, you know, just putting them in bed. The tooth brushing, the multiple bathroom trips, the reading of stories—I pray for football delays because it’s the only possibility thet whoever is on bedtime duty will get to actually see TAR.
- I completely agree with Robot Arm about Peter. If he had insisted on carrying Sarah, he would have been seen as an insensitive jerk who didn’t believe in her ability. If he offered to carry her, that likely would have been edited out because that’s not nearly as dramatic as just showing him sauntering across the rice paddy while she crawls on her hands and knees.
- Everytime they flash Tom and Terry’s names on the screen, I read it as ‘Tom and Jerry’. I don’t actually know if I’m in the minority on that point, but it’s worth mentioning.
You’d think some of the racers would have seen this show before and know that there’s no way the Hanoi Hilton would be open in the middle of the night. Not one person said, “Hey, it’ll probably open at 8 or 9, let’s just take a nice leisurely stroll down there and save the cab fare and aggravation.”
Noone ever seems to mention bunching at all. The producers must ruthlessly edit out all such comments.
I do that, too.
There was Mary’s comment last week about how there was no point in jogging because they were all going to end up on the same bus, as one example.
As far as the nice leisurely stroll business, all the way back in S1 Team Guido did something like that. They’d won a Fast Forward and dawdled about and ended up arriving at the Pit Stop last. If another team had taken the correct mode of transportation then Guido would’ve been eliminated. There was also an incident in Europe somewhere, the year Jonathan and Victoria were on, where a bunch of teams assumed that some town hall or something opened several hours later than it did, and the first place teams fell to the back of the pack because of it. So I’d never assume that something wasn’t going to be open.