Last night's episode of The Amazing Race was the kind in which the story lines are advanced, the racers are advanced, but we are left feeling, well, meh. Lots of taxi shenanigans, lots of sweaty brows, lots and lots of frustration but, well, watching someone try and hawk crappy sunglasses to the impoverished residents of an impoverished nation, and then watching someone install a TV antennae ("How about now?" "Now?" "How's it look now?") does not exactly make for compelling viewing.
We leave lush England and make our way to Accra, Ghana, where it is clearly hot as hell. Jill and Thomas, they of the Express Pass, have a five-minute lead over the anesthesiologists named Kat and Nat. Following close behind are the Gleeks, the MelonHeads and the VBalls. All of that is for naught, as there is only flight to Ghana and they are all on it.
Once in Ghana, they must find a park with lovely fountains. From there they must find the Makola Market, which is crazy busy. The Roadblock is for one team member to sell 15 cedi worth of sunglasses. The blond MelonHead is ecstatic, as she spends her life convincing housewives in Des Moines that they must have that all-in-one bag and those stretch stirrup pants. Piece. Of. Cake.
The father and son team (I am calling them the WhoTubes because they are apparently a YouTube sensation that I have never heard of) are second, as who can resist that dad, and the Gleeks are third. Everyone else struggles.
At the Detour - where I am chagrined to find Phil wearing a very unfortunate pair of pants - teams must choose Tune In or Check Out - TV antennae installation or crazy coffin delivery. Neither of these seem particularly daunting, albeit everyone is sweating their patooties off.
Once that is done they have to go to the Kaneshie Market, which makes that first market look like a preschool, and find Phil and his Bad Pants under a bridge. MelonHeads are first, VBalls WhoTubes, The Ring, and Jill and Thomas, now known as Formerly First.
This episode came down to bad taxi drivers and worse traffic. The Gleeks, the Docs, Dumb and Dumber and The Miss Kentuckys were all neck and neck in their taxis, and the Docs urged their suicidal cab driver to pretty much create his own lane and get them to the mat. This inspired the Gleeks to do the same, until they were almost killed, prompting the taller of the two to a) ask for his mommy and b) say "I'm just so proud that I haven't soiled myself." To which the shorter one replied, "I think I might've."
So it's the Gleeks, the Docs, the Dumbs, the Kentuckians, and last but not least (but definitely eliminated) were the BioMoms. I have to admit I teared up during their last little interview, because really, who can even imagine all that pent up emotion and regret and lost love ... but still ... not exactly a dynamo those two.
Next week, we remain in Africa, where it's going to get even hotter. What did you think?
I appreciated the lack of airport in this episode - they were all on the same flight, so we didn't have to watch them each individually figure that out. That said, I'm amazed by the number of teams that still seem astonished -- after how many seasons of this show -- that they are going to lose their lead because of a flight. Yes, you are going to get "bunched" - and guess what! It's going to happen MANY more times! It's like the idiots who didn't learn how to drive a stick or swim before they began the race. I just don't get it. Accra could've been a lot more lively than what they showed - the whole sunglass thing was just tacky. But I will say that I have definite respect for the QVC girls -- they are contenders.
ReplyDeleteThe only surprise in this ep was that TWO teams had Bad Cab Drivers at the same time - usually it's just one. The WhoTube son showed lack-of-class by denigrating his father several times in the first part of the ep and then grudgingly praising him at the end. Nice idea to have Phil in the middle of the crowded market instead of the usual isolated area (harder to find).
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