Silly Little Country

NASCAR With Bulls! The Amazing Race Episode 7

Why cannot these people read instructions carefully and double-check their work before blundering on? They are surely aware of how simple omissions have been so costly in the past.
Of course it seemed obvious to me from the start, when the advantage of having an early start was completely destroyed by putting everyone initially on the same flight, that this would be a non-elimination round. As it was.
So the stakes were low,at least as I saw it ab initio. I guess there are stakes if departure times in the next round are determined by the arrival times in this.
I continue to enjoy how resourceful Steve and Allie are; Allie is clearly the tortoise-whisperer; I hope their leaving their backpacks behind does not damage their prospects but if there is a cold leg ahead that could be pretty dicey.
The cowboys I have enjoyed, but what sloppiness in this round! Not double-checking the coconuts and carelessly reading the last instructions put them in last.
There was a section of pure hilarity when a tortoise recognized the lesbians for what they are (unpleasant people) and refused to play their game. And then they failed to check their cocnuts! And they still managed to finish ahead of the cowboys. I suspect most of the other teams were very hopeful when close to the end of this leg they appeared sure to finish last; only the carelessness of the cowboys saved their butts, so to speak.
Brent and Caite remain an odd mix of resourceful and silly; they can be both ignorant and stupid at times, but so far they continue to manage to get re-engaged and not come last. Congratulations to them both.
I really find the brothers Dan and Jordan unpleasant, but they were careful if not spectacular and wound up not having to repeat work the way most teams had to.
Why do I love this show?
First, it is a great travelogue.
And then it is also a fascinating look at how pairs interact to solve often very tricky problems way out of their normal domains. And it offers us so many interesting styles to watch. I love the cowboys - they just get along, as do Allie and her dad. The detectives are solid in how they work together too. Almost all the others have fractures that clearly hurt them - somehow they don't know how to decide on something and then proceed without a lot of caviling.
And in past years it has been fun to watch teams improve - I recall the two Asian-American lawyers who almost had a total breakdown when a sister could not get her brother to listen to her, at almost fatal (for the contest) cost in past years. They were very different by the end!
I so look forward to next week's episode.

posted by Alan Adamson @ 12:30 PM