Sarah Dittmeier
Guest Blogger
Anyone else catch the season premiere of The Amazing Race on Feb 19? Yeah…neither did I, but I did watch it on my DVR recently and I must say that I’m pretty excited for this season. It’s hard to pick my favorite team from just the first episode, but I am drawn to Elliot and Andrew (the twins) and the federal agents, Nary and Jamie. Neither of those teams won the first leg, but federal agents can totally hold their own, and a lead guitarist and a pro soccer player seem to make a pretty good team.
For those of you who don’t know The Amazing Race, it’s…I guess I’ll say it’s a higher quality reality TV show. One that actually requires thinking and watching people solve problems rather than something you can melt your brain with while watching people drink themselves to death. Don’t worry, you still get to see people make some really stupid decisions. First example: not learning how to drive a stick shift car. This must be one of the biggest reasons I hate Joey and Danny (besides the fact that they’re Jersey Shore wannabes). In the road block, Danny has to drive the car to the spot where Joey will land after his skydiving adventure, and he realizes that his car is a stick…and he can’t drive stick. Are you kidding me? This guy obviously hasn’t seen this show before. If he had, he’d know he should have learned. I mean, you’re travelling around the world—most of the countries you’ll be in won’t have automatic engines—why wouldn’t you take the time to learn when there’s a million dollars on the line?! It was the stupidest decision he could have made, and one that I’m sure is going to come back to hurt him.
Not only that, but it’s crazy how impulsive people can get when it comes to understanding how to do the next task. Rule number one on The Amazing Race: pay attention to every detail. And yet, people never seem to follow it. Making empanadas in the second task, most thought, “Oh! You just fill it and seal it, let’s go!” Not bothering to pay attention on how to seal them. Sealing the meat empanada is completely different from sealing the cheese one, and it cost a lot of teams precious time. You would think that after about 20 seasons, people would learn, right? Uh, no. Seems like human nature is honest—we just don’t learn, do we?
By far, however, my favorite part had to have been when Misa and Maiya missed Phil by feet. They where only a few yards away and literally didn’t see him and spent the next fifteen minutes wandering around the place, looking for him. It cost them, and they were eliminated, as Danny and Joey (much to my disappointment) were able to slip right in before the girls and continue onto the second race.
I am rooting for Elliot and Andrew at this point, I think they’re the most interesting (and okay, I’ll admit it, they are rather handsome), and Nary and Jamie are my second choice. Though, looking at it, Mark and William (or, Bopper, as he’s also called) are the ones who seem that they really need this money. They literally live in a shack and don’t have much. I wouldn’t mind seeing the money go to them because I know they’d really use it to benefit their own lives. I hate Joey and Danny (if you couldn’t tell before) and I really don’t like Brandon and Rachel (former Big Brother contestants). You know those people who make seriously obnoxious comments and you just want to hit them over the head to shut the hell up? Yep, that’s them. Kind of like the Snowboarders from last season that drove me up the wall. Karma usually plays a big role in this show, and if you’re going to play dirty, be wary…it’s going to catch up with you eventually (anyone remember the snowboarders dirty move to steal first place from Ernie and Cindy on one leg? Yep. And who won last season? Yep). Can’t wait to see the next episode this Sunday where we’ll finally get a better look at the teams we’re dealing with. Maybe I’ll make a final decision then on who is my number one team. I’ll try to be a good person and not hope Joey and Danny fall behind again, but something tells me that’s not going to happen. Can’t wait for another season of this show!
