Monday, October 16, 2006

Never, Ever Choose Paint-by-Number!

Without further ado, here is my re-cap of last night's leg of The Amazing Race:

Okay, I missed last week's episode, so I felt a little disconnected from where things were at last night. With the gay guys gone, that left seven teams still in the running: Dating couple Peter & Sarah, dating couple Rob & Kimberly, models/recovering addicts (and just generally hot guys) James & Tyler, friends Karlyn & Lyn, coalminer and wife Dave & Mary, beauty queens Dustin & someone (Kandice maybe?), and brothers Erwin & Godwin.

The teams kicked off the leg by learning they were going to fly somewhere - I think it was India. Yep, definitely India. And almost the entire first half-hour of the show was dedicated to watching the teams working to score the best flights to their destination city. I'm not sure why so much time was devoted to watching them dicker with travel agents, trying to hide information from one another, and desperately trying to switch flights once they realized there were quicker connections. We usually get a glimpse of that each week, so why we had to sit through thirty minutes of it this week, I'm really not sure. It got kind of boring. And somehow, the Barbies and Peter & Sarah, who initially seemed to have the worst tickets, ended up in India first. Go figure.

I don't know how much I actually missed last week, but I seemed to be getting new insight into a few of the teams. It felt like a lot had changed. For one thing, after the last episode I saw, I detested Rob and strongly felt Kimberly should ditch him once the race is over. By contrast, I thought Peter & Sarah seemed like they had a strong bond, and I admired how supportive he was of her and her struggle to compete with the blown hydraulic knee of her prosthetic leg.

However, this week, Rob & Kimberly seemed to be getting along much better, and he seemed to have undergone a major attitude adjustment. I even found myself thinking he was kinda cute. On the other hand, Peter must've taken a nasty pill, as he not only bickered with other teams and did everything he could to make everyone on the race hate him, he also did his darndest to alienate Sarah (who could possibly be the most patient woman on the face of the Earth). It's quite obvious the girl is doing everything she can on a bum leg, and she's doing pretty friggin' well too, as far as I can see. Every week, they've finished in the top three I believe, and last night they landed on the mat in first place. But not without Peter ragging on her first for slowing him up, and trying to lay blame on her for missing a bus. He just seemed to be really annoying and cruel - almost as if he and Rob switched bodies or something! From what I've seen, Sarah seems to move more quickly on one leg than most of the other women do on two, so how Peter feels he has the right to blame her for anything, I do not know. What an ass.

At the roadblock, teams had to choose between wrestling crocodiles or filling in a huge, intricate pattern with a coloured powder made from wild rice. Most teams chose to wrestle the crocodiles, which appeared to be a fairly simple task, as their contact with the crocs was actually quite minimal and they also had the help of two professional wranglers, who did most of the work. Somehow, though, my hot boys had a bonehead moment and chose to do the big kid version of a paint-by-number. Throughout much of the race, I've thought Tyler & James have made smart decisions, and when they get behind, they usually make up time by picking physical tasks that they excel at. Not this week, and it almost cost them. Fortunately, Dave & Mary also picked the slow task of filling in the big pattern with coloured powder, so that gave my boys a better shot at finishing ahead of last place.

The detour, which they crammed into the last ten minutes of the show, had one team member taking India's driver's ed course and completing an on-road test to received their Indian driver's license. I'm not sure why they crunched this all into the last few minutes, because it provided the very few light, humourous moments of the night. You could tell a few of the guys were having a hard time keeping a straight face as their instuctor ordered them to blow their horns at children and animals, demonstrating with a big bicycle which he honked loudly in their faces. And the look on Rob's face when the instructor told him that under no circumstances should he ever drink & drive at the same time was absolutely priceless. Their road tests were a little more challenging it seemed, but because they barely showed them, it was hard to tell. However, we did get to hear several of the guys describing India's traffic as "absolute chaos". I think I probably would have freaked and driven into a cow or something.

Thanks to their dumbass decision to do the gigantic paint-by-number activity, my boys finished in 6th place, followed only by Dave & Mary. The coalminer and his wife got lucky with a non-elimination leg; however, Phil did pull out one of those big twists he promised in the first episode. He announced to the couple that they would not lose their belongings or their money, as has been customary in the past few seasons, but that they must finish in first place on the next leg or else they will suffer a thirty-minute penalty. It doesn't exactly spell doom for them, but sitting aside for a half-hour while other teams arrive at the pitstop could prove costly. And they haven't exactly been a first-place kind of team thus far. It'll be interesting to see how they respond to the challenge.

I keep waiting each week for this show to pick up in entertainment value, but I was left feeling a bit disappointed yet again. Oh, and another thing I took note of was how the pompous American attitude seeped out of the racers as they curled up their noses when around the Indian people, and grumbled about how they wanted to go to a rich country. And they wonder why other countries hate them! Idiot-sticks!

Well, that's all for now - have a good day, gang!

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well I also found that they spent a lot of time on the air plane ticket wrangling part of the show. Me and Wayne didn't know what was going on, we thought the whole show would be without challenge. As for Peter, I absolutely hate him. He obviously likes the dumb blonds because he takes every chance he can to team up with them. But what he doesn't realize is that he's ugly and stupid and they know it.
Now Jill, I know that the racers were being stupid by wanting to go to a rich country. But please do not stereotype this behaviour as American because it is so not. I know many Canadians who would have acted the very same way. Afterall, I am American and all my family is as well... and you met them yourself and none of them are by far like that. I know that Bush is a dingbat, I hate hime like everyone else does and I so don't agree with their politics but most average people do not have control over that.
That's my two sense.

Toodles

Jill said...

Sorry, Sharon, you're right - it's not just Americans who feel that way (and not ALL Americans feel that way). It's more of a North American attitude, but again, not everyone feels that way. I just think if I was racing on a show that I know is being televised to such a wide audience, I'd be more careful about what I say. Their comments are ignorant and offensive. (And this is not the first time racers have made comments like that - it's happened many times in the past). In any case, I didn't mean to offend you or your family, Sharon - it was just my initial take on what happened in the show. My apologies!

Anonymous said...

Thank you Jill, apology accepted. Now we would obviously be more concious as to what we would say because we are good people. :) Some people are bad and stupid.

Hope your day is going well! It's quiet out here in Blog Land today. Everyone is blogged out from yesterday's whopper.

Have you listened to LIVE88.5 yet ?

Anonymous said...

Sara - for your question from yesterday - the guys fighting with the blood were Sean Sherk and Kenny Florian. I had to do some research on the UFC website to get these names. Apparently this Florian guy has sharp elbows, or so they were saying during the fight. The announcers were so amazed about how much blood and how the guy could just keep going. Sherk was afraid the doctors would stop the fight because of the blood, but the cut was over to the side of his head more so the blood wasn't running down in his eyes. I always think they must feel dumb after they bad mouth each other so much before the fight and then lose. For you 7th Heaven watchers, what happened on the show last night? All I know is that they lost Happy and she ended up being at Kevin and Lucy's, and was the teacher coming on to the dad again? I was on the phone so I missed most of it, I could hear parts here and there.

Anonymous said...

Good Afternoon,

Got into late work, had a bit of a back problem this morning and couldn't decide whether or not to stay at home, the pain passed, so we left home and well since i arrived at work, i can hardly get out of my seat because its paining so bad. Anyways, I'll live - the many joys of being pregnant i guess. Lastnight, Ricky and I watched Garfield, the Tail of 2 Kitties and it was actually pretty good - didn't seem that long. We also played bingo lastnight and lost - oh but let me tell ya's a story. last week, Ricky asked me if i wanted to go in his hockey pool at work or whatever, so he sends me the sheet, i just pick and choose, send it back to him and the next morning he asks me if i could take 5 mins to quickly fill out a paper. I was confused because I sent my picks to him already. Seeing how I'm not muich a hockey fan, i couldnt remember who i even picked. He had lost my first sheet. So i filled out another, he submitted the second one with his. Later on, he finds the first one. Anyways, yesterday he calls me to tell me that I missed out on $98.00 because if I had submitted my first sheet (actually, if HE HAD submmited my first sheet) i would have won the pool. The winner had something like 13-1 and i had 13-2 - anyways i was not impressed. And it was the biggest pot of money! Anyways that kinda sucked so I thought i would have some luck on Bingo lastnight, but yet again, nothing. Anyways thats all for now. Have a good lunch all.

Jill said...

Sharon: No, I haven't checked out that station yet - I haven't listened to the radio much lately, my Rav's just stocked with CDs that I've purchased in the past few weeks.
PK: I don't do 7th Heaven anymore, so I can't help you! And by the sound of things, Stacy watched Garfield so I guess she didn't see it either. Maybe Sharon??...
Stace: Sorry to hear your back's so sore. That really bites. And that sucks about the hockey picks! Ricky's been sending me those pick sheets too, but I can't open them at work, so I never get to do it! Oh well...I've never been very lucky at that stuff anyways!
Hope you're all having a lovely day in the rain!

Anonymous said...

7th Heaven recap for PK:
The teacher was coming on to the dad again and it wasn't just innocent, it was very hot and heavy. So he went to the principle who laughed in his face and assumed that he was making it up or blowing it out of proportion. Kevin's brother came to visit and walked in on Kevin and Lucy making whoopy. Lucy finally turned the to-be twins nursery into a guest room. Eric went to the hospital to visit some guy and then the doctor gave him an examination because he had hurt his neck. And they didn't say anything but they are insinuating that he is basically dying... So he went to Sam and Davids school and in front of the whole faculty said he was pulling his kids out of the school because the teacher was coming on to him and no one would do anything about it and she was immoral. Then he went to Lucy's and was acting all weird at supper... he took a peice of cake home with a candle. And he was in the tent and he made a wish and then blew out the candle. But the candle re-lit... so I think that he wished he wouldn't die and the candle re-liting was God telling him that it was inevitable. So I think that this season *the 8th* will be for real the last season. The show has had a good run. I will miss it for sure. I am thinking about buying the whole series!

So that's that!

I am going to go and have lunch! Have a great day everyone!

Jill said...

I haven't watched 7th Heaven for quite a few years (just the odd episode here & there) - but I've seen a few commercials for it on the new CW, and I'm a little confused - is the mom no longer on? Is that why this teacher is coming on to the dad? (And is he still a Rev.?) Oh, also a quick note for Sara - this teacher that's been coming on to him, at least from what I can tell from the commercials - is good ol' Beth from American Dreams! Cool, huh? I wonder if she misses JJ as much as I do...

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the recap Sharon. The mom is still on the show, she was gone away for a week or something. The teacher was coming on to him before. The twins told her he was their grandpa so she wouldn't be interested in him. Yes Jill, he is still a Rev.

Anonymous said...

Wow - 7th Heaven sure has changed since I watched it..but its still a good show - a very family oriented show. Tonight, I don't know, there is nothing on TV anymore - I miss having Amazing Race on Tuesday nights - so we'll be stopping at Blockbuster tonight and may be watching Over the Hedge or the Breakup (even though i saw it in theatres) - im going to try and watch it again and see if i enjoy it better than in the theatre. Anyways almost time to go home! YEAH - go home and get to relax - oh forgot to mention this before - Sue Rupert emailed me back and Neil has been very busy doing real estate and he is helping his boss build a condo or something so they're weekends are busy and hes not home most weekends, so she said she may not be able to make it till winter - maybe when the baby is born. So they wont be out this weekend.

Talk to ya later - have a good evening everyone.

Jill said...

Tonight is FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS, remember? ;o) Come on, dudes, help me save my new favourite show!