Sigh. I guess I should have figured the episode of The Amazing Race that ended up airing opposite the Oscars was going to be a little less than amazing. From the beginning, it was just a dull episode. When everyone started, there was a three hour difference between the first and last place teams, but an equalizer right off the bat put everyone on even footing again.
Unlike last week’s exciting skydiving challenge, this week the teams had to build solar stoves and watch water boil. Yes, it was that exciting. At least Art & JJ decided that was going to be harder than gathering wood and clay and tranporting it, by donkey, to a specified location … except getting lost on the way to the pick-up area didn’t help. It didn’t hurt much either; they were the second team to complete the Detour. I’m sorry, but watching people build stuff and waiting for water to boil is just not gripping because it’s all left to chance (and a little smarts — hint — don’t fill the tea pot all the way up if you need a quick boil).
That task was followed by a gripping 18 hour bus ride to Buenos Aires. Granted, the second of the three busses to leave got delayed by two hours because something broke a window, but watching people sleep on a bus is not a good way to keep your viewers awake. You know that the producers knew they had to spice things up so they added a dramatic fade to black with cheesy sound effects that had me thinking the bus rolled over or went off a cliff. Fake drama like that just shows how desperate they have become to make things exciting.
And the Road Block required one team member to count cattle in a pen and then come up with the average weight per cow. Again, another challenge where someone just stands in one place, counting in their heads and scribbling on paper. Not even Rachel’s meltdown could liven things up, because I’ve already been through two seasons of that on Big Brother. She and Brendon are still in the game, though, so there are more meltdowns to come.
The best part of the episode was finding out that the Federal agents have told everyone they’re school teachers, and Phil freaking the teams from the third bus out then telling them the second bus was two hours behind their bus. In the end, it was Rachel & Dave finishing in first place again, and sadly, the clowns were sent back to the Big Top. I hope they step things up next week.
Clacked by Chuck Duncan 
on Feb 27, 2012 @ 08:00 EST5EDT
