The Amazing Race 8: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, Episode 8

I hated non-elimination legs before. Now I hate them with a passion. I mean, this was the perfect day. Our offer for our new house was accepted. We had a great dinner at Olive Garden to celebrate. I got a phone call I’d been waiting for. Had the Weavers been eliminated, it would have been quite a nice bit of frosting on a very large cake. Alas.

The Good:

There’s A Few Awesome Roadblocks: I have taken this season to task for crappy challenges, but there are some tremendous ones, and this week’s roadblock is one. If my fiancé and I ever did this race, we’d fight more often over doing the roadblocks than anything else. We’d be saying, “Can we both do it? Yeah, screw the race, I want to ski jump!”

And I’m sure I’d do about as well as Nick Linz

Bart: If there were still a category in the RNO Awards for Best Animal, Bart the Bear would get my vote. He just looked incredibly cool. I probably wouldn’t have wanted to leave so I could play with Bart. Yeah, I think I wouldn’t do very well in The Amazing Race.

And was I the only one hoping he would just bound around the corner and pounce on the Weavers?

The Neutral: I knew there was a reason I liked the Bransens. Wally pointed out that they’re neutral, and in my mind, in this season, being neutral is a hell of a lot better than being the Weavers. Kudos to the Bransens for doing what many of us complain that no one ever does – runs the damn race and doesn’t worry about everyone else.

I’m always the first to defend producers when people say they get bad editing. My stock response is that they can’t show you being ugly, stupid, mean, etc., if you don’t actually exhibit that behavior. See “The Bad” for a good example.

But I have to take the producers to task for not showing enough good behavior. I predicted this season would suck, but I didn’t think it would be because of one cancerous family ruining the fun. I want to point out that one family is running a generally great race and is almost invisible to the point that you don’t even remember they’re around.

Here’s to you, Bransen family. Someone notices.

Elephant Butte: No real point. I just like typing “Elephant Butte.” Is there any doubt why I like the Linzes so much?

The Bad:

Yeah. THEM: I can’t imagine saying anything about the Weavers here that I haven’t said already. I just can’t imagine anyone actually liking them anymore! It’s beyond comprehension.

Because I can’t stop talking about these idiots – it’s like stopping at an accident, and besides, this was a pretty dull episode short of my delirious pleading to the gods for this to be an elimination leg – here’s a few things just from this episode off the top of my head, NONE of which can be blamed on editing:

1. Whining about having trouble with the bikes, then bitching about cyclists in the road and little brat Rolly thinking he’s clever by saying, “You wish you were Lance Armstrong!” I mean, our 12-year old would think that was lame.
2. “We don’t care what the other team thinks.” “Waaah! No one likes us!” Repeat ad infinitum.
3. Complaining about all the scenery being ugly or stupid. Not everyone needs to be Chip, but for the love of God, at least enjoy it a little!
4. Linda being a complete and utter moron despite actually having a teaching job. I mean, come on - “revigorates” and “enjuvenates”??? I’m shocked that we haven’t heard that she’s been fired by now.
5. ”I’ve always wanted to ride bikes with my kids.” Um, they don’t have bikes in Florida? Of all the things to want to do on a race…
6. They’re basically just ugly inside. I’ve never met a family that feels the need to bring everything and everyone down. They’ll spend the million on boob jobs? And you have the gall to call yourselves nice?

The Ugly:

Yield: OK, I was wrong, I can admit it. I swear I heard Phil say that there was only one yield on the race. Silly me.

Has any team ever been yielded twice in the same season? Hell, most races they never even use the thing.

Be Quiet, Phil! I’m a little ticked that Phil gave a pep talk to the Weavers at the end. Sure, it was a nice thing to do, was it his place? We were all ready for them to go! Even they were ready! I still haven’t decided if I like Phil more for being such a good guy about it, or if I’m upset because he gave the Weavers hope. Why couldn’t he have just let them go home? I mean, they don’t care if anyone likes them or not, right? If everyone’s against me, it just makes me want to kick their asses that much more.

And if it was his place to encourage them, why didn’t he rip Jonathan a new one after he pushed Victoria a few seasons ago?

Mike DeGeorge is an Accountant from St. Louis and is also Associate Editor for RealityNewsOnline. You can reach Mike at rno.mike@gmail.com.

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