The Amazing Race 8: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, Episode 9

I’ve been vocal in my hatred of non-elimination legs. Do I feel the same about double-legs? Nah. If anything, there should be a couple of these in every race, just to shake the teams up. The two teams in first probably ran themselves out trying to reach the mat, and now they have to pick up and go again. It makes for a much better race than the meaningless “stripped of all possessions” crap. So I guess it’s not so much the non-eliminations that I hate as the idiotic “penalty.”

The Good:

Who Dey?: On behalf of the Linzes, I’d like to congratulate the Cincinnati Bengals for beating the evil and probably very smelly Pittsburgh Steelers for first place in the AFC North (and a probable playoff spot). I’m not the biggest Bengals fan ever, but my two favorite teams are the Browns and whoever is playing the Steelers, so bravo.

Episodes like this remind me why I like the Linzes. With Megan sick, they show their obvious concern and affection while busting her chops at the same time.

The Bad:

Produce THIS: There has been much outrage over the Linzes losing their first place lead thanks to a production error, with barely a voice over as explanation. While I think it’s a horrible miscarriage of justice, I can’t really complain much.

First off, it didn’t result in an elimination. “Yet,” you say. Are you kidding? This season has more equalizers than an algebra book. They’ll be fine.

But the main issue here is, there was nothing outside of the rules. Remember last season, when they had to drive those beat up piece of crap cars, and Phil as much as said that the cars would break down? It was luck of the draw. If the Linzes’ battery kept dying, whether from having a bad battery or a stupid cameraman, that’s the way it crumbles, cookie-wise.

Detour: One thing that bothers me on detours is when the “easier” or “less physical” task is the much better choice. That’s happened way too much on this race. The whole purpose, or at least I always assumed, for the less physical choice is to provide an option for the less physical teams, like the Gaghans. But that option should come at a price! Most of the less physical tasks on this season have been far, far easier.

Maybe the whole point is to not automatically take one or the other, but to be able to figure out which is better. But in a season like this, when you have teams with very obvious physical advantages, it shouldn’t be.

Easy Target: Christine Godlewski seriously needs to get over herself. I’ve said it before, but if you need to go on a national TV show to get validation from family members, you have far worse problems than this race could ever fix. Geez, is it really necessary to get a biscuit and a pat on the head every time you do something?

Figures you’re the one to start singing “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad.”

False Advertising: Memo to networks – we’re going to watch the show. Putting on false and misleading commercials about balloon crashes and freakouts and near collisions isn’t going to make anyone watch who didn’t before. It’s just going to irritate people. I’ve said this before too, but if you can’t get people to watch your show without resorting to sensationalism, you might as well pack it in.

The Ugly:

Soft Drink Commercials: Is anyone else creeped out by that soft drink commercial? You know the one, where the creepy middle-aged woman drives her mini-van around the park looking for groups of young boys to seduce with a cooler full of soda?

You can’t honestly tell me that if this were a forty-year old guy offering soft drinks to a group of pre-teen girls, this commercial wouldn’t be yanked off every channel in the country. Yet I’m the only person who is bothered by it?

Yeah, it has nothing to do with the Race, but this was an incredibly dull episode.

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

Be sure to sign up for our e-mail update so you can stay informed about new articles on the site! And take a look at the rest of the site. You can find all of our recaps and other info on this show at the Amazing Race 8 page, and take a look at our Apprentice page and our Survivor: Guatemala page. You can even buy reality show stuff at our Reality TV Store!

For more news about The Amazing Race, be sure to check out SirLinksALot: The Amazing Race!