The Amazing Race: Another Brick In The Wall

Apparently I’ve got some fans in high places!  How else can you explain the phenomenon that, less than a week after comparing frat boys Andrew & Dan to a flash-forwarded version of Superbad, Phil himself calls them Team Superbad during the always appreciated “previously on…” segment.  To be fair, I suppose it’s possible that I wasn’t the only fan in the country to be struck by such a comparison, but I’ll just keep living under the assumption that Jerry Bruckheimer is a Poptimal reader.

Moving on-after last week’s promising but lackluster premiere, the 10 remaining teams set off to yet another Brazilian hamlet for an hour of suspense and adventure.  Terence rapidly set out to cement his reputation as a consummate jackass (getting mad at Sarah for just talking to other teams?  Seriously?) but managed to reveal at least a glimpse of a friendlier side thanks in part to a comical smooch from Ken that wisely diffused some airport unpleasantness.  Speaking of which, mad respect to Tina for single-handedly convincing an airline to switch to a bigger plane to save a couple hours.  Talk about an alpha female.

Upon arrival in the coastal town of Fortaleza, teams embodied the true Amazing Race spirit of doing stuff that makes the viewer jealous by taking to the shore in a fleet of dune buggies.  The detour led teams to choose between brute force boat transport or getting lucky at finding one marked shipping crate out of thousands.  Everyone save increasingly lovable geekwads Mark & Bill chose the boat, but the middle-aged pals put their IT expert eyes to the crate task and by golly if they didn’t wind up in first and save time for a truly awe-inspiring Yoda impersonation along the way.  Divorcees Kelly & Christy (who seem increasingly resentful of any and all men as the race progresses) provided a serious comedy of errors as shoddy clue reading skills led them to first digging on the beach for a clue that didn’t exist, and later entering a blind panic over the “loss” of a taxi hiding yards away on the other side of a six foot wall.

And another thing about that wall: the game’s first roadblock got me excited over the notion of deciphering seemingly meaningless graffiti in pursuit of the pit stop’s location, only to eventually realize that it actually did lack any meaning when every team advanced just by writing down enough phrases from the wall and rattling them off to a beleaguered painter until they stumbled onto the right one.  Lame.  This week’s race to the finish was an especially suspenseful and heartwarming one as Ken & Tina just barely beat Mark & Bill for first place, but there was no love lost as they declared that helping strengthen their faltering marriage with the morale boost of first place was worth coming in 2^nd.  And that’s what you call a class act.  Everyone fell into place soon after with boring dating couple Anthony & Stephanie thankfully bringing up the rear.  They had a great time, they learned to appreciate what they have, yada yada yada, exit stage left.  A very good episode overall; consider me rooting for Ken & Tina to keep their love alive, and here’s looking forward to next week when the racers get to take on the lady pro wrestlers of Venezuela.  Arriba!

Season 13, Episode 2: Do You Like American Candy? (originally aired October 5, 2008)

For another take on this episode, check out Alana D.’s review here.

Sundays at 8pm ET/PT on CBS

Photograph courtesy of CBS