Oh, my God, MY SHOW IS BACK. MY SHOW IS BACK! MY SHOW IS BACK!
Due to being in Maui for the premiere, I missed it completely. And then when we got back, TiVo… died on us! So we’re getting a replacement. TiVo. Yep.
In the meantime, David set me up with Snapstream’s BeyondTV, which he was using as a casual backup just to play around with. What with one thing and another, I was finally able to watch the premiere of TAR tonight, a week late. Unlike previous seasons, when I’ve listed all the teams with like/dislike, going on at great length, I’m just going to say “I loves me some nerds, I loves me some hippies, I loves me some fogies, and I even loves me some Pinks, a little.”
I already registered my pre-likes and pre-dislikes anyway. As per usual, some people I didn’t like turned out to be much more fun and interesting to watch. And a few people I liked turned out to be annoying, but a lot fewer this year than… about ever.
I laughed, a lot, during this episode. The exuberance and wacky joy is evident in most of this season’s crop of Racers. Most of them clearly love the show, and all of them are throwing themselves into it. And everyone is much, much nicer than…some of the people in last season’s “Famuhlee Uhdition.”
I was sorry to see John and Scott go out first. John’s fear of flying seemed not to be a factor – he overcame his fears with, yes, flying colors. He was actually quite happy in the helicopter, remarking to Phil later that the view was so amazing, it was much more beautiful than scary. And I was happy for him that he at least had that experience. Too bad they’re out, though, because that leaves the two Frosties in the race… the six-foot sisters.
This team, I’ll be calling Team Much Information, because of all the screaming, all the praying, all the expostulation, and all the peeing of pants OH MAH GAWD! OH MAH GAWD! both of them did. I’m glad Lisa and Joni are happy not to be eliminated, but the screaming was way, way too much for me.
I’ll end up with some love:
I can see that the good folks at Tarflies.com who do the fashion report are going to have some fun with the Hipster’s sartorial splendor (all the other teams automatically called them “The Hippies). BJ’s wearing a pink ruffled tuxedo shirt and a very battered straw cowboy had, Tyler had some sort of tie dye thing on, and they’re both wearing these horribly bright headache-inducing red pants. They’re very… furry. They’re a little loud. Tyler pulled the very first clue of the season next to his face and remarked that it was “Fresh!” They both said a few other things that were crackups, but they were a major threat all through the whole leg, so they’re good Racers.
David and Lori are loveable nerds. They know this, they accept this, they embrace this (and each other – frequently). Nerd Love knows no bounds. Nerd Love cannot be denied. Nerd Love conquers all. They’re both quite funny and disheveled and not ready for prime time, and they’re refreshingly normal after all the seasons and seasons of model/actors.
I was horrified when Fran and Barry walked right! Past! The cluebox! In plain sight! TWICE! on the bridge in Sao Paolo. And they chose the wrong Detour, not realizing how putting a bike and a motorbike together are two very different things. But they survived with good humor intact. I was having a flashback to Don and Mary Jean in Berlin and started to hyperventilate, but got over it.
Hey, I thought Dani/Danielle were irritatingly girly. They were calling them Double D on TWOP, and Tyler flat-out asked them “Can we call you Double D?” And the funny thing was, they agreed. Okay, and they’re pretty good racers, although not so good with the Zen of motorcycle maintanance. They’re a little irritatingly self-satisfied, but it’s funny to watch them get into situations where they have to get all icky. And they’re pretty good-natured about it. We’ll see how long that lasts, though.
There were other teams I liked pretty well, but that’s the gist. They all started out in Denver, one of my favorite cities (and one of my favorite airports ever). And they all ended up in Sao Paolo, Brazil. Now, I get to watch the second episode, because it’s all spooled up.
You could say I’m bingeing on TAR right now, and you would be right. I’m also bingeing on these awesome garlic macadamia nuts we brought back from Maui. Mmm, yummy.
Oh, boy, I can’t wait to see what craptastic threads the Hipsters pull out tonight!
UPDATE: Episode 2 was completely satisfactory. It had action, thrills, moonshine, dead Bugs, and RATBOY! Also, the sisters are gone. They overshared again – I did not need to know that one of them had a C-section rather than giving birth the old fashioned way. On the other hand, I was heartened to hear that Fran is a breast cancer survivor. She rocks.
Pretty much only nice, not too irritating people are left, except for that hyper Lake guy, who’s the scariest dentist on TV since Steve Martin in “Little Shop of Horrors.”
It was really hard to keep track of the standings – the Roadblock had people racing up 3 circular stairway fire escapes, then rapelling down in the order they arrived at the roof. The Amazing Subtitles went all color-coordinated to try and keep it straight – “First at Stairway 1, 2nd at Stairway 2, etc., but basically what mattered was when you got down.
Once again, the Pinks were surprisingly gutsy, after an initial almost-balk by Danielle in doing the rapell. Then they had to use rope ascenders to climb an 80 foot waterfall, and they both just jammed up the line. Impressive.
The frat boy team thinks they’re pretty hot, too. Ironically, their team nickname isn’t accurate, because I think they both dropped out of college. So maybe I’ll call them Team Horndog for now.
BJ and Tyler Fashion Report: some sort of paw-print T-shirt. Tyler had a more conventional, but still ugly shirt on. And apparently, his nickname is RATBOY!
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