I would love to participate in this show. This show or Survivor I think would be a lot of fun, and certainly an experience worth cherishing for a lifetime. However, if they pulled a stunt like they did tonight and I was the one unlucky enough to be on the wrong end of it, I’d be pissed.
Survivor’s done it already, and now The Amazing Race submitted to temptation to be unnecessarily cruel. At least the rest of these first two legs proved more entertaining than a lot of last season. How can you not have fun with a Japanese game show, mud slinging and duck herding?
But before we could get to any of that, Phil had a test to see who was paying attention.
At the starting line, the Race kicked off with its first challenge and its first elimination. That’s right, a team didn’t even make it out of the starting line. I’m sorry, if your Amazing Race experience involves standing at the Los Angeles River and that’s it … well, you’re better off not telling it.
But that’s what happened. The yoga instructors couldn’t put the clue together (they showed you the symbol!) and found themselves on the shortest trip home yet.
Luckily, as I stated, things picked up right away. The Japanese game show challenge itself wasn’t too overwhelming; eat wasabi. But they cut the episode with graphics and Japanese narration to make it look as if we truly were watching a wacky game show, so that was fun.
Then it was off to Vietnam where the streets were truly flooded. I’m not sure how long that lasts, but I’d think that would make disease run rampant in those communities. Either that, or they have wicked immune systems.
The duck herding was fun, where we learned that people with Asperger Syndrome have “duck whisperer” capabilities. I’m basing that assumption on one person with the Syndrome and his relative ease at herding ducks. That’s scientific, right?
As for the teams, there are so many more teams that I enjoy watching than there are those that annoy me, which is also an improvement over last season. Only the meathead lawyer is driving me crazy right now. I even like and respect the poker players.
They’re tough competitors and they tried a bluff. They were right in thinking that no one would sympathize with pro poker players, they just weren’t very effective in selling the lie. Probably should have come up with something that better suited their personalities.
At first I wasn’t sure how I felt about Harlem Globetrotters being on the Race, but I like these two. There’s no reason that the Race should necessarily exclude people who are already successful, so I guess it’s just my own prejudicial thinking that only people in need of this kind of money should participate.
But the Race is about more than the money. How often can you travel the world and see such exciting and exotic locales? As I said, I’d do it in a heartbeat, and love every minute of it no matter how I finished. As long as it wasn’t about 200 yards from where I started.
Clacked by Jason Hughes 
on Sep 28, 2009 @ 16:24 EST5EDT
I was just thinking that I like pretty much everyone on the Race this season, except for the lawyer. I was so hoping the yoga instructors would pull it together. They certainly had the potential to be entertaning. The lawyer is just going to be annoying. I don’t know how I feel about the poker players. Annie Duke on Celebrity Apprentice kind of put some negative thoughts in my head about poker players, so maybe these two will change my mind.