Aside from the fall of Team Jesus, "We Are Charlie Chaplin" was an insipid look at four teams running around with not a clue in the world of what they're doing. All sponsored, of course, by Ford Mustang. The tattoo challenge diversion in Panama was pointless, minus the very cool atmosphere of the village, while the roadblock failed to deliver any sky high freakouts and the detour involved making shoes. Through yet another time equalizing plane/train one-two punch, teams 2-4 were very bunched together tonight and while that may be exciting for some, there was very little movement to speak of. They all pretty much ran the leg together and to me, that deflated the episode, minus the surprise ending. There was no (real) late comeback or impressive finish to speak of, minus Jeremy and Sandy being the only one of the top three to actually figure out the clue on their own, which is part of the fun of The Amazing Race.
In "We Are Charlie Chaplin", The Amazing Race showed once again what emphasizing factors other than skill, teamwork, and intelligence get you: an episode of frustrating-to-watch TV. Andy and Tommy were far, far from my favorites and while their luck did indeed finally catch up with them, luck shouldn't play that big of a role in the first place. What set The Amazing Race apart from the other reality shows for so long was that it required half a brain in order to do well, but now it looks like to accept the warm embrace of Phil Keoghan, it's not about what you know. It's who you know and that's sad.
Thoughts, Quotes, & Observations:
-"You're a darn hot man. And that sounds weird."
-"Sounds like we're about to get a crash course in head shrinking."
-Final Order: (1) Jeremy/Sandy, (2) Ernie/Cindy, (3) Amani/Marcus
-All the Speedy Gonzalez Spanish on display tonight was simultaneously amusing and appalling. Also amusing? Marcus dabbing off the dancer on a night where he only made one football reference.
-I don't know how I feel about the final "clue". It was literally spelled out for the teams, but it was yet another clue that was more of a lucky find.
-But seriously, one exciting/interesting elimination in a season and it's at the end. Season 19, you bust.
-Obligatory Van Halen mention. Break out your air guitar if need be.
-Next week on The Amazing Race: It's (one hour) finale time, with a flight simulator challenge and lots of panicking. I have no clue who will win this thing now that Team Jesus is out, but Jeremy/Sandy are peaking at the right time and the other two teams have a tendency to fall behind late in legs.
The amazing race has been rigged from the start. That is why I stopped watching it.
Teams bumping off the cowboys in the previous season is soooooooo far from what happened to Andy and Tommy. Back in Season 18, teams themselves conspired to bump the cowboys off, while in this case the cabbies weren't really instructed by Jeremy and Sandy to share information (which would be really stupid as they're trying to win a spot in the final 3 and they all knew Andy and Tommy were ahead of them). It's just pure bad luck and it came in a really bad time. It's normal and it's part of the game. It just shows that it doesn't always do you good to be in front of the pack.
The Amazing Race finally lost us based on the last episode. We had been willing to overlook some previous rather obvious rigging attempts, but the "cabby collusion" was the last straw for us. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted. Oh, and to the producers, nice job of finally turning Race into just another reality show du jour. Morons.