What I'm Watching -- Amazing Race All Stars

The Amazing Race All Stars had another episode on tonight, and per usual, it was a pretty good show with another strong performance from my team Boston Rob and Amber. Which reminds me to warn you that if you haven't watched the show yet, this post contains some spoilers. Despite some elementary HTML knowledge, I still haven't figured out how to use the hide text feature on here, so maybe by next week I'll have it figured out.

In case you haven't been following the show this season, they brought back 11 of the best teams from past seasons in what has become a reality show tradition. All Star editions, as a whole, tend to be hit or miss. Survivor All Stars was really good, thanks in large part to Boston Rob and Amber. In this All Star edition of the Amazing Race, the show is pretty much saved by those two. While I haven't watched every edition of the show to this point (I started watching a few seasons back) if the teams they chose are really the best, more entertaining teams, then I'm surprised the show has lasted as long as it has. Most are uninteresting. And while I understand the popularity of Coal Mining family David and Mary from the last regular season, they weren't very good racers the first time around, and a team like hippies BJ and Tyler from season 9 would have been a much more interesting team to have around. And teams like Charla and Mirna and Joe and Bill are more annoying then anything. And not in a "annoying but I want to watch to see what outrageous thing they do next" kind of a way. But, in a turn the channel way.

As it is, the only teams I only care about watching are Boston Rob and Amber, their competitors from season 7 Uchenna and Joyce, and the Beauty Queens from last season Dustin and Kandice. Now, this isn't just an excuse to post their picture from CBS.com. Though, I'll do that anyway.They actually proved themselves as really strong, smart racers last time around. It's the same thing I like about Boston Rob and Amber. While the two teams, generally I think, tend to be considered unpopular with the fan base, they race aggressively, which I think is the way to do it (although, as somebody who tends to travel by train or car whenever possible and avoid airplanes whenever reasonable (or even unreasonable), I probably shouldn't be giving Amazing Race advice). People underestimate Dustin and Kandice because of their background, but it doesn't surprise me they continue to do well the second time around. And Boston Rob and Amber are just a great team. Boston Rob also does everything he can to win, and seems to dominate every reality competition he's involved in. Three first place finishes to start All Stars is a pretty good way to begin. And whatever you have to say about Boston Rob and Amber, they have taken full advantage of their '15 Minutes of Fame' and good for them. I even checked out some of the episodes from their Fox Reality Channel reality show, and though I stopped watching after a few episodes, anyone who moves to Las Vegas to get tutored in poker by poker-pro Daniel Negreanu is cool with me.

Next weeks episode appears to be a photo finish, and going from first to eliminated in the span of a week isn't unheard of, but for the pure entertainment value of the show, here's to hoping Boston and Rob and Amber and Dustin and Kandice stick around for a the reminder of the season.