The Amazing Race is not just about the roadblocks, detours and route information. What makes it compelling is seeing how two people work as a team under very stressful conditions. In past seasons we have seen some truly psycho personalities at work. Who can forget Johnathan hitting his wife? Recently the producers seem to have moved away from the freak show giving us more stable people that sometimes have a melt down. That makes TAR a class act for reality television.
On leg 3 we saw two teams get some very bad breaks and both handled it rather well. Tammy & Victor had a rough day. First out of the pit stop they were way ahead when they were the only team to make a 3:40 flight only to have the flight turn return to the airport because of mechanical problems. Because of that they missed the next flight and had wait until the last flight of the day. Not once did we see them act out due to what certainly had to be a major disappointment.
But it only got worse for them the next day when Victor made a disastrous mistake following red & white markers rather than the standard red & yellow route markers even when Tammy told him he was wrong. Exactly how much time this cost them is hard to know, but it looked as if it would cost them the race. There was a bit of tension but it never broke out into a real battle. When they hit the pit stop Victor was visibly distraught even though they were not eliminated. You had to love this brother & sister team because Victor knows he was too dominant and Tammy wants to learn to speak up more when she feels she's right. Good for them. I like them.
The eliminated team was one that we had not seen much from so far. Unfortunately Brad and Victoria did something that TAR fans encourage: they gambled big at the airport. This older couple decided to try to make up some time by taking a connecting flight through Amsterdam that would have given them a several hour lead. This is a tactic you only want to take when you are near the bottom. As most regular travelers know, flights are never on time anymore.
And that is what happened to this team, they missed their connecting flight and were forced to stay overnight in Amsterdam putting them a good 1/2 day behind the rest of the racers. Yet they never went ballistic, there were no complaints. It's a shame to see them go, and for once TAR has no older team left in the race. CBS prides itself on the diversity of their reality show cast, but you can't always control the outcome.
I have a favorite team now. Let's see if I'm right. Amanda & Kris get my backing partly because they are from San Diego where I spent the previous 14 years before I moved to Arizona. Also because they are young, athletic, focused and were able to recover from a serious mistake by keeping cool.
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