Static Zombie

Reality Finales

The Amazing Race: Best... finish... ever. Colin and Christie were so consistently dispicable throughout the race, I couldn't bear the thought that they'd walk away with the money. I was thrilled when they fell into last place, and writhed in anguish as Colin overtook Karen during the climb. With the bowling moms gone and Brandon and Nicole blaming their successes and failures on God instead of themselves, that left Chip and Kim as the team to root for. Then they took forever changing clothes in the taxi instead of on the gondola, putting them in last. When they crashed twice on the luge, it was killing me.

Then they got a miracle.

From that moment on, my gut was in a knot. As they struggled to switch from the delayed flight to an earlier arrival, I was as stressed as the teams were. When Colin had the inspired idea to call ahead for a towncar driver who drove fast and knew the area well, I thought that might make the difference. The editing of the drive to the final pit stop was the most effective suspense-builder of the season, and when we saw that it was Chip and Kim I cheered out loud. Not so much because they won, but because Colin and Christie didn't.

Never underestimate the value of a good villain.

I don't think The Amazing Race deserves the Emmy for best reality show-- Survivor is still the king in my book-- but this was a super finale.

If The Amazing Race is reality writ large, nothing's smaller than Big Brother 5. Hypocracy was the order of the day, as bitter contestants with no shot at the prize railed against the perceived slights against them by the remaining contestants, oblivious to their own flaws. The most glaring example was Nicomus, who claimed for her blood is thicker than water and yet she was the one who, after promising she'd never nominate her half-brother, went ahead and did it anyway. Pffft.

And despite the 4-3 count, to my eyes it wasn't even close. Drew played a much better game than Michael who-- let's face it-- couldn't strategize himself out of a paper bag. He earned his second place by being the village idiot and flying under the radar. Which would be respectable if it had been his strategy, rather than his personality. As is so often the case, the best player in the game (Diane) finished in third place.

Posted by Peter at September 22, 2004 2:58 AM