Survivor/Amazing Race

I haven't watched either for a few years (or at least not attentatively). God bless the internet for allowing me to catch up mid season.

Survivor this season is actually pretty good. The vast majority of choces and moves have been smart. Not always correct, but they have made sense from a game stand point. Often the game gets bogged down in emotion. It's fun to watch people just play. And there have been nice turns and shifts.

One thing I have always enjoyed about Survivor is the editing. Some of it is just silly, yes. The inevitable shots of spiders when people are scheming or of snakes just before someone turns on an alliance... but it works. ("Alliance." Weird to think that in season 1 everyone was SHOCKED when Richard "came up" with the concept of an alliance, Weird.)

There is one character that is just mind blowing. Yes, character. Hard to call him "person." Coach. Soccer coach and symphony conductor. Looks like Aragorn... a skinny creepy new aged self-help Aragorn. Credit to the producers for drawing out the reveal on his craziness. Maybe he revealed it slowly to everyone during filming, but that is hard to believe. Once he starts referring to himself as "warrior," "samurai," and, my favorite, "dragon slayer"... it's hard to take anything he says seriously. Add in his campfire story ofthe time he kayaked the AMazon and was jumped by an indiginous tribe and beaten and escaped. And how he responds to someone saying, "Well, none of us have broken tiles with a slingshot before" with "I have." Lovely lovely madness. He is like Baron Von Munchausen.

I have always enjoyed the Amazing Race. The lack of voting off and it being more of a personal challenge and seeing the teams of two struggle to work together. Also it's mix of ADD travel show/random slapstick is entertaining.

I usually hate when teams talk about "proving" something to the world. "Old people can compete." "Gays are like anyone else." "Blah blah." So I was a bit annoyed with the deaf son/hearing mother team. But, I have to say, when they won the first leg of the race... I cried.