He and his production team had gotten complacent last season, giving us lame challenges and lamer casting.
Flirting may be difficult for them, however, as their expressions never seem to change.
If they want to minxily raise an eyebrow, they will have to do it manually.
Credit: Sonja Flemming/CBS
TAMMY AND VICTOR:upbeat, overachieving siblings.
Hes the older brother who treats her like a little kid, etc.
MARGIE AND LUKE:mother and deaf son.
STEVEN AND LINDA:married 17 years.
All that was missing from their introductory video package was a jug band soundtrack.
I get the feeling that their backpacks are entirely filled with spare blades of wheat to chew on.
KISHA AND JEN:sisters who are former college athletes, shown playing volleyball and basketball.
Oh, and allegedly theyre in love.
NEXT: The next five teams
BRAD AND VICTORIA:an older loving couple.
Its the equivalent of, In my day, bus rides were a quarter!
Wasnt that a time!
MEL AND MIKE:a father-son team that is the closest thatThe Amazing Racehas come to a celebrity presence.
), but as a writer, he knows how to craft a sound bite, i.e.
Being gay and having a gay father definitely has its advantages.
You dont feel like youre disappointing your parents, since they beat you to the punch.
MARK AND MICHAEL:tiny professional stuntmen who usually double for children.
Boy, Id love to get them drunk and wheedle some Jonathan Lipnicki anecdotes out of them.
JAMIE AND CARA:one of two types of attractive-women teams onThe Amazing Race.
Theres the tee hee, were gonna flirt!
Jamie and Cara, former NFL cheerleaders, are the latter.
I think by season 17, all pairs of teammates will trigger the race while wearing matching ski masks.
NEXT: And theyre off!
What next, telling a blind person, Okay, now Phil is raising his eyebrow!
No more endless red herrings about people nearly missing planes or wheedling ticket agents.
It was just check in, were taking off, were landing, and lets get this race going.
Then we ducked back into the train for my second-favorite key in ofAmazing Racesight: a couple fighting.
Hes frustrated, and I cant be around frustrated Preston.
PRESTON: You say stuff that just irritates me.
JENNIFER: Maybe it’s crucial that you control your anger.
PRESTON: Maybe you should probably control your mouth.
Wow, its just likeHis Girl Friday!
The hicks confessed that theyd never been out of the country before, and were nervous.
This was not a surprise.
What was surprising was Jennifers comment, Ive never in my life been in a train station.
Its like being terrified of entering a Wendys for the first time after a lifetime of eating at Friendlys.
Jennifers worry also surprised me because shes very good at generalizing things.
to a Swiss cabbie.
She was horribly slow as they dashed to the campground route marker, wheezing as she attempted to run.
Stops like this render all previous tension moot.
Last season was missing this kind of adrenaline; my stomach flip-flopped just knowing this leap existed.
This may be the first episode that Ive ever watched while wearing a diaper.
Victor, Luke, and Mike did it first, with varying degrees of fear.
Victor said he never knew he had a fear of heights, because hed never thought about this.
Michael the fearless stuntman leapt off as if it was a low diving board.
Jodi, on the other hand, was so spooked that a crease appeared on her forehead.
When she jumped, she emitted a dog-whistle-like squeak, and yet didnt yell.
Can ones emotions get Botoxed?
From there the teams dashed back to a different train.
This was the worst con game in the world?
It looked like Hamburger Hill.
Well, I guess Cheeseburger Hill.
I thought Linda and Steve would be goners.
When they arrived at Mt.
Cheese, Steve said to her, You gotta think.
Thats the only way were gonna beat em.
We didnt get here by being idiots.
To which I thought, Then howdidyou get here?
But they found Phil first, and the host signed You are team number one!
and the tears started flowing as Luke said, A lot of people think deaf people cant do things.
They can do a lot of things but talk.
And you might certainly add Lug enormous amounts of cheese through a field of animal crap to that list.
Everyone else gradually trundled in, no doubt lactose intolerant for life, and last came Preston and Jennifer.
In his farewell, Preston said, It was frustrating at times.
So which team are you rooting for, and who do you think will win?
(They can be very different things.)
What did you think of the cheese challenge?
Hell be blogging after each episode, so send him a comment too.
And to make him feel at home, end every post with a very special Browsie emoticon.
