‘The Amazing Race 24’ episode 9 review: Is teamwork ruining this season?

Amazing Race -Sunday night’s new episode of “The Amazing Race” had many themes to it, and one of them was a pretty undesirable one: Whining, and plenty of it. It’s amazing the sort of vitriol and hatred that the teams on the show have for Brendon and Rachel. These two really haven’t done anything at all to deserve the sort of hatred that they’ve received save for using a U-Turn, like it is some sort of terrible thing to take advantage of a device that is designed to be a significant part of the race.

As a matter of fact, all the teamwork is really turning us off on what was originally a good season. For a while, we really enjoyed seeing the heavy competition, and the jostling that happened in the early going. Tonight, we had Dave & Connor bail out the Afghanimals and Caroline & Jennifer on the use of a tunnel drill, and then the Afghanimals also bail out the country singers on a Mustang challenge. We understand that there is strategy in the race, but we like strategy more when it is not ganging up on one team, or slowing yourself down to help others. At that point, it’s just silly.

We’re happy for Dave & Connor having the smarts to figure out how to win the leg, but at the same time it’s hardly to really root for an “old man” (as Dave called himself) who was childishly mocking Rachel. She’s no saint, either, but what she did wasn’t personal. We’re actually happy that Brenchel managed to stick around and break up this “Accidental Alliance” that is producing awful TV.

In the end, we will also say that this episode was just as unfair in the end to the country singers just as it was to Brenchel in the early going. A Roadblock that was so dependent on physical strength is totally bogus to an all-female TV, even if they had help every other step the rest of the way. But, they’re still in the race, so what does it matter? Maybe it’s a good thing that nothing happened after all the unfairness that was in this episode from start to finish. Grade: C-.

What did you think about tonight’s “Amazing Race” episode, and do you think all the teamwork is making the show less amazing? Share your thoughts below! Also, you can sign up now to grab further TV updates from us via our CarterMatt Newsletter.

Photo: CBS

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