‘The Amazing Race 23’ review: Double U-Turns, pettiness, and camels
Sunday night’s “The Amazing Race” was the best of the season for many reasons. We had an animal challenge (which is almost always guaranteed fun), some drama, Marie getting upset, and an elimination that felt like it was a long time coming.
But before anything else, we have to discuss the strange decision for Nicole & Travis to U-Turn the Afghanimals. If you have a big lead on the race, the last thing that you really should be doing is making an enemy when you don’t need to. Given that they used an Express Pass on this leg already, it was not their finest hour when they knew that the Afghanimals would probably still be in the race, anyway.
Plus, the reasoning for them doing was almost self-righteous. Do we find Leo & Jamal to be bad racers at times? Sure, since they lie at times when there is no motivation at all for them to do so. They over-complicate things, and they also play up to the cameras way too much. But to sit here and say “we don’t like liars” as the reason for U-Turning them? It’s a game. Why tell someone what is the right or wrong way to play a game? We still like Travis & Nicole, but maybe a tiny bit less than we did before. (Of course, they finished in first place.)
As we also predicted, the Afghanimals, despite making some other bad decisions switching detours, stayed in the race and now have an enemy. The problem with that U-Turn was that there was still a spot open for another team to do it, and Nicky & Kim were far behind. Tim & Marie seemed to just hit the bunnies with it out of spite, which is something that we actually understand much more as a reason to punish someone. These two ladies were probably destined to be in last regardless, and while the Ice Queens nearly blew it and cost themselves the leg (which is especially embarrassing given that there was a Speed Bum, too), that was still not enough. Nicky & Kim have fought hard, but it still was enough to save them from elimination. For the sake of drama, this was the right boot.
But outside of all the drama, the best moment of this entire episode to us was just seeing the camel detour. Decorating camels is what we want to see in the Middle East! A great challenge, and a great episode. Also, you have a great roster of teams still remaining! You have to love that. Grade: A-.
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Photo: CBS