‘The Amazing Race 21’ finale review: Do we have another dull winner?

If there is one overarching critique that we have for “The Amazing Race” over the years, it is that the vast majority of the winners are generic teams that we tend to forget about weeks after the show ends. They are often likable enough, but this is a far easier show to win when you are as dull as a slab of wood than a “Survivor” or an “Amazing Race.”

This season, the easy-to-forget team is Trey & Lexi. Okay, they are slightly more entertaining than a slab of wood, but what is there here that we have not seen on the show already? It’s a young couple who is in love and have southern accents. (We’re even saying this with our own Texas ties in mind.) Meanwhile, the Chippendales are entertaining, and Josh & Brent and Natalie & Natalie are so polarizing that no matter what, everyone would have an opinion on their victory.

Going into this episode, we actually felt as though Trey & Lexi were the team most likely to win given that they were so well-rounded, but there was also a part of us who thought that the serious underdog edit for Josh & Brent was starting to signal something big. Going into the final leg set in New York City, we were hardly proven wrong. Team Twinnie were sent home in France after making a driving mistake, which really meant that the goat farmers had gotten lucky on the race yet again.

While the final leg started out with all of the teams hilariously struggling to find a clue right in front of their faces, Team Texas did get off to a sizable lead courtesy of them dominating a pizza delivery challenge. However, the playing field was practically equaled courtesy of an awesome final task. Teams had learned to take notes from the race, but nobody thought to remember the greeter messages! This was easily the toughest challenge of the entire season, and it tested memory and logic like nobody’s business. Do you want to know what else tested logic? Seeing Lexi flip out after the Beekman Boys surged ahead and finished this task first. Anything can still happen! We do understand her emotion, but this doesn’t help anything.

In the end, Josh & Brent did end up pulling this off, which shows that “The Amazing Race” needs better editing in the future to try and make their underdog stories a little less obvious. They are not the strongest winners by any means, but at least these two were entertaining and we will remember the moving forward. The Chippendales finished second, and Team Texas was third.

What did you think about the finale, and do you believe that the right team won? If you want to watch a video from this episode, you can do so over at this link.

Photo: CBS