London, UK: There the Amazing Racers were: Hailing cabs, decorating cakes, throwing darts in a pub, kissing the Queen (or at least someone who looked like the Queen).
Gone so long – the last season of the show finished airing in late December 2020 – the Amazing Race was back. Sort of.
So far so good. Next week, the teams head north to Glasgow, Scotland. Another team will bite the dust. A routine will have set in.
Then, curses, along will come a pandemic. The race will be put on hold until September 2020.
When filming resumed
in August 2021 only seven teams lined up, two having dropped out. (Phil hasn’t explained who the missing duos are or why they didn’t get back into the Race.)
So Season 33 will be a truncated version of the Race. That's a loss. But let's count our blessings; it’s a miracle the Race finished at all, given world-wide restrictions on travel, given ever-present COVID concerns.
Understanding that some of these teams may be gone before we even get to know them, my first impression is that the Race producers put together a terrific cast. This could have been a season for the ages.
The teams are:
Spencer Stone (right) and Anthony Sadler, who
earned world-wide approval in 2015 for disarming a terrorist on a train in France.
Ryan Ferguson and Dusty Harris. Ryan served 10 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit. Dusty stood by him all the time.
Raquel Moore and Cayla Platt. They're savvy flight attendants, naturals for the Race.
Akbar and Sheri Cook, married educators with a terrific backstory. Better yet, they bicker, always a plus for the race.
Arun and Natalia Kumar,
and daughter team. Arun at age 56 is the only racer over 50.
Kim and Penn Holderness, internet personalities in their mid-40s, ancient for this season. They seem likeable and witty.
Lulu and Lala Gonzalez, radio-hosting twins, my favorite pair. They have been just awful, finishing 10th in both episodes, only surviving because the second episode was non-elimination.
Lulu (left) is having trouble
The other remaining teams are: Caro Viehweg and Ray Gantt, who met on “Love Island” and are dating; Connie and Sam Greiner, who are married. She’s a businesswoman; he’s a high school football coach. Taylor and Isaiah Green-Jones; they're married YouTube sensations.
Would that the team of Michael Norwood and Moe Badger, two singing cops from Buffalo, had not been eliminated in the first episode. Understandably confused by London’s streets, they took too much time on the challenges.
They were a perfect pair, athletic, funny and musical. Besides that, they’re Bills fans who got to sing the anthem before last Sunday’s game in Orchard Park against the Falcons. Earlier the did the anthem at a Sabres game.
For the record, Anthony and Spencer won the first episode, Ryan and Dusty the second.
The best moment was in the second episode when Penn and Ray refused to believe that the clues they held in their hands were real. “We might be overthinking the hell out of this,” Penn said. Which was true.
Overheard
Akbar Cook: Pain is weakness leaving your body.
Kim Holderness: We’ve been married for 15 years, but in dog years that’s like a thousand.
Michael Norwood: We didn’t really pay attention to the details.
Moe Badger: We’re doing this for more than ourselves….We represent Buffalo. We love our city.
Phil (to Kim and Penn): Please kick some ass because we can’t have all young people winning.
Penn: Do you know how they knew it was the clue? Because it was the clue.
Order of finish First Episode
1) Anthony and Spencer
2) Ryan and Dusty
3) Cayla and Raquel
4) Kim and Penn
5) Caro and Ray
6) Akbar and Sheri
7) Connie and Sam
8) Taylor and Isaiah
9) Arun and Natalia
10) Lulu and Lala
11) Michael and Moe
Order of Finish Second Episode
Ryan and Dusty
Connie and Sam
Arun and Natalia
Cayla and Raquel
Kim and Penn
Caro and Ray
Anthony and Spencer
Akbar and Sheri
Taylor and Isaiah
Lulu and Lala
