this is the thread where we talk breathlessly about the best TV show on North American television: THE AMAZING RACE!

let's hope they learn from this terrible mistake.

The G0dl3wski sisters had to beg because they were stripped off all their money. They go up to one guy in Panama City, who tells them, "I don't have any money. I only have... love."

The fatherless family wrapped in insularity, jingoism, fear & self-righteousness, a faith that makes them special and everyone else contemptible... it's all there with a twist of old-fashioned socially maladjusted weirdo-ism. They are America.

They're also a nice switch from the typical bad-guy couple: borderline abusive steroid-rage dude w/ boob-job doormat girlfriend - of course wife-beaters are easy to hate - but getting the audience to hate unhinged grieving Christians, now that's an accomplishment. Hats off, Brookheimer, hats off.

The other thing that's great about the unhinged grieving Christians is that they're still alive in the game despite having NO apparent ability or common sense. It's almost like God is on their side, but what God would want such hateful minions? could it be... SATAN?

Even my wife isn't watching this season, and she loves the show. Not traveling around the globe is also not terribly amazing. This is more like "Cannonball Run," with no wacky hijinks or uniforms. Or Burt Reynolds. That's what they should have done: thrown in the "Jackass" dudes and one of the "Cannonball Run" teams along with the families. Instant TV gold!

For whatever reason, finishing last in a non-elimination leg hasn't been much of an impediment in the last couple of seasons (much less so than it's intended to be).

It was obvious that the Weavers weren't getting eliminated because they kept showing all the other teams gloating about it.

This season kinda blows. It couldn't be saved even if the Bransen daughters stopped by my house for a foresome. Yes, I know that they all look just like their dad, and no, I don't really care.

And how quickly you forget KKKendra from the same season!

I meant that literally. Like with his teeth.

Oh, this is not even remotely true. The Weavers are on a serious "we are innately superior to everyone around us, ergo things like basic common decency are just beneath us" trip.

KKKendra was awful but even she had the ability to be nice to others from time to time despite her loathesome qualities; the Weavers think it's okay to:

- denigrate someone solely for being a garbageman;
- denigrate people who are being nice to them because they have fake breasts;
- throw trash at out of their car at other cars;
- shout and scream all throughout an overnight bus ride;
- rebuff every friendly or polite overture with sneering contempt;
- basically treat anyone who isn't in their family or in a position to give them prizes like dogshit.

Not even Jonathon was as uniformly and consistently awful and he was literally the end of the world. The Weavers are absolutely worthless human beings who basically represent every single thing detestable and undesirable about American culture; give me the Paolos and their virtually unwatchable bickering any day over their pious self-involved bullshit because, at the end of the day, the Paulos recognize that they're wrong and dysfunctional and each of them saw things that really impressed them and gave them greater respect for their family members during the trip, showing that they are capable of learning how to break out of their destructive behavior patterns. The Weavers, meanwhile, are perfectly happy to wallow in smug, insufferable ignorance and deserve nothing but ridicule shunning for the rest of their days.

Jonathan had his nice moments (i.e. the way he treated children at various points during the race) but he was essentially a schizophrenic, extremely unsettled person. Victoria kept saying stuff like "Jonathan is great around kids, but I'm not sure I want to have children with him." On a national TV show!

On a side note, I respected Jonathan for being a GREAT competitor -- he and Victoria were a dangerous team who eliminated themselves once J lost his head and made a dumb mistake by not reading a clue properly (this sort of mistake was inevitable, really). The Weavers are dumbasses who are still on the show because the other teams are that much more incompetent than they are. This definitely increases my hatred for them.

KKKendra called for mass sterilization of Africans. Surely this takes the cake for the "most detestable comment uttered by a reality show contestant in the history of ever all-time ever ever."

What's with the camera operators draining people's car batteries? That's twice now. They're lucky that nobody has been eliminated because of it (although the Linzes might be in danger of it).

The Weavers getting stripped of their money had virtually no impact on their race so far. WTF? I think the only time they needed money was to get into Yellowstone.

OTOH, the Weavers are more harmless in a realistic way, but as far as TAR is concerned, you want, in a banal way, the fat one and her sister to be thrown off their horses, yet when they avoid elimination, you're grateful that they're still in the race so you can tensely keep on rooting against them. Also, they've gotten farther than Jonathan, though that only makes them more successful in a retrospective way.

I also forgot to mention from the previous episode: "Miss Latin Utah -- even better!"

Uh, you're headed for an *indoor* rink, you fools.

I also liked how the driver basically told them to get lost when they asked him to go fast. Montreal cab drivers are insane, you don't normally have to ask them to take you on a near-death experience through downtown Montreal.

I swear though, I thought Mother Weaver was going to propose to her cabbie they way she was going on about OMG U R A XTIAN 2!!

*'nt.

What was with the "charter plane to a shhhhhhhh SECRET location"? I was hoping they'd fly to Baffin island ... Labrador ... somewhere a little bit out of the way ... Toronto? Were they supposed to unsure whether they were still in Canada? I don't get it.

The Bransens lost when they chose to go the Shoe Museum. I don't think the task itself took any longer than the boat thing, but they had to drive north through the downtown core (this would have been 8-9 AM, during the peak of rush hour unless this happened on a weekend) and then back the way they came to get on the highway to drive to Queenston. Since the Linzes remained close to the lake (and the highway), they saved themselves about half an hour worth of driving over the Bransens. If I had known about this and been around at the time (the Bransens parked on U of T campus about two blocks from my office when they went to the Shoe Museum), maybe I could have altered the final standings ... or organized that foursome :)

http://www.cbs.com/primetime/amazing_race9/

My early pick: Ray and Yolanda. They're athletes, they're smart, not much seems to faze them, etc.

BJ and Tyler are actually smart!!

The pink bimbos are even dumber than I thought they would be!!!

Lake is a psycho!!!!

this season also had one of the first three team foot races to a pitstop that i have seen in years.

i know i'm all alone. i don't care. season 12 i am there for you! i think it's still on after 60 minutes. 60 minutes is still on cuzza football i guess.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA THANK YOU AMAZING RACE

omg goth pink weird cuople is from louisville

I don't like them.

It was satisfying to see one of the most annoying teams go home. The donkey walking bit was very revealing of character, somehow.