The thing I like most about The Amazing Race is that it takes us around the world, which is just fun to watch. Only slightly less entertaining is to watch it reveal people as they take that trip. As they become more stressed and the road wears on them, you get to see people further and further from their “hidden” selves, and you see them as they really are, which shows you just how much we try to hide ourselves from people – and what we do to win when we think no one is looking.
When the race starts, everyone is clean and shaven and happy and ready to race. But even at the end of the first leg or two, nerves start to fray and you notice that people start to come unglued. Even your teams that you wouldn’t expect to get mad get mad. By the end of the fifth episode this season, even the self-dubbed nerds were having problems. If us computer types can have stress, then anyone can have a tough time!
So now in the eighth episode, true selves are really starting to shine. The frat boy team of Eric and Jeremy has seemingly turned from a couple of beach bums who take life one day at a time into a pair of cut-throat, win-at-all-cost, take-no-prisoner jerks. The “type a” personality team of Joseph and Monica, who started off so positive and uplifiting of one another, appear to almost always be at one another’s throats. These two, who you would think would be the epitome of good sports, are the ones who can’t spare a buck for another team who is down on their luck, and who grumble when the hippie team of BJ and Tyler manages to make up a three-hour delay and catch a plane.
Meanwhile, the unlikeliest of leaders, the older team of Frank and Barry, who not only give assistance when needed in the form of money but direction and moral support, end up coming in last and being eliminated, really show their true colors by seeming to be supportive of one another throughout, even when they know they are about to be eliminated in the truest of first-to-worst fashion.
And yes, I know it’s a television show, and it’s edited to show what the producers and directors want us to see. But that’s a part of the fun.
