Tag Archives: Mike White

March 29, 2009 · 9:23 pm

The Amazing Race Season 14 – “Episode Seven (Thailand)”

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“Gorilla? Gorilla?? Gorilla???”

March 29th, 2009

I wasn’t going to blog about tonight’s episode of The Amazing Race. I’m taking a week off from blogging, so I was going to put up a post about how I’d LOVE to talk about what happened on tonight’s journey from India To Phuket, Thailand but I just am too busy getting academic things under control before I leave for Los Angeles next week. Then, however, I watched this week’s episode of The Amazing Race.

My thoughts are below the fold, because I don’t want to spoil it for anyone. There’s also swearing, FYI.

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Tagged as Anger, bicycle pumps, Cheating, Elephants, Elimination, Episode 7, Fainting, Luke and Margie, Mark and Michael, Mel and Mike, Mike White, Penalties, Phil Keoghan, Phuket, Rickshaws, Roadblock, Sabotage, Season 14, Thailand, Tigers

March 15, 2009 · 9:44 pm

The Amazing Race Season 14 – “Episode Five (Siberia)”

“She’s a Little Scared of Stick…”

March 15th, 2009

I spent a great deal of this, the fifth leg of The Amazing Race’s fourteenth season, wishing that last week’s blind U-Turn hadn’t happened, or that Kris and Amanda had been able to make it past the Detour in time to keep it from affecting them. While I understand that it’s part of the game, this race is weaker without them: a team that were likeable, fun to watch and competitive is the kind of team you want to have while you get rid of the weaker teams who are, well, not those things. Kris and Amanda may have been a threat to the competitive spirit of other teams, but they were much better from my own perspective – selfish, I know.

This week did little to assuage my concerns that we’re dealing with a slightly less interesting race as a result, although I’ll admit that this remains one of the most genuinely inoffensive group of racers in a long time. While there are a few teams who are legitimately struggling, it seems less as if they are just really bad at this race but rather that their skills lie in certain areas that don’t happen to come into effect when the teams are trapped in the depths of Siberia. We’re getting to the point where frontrunners are quite clear, and where the people who struggle are becoming more clearly identified, but there exists no one team that I would U-Turn if I was running this race with them.

But, of course, I’m not in race mode, so perhaps my rationality would go out the window when the time came.

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Tagged as Bunching, Detour, Entertainment, Episode 5, Jaime and Cara, Jodi and Christie, Kisha and Jen, Kris and Amanda, Leg 5, Margie and Luke, Mark and Michael, Mel and Mike, Mike White, Novosibirsk, Phil Keoghan, Polar Bear Run, Roadblock, Russia, Russian Bride, Season 14, Siberia, Snowplows, Tammy and Victor, Television, Trans-Siberian Railroad, Underwear Marathon

March 1, 2009 · 11:13 pm

The Amazing Race Season 14 – “Episode Three (Romania)”

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“I’m Not Wearing That Girls Leotard!”

March 1st, 2009

The major change that we’re getting during this season of The Amazing Race is that there is no rest for the wicked – while before there were often legs which were constructed so as to require no planes at all, staying within one city or one country for a second leg, this year they’re mixing things up. Just as quickly as the racers had flown into and raced around Germany and Austria, the teams were back on a plane to Bucharest, Romania, and off for another leg of their adventure. It’s something that is going to catch up with teams very quickly, the spectre of killer fatigue preparing to play an even more substantial part in this race than in years past.

Unfortunately for one team this week, though, it’s not early enough yet for this to start to happen. And when it comes down to flying at the start of the leg, there are various problems that can crop up, and when things add up just wrong for you the leg isn’t going to give you a chance to catch up – there’s no suspense in this one, and it’s a sad story for a team that really didn’t deserve to go home at this stage.

But this isn’t to say that this is a momentum killer for the season, in fact quite the opposite: there is still plenty of heartwarming moments from Mel and Mike, finally a chink in the armour of too perfect Kris and Amanda, some redemption of sorts for two all-female teams who proved they’re not quite as incompetent as we first thought, and one team even gives the editors a freebie to be able to make it seem at least theoretically competitive. It’s a very even field right now, and despite the unfortunate loss there’s a lot to look forward to.

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Tagged as Brad and Victoria, Coffins, Deafness, Detour, Elimination, Episode 3, Gymnastics, Gypsies, I'm Not Wearing That Girls Leotard, Jamie and Cara, Kisha and Jen, Leotard, Luke and Margie, Mark and Michael, Mel and Mike, Mike White, Phil Keoghan, Red and White Markers, Roadblock, Romania, Season 14, Tammy and Victor, TAR, Television, Third Leg, Vampires, Vlad the Impaler

February 23, 2009 · 12:37 am

The Amazing Race Season 14 – “Episode Two – Germany”

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“Your Target is your Partner’s Face”

February 22nd, 2009

When this, the second episode of The Amazing Race’s fourteenth season, begins, there’s a sequence where the teams all start talking about how much they are inspired by Margie and Luke, the latter of whom is the race’s first deaf contestant. To be honest, I was frustrated with this: not because they’re not inspirational, but that we are capable of discerning for ourselves how impressive his work is: in this episode alone, we see Luke making friends with Jamie and Cara (without his mother being present), and even offering his own individual interviews wherein he questioned his mother’s decision making and gave a glimpse into their team dynamic.

This is how you inspire us with Luke: not by shoving down our throats that he’s overcoming diversity, but showing how he is just another contestant in the end, how despite not being able to take part in tasks that require verbal clues he is an active participant in this race. He’s a heck of a lot more observant than some of the other teams in this leg, as massive errors continue to define the bottom section of the racers, and at this point it’s clear that there isn’t another Nick & Starr in the race: no team looks like it will be devoid of mistakes and drama both, and this could lead to some teams’ undoing.

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