TAR 7.11

Ever since my forced TAR hiatus (I missed season 3 because I had no TV - it's tragic that I missed JVJ), no team I have rooted for has ever won the race. (On the other hand, I am 2/2 with the Apprentice. Go Kendra!)

I should try not to actively root for the team I want to win.

Season 4. David and Jeff. Don't even make it to the finish line. And before the final 3, the Clowns.

Season 5. Colin and Christie. The best racers of the season, but last minute carelessness and having people who did the tasks the slowest get to the airport last with the best luck... didn't happen. (Not to mention the not-shown flat tire.)

Season 6. Kris and Jon. A bad American Airlines ticket agent lets Freddy and Kendra win. (And for once, I'm actually among the masses rooting for someone as opposed to my usual minority status.)

Season 7. Rob and Amber. The controversial racers because of all the people who think they don't "deserve" to be there and the people who can't stand Rob. Getting lost in Little Havana and the BS call-back of the plane (oh c'mon, you can't tell me that there was no begging by production to let them on the plane; planes don't get called back like that) means they end up in second. Not a horrible thing lest the conspiracy theories start rolling that production fixed the race for R&A, but they were clearly the better racers of the bunch.

I don't dislike Uchenna and Joyce. They deserve to win because they got to the finish line first. But were they the best racers? No. Would they have been there if a plane hadn't been called back? No. Are they nice? Yes. Does being nice mean you should be the winners? No, not really. It's a race.

I said all along that I wouldn't be upset if any of the 3 teams left won. And I'm not upset. But the Romber hate from the euphoric people about Uchenna & Joyce is kind of pissing me off. You'd almost think those fans were personally maligned by Romber. Which they weren't. Be happy for U/J. Cheer. Say you're happy Romber didn't win. But all this "take that" and "they didn't deserve it" is crap. They don't deserve it because they already won Survivor? So what? The producers picked them just the same as they picked everyone else. Just because they won a million dollars before doesn't make them less "worthy" of winning. Who's to say that any of these teams didn't already have a million dollars in the bank? No one would have thought them less worthy. You don't like Rob because of his attitude? Fine. Don't think they're "worthy"? Find another word. You don't like the producers because of stuntcasting? Fine, blame the producers. Don't blame the people who asked to be on the show and were granted their wish.

Anyway. I guess my problem is that, while I like the nice people, I value good racing above who the "nicest" people are. Unless it's a second coming of Jonathan (S6) in a person with racing talent, I root for the people who can work the airports, the people who navigate well, the people who are competent with task choices and performance. It's a race, and I look for good racers. It's sort of like the meritocracy ideal - those who work the hardest should be rewarded in the end. It doesn't really happen, since so much of the race is based on luck (and taxi karma!) but it would be nice to believe that all your hard work actually means something. (Big problem with the more recent races - bunching... glad they did less in this race, but it was still bad.)

This wasn't a bad season. It was pretty good and thanks to the spoiler battles in the later legs of the race, it's definitely been nailbiting. It's a good result, although I did figure out the result as soon as Uchenna and Joyce got put on that plane to Miami. The inspirational story arc couldn't result in a Rob & Amber win. It started back from the inspirational themed trailers before the season, and ended with the middle of the pack team that had to shave their heads, race with no money, beat all the odds to win. The arc was complete. It's a nice story, nice people. I definitely have to say they got lucky though. No plane gets called back to the gate in real life.

Alright. Rant over. Breathing back to normal. I just had to get that off my chest, since I'm pretty aggravated with all the R/A hate and cheering over their being "less deserving." Argh. Rob and Amber ran a good race. I'll be watching their wedding. :) If only for memories of Atlantis...

Now, to look forward to Lost and Alias tomorrow. Must do some reading, get some sleep and gear up for that. It's going to be awesome. I love my JJ shows. :)