Lesson Learned From TV: Pigs Are Heavy

Maybe more than any other reality show, The Amazing Race is almost always won by a team that truly deserves the million-dollar prize. This season was no exception. Brother/sister team Tammy and Victor emerged victorious last night, capping off a season that had the teams doing everything from enduring an excruciating foot massage to carrying huge wheels of cheese down a hill. It was an emotional finish, with Tammy and Victor overcoming communication problems that plagued them early in the race (Victor will probably never live down his commitment to going the wrong way as they pair trekked through the hills of Romania), arriving at a greater understanding of their family dynamic.

As gracious a race as the winners ran, their competition in the final three was decidedly mixed. Margie and her deaf son Luke put up a good fight throughout—particularly Margie, who appeared to almost single-handedly carry the team to the final leg while Luke did little more than yell “go, go, go”—but Luke’s sense of entitlement was always a deterrent for me. How do you root for someone who feels like he deserves to be there just because he’s deaf? I appreciate that he’s faced adversity all his life, but he had a nasty streak in him that made him hard to like.

The crown for most unlikable team, however, goes to cheerleader friends Jaime and Cara (actually more Jaime than Cara, who is unfortunately guilty by association). You’d think that after spending so much time on the race, Jaime would have realized that screaming at people might not be the best way to get them to help you. It certainly didn’t spur her partner on when, in the next-to-last task, Cara had difficulty carrying a pig to a luau. Jaime’s constant frustration over the language barriers turned her into the quintessential example of the Ugly American.

Of course, every show has to have its villains, and while this edition of Race had a couple doozies, this most genuine of reality shows never messes with the game play to create a manufactured Hollywood ending. It wasn't the most suspenseful race to the finish line ever (once Victor finished the memory task, it was pretty clear they'd sail to the mat), but it’s refreshing to report that, in this instance, nice won out over sinister. Congratulations to Tammy and Victor for a race run with class and dignity.