The Amazing Race: Power Rankings
The Amazing Race: Power Rankings
By Daron Aldridge
April 14, 2013
BoxOfficeProphets.com
So, thank you, country music, for giving me a week off of a season that has been underwhelming. Maybe the bye week will have renewed my faith in the show. Give me a second while I look back at the last episode for a refresher on how to flesh out this week’s power rankings.
Well, reviewing the last recap didn’t do much in the way of restoring my faith in the season like I had hoped.
Regardless, here are my rankings heading into the eighth episode of Amazing Race 22.
1. Bates & Anthony: If you were to list most popular professional sports, it’s probably a safe bet that hockey and the NHL wouldn’t place first, second or even third on the average American’s list but on the Amazing Race 22, these hockey brothers easily secure a top notch. Even in a season with more compelling (read: interesting and not void of entertainment value) teams, Team Slapshot would still remain at or near the top of the rankings. They display self-effacing charm and fun-loving attitude as well as physical abilities that are unmatched by anyone this season. They also have implemented strategic play that has diverted people’s attention from viewing them as the threat they are. I applaud them, especially for that last one. Heading into this week’s Switzerland leg, I pray that the irony of a cold, snowy, and icy climate becoming the downfall of two guys whose livelihood is on the ice is not fulfilled.
Before proceeding, I said it in the last rankings and I will reiterate it here: So far they are the only ones that deserve to win. The other teams are just getting by because they didn’t make as big of a mistake as the fools immediately behind them. Consider this: Bates & Anthony get the Fast Forward and have little issue with locating or completing the tasks at hand. In contrast, Caroline & Jennifer and Max & Katie both carelessly get speeding tickets, Joey & Meghan get so lost that they end up following one of the speeders, and Mona & Beth and Chuck & Wynona botch up the Roadblock with such poor performance that other teams that were lost or lagging pass them. And then there is Pam & Winnie messing up the Detour so fabulously they fall from second place to eliminated in seventh. All that in mind, a distant second, in my opinion, is…
2. Mona & Beth: Team Sock ‘er Moms were my early picks to make it deep in to the Race and despite their best efforts to sabotage themselves with the unique ability to pick the most difficult of Detour options, they are still hanging around. If we have learned nothing from the Race over many seasons, it’s that it is easy to criticize the way your teammate is doing a task, but such criticism fails to light a fire under them in the vast majority of instances. If Mona can keep her frustration in check, unlike on the last Roadblock, they should continue to do as well as they have so far (for what that’s worth) and make it to the end.
3. tie Joey & Meghan and Caroline & Jennifer: I really didn’t want to rank a tie but I simply couldn’t find more reason to place one of these teams over the other one. They both have positives that work in their favor (mainly, an overall sunny outlook on the Race) and have equal amounts of negatives that keep them from ranking in the one or two spot (careless mistakes, getting lost, being emotional, etc…you know all the hallmarks of Amazing Race teams that don’t win, aside from Season 3’s Zach & Flo. If you don’t remember, Flo was the whiniest and least deserving or competent person to win the Amazing Race.) Also, both teams have surprised me in their resilience to survive on the Race. I pegged both to not make it this far but here they are…for now. This back part of the rankings could very easily flip-flop because they aren’t separated by much in my eyes but these two teams have a better chance of survival than…
4. Chuck & Wynona: A couple of legs with B- quality performance mean they are just enough above average for me to not put them in dead last. No one is probably more surprised at their Race results than the Mullets themselves. Wynona entered the Race as the weakest of all the teams and she has done nothing to dispel that conclusion but here she is finally taking on Roadblocks with a modicum of success - just enough to keep them ahead of a few other teams. Her lack of confidence and ability to get easily shaken will likely be the team’s downfall because if it happens at a point when they know that they are battling for last, she will undoubtedly crumble. Even considering that, they should still finish in front of…
5. Max & Katie: Team Cape Fear is the one that is continually flirting with disaster, thanks to their team dynamic. Katie basically put the F and the U in "dysfunctional" on the last leg with her nonstop badgering and belittling of Max, who for his part, was surprisingly restrained and optimistic. I am just a viewer and she was beating me down, so I can’t imagine how hellacious Max’s hours and hours of listening to her actually were. He knew he messed up and didn’t need her destructive commentary on the situation. This unhealthy, holier-than-thou, and toxic attitude that Katie wears so proudly will (or should) be this team’s undoing. Hopefully, it will be sooner rather than later.
All right, with my (sure-to-be-wrong) rankings in place, let’s hit the snowy mountains of Switzerland.