Guilty pleasure

I was initially a vehement opponent of reality television. "I prefer to be entertained by trained professionals" was my line.

But I was flipping through the channels one night and I saw some people in a maze, and I found myself glued to The Amazing Race 5. It was the final episode of that series, and I was hooked. I watched Season 6 even though it sucked, according to long-time fans of the show.

Tonight was a 2 hour long episode, and it was mostly edge-of-my-seat exciting. In the first half, we had Gretchen falling down in a cave and cracking her head open. In the second half, Brian & Greg had a car accident that moved them from 2nd to last place. But they got another car, and they managed to catch up to the team right ahead of them, Ray & Deana. Ray is an ass, so I was rooting for Brian & Greg (who, while maybe not the brightest guys out there, seem like genuinely good guys), and they did it - they outraced Ray & Deana to the mat, and avoided elimination.

In some beautiful poetic justice, Ray & Deana, who spent the past two episodes insulting and berating Gretchen & Meredith (although not to their faces) were eliminated before Gretchen & Meredith - that was nice.

I'm posting this here even though I feel a little guilty about my addiction to this show because TWOP forums are down, so I have no one to share my excitement with. I'm totally rooting for Brian & Greg or Uchenna & Joyce, the two teams who seem like the nicest people (that's me - I don't care if someone has great skills as a racer, if they are a jerk, I'm not interested in rooting for them). I like Alex, but Lynn is kind of annoying. I thought it was great that Lynn & Alex, who were right behind Brian & Greg, stopped and tried to help when B&G had the accident, but then Lynn was acting all superior about it, and that's just annoying. Rob - ugh - every time he starts to win me over, he gets smug and ugly and I'm back to hoping he gets eliminated soon.

Okay, I feel better now that I got this off my chest.