Danny & Oswald were my last hope to salvage any sort of excitement about All-Stars. My feelings towards Dustin & Kandice, Eric & Danielle and Charla & Mirna are merely neutral, lukewarm-ish...each could win and that would be just OK with me. OK in the tepid sense.

By David W. Taylor (Email The Author)
Reality Reel Media
05.05.07

No team left standing was apart of my own "All-Star" clique...mainly teams from the earlier Seasons of The Amazing Race when things were a little bit more edgy, earthy; editing was spontaneous and circumstances much less controlled.

And in that sense this All-Stars Season was a bit of a let down. If one can recall the intense moments of Season One, for example, when Team Guido caused pandemonium and rage with their nefarious tactical whims and their haughty standoffishness; or when Nancy & Emily were caught blindsided in the hypnotic maelstrom of the human tide in India — and nearly lost their minds — The Amazing Race has lost that kind of ability to translate American culture shock with the rest of the world.

This erosion of Westernized comfort, in the context of a harried Race, and dropped onto our lazy laps at home, was, I believe, one of the main attractions of the program for many millions of people.

Do you remember Season Three? Andre & Damon being led erroneously into a shadowy sun-bleached shantytown on the outskirts of Marrakech by a foolish taxi driver? They rolled up to a ruinous, nondescript mosque where city elders approached and tried to place Andre & Damon under house arrest. If you watched that Season, how can you forget that? You never will.

Nor will you easily forget Derek & Drew (and for awhile, Ken & Gerard) haplessly running around teeming Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam looking for a Clue Box. These two teams were fraught with high-anxiety — their eyes stuck on fear — as they spun around every which way in a strange, pulsating land they did not know.

Derek & Drew eventually wandered onto a ferry, essentially following the bread crumbs of other teams, and walked into the Pitstop before realizing they had been running around in circles half-cocked. They had to go back and start all over. It tore your guts out. You felt the claustrophobic terror.

That was the lure of The Amazing Race. Much of this melodrama is no more. Instead we have looks and style. Like kicking-in doors or climbing ladders with cascading Ninjas in Hong Kong.