The Amazing Race - 6x12 "4 Continents, 24 Cities, 40,000 Miles"

I can't say that this season of The Amazing Race was a success, which would, in my book, be defined as having compellingly lovable protagonists (in the previous two seasons, the Clowns, and Chip & Kim) in addition to compellingly hateable villains (that awful guy and his red-head wife, and of course Mr. Colin Meltdown). Kris & Jon were nice folk, but as far as compelling heroes, they weren't really appropriate in a dramatic context that reality shows aspire to. And so I only rooted for them because I had no one else to choose from.

But there were villains* galore, you might say. You'd be right, but I feel compelled to attach a proviso. Jonathan, President of Synagogue, sort of crossed the line from reality-tv-as-spectacle-for-audience-amusement and into reality-tv-as-window-into-abusive-domestic-situation, i.e. from "reality" into Reality. He wasn't just a villain, he became a lunatic who inspired bilious hate and fear in a way that villains I love to hate don't inspire.

But even after he got the boot, there were plenty of cockfarmers, yes? For example, the Model Alliance, with Kendra as its racist Booty Queen. Unfortunately, I'm a jaded reality tv viewer, so that characterizing the show's resident heel with patronizing remarks about foreigners while in their countries and self-entitlement on the basis of something as arbitrary as citizenship is so well-entrenched as a cliche that it's not worth getting my panties in a bunch over.

Bottom line: no one I could safely but entertainingly hate; no one to really really want to see win.

Indie rating: Pretty Girls Make Graves - "If You Hate Your Friends, You Are Not Alone"

*Or as I'd like to say in anticipation of my big short-paper on reality shows and wrestling, heels.