Very happy for the Holderness’s. I would’ve been fine with Raquel and Kayla winning it - even with their unsportsmanlike tactic after the foley challenge.
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I was SUPER disappointed with the outcome. I was predisposed to dislike Kim & Penn, but I had ZERO issue with them based on their appearance on TAR. However, the editors gave Kim & Penn the Adam & Bethany treatment. If anyone doesn't know, there was a team on s25 of TAR composed of Bethany Hamilton and her husband. I didn't know who she was at the time, but she lost one of her arms in a shark attack while surfing, and they made a movie about it. During s25, the editors pushed the "OMG! Bethany is so awesome and brave!" narrative to ridiculous extremes. They couldn't have been nicer, but I found myself getting annoyed by how hard the editors shoved her down our throats. Kim ("OMG! She's so amazing to overcome anxiety!") & Penn ("OMG! He's so amazing to overcome ADHD!") got much the same treatment.
But like I said, I didn't really have any problems with Kim & Penn. My disappointment resulted from REALLY wanting Raquel & Cayla to win. They won the penultimate leg and were out in front for most of the final leg but got tripped up by that final memory challenge. And, while that sucked, I thought it was a really well-designed challenge and was generally happy with how the final leg was constructed. It's also kinda cool that I've been to the Home Depot or Stubhub Center (or whoever has the current naming rights for the home of the LA Galaxy), including the neighboring tennis arena where the final memory challenge was performed.
This season had several superlatives:
- Kim & Penn are the oldest winning team ever (eclipsing the prior mark by two years), and they are the second (Penn) and fourth (Kim) oldest individual winners. Interestingly, had the race not been suspended, they might not have broken the record (I'm not sure whether their listed ages were as of the start or end of the race).
- The route was the shortest route in show history (excluding "the Family Edition," which was almost entirely confined to the U.S.).
- This season visited the fewest continents and countries of any season (again, excluding "the Family Edition").
All in all, it was definitely "The Amazing Race Lite." Supposedly, season 34 will start running in May and hopefully will air sometime during the 22-23 TV season. I hope they're able to make it look a little more "normal."