Warning: This post contains liberal spoilers for The Amazing Race 3, and may also contain spoilers for seasons before that one. You have been warned!

One of the most generally well-regarded seasons of The Amazing Race is the third installment. Most superfans will put it in one of the top tiers of their season rankings, and I’m no exception. Having already seen this season several times, and enjoyed it each time, I was well looking forward to going through it again.

Did it meet expectations? Mostly. I continue to regard this as one of the very best seasons of all time, for a variety of reasons that we’ll dig into in this post. But it also isn’t without its flaws, and my preseason thought that it deserves the label of the best overall produced season of them all may not actually be quite right.

Before we talk about the season’s more relevant qualities, let’s go over one aspect of this, and other early seasons, that becomes more pronounced as the years go by:

An Unintentional Period Piece

One interesting thing that you see with a fair amount of media is that much of it is a product of its time. Some TV shows, movies, etc. are made specifically to have aspects appeal to contemporary audiences. For instance, the movie Back to the Future is very much a product of 1985 (when it came out), with the scenes set in that year practically dripping with the culture of that time (by extension making it that much more interesting to watch in the present day). I’ve also noticed that the dialog in quite a few modern movies has a distinctly different feel to it than in older movies. The people in those movies speak a lot more like 2010’s people, in ways that you simply don’t see in earlier films.

Other pieces of media, like The Amazing Race, are less specifically tied to a certain time period, but have aspects to them that, while they wouldn’t stand out at the time, later become clear marks that this is an older piece of work, and I think that makes old seasons like this one that much more interesting to watch. The Kodak EasyShare digital cameras given out as leg prizes stand out the most, but there’s also those little phones that the contestants get to call home with in leg 9. And in other places, I would notice older company logos that have now been phased out long ago – seeing the Gatorade bottles that John Vito & Jill had at one point was especially interesting, as I remembered those designs as soon as I saw them, but it’s also now been a long time since I saw any products with those.

This has made the early seasons interesting “period pieces”, and I get the feeling that aspect will only become more prevalent as the years go by.

Okay, now to more S3-specific stuff!

A Season of Stories

One of the big strengths that Season 3 has, in my opinion, is the strong storytelling. This season has several different clear, interesting storylines throughout, and they vary nicely between storylines of a few episodes, of a half of a season, and one that really spans from the premiere to the final elimination.

There’s the Twin Hunt. The Brotherhood between Ken & Gerard and Derek & Drew. The efforts of the trailing teams to catch up during the beginning. Drew & Flo’s budding romance. The comeback of Teri & Ian, and Ian’s return to Vietnam tied into there. Flo’s gradual downward spiral. These storylines define most of the major events during the season and are the main focus most of the time, but they also do it without feeling too forced or repetitive. The dynamics between Flo & Zach and Derek & Drew, or even between Ken & Gerard and Derek & Drew, are not nearly as repetitive or overdone as between Tara & Wil and Chris & Alex in the preceding season.

And looking back at the season, these storylines are one of the biggest things I remember about it. Other seasons may have strong storylines, but no others stick out to me as well as this one.

Let’s look in more detail at two of the ones that I like the best…

The Stupid Stupid Twin Hunt

The premise of the Twin Hunt, and the fact that it was organized in the first place, is not something that I am a big fan of. Even though the logic of the Wonder Twins being big potential threats is sound, I don’t really like seeing the big gang form up against them, and they (particularly ringleaders Aaron & Arianne) are really kind of obnoxious about it.

That said, I love the storyline of the Twin Hunt overall, simply because the whole endeavor ends up being so gloriously stupid. For one, the Hunters’ approach to it isn’t really well-planned or effective. It’s hard enough to stop or slow down another team at all in the Race, especially in the days before Yields or U-turns, but the participating teams don’t seem to even really try to slow the twins down at all. Instead, their idea of ‘hunting’ just seems to be chasing the twins and trying to catch up with them. They split up across different planes and treat it as a major victory when they finally catch up to them via an equalizer, even though it does nothing whatsoever to slow Derek & Drew down or move them any closer to elimination. Essentially, the only point of the Twin Hunt is to obsess about the twins.

But what really makes the Twin Hunt shine is the way that it unceremoniously ends. Obsessing with the Wonder Twins begins in the second leg where they win due to FF, and the Twin Hunt proper begins the next leg. Despite Aaron & Arianne’s self-congratulation near the end of the leg on their success, the twins go on to win that leg as well, the Twin Hunt having accomplished nothing against them. Then in the fourth leg, not only do Derek & Drew once again finish ahead of every Hunting team sans Flo & Zach, but the first of the hunters are eliminated in Heather & Eve. Then Michael & Kathy and Aaron & Arianne colossally screw up and go out back to back in the next two legs. The Twin Hunt is effectively over thanks to the early elimination of the teams performing it. And for the cherry on top, the lone survivors, Flo & Zach, end up allying with the Twins as Flo and Drew begin to flirt!

The Twin Hunt Alliance was the biggest alliance ever made on TAR at that point in time, it was made for the sole purpose of knocking out a specific team, and it ended up being a total failure (yes, Flo & Zach ultimately outlast them, but the Twin Hunt was long forgotten at that juncture). It makes for a great story.

Rise of the Underdogs

In Season 1, three teams immediately stood out at the beginning as the primary, dominant teams of the season, and despite a leg 1 struggle, Kevin & Drew soon joined them, with the other teams clearly stuck as the underdogs. Those same four teams became the final four and were unquestionably the primary characters all season long.

Season 2 didn’t really have any early frontrunners or underdogs (other than the Gutsy Grannies), and Tara & Wil and Blake & Paige, top characters at the beginning, made final 3 along with Chris & Alex, who didn’t have a particularly weak start.

It’s a bit of a murky line, but I’d say that Season 3 was the first time that the early leaders were well and truly upstaged by the underdogs, and the season is much better for it.

At the beginning of the season, the teams that take the lead are really mostly the “young, mostly attractive people” teams of the season, minus Derek & Drew. There are four young “couple” teams (two of which are friends and not lovers, but principle’s the same) as well as a young attractive female team, and all of them get their season off to a strong start, becoming the lead pack for the first several legs, thanks to the way the racecourse is set up. As the young, attractive people of the season, they also end up banding together and becoming the “popular” or “cool” group. Two teams that don’t fit the mold, Ken & Gerard and Derek & Drew, end up with the front pack only because they take early Fast Forwards – before that they were both in serious danger of elimination.

So this group – the cool kids, so to speak – end up taking a goodly portion of the spotlight early on. They’re pretty well shown (JV & Jill less so than the others, but still) early on, they’re at the front of the pack, they go banding together and all being friends with each other, and they organize a Twin Hunt. If this was like the earlier seasons, this is the same group we’d be seeing at the end – and honestly, I don’t think I’d enjoy the season nearly as much if that had happened. (Doesn’t help that the group’s main spokespeople to the audience are Aaron & Arianne.)

But instead, after Leg 4 comes and the teams are all equalized for the first time, the pecking order is upended. Mostly due to bad mistakes, three of the popular group are eliminated in a row, and all of a sudden the season has a whole different dynamic. At the final 4, Flo & Zach are the only team from the original leading group remaining, along with early underdogs turned early season dominators Ken & Gerard and Derek & Drew… and Teri & Ian.

Teri & Ian are, in my opinion, the first true underdogs to come back and assume a dominant position in the race. In the early going, they’re not huge characters (even though, looking back, they do get a number of lines about wanting to keep going and be racing at the end), and despite a decent first leg, they fall into the trailing pack early on, barely surviving the second and third legs. Even after getting bumped back up with the main pack they continue to struggle, routinely finishing near the back in every leg. Additionally, unlike every other team in the final 9, they never have any sort of alliance (other than arguably during the final leg), and indeed the other teams shun them to a certain extent.

And yet, at the end, they turn things around and become the favorites to win. They get back-to-back victories in Vietnam, resulting in them becoming frontrunners, and ultimately come very very close to winning the whole thing. They don’t just make it to the end, they make it to the end with a very strong chance of winning. And the fact that we have such a strong underdog story, as well as the earlier storyline of the early frontrunning group being decimated midway through, makes Season 3 that much stronger for me.

Idiosyncratic Equalizers

Another thing I enjoy about Season 3 is the way that the season begins with definite tiers of teams – frontrunners and trailing teams – and these groups stay for several legs. Season 1, thanks to the strange early editing, has more or less a jumbled mess at the airport by the second leg, while Season 2 has a full equalizer at the beginning of the second leg, but in Season 3 all teams aren’t equalized until the beginning of the fourth leg. There are equalizing points that jam some teams together, sure. Buses, ferries, planes… but while they bunch teams up to a certain extent, the teams that are far enough behind stay behind for a while. Ken & Gerard and Derek & Drew are able to escape early through Fast Forward use, but Tramel & Talica, Teri & Ian, Andre & Damon, and Dennis & Andrew are all stuck behind until the survivors are finally able to catch up at the beginning of the fourth leg. I enjoy seeing this sort of prolonged separation, so having that at the beginning of the season is a big plus for me.

However, not all is sunshine and roses when it comes to what I have to say about this season. One of the biggest issues that it has is that there is, after the early going, an overabundance of equalizers. Legs 4, 6, 7, 8, 10, and 13 all have multiple equalizers throughout the legs, some coming after tasks have been performed and teams have had a chance to separate, forcing most to all of them back together again and rending what happened before moot. That’s rather a lot, and legs 2 and 3 have this to a lesser extent (thanks to massive separation achieved). There is a time and a place for equalizers, and that is at the beginning of the leg – and not in every leg, either. Having equalizers later in the leg, or several all put together, is overkill, and I don’t like having the teams mashed together so much (especially when there’s just one quick task and a run to the Pit Stop to go after the equalizer). After leg 3 there isn’t really a chance for teams’ performance in the previous leg to have a big impact on how they do in the next leg, and that’s a definite hit to a mostly great season.

A Controversial Ending

A big talking point for this season is always going to be the way that Flo & Zach recover from Flo basically quitting in leg 12, coming back and winning the whole thing in the end. Fan reception to this turn of events has been… mixed, to say the least. Some (especially more casual fans) detest that it happened, saying that, while they’re happy for Zach and he more than deserved it, Flo had done nothing to earn the victory, or her quit means she didn’t deserve it, or what have you. Other fans (especially the hardcore online crowd) absolutely love that a trainwreck like Flo was able to eventually win the whole thing, and, for reasons like this, consider Zach and especially Flo to be all-time great characters.

As will end up being the case with a good number of TAR controversies, I fall somewhere in the middle. The racecourse was set up in a way that Flo & Zach could make a comeback like they did, and there’s no question of the victory being illegitimate. I don’t hate that it happened. However… I also find it to be a rather unsatisfactory conclusion to the season, especially given the alternatives.

Flo & Zach’s victory does represent a big comeback from the depths they were in one leg prior, especially highlighting Zach’s ability to keep them going, but as far as a season-wide picture goes I don’t think it’s particularly satisfying. During the season, Flo & Zach mostly have a lot of mostly one-sided arguments, hunt and later flirt with the twins, and that’s about it. As I’ll also contend below, they’re not really the most notable or enjoyable characters throughout the race. I think that a victory by the fan favorites and unexpected dominators Ken & Gerard, or a Teri & Ian victory to cap off their comeback from being the underdogs, would have both been amazing conclusions to the season. Instead we get this, which I’m pretty ‘meh’ on.

Plus there is the fact that they mostly threw in the towel in the previous leg, fell far behind, and ultimately suffered no big consequence from it. There was a little bit of trouble getting a flight to start with, but after that they were 100% in it once again. Between that and them being rather my least favorite team from the top 3, I have to give a mark against the season for the way that it ends.

Each Team Is Distinct

Going back to a positive aspect of the season, I’d say that in one very important way, this season showcases what good editing can do. It may be one of the best-edited seasons ever, but in any case, it stands out because we’re able to get a distinct feel for who each of the twelve teams racing are. We don’t have any Deidre & Hillary, who were invisible except for pre- and post-race. We don’t have any Hope & Norm or Pat & Brenda, who were nice enough but didn’t do much of anything or stand out in any way. We don’t have any Kim & Leslie, who were mostly just shown combating other teams and complaining about their shortcomings. Instead, each team has at least somewhat of a personality that is shown during their time in the race, even the ones that don’t last long and are always sharing airtime with a large number of other teams. Dennis & Andrew and Giner & Sylvia are the two least-developed teams from the season in my opinion, but we still get personality traits for both – Dennis learning that Andrew is grown up now, and Giner & Sylvia’s love for their children.

I feel like an attentive viewer won’t be presented with any team in this season near the end of their run and say, “Who are they?” And that’s a unique strength for the season, and an underrated one.

11 Teams or 12?

On a not wholly unrelated note, this season was notable for being one of the only ones to start with twelve teams instead of the usual eleven. This will only last for one more season before it reverts back to eleven teams in Season 5. After that, there are only two more occasions in Race history where the cast goes back to twelve teams, and… well, we’ll talk about those when we get to them.

So which is better? Eleven or twelve teams? I personally prefer twelve, simply because having one extra team adds one more character for me to root for or against. It adds that much more variety at the beginning of the season. As this season shows, the extra team can be easily compensated for by removing a non-elimination leg from later in the season, and I don’t think that that’s any loss whatsoever. There’s not a big impact at the end of the race from an extra team, but it still provides that extra dose of variety early on, as I said before. And, as this season also shows, it’s possible to have twelve teams and still show each of them and get an idea for who they are.

That said, I will definitely acknowledge that there are problems with the twelve-team model. For one, it does provide that much less airtime per team in the early going – I did notice when watching the premiere that this season’s felt much more rushed than that of Season 1 or Season 2. Especially when there’s only a standard 43-minute episode to cram all the action into, having another team to include makes it harder to develop teams early on or be able to show the events at a leisurely pace. For some viewers (no doubt casual viewers in particular), an extra team will also add extra confusion, and some simply don’t like having a kajillion characters to keep track of. Finally, there is the production standpoint – an extra team costs extra money, and they don’t necessarily think that it’s worth that money.

Ultimately, I understand why production chose to have 11 teams per season instead of 12. But I do like the change of pace that Season 3 provides in this regard.

Summary

Things I don’t like about Season 3:

-Aaron & Arianne as primary characters in the first five legs.

-The early power dynamic wasn’t great – only a small con though since it fell apart soon.

-A racecourse that was chock-full of equalizers. Several legs with an equalizer after basically everything.

-An ending that is ultimately unsatisfying and the worst of the three options for me.

-Michael & Kathy would have been much better to keep to the end than Flo & Zach. They were the best team in the early power alliance for me, and yet one of the first to go.

-A fairly weak premiere and finale compared to the rest of the season, and those of the previous two seasons.

-A lack of legs that stand out as strong legs for the entire leg.

-No non-elimination penalty, and no lasting consequence from coming in last on any of the three NELs.

Things I do like about Season 3:

-Thirteen episodes with Ken & Gerard present is one of the best things TAR has ever doen to me.

-A Fast Forward in every leg. The first three legs showcase the powers and limitations of the FF extremely well.

-Teams are not fully equalized after the beginning until leg 4.

-No copycatting on the racecourse – every country visited this season is new and not visited in the previous two. Only Hawaii is a reused location. I don’t value this too highly since it’s not something that really stands out (to me, at least) while watching, but it’s there nonetheless.

-Each team gets sufficient exposure to know who they are.

-Twelve teams are present and the modification is handled well.

-A non-elimination leg structure that differs from that of the first two seasons.

-Quite a few big standout moments help out a lot, even if their legs have significant issues elsewhere. Examples would include the great diesel incident, Heather & Eve’s elimination, and Andre & Damon getting detained.

-Several strong teams in the cast.

-Some great storylines in play throughout the season, between the failed Twin Hunt, the rise of the underdogs, the brotherhood between Oh Brother and the Wonder Twins, and others.

-The popular kids who dominate early on get picked off midway through.

-No terrible legs.

-A penultimate leg that doesn’t take place in the US, and is actually interesting compared to the first two seasons’.

-The two oldest teams in the season both make it to the final leg. Thanks to both Teri & Ian and Ken & Gerard making it, this season has one of the oldest final 3’s ever. I normally don’t go in a lot for demographic distinctions on the Race, but since age is more directly tied to performance, it is good to have the older, usually weaker teams succeed from time to time. This season made perhaps the greatest statement ever that any sort of team was capable of success, despite appearances. It’s a shame that as time goes on and the Race becomes more focused on physicality, this statement becomes less and less true.

-Ian is the first and only Vietnam War veteran to return to Vietnam during the Race. It’s a powerful moment/mini-arc, and I think it’s a fantastic addition to the late seasons. We’ll have racers with a connection to the Vietnam War go there in the future, but never again a veteran.

A lot of pros of various sorts combined with not that many cons is a key reason why I regard Season 3 so highly.

Leg Rankings

13) Leg 6: Fez – Marrakech, Morocco (There’s a good Fast Forward race between Teri & Ian and JV & Jill, and the detention of Andre & Damon, but not much else that the teams do in this leg is that interesting. Add in the fact that almost everybody is equalized right before the final task, and the total lack of drama about elimination since Aaron & Arianne are so far back, and you have a lackluster leg with no race-drama. Weakest leg by far.)

12) Leg 8: Schwangau, Germany – Grindelwald, Switzerland (On their own, each of the elements of this leg is not bad. But what kills this leg is that after every part of it teams get equalized on a train AGAIN, leaving what happened before totally moot, and leaving it all to the quick Roadblock and final run. Also, it’s a meaningless non-elimination.)

11) Leg 13: Da Nang, Vietnam – Seattle, USA (Like leg 8 above, a big problem with the final leg is that several times teams race to a place and do stuff, and then all get on a plane to go somewhere else, so that the entire Hawaii trip ultimately meant nothing when teams arrived in Seattle. In a way it’s worse since the Hawaii trip wasn’t even that interesting. But there is some good flight drama early on, and the final race around Seattle provides extra excitement since it’s the end of the race. If it wasn’t the finale then it wouldn’t be this high.)

10) Leg 4: Stonehaven, UK – Lisbon, Portugal (Walking around Stonehaven does provide some good moments. This is a good time to equalize everybody for the first time. Detour in Porto is all right, and Heather & Eve’s massive choke at the end is amazing. But those can’t make up for the fact that there’s a big fat equalizer right before a short Roadblock and what’s SUPPOSED to be a run to the Pit Stop, rendering too much of what happened before meaningless and pushing all nine teams within forty minutes of each other.)

9) Leg 10: Lausanne, Switzerland – Singapore, Singapore (Malaysia and Singapore get added! Woo hoo! Good visit to Malaysia given its brevity, but again teams get equalized midway through the leg rending what happened beforehand moot. Singapore is all right and the Detour is fine, but nothing that happens there really stands out that much. Roadblock is meaningless enough that it’s not shown to be one. JV & Jill get zero chance to come back after an early setback which makes the leg feel overly linear.)

8) Leg 1: Everglades, USA – Puente de Ixtla, Mexico (An all right leg, but I wouldn’t really call it a standout and it is a bit rushed. All teams contribute which is always a significant plus. The Fast Forward showdown is absolutely wonderful. Skydiving is given as a Detour choice which not all teams choose, and the choice ends up becoming quite important. Some memorable Pit Stop entrances. Not much else to comment on.)

7) Leg 9: Grindelwald – Montreux, Switzerland (Pretty sure that Gletscherschlucht has more consecutive consonants than international law allows for. JV & Jill’s Fast Forward is all right for an FF challenge, but nothing too special. Only one team does the bungee. The Detour isn’t that great, but teams get the chance to call home and we get some fun interactions out of that. Ian passing Zach on the Roadblock is what really knocks this leg up a notch as it represents a last-minute shift in placement, although I’m not a fan of Flo’s meltdown that follows. Fairly interesting and definitely memorable leg overall.)

6) Leg 7: Marrakech, Morocco – Schwangau, Germany (Good flight scramble at the beginning, sending the six teams over on four flights. Worth the lack of drama at the end. One dollar for the leg makes for a good brick joke for the episode. Teri & Ian get to ride their victory to an early lead. Some teams have no idea where the others are, prompting Flo & Zach to go for the FF – a good use of the twist. Teams immediately leaving Germany after getting their first clue, only to return at the end, is kinda funny. Long eventful drive to the Pit Stop at the end. Unfortunately all the cable car rides render the Roadblock pointless and nothing here is extraordinarily memorable.)

5) Leg 2: Puente de Ixtla – Tulum, Mexico (Solid leg overall. Long and confusing drive to the first Route Marker combines with a bus ride that doesn’t equalize everybody for a pretty strong beginning. Detour is pretty well-balanced, although teams that went for the easier jet ski weren’t punished enough IMO. Falling jet skis is fun. Roadblock was all right although the ferries limited its impact. Sadly we lose Tramel & Talicia. On the whole it’s quite solid, but there’s nothing amazing about it, keeping it from going the extra mile.)

4) Leg 12: Ho Chi Minh City – Da Nang, Vietnam (An interesting penultimate leg! Main focus is undoubtedly Flo and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, and while I’m not a sucker for Flo meltdowns like some people, this particular downward spiral is quite fascinating to watch unfold. Zach is a true champ about it and the fact that they’re able to come back and finish the leg at the end of the day does make for a good ending – although for me it would have been better as an elimination leg. Aside from that the leg was all right. Basket bikes is a fun Detour option, nothing is terrible, and Ken & Gerard and Teri & Ian are doing their thing. Also this was one of those “travel marathon” legs to a certain extent. Solid leg combined with fascinating Flo & Zach story makes for better than average episode overall.)

3) Leg 5: Lisbon, Portugal – Fez, Morocco (One word: DIESEL. The whole mid-leg segment is absolutely amazing television, done very well, and as a bonus showcases four different ways of dealing with the problem. One of the best moments in TAR history. The beginning of the leg was solid, too, with a clever first clue and a decent Detour. However, I can’t give the leg top billings because the end of it is so very boring.)

2) Leg 3: Tulum, Mexico – Stonehaven, UK (The leg starts out with a gigantic flight scramble and teams trickle into London across a ton of different flights. I always love these, even if, like this time, they come at the expense of suspense later in the leg. That’s a big plus, and the rest of the leg is solid. Punting provides for some fun moments. Bus provides a partial equalizer, but the teams are still split across several buses to compensate. Highland Games Roadblock is cool. Dennis & Andrew show that the Fast Forward has its limits even when used wisely. Just a really solid leg overall without any big flaws.)

1) Leg 11: Singapore, Singapore – Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (Ian has an emotional return to Vietnam, and later becomes Happy Ian as he and Teri dominate through the leg to earn their first non-FF win. The leg is solidly designed overall – the Detour is good and the rain makes it better, and the hidden-away Roadblock clue adds a great late-leg scramble as multiple teams miss it. But what really pushes this leg to the top of the standings for me is the epic final showdown between Oh Brother and the Wonder Twins, capping off their season-long story arc in dramatic fashion, with an ending that is ironic, satisfying, and unexpected. Great way to enter the final 3.)

Team Rankings

12) Aaron & Arianne (The first team in TAR canon that I really dislike. They offer up obnoxious insults for the other teams, are way too annoying about it when they get in front, and break down when they start to fall behind. Not to mention the fact that they spearhead the Twin Hunt like they personally hate the Wonder Twins. I’m just glad they were gone after six legs and I didn’t have to sit through an entire season with them.)

11) Heather & Eve (I suspect they have a shared background of generally getting what they want, and their contrasting personalities from that is kind of interesting… but that’s all I have good to say about them. That also results in neither one being a sympathetic character for me. They also are with the popular alliance and take pride in leeching off of others, both racers and non-racers. Their screw-up at the end of leg 4 is amusing but also comes off as quite satisfying as I’m happy to see them go.)

10) Dennis & Andrew (Probably more notable for their backstory than for anything they did on-race. Interestingly their storyline really becomes more of a generic “Andrew is all grown up now” story. But while we do know who they are, they don’t really provide any memorable content other than their limo scenes.)

9) Gina & Sylvia (Gina or Giner? They had a clearly defined role as the dedicated moms. Then they were eliminated. I put them above Dennis & Andrew since the two teams have similar levels of relevant content but the latter’s is diluted through three episodes. Giner & Sylvia only had one.)

8) Andre & Damon (Between multiple cases of oversleeping, a couple of silly-looking stunts, and an inability to navigate effectively that caused them to pay other teams to join their alliance (an interesting move that adds to the season, BTW), it was hard to take Team 911 seriously as contenders to win it all. Not sure if it was the stress of the race or not, but they tended to have a pretty low-key personality and the race seemed to tire them out more than the other teams. As a result they don’t get much in the way of standout moments or memorable personalities.)

7) Tramel & Talicia (Highly memorable, especially for second boots. Tramel is more or less the ‘charming scoundrel’ archetype, and he’s very good in the role. They’re able to play their misadventures for laughs, are fairly outgoing, and have a very enthusiastic tenth-place reaction in the premiere to cement their location in superfans’ memories. But ultimately I feel like they’re not that amazing, and they do only last two legs. Pity they couldn’t have made it for longer.)

6) John Vito & Jill (What I would call an actively pleasant team. They have a hook in the 9/11 story at the beginning of the season, but we don’t get that bashed over our heads all season long, which is nice. Beyond that, they have an extremely functional relationship that’s nice to see (although it would seem to have been too functional given the fact that they split later on) and are in general very likable people who are nice to have along for the season. But they’re also unquestionably less prominent characters than the rest of the top five, both in content and in presence, so I can’t really justify too high of a placement.)

5) Flo & Zach (Talk about a mixed bag. I realized on this viewing that most of the time, Flo is basically acting like a little kid, which offers an interesting new lens with which to view the team. Sometimes this makes her kind of funny or, in a way, cute to watch (instant unhappy faces when certain things go wrong, getting almost childishly happy when things start to swing their way), but at other times it’s decidedly unpleasant (most of the times she blows up at Zach). Zach’s racing abilities are really pretty average, but it’s his ability to deal with Flo, not lose his cool, and keep a positive attitude that transcends that of most contestants and allows them to keep on going. An interesting team, but they do have their downsides and I honestly don’t think they bring as much to the table as several other teams do.)

4) Michael & Kathy (For one, I just really like these two and they have a sweet relationship. For another, Michael is hilarious on the show. I love watching his consistently laid-back attitude, and his casual way of talking and stealthily talking down anybody and everybody (including himself but excluding Kathy). He’ll narrate things with dramatic words, but still voice them like it’s just strolling down the street, and it really adds a lot to the early episodes of the season. A real shame they couldn’t have swapped places with Flo & Zach.)

3) Derek & Drew (The Wonder Twins are a clearly defined character/personality in this season, as the identical pretty boys who end up being surprisingly personable and a bit awkward, and not the best at Racing skills. This makes them an excellent team to laugh at good-naturedly, especially at the beginning and end of their season. There’s also the way that they’re tightly ingrained in most of the season’s major storylines, especially with their relations with Ken & Gerard and Flo & Zach forming up two of said storylines. While not standout characters, they’re an integral part of the season, and I enjoy their presence more and more each time I watch it.)

2) Teri & Ian (Another big mixed bag. Ian is very much the one in charge here, and he frequently berates Teri and is overly impatient with her, which is not fun to watch. But it’s great to watch when they get along well, at the end of every leg they’re a team, they provide the first great underdog story arc, and Ian’s return to Vietnam is one of the all-time great moments of the series. I can’t love them, but I think that their upsides are powerful enough to still rank them above a large number of teams and their presence definitely adds to the season on the whole.)

1) Ken & Gerard (No question. Ken & Gerard are one of my very favorite teams of all time. Not only are they amazing as unexpected dominators at the race (especially with their travel expertise), but they also are fantastically witty guys and keep things fun to watch throughout. They good-naturedly pick fun at the other teams and at each other, make jokes about almost everything, and Ken has a fun habit of exaggeratedly yelling out funny bits of “advice” to other racers. Plus their relationship with the Wonder Twins is a great addition to the season. Basically, their presence is a massive elevation to the entire season, and they’re the biggest reason why I love to watch it.)

Conclusion

Season rankings so far:

1) Season 3

2) Season 1

3) Season 2

Season 1 has more standout episodes and lacks the problems with rampant equalizers and an unsatisfying ending, but Season 3 has a stronger overall cast and some great moments and storylines. Ultimately it’s the presence of Ken & Gerard that tips the scales for me and puts Season 3 in front.

I’ll give fair warning that in-depth leg and team rankings may or may not ever surface. After last season’s, I decided that it was too much work to force myself to do, and while I do want to write more about the stuff in this season, it’s not always easy to do. This time I’m jumping right into Season 4 before writing them, so it’s possible that I never will get around to them.

Up next is Season 4, generally regarded to be the weakest of the first five seasons. What will I think about it this time?

Until next time!