Guilty Pleasure: The Amazing Race Asia 2

If you had told me 12 seasons of The Amazing Race ago that I would still be watching the show I would have called you crazy. Surely watching strangers tramp around the world in a quest for adventure and greenbacks would eventually get old! If you had told me that I would be so addicted to the show I’d not only be hunting down an Asian only iteration of the show not even aired in the states, but also consider the latest season of said series the best of the lot, I’d call you crazy again! (Holy crap that was cheesy.)

Such is the fate of The Amazing Race Asia 2 for me. The first season of the spin-off show was pretty bland, but the latest season had all the players: A j-pop model and her jerkoff boyfriend, the stuck-up “moms” team, the handsome pack-leading “jocks”, and the mixed background couple who constantly bicker - loudly. There’s even a deaf guy. The music is the same, the mechanics virtually identical, only the cash prize has been downsized (the US version being 1 mil, Asia’s winner scores a tenth of that).

What really did it for me this season was three-fold:

1) Tons of cute non-annoying Asian chicks that can actually play the game (I’m a white-dude, cut me some slack).

2) A “jock” team that dominated while being genuinely funny and likable.

3) A surprise payoff ending not seen since the US versions’ season 2, in which Tara & Wil lose a finish-line footrace.

If you haven’t checked it out yet you should really track it down. Whoops!