Season after season, we've seen strong, young teams (often all-male) win this competition. It's nice to see a somewhat older team who was never seen as a threat, come out on top.
The non-stop, grating, high-energy music and relentless sound effects are obnoxious, especially because not every moment is a life or death, high-tension one... It's exhausting and so unnecessary.
The Chippendales were the most entertaining of any team this season, the pluckiest and most charming. When the "wrong" team wins -- that is, a team you not only weren't rooting for, but were rooting against, it adds an enjoyable element of outrage.
In the end, we were rewarded with perhaps the most unlikely Amazing Race ending of all time, as the Beekman Boys, who had never won a single leg and probably should have been eliminated a half-dozen times before, cross the finish line first.
I'm very happy to have one of my favorite reality shows back, but decidedly unhappy about the first leg and what it might mean for the rest of the season.
