Cross check doors and secure your gayest shirt. Phil Keoghan is back, cheers David Knox.
Repeat after me: “A detour is a choice between two tasks, each with its own pros and cons.” Yes, the politely spoken Phil Keoghan is back, fronting another season of The Amazing Race, television’s most fun, most inclusive and most gay reality show (well, nobody watched Playing It Straight, so that’s out).
I love this show. Not only does it zip me off to far-flung locales, but I get to go through all the drama of connecting flights, translation issues, currency, and local taxi drivers without leaving home. It’s a holiday and a nightmare rolled into one, all from the comfort of my couch.
Then there’s those crazy challenges, like assembling a bookcase in Sweden’s largest Ikea store. Or having to choose between ‘Solve It or Schlep It’. All the while, Phil is waiting on the pit-stop mat to tell contestants if they are “team number ONE!” or not. If it’s a tropical climate, you can bet he’s in another ambiguously gay shirt. If it’s chilly, it’s fake fur.
But it’s the casting that kicks in Amazing Race, with some of the most diverse couples on TV. Married couples, siblings, parent/child, friends, seniors, newly-dating, models, and ethnic variety.
Gay couples are frequently billed as ‘married’. We’ve watched a gay youth and his PFLAG mother, senior gay men, lesbian couples, camp men and hunky, athletic gay men (Reichen and Chip won Season Four).
This season we have a lesbian and her father, two female married lesbian ministers (that’s diversity!) and a rather perplexing male/female ‘goth’ team named ‘Kynt and Vyxsin’. These two don black/pink attire and make-up. If they’re supposedly dating each other, I’ve got news for Vyxsin.
Fans will also note two new twists, ‘U-Turn’ and ‘Speed Bump’.
What’s also hilarious about The Amazing Race is watching bad American tourists who always put their foot in their mouths. Producers love to let us in on the gag. So South Africa isn’t all just ‘cows and stuff’? Wow. And why don’t those darned Peruvians speak better English?
My only gripe is that Seven has taken such a detour in programming this show that the entire season has already ended in the US (a bit like Nine with Survivor, grrr). Otherwise, I have my bags packed, ready for Phil to drop the magic word: “Go!”
The Amazing Race 12 premieres 9:30pm Thursday on Seven.
TV Guide
FRIDAY 6
[SBS/10:00pm] Search For The Perfect Penis. Rpt. Don’t get excited. It’s average blokes and their average willies. Followed by Black Butterfly (Mexico 2006) about a woman avenging a tabloid beat-up about the death of her fiancé, ‘Gay Judge Dies in Faggot Orgy’. Inspired by actual events, which is a bit of a worry.
SATURDAY 7
[Nine/11:50pm] Movie: Dog Day Afternoon (US 1975). Dustin Hoffman stars in this taut, true-life bank hold-up as a man hoping to finance his partner’s sex-change. A knockout. Rpt.
SUNDAY 8
[ABC/5:00pm] Sunday Arts. Lesbian author Jeanette Winterson (Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit) was brought up by adoptive Pentecostal parents in a house that had only six books. Here for the Sydney Writers Festival, she chats about her work. Also, Sally Hawkins (Tipping The Velvet, Fingersmith) appears tonight in Persuasion.
[MovieExtra/9:30pm] The L Word. Aww. The girls bid farewell to Dana, spreading her ashes across a waterfall, and Ilene Chaiken spreads clips of Dana’s character across the episode in a fond tribute.
[TEN/9:40pm] Supernatural. Series Return. An obnoxious Blair Witch style episode with two extremely unlikable filmmakers. I couldn’t get through this one.
MONDAY 9
[Seven/11:30pm] 30 Rock. New Series. Rollicking fun as Jack (Alec Baldwin) tries to edit NBC property Jerry Seinfeld into all the other network shows. But Jerry (guest-starring as himself) turns up to read the riot act.
TUESDAY 10
[SBS/10:00pm] Movie: The Story Of The Weeping Camel (Germany 2003). This inspiring feature doco on the nomadic families of Mongolia is a rich and rare thing. A winner at the Oscars and on every level.
WEDNESDAY 11
[ABC/9:00pm] The Gruen Transfer. ABC is the envy of commercial networks, perfecting humble panel shows with likeable blokes. Wil Anderson’s Media Watch meets Spicks And Specks show is good fun, showing how we’re all hoodwinked by advertising.
[Seven/7:30pm] Ugly Betty. It’s the ‘Wicked’ episode as Betty goes on a date to the musical. Marc is dumped by his geeky photographer and given a wake up call about how shallow he is. It should last for all of one ep. But it’s still the smaller scenes that work best, including one where Justin trades his Playbill programmes. The ‘Merman’ is his prize possession.
THURSDAY 12
[Nine/12:00pm] Movie: Jack (US 2003). This ‘Movie of the Week’ set in 1982 is about a teenage boy whose father comes out. Expect lots of angst, melodrama and ‘fagbaby’ taunts. Rescued only by the performances including Stockard Channing. Rpt.
[TEN/8:30pm] Law and Order: SVU. Robin Williams is always brilliant as characters who are unhinged, and I’m tipping this performance will probably land an Emmy nomination. Together with the always-disturbing Medium, TEN is now the pick of the litter on Thursdays.
[Arena/8:30pm] Kathy Griffin: My Life On The D-List. The outrageous Kathy Griffin has a gig doing comedy schtick on Rosie O’Donnell’s lesbian cruise, but soon realises gags that work with gay men, don’t necessarily succeed with lesbians. She picks the brain of A-list lesbian Jackie Warner, of Bravo’s Work Out, to get the skinny.
Show/Hide comments
Show/Hide comment form
