While I still love The Amazing Race, this season has been agonizingly hard to watch. Whoever came up with the idea of putting families on the show should just be fired. In my last post, I lamented the fact that they hadn't left the U.S. and last night, they finally went to Panama - Central America - not too far out of their comfort zone. All transportation is arranged and all the tasks are menial. To lose, you just have to be stupid or have bad luck.

Case in point: The Gaghan family. Last week, they came in second to last because they wasted time playing blackjack on a boat. To win, they had to beat the dealer three times - all four family members. If any one family member lost, the whole team lost. Now, that could be hard you think...but then, you figure out how to do it and get through. If your whole family must win, that means none of you can bust - so don't hit. Everyone stands and you let the dealer bust and you all win. I kept seeing family after family, parent after kid, bust and cost the family a round. How hard is it to use logic?

And, the most egregious error of all - back to the idea to put families on the show rather than the two person teams we're accustomed to. I can only imagine that it's to draw in families to the show when it returns to its great premise next season. Yet on tonight's show alone, I've heard "bitch" three times - twice as "son of a bitch." If you're trying to draw in families to the show by exhibiting them as teams - why the need to allow them to curse? It's easy enough to cut out...I guess it's just not that bad anymore. I'll have to ask my friend who teaches elementary school to say "son of a bitch" a few times in class to see what happens.

Just bring back the Amazing Race we love. Get rid of these stupid teams.

URL: CBS.com - Amazing Race