Let the games begin!

Tonight was the first episode of The Amazing Race: Family Edition. Thank God the Astro technician came in just in time.

This time, instead of teams of two, we'll have teams of four family members: parents and kids, in-laws, step-families, siblings, you name it they got it. But I only know one thing...

Double the players, double the complications,
Double the fights, double the fun


But this is no Eco-Challenge. Teams can be made up of all girls or all boys and it seems to have no minimum age since this time we see an 8 year-old kid competing, the youngest racer ever in the history of The Amazing Race.

I was surprised they allow teams to have members as young as 8. I do admit that it does add some drama to an already dramatic event. But I guess the families who chose to have a kid on the team would have to bear the risk. Not only will they be slower, there's the possibility that the child will get too tired to finish the race. And you know you cannot push a child to do something that he/she doesn't want to do. On the other hand, if one of the task involved carrying 2 of your team members, guess who will be singing, "They'll be coming 'roun the mountain" as they past the team with 4 big guys. In my opinion, the 2 families (Gaghan with a 9 year-old daughter and Black with an 8 year-old son) will not go far, but it would be very interesting if they do.

Another interesting aspect of having a Family Edition of The Amazing Race is the complexity of the relationships. I don't know if it's just me or other people experience this too, but don't you notice that we may be more civilized to other people than to our own family members? The Paolo demonstrated this point just in tonight's episode. They were trying to find a frankfurter in the middle of NY and of course you can expect a lot of bickering between the mum and 2 sons while the father is driving. When they did find it, a son stepped out and asked for the clue, as he gets it he cordially thanked the guy saying, "You're the best". "It's so great that he said that", said the frankfurter after the kid left not realizing that he just dissed the mother 30 seconds before meeting him.

I guess spending too much time together does effect the relationship. However, like what Mrs Paolo said just now after discovering that they're not last, "I felt like wanting to kill them an hour ago, but now I'm just so proud." That's the wonder of family. They may be hard to live with but you love them all the same. You can never get that in any other type of relationship.

Here are the rundown of possible millionaire family...

Black - the only African-American contestant (note the irony)
Paolo - Parents are Italian immigrant. And just like a stereotypical Italian family, they are loud and they fight most of the time. This family has had the most fights in the first leg.
Bransen - A father with three daughters in their 20s. I just can't shake off the feeling that there's something twisted about this team. Damn society today. I expect by the end of the show my views on father-daughter realtionships will be neutralized.
Godlewski - The only all girl team, four sisters aged 26 to 42. Already dubbed the 'Desparate Housewives' 15 minutes into the race, but later got upgraded to the 'Pink Ladies' when the Schroeders realized they're not as stupid as they look.
Schroeder - The average American family, the father with his 2 kids and their stepmom.
Gaghan - The almost-dying average American family. Husband, wife, a son and a daughter. They're positive and competitive, even down to the smallest member (a 9 year-old blonde). All in all, a cute family.
Aeillo - I would like to call them 'The Odd Bunch', a father with his three son-in-laws. Father trying to keep up, sons trying to prove they're worthy of his daughters.
Linz - Siblings with three testosterone-charged brothers and one sister hoping to be treated as one of the guys.
Rogers - The southerners trying hard to disprove the saying that all southerners are dumb. I don't think they're doing so well.
Weaver - Had a tragic past. the father died while working at Daytona International Speedway 2 years ago. A racecar hit him when he tried to pick up debris from the track. The widow and her 3 teenage kids hope that the race will help them to move on.

10 teams, 4 members, 40 heads, 40 personalities... man this is going to be fun!

Things that I'll be looking forward to: -

• A lot more bickering
• A lot more whining
• A lot more love (and this time I know it's genuine since it' going to involve kids)
  
• More sweet family moments, and
  
• Picking out my favourite teams (so far, I got my eye out for Gaghan and Godlewski)

Missed it? Catch this two-hour premiere repeat on Saturday 8 PM. Or you can pull an all-nighter and catch the repeat at midnight tonight and go straight for sahur. Subsequent episodes will be shown on Wednesdays 9 PM. Don't know if it starts tomorrow, but just switch on to AXN just in case.

In the meantime, you can check out the official website.

Happy Ramadhan!