The Amazing Race
In Defense of Boston Rob - The Best Ever
Commentary By CC McCandless
March 21, 2005
Some actions taken by Rob Mariano during the latest installment of The Amazing Race have led many people, both fans and writers alike, including a couple of the esteemed columnists on this very site, to spew forth vitriolic bile littered with in-depth descriptions of their sheer hatred of Boston Rob. He gets savaged for his deceptive ways, his cutthroat attitude, and his open flaunting of established rules. What gets lost in the shuffle, and what I have seen nobody else mention yet, is a simple but important fact: Rob Mariano is the greatest player in the history of the competitive reality TV genre.
When breaking down the greatness of The Robfather, we have to start with his tour-de-force performance on Survivor: All Stars.
All that he did there was blatantly establish a relationship with the hottest girl on the show, decide to turn that into a two-person alliance, openly announce said allaince, and then inexplicably manage to keep that pairing intact all the way to the final two. And all of this was accomplished against the savviest, most reality show-aware group that any game had ever seen.
The fact that Rob was able to plot such a course and stick to it with hardly a bump borders on the absurd. Was he ruthless, dishonest, and occasionally downright cruel en route to his goal? Absolutely. And yet, he was smart enough to get other competitors to keep Amber around on his behalf even after she was shipped off to another tribe. Rob's maneuver that resulted in Lex keeping Amber around only for Lex to find Rob's knife stabbed squarely through his heart was a move that would have made Machiavelli stand up and cheer. In short, Rob essentially told his Survivor competition "I'm taking Amber to the final two with me and there's nothing you can do about it." And that's exactly what he did. Sure, she got the votes at the end, but that's almost irrelevant.
Then, we come to the current incarnation of The Amazing Race. And make no mistake; CBS knew exactly what they were getting when they lured the telegenic couple to the show. But despite this, or maybe even because of it, Rob has still gotten to employ his genius tactics to give his team an edge. And I do mean "genius." Rob is often mistaken for a meathead, probably due to his construction background and thick Boston accent. And that's fine with him. He feels no need to publicize the fact that he was actually a psych major at Boston University. But it's pretty hard for me to listen to anyone try to make any kind of case against his skills in any reality show situation. He's a reality TV savant. If you don't believe me, cue up your TiVo and check that expression on Phil's face when Rob and Amber rolled onto the mat last week. The strange grin was a combination of awe and disbelief. Phil, and now the producers, realize that one of their players knows the game better than they do.
Rob's masterstroke last week upset so many viewers because it was something they hadn't seen done on their race before. Well, get used to it, folks. Because there's never been a player like Rob before, and there probably never will be again. Seemingly every other team on the show judges their own progress based on where they stack up compared to Rob and Amber. It's almost comical at this point, with heads craning left and right at every stop, begging the question "where are Rob and Amber?" or, more often "how did they do that?"
Rob and Amber's first leg performance, in which they made up the entire time gap between two different flights, set the tone immediately, and was inarguably one of the greatest feats in the annals of the show. I'm not saying that they'll win the race, because as anyone knows so much luck is built in that more often than not, the winner is determined by a final leg cab ride. I'm just saying that Rob is playing this game better than anyone has ever played it before.
Even comparing him to a single athlete is almost impossible, because he has the determination of Lance Armstrong, the competitiveness of Michael Jordan, the larger than life personality of Babe Ruth, and the swagger of Muhammad Ali. You can hate him or you can love him, but admit it...he's the best there's ever been.
C.C. McCandless is an independent filmmaker and freelance writer. He has a Bachelor’s degree in broadcasting from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University.
You can contact C.C. here: ccmcc33@msn.com
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