Editor's Note: This is a weekly guest post from the TV staff at Film.com. Check back here on Wednesdays for more Film.com stories about your favorite shows: Big Brother, The Amazing Race, Dancing with the Stars, Survivor, American Idol and America's Next Top Model.

By Susan Young, Film.com

Is it just me, or do Nick and Starr of The Amazing Race bear a strong resemblance to High School Musical sibs Ryan and Sharpay Evans?

These high achievers have that cocky attitude, with more than a dab of prissiness. They don’t mind passing along “little white lies” if it gets them further ahead in the competition and seem almost uncomfortably close to their siblings.

Even Starr’s mild flirting with competitor Dallas, a nice guy who makes the boys on The Big Bang Theory look like players. smacks of gamesmanship rather than interest. But there’s no Troy and Gabriella standing in their way as the power couple blows past their competitors on a weekly basis.

Most of that is due to the fact that, despite outward appearances, these pretty poster kids have some solid brains. They don’t make dumb moves, like the divorcees Kelly and Christy who can’t seem to manage to read a clue correctly.

What part of “Try Again” could Kelly not decipher before racing back to hand an empty envelope to travel buddy Christy?

Up until last Sunday’s episode, TAR has been a little less than stellar and that’s a direct result of bad locales and even worse challenges. All that changed this week when the series finally showed its true colors.

RyStarr should write a manual on how-to-pack-for-any-emergency after they pick up their winnings from this season’s win. Like Brooke on “Dancing with the Stars,” there isn’t another team that can touch these two unless there’s a major vehicle malfunction in their future.

But if there was a vehicle repair in their future, we’re pretty sure the two would have packed something that would allow them to fix it and continue on their journey. Judging from previous episodes, they may even have a little mechanic tucked in one of those bags.

Not even the Boy and Girl Scouts combined could be more prepared for this race. The duo whipped out gloves for an earlier challenge that called for them to handle hot irons used to press clothes.

The other teams thought the gloves had been provided for the challenges. Oh, no my friends. This took some special forethought. Like the old Felix the Cat cartoon, the duo looked into their bag of tricks and pulled out another essential item that helped them quickly complete the challenge.

On Sunday, the nasty divorcees – and don’t you know their ex-husbands must have been loving this - got their come-uppance when they were pelted with water and colored dye during a challenge requiring a team member to ran a gauntlet through Holi Festival revelers. Team McNasty found karma in India when they came away drenched in water and so much dye it turned into a horrid dark-hued concoction.
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Yet Team RyStarr barely got touched by the dye that left others looking like they had just been caught in a hippie tie-die factory explosion.

Starr sprinted towards the wood tower holding the clues, and came back through the rowdy crowd with just a hint of powder. Not that it would have matter if she had been getting overwhelmed like Kelly. Starr just reached into her bag to bring out a towel and cleaned herself up.

One of the reasons why this show keeps bringing home the Emmy for best reality program isn’t because of host Phil Keoghan’s witty repartee – although we’ve always kind of liked his low-key style where his eyebrows are the most expressive accessory he owns – is the exotic locales.

You can’t beat putting people on zip lines through tropical forests or having them haul rocks in front of the Sphinx. Those fascinating sights were in short supply until the cultural explosion this week that left us once again a little in awe of Team RyStarr.

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