I just needed to get bored enough to return. I’ve never let my membership lapse. And of course I’m still active over on LJ.
That could be. It was a little confusing to me as I couldn’t really figure out what some random construction guys would have to do with people getting cabs to begin with.
Well at least they haven’t slipped up and called each other “hon” yet.
I’d guess it’s simply that Rob’s done more Roadblocks, it’s getting late in the game and you never know if the next Roadblock will be physical. Plus maybe Kim throws up all the time so it’s not a biggie.
The BQs very smartly decided to call a cab while they were waiting for the maze to open so they approached the construction workers in hopes of borrowing a cell phone; the worker ended up making the call himself. After Rob sent Kimberly over to use her “sex appeal” on them, the workers called another cab. Brokeback asked her to have the worker request two cabs, which she did. The *lyns did not apparently call ahead or otherwise plan for a cab. Two cabs showed, one for the BQs and one for the Ugly Americans. Brokeback then asked the workers to call another cab but was apparently refused (“Call one more? No?”). Brokeback finally managed to flag a cab and asked their driver to radio for another one for the *lyns but it’s unknown whether the cab they actually caught was one that was called for them.
There’s been at least one “baby” though.
Per the Wikipedia board, Rob’s done 6 and Kimberly’s done 4. Supposedly Sarah said in an interview that because there was an aired Roadblock in the first leg (there usually isn’t) the 6-max rule was modified slightly to allow a team member to do seven. If as usual the final episode is a double leg there are two more Roadblocks. One of them will be either sky diving or bunjee jumping (and we saw sky diving in the preview).
That’s true. I shouldn’t have phrased it that way. My point still stands, though, that he did something which I personally considered slimy but that wasn’t against any rules, so I didn’t feel like I could say he “didn’t deserve” to get ahead.
Ok fine. I give. My memory tends to jettison most of what I’ve seen fairly soon after I’ve seen it. To make room for Other Really Important Stuff of course. Not sure how it decides but ‘plots and characters of films/tv shows/novels’ don’t last long at all.
zut, I agree with this almost in its entirety. I would have also classified the flaming arrows, crocodiles, and oil field fire as “Incredibly Awesome,” but at this point we’re talking about varying stages of neat-o-ness. Overall, your assessment is accurate (par for the course, for you – bravo!).
When all is said and done, I have to say: I was not 100% percent impressed with all of the casting choices for this season – we had David & Mary, who are really unlike anyone else on reality television, but to counterbalance them, we had two teams of pretty girls – but the general “meh”-ness of the teams is more than outweighed by the super-fantastic-ness of the tasks. I hope their new challenge producer got a truckload of money, because s/he deserves every penny. And I hope they keep this up for next season.
Oh, so it’s a punk act, then? 
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When all is said and done, I have to say: I was not 100% percent impressed with all of the casting choices for this season – we had David & Mary, who are really unlike anyone else on reality television, but to counterbalance them, we had two teams of pretty girls – but the general “meh”-ness of the teams is more than outweighed by the super-fantastic-ness of the tasks. I hope their new challenge producer got a truckload of money, because s/he deserves every penny. And I hope they keep this up for next season.
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I totally agree that it was the participants rather than the locations and stunts that made this season less than terrific! (I also hate having it on Sunday during the NFL season so you never know when it’s going to start! I really like TAR on Tuesday, but, heck, that’s just me!)
It might have been a different race entirely if the Muslim boys had stuck around longer. They looked like fun! Do we really need more models/beauty contestants in this race? Dave and Mary were interesting because they were so ordinary, a totally unusual thing for TAR! The Cho boys were interesting because they had so much potential but blew it! Sarah and Peter were interesting not because she was disabled but because Peter was such a dork! The Tom and Terry team was a rematch of previous flaming gay teams. Vipul and Arti? Who knows? They weren’t with us long enough to see how they would behave on a train in India. The cheerleaders? Pure nails on blackboard.
So we’re left with three dislikable teams, one of which will go home with a million bucks. I have to hope it’s Rob and Kimberly because that’s who I have in the office pool. That doesn’t make me happy. I like it best when there’s a great team to root for because they’re charismatic, they race well and they’re not nasty to the other teams.
I agree. The Muslims and Vipul & Arti might have made for the most interesting in-race stories, but we’ll never know.
Based on that point, the double-elimination on the first leg was a Bad Idea. I’d prefer to see the first leg be non-elimination (possibly without penalty), and one of the next three legs to be double-elimination to make up for it.
As I said some weeks ago, I’d also like to see variety on mid-leg checkpoints. One idea: The last team to reach the checkpoint receives their departure time, and has the option to blindly swap times with another team.
And please, please cut out the “consume mass quantities” tasks. The camel kebob task was partially different, because the racer had to prepare the food themself. But still, IIRC the voiceover said that they had a half-kilo of camel meat – that’s over a pound to us Yanks – and might have been more than a normal amount for one person. It would’ve been less yucky had it been a quarter kilo.
I really wanted them to win. They were so nice - treated people from every country with warmth and affection and were good to each other. I like the ones who are nice to everybody, including to each other, to win. And they usually do, which warms my mushball heart.
I guess by that criterion, I should be rooting for the model boys but they haven’t much personality. My all-time favourite team was probably the hippies - they were a hoot.
They were nice to others, but Mary was a shrew to David. She wasn’t very nice to him. I was sorry to see the Muslim guys go (were they brothers?), and Vipal and Arti. Also Duke and Lauren, the father and daughter. I thought the Muslim Guys got a raw deal, being eliminated in the middle of the leg.
I loved the Hippies, and the Linzes from the Family Edition.
He stole my withered, bitter heart when he introduced himself as “Vipal of the People.” Still makes me giggle, even now.
Word. Plus, they were both so cute!
One possibility that nobody has raised about why Kimberly has done the eating tasks is that they had a pre-race agreement that she would. Many teams do. After their race, Papa Tiger and I had lunch with Charla, who I’d met during the race (due to contact on a dwarfism list), and she said that she and Mirna had exactly that agreement because Mirna was an incredibly picky eater. (Also, she said nobody liked that caviar – it was really, really cheap and nasty; and same with the chocolates in Argentina.)
There’s been such an improvement in tasks this time – the last few races depended far, FAR too much on NiaH tasks, especially for Roadblocks (e.g. chocolates, scarabs, haystacks). This time, the only NiaHs have been Detour options, which means the team always has another choice. They’ve also made them more possible – just look how quickly the tomato teams found their clues. Kind of like the clue in the poo pile in TAR4, which wasn’t a lengthy task, just an icky one.
And I thought they did a great job casting a number of the teams this time. Unfortunately, they didn’t expend the same effort in casting the strongest teams that they did the weaker teams. We need more teams like the Clowns or Danny & Oswald or Ken & Gerard, who were not only incredibly likeable but terrific racers. This time the good racers are all the unlikeable teams. They appear to have forgotten how important it is for people to have a team to root for in the finale!
Wow, you’ve actually met a Racer? That is so freaking cool.
Charla did some commercials for the company she worked for soon after the Race.
They sold linens and window treatments and things like that.
She was cute, but the ads were rather cheesy. She would say, “So race on in and check out our amazing prices!”
Very cringe-worthy.
Finally got a chance to watch last Sunday’s ep on TiVo.
The Tomato challenge - what more can I say? And the fact that it turned out to be the faster detour option - inspired! I agree, whoever the challenge coordinator is this season should be crowned, not only for sheer variety, but also for the fact that so many times, the winning detour option was not the most obvious pick.
Eating challenges - as I’ve said many times before, if the eating challenge involves a local favorite that is totally unfamiliar to american noses and tongues, I’m all for it. the premise of the show is encountering all the pitfalls of international travel, only in a race situation, and dining like the locals is definitely within that scope. It’s when the amount vastly outwieghs what any local would normally eat that they lose me.
Bunching - unless it’s excessive, bunching just doesn’t bug me. The maze was not bunching, as almost any maze can be beaten quickly by following a certain set of fairly well-known rules.
This Sunday’s one-hour finale will be somwhat lackluster, with no particularly interesting teams (shades of TAR4), but it will keep the blogs abuzz for weeks if the Lyns pull it out because they are racing against two teams whose main quality is an astounding ability to repeatedly get hopelessly lost, and one of which apparently pissed of the Car Trouble Fairy.
As to the All-Star run, I have only one thing to say- If Kris and Jon are not on it, I will seriously consider not watching.
Oh, who am I kidding?
The maze was a bunching point because of its hours of operation. It was closed when the teams arrived and didn’t open until the next day. This nullified the significant lead that the first couple of teams had built up.
Word.
Yeah, me too.
And hey, yeah, what’s the deal with only giving us a one hour finale? Where’s the two hour finale we’ve come to know and love?
Oh, please, Otto. . . can we even stand an hour of these Final Bozos?