Last season and the season before were like this for me. This season? Eh, you always have a couple less-than-stellar episodes in any kind of reality game show (I’m looking at you, Survivor).
I do think there’s an issue with casting , though. I said in one of these threads awhile ago that TAR seems to be moving away from the more outrageous/reality-TV-drama-mama racers to more “ordinary” folk in terms of “Hey, if a couple like this [age, fitness level, gender] can do this, ANYONE can do TAR!” Which is great – don’t get me wrong because I’m one of those people watching at home who love that affirmation – but it does take a bit away from the watchability. As much as we viewers don’t like to admit it, it’s the charismatic contestants who get our attention. TAR hasn’t had any of those in awhile.
Pretty much spot on, except I would use “polarizing” rather than “charismatic”.
Posters complain here and at TWoP about the trainwreck contestants (Jonathan and Victoria in TAR) and the Hantz’s in Survivor. But those people get posters to talk about them. The TWoP Survivor episode thread with Brandon and his melt down has 361 replies, last weeks episode has less than twice the amount with 166 replies.
These contestants are pretty much vanilla.
I was surprised that most of the teams took the fire option. They obviously do not watch Survivor.
This was just a really boring episode. The scorpion task required very little from the contestants other than to walk along with the bushmen, dig a little bit, and hold a hand out. Since the bushmen held the scorpion’s tail, there was little danger (except that for some reason they set it down on Pam or Winnie’s hand without holding the tail, which was somewhat shocking). Apparently the show had very little other content, because they showed lots of putting scorpions in mouths and lots of bushmen getting into and riding in cars. The teams in all of these shots were indistinguishable from one another.
I don’t think it’s a requirement that they have charismatic or problematic or unusual contestants. (For instance, I could sure do with a lot less of Joey.) Garden variety narcissism and overconfidence is very fun - see Max and Katie and John and Jessica, for example.
But it is a requirement that the teams be doing something interesting or challenging or likely to elicit some kind of varying responses. Very little of that was evident in this episode.
It hasn’t been the best season, but not the worst either - the John and Jessica elimination was worth the price of admission. I also like it when a clearly outmatched team inexplicably hangs on week after week (although it annoyed me when the goat farmers ended up winning the whole race).
I’m not convinced he’s real. I mean, I’m not saying that he’s not naturally effeminate, but that degree of over-the-topness is really only found in campy movies and drag shows. And, frankly, I don’t know a single drag queen (and I know quite a few) whose stage persona is THAT queeny. The typical drag queen I know would have Joey for breakfast and spit out his bones as perfectly carved toothpicks.
Joey is repellent. And I was offended by the “these bushmen stink” comments by Max and Katie and would like to see them plopped down in the Kalahari (or calamari, which is I think what they said when they opened their “Make your way to…” envelope) for about 6 months without availability to a show. And if they think the desert Bushmen smell, wait until they get to India, with the population density of the great unwashed there.
A friend of mine once spoke of an acquaintance "everyone has the right to be gay, but he abuses the privilege."
Joey abuses it even more. I have never met anyone that over the top. I suspect he recently came out, and feels he has to “act gay,” rather than being gay, and just acting like himself.
Joey reminds me of my husband’s nephew who, as far as we know, is not gay. He is campy and theatrical and and over-the-top, but not in an effeminate way. He never makes any camp/drag queen comments about doing his nails or being bitchy or calling his friends “girls” or whatever. So, I’m thinking that Joey’s over-the-topness is less about his being gay and more about his being overly-theatrical. Like, they run on two parallel tracks but he really overdoes the "all the world’s MY stage"aspect of his personality.
Eh. It makes sense to me.
Anyhow, I had to avoid this thread until today since I just watched the episode last night. I really loved that the episode started with Max and Katie talking about how she has to hide how smart she is and ended with them in last place. I also liked the translation of what the bushmen were saying about all of the contestants.
What about a lion being legitimately nearby the country singer? I always think these tasks are essentially playacting for the cameras, but then shit got real.
I bet it was a huge eye-opener when they showed her the tape.
I’m not convinced that it was legitimately THAT nearby. If it were, it wouldn’t only be the one Bushman going up into the tree, it would have been the cameraman, the sound guy, all the Bushmen and the contestant, too.