I guess god wasn’t a fan of the snowboarders. Or maybe this was their penance for that one guy’s envy over the car task. heh.
I agree that the tasks were good (if poorly structured) this leg, and in general this whole race. It’s really unfortunate who made the final three, though. In a perfect world I’d love to have seen the snowboarders just barely lose out to the grandparents in the final leg, with the hot twins in third for no other reason than eye candy. (And because I can’t think of another competent team this season.)
The FFs were excellent in the first few seasons, when there was one on every leg and a team could only use it once. I guess that got too difficult logistically. Once there was only one or two in a race they became pointless, since only the first-place team had a shot at them.
I guess the new Express Pass is meant to replace the Fast Forward, and it is a little better in that respect since a team will only use it when they think they need it. If you can’t have a FF on every (or at least most) legs, the show is better off without them I think.
It was more important when there was one on every leg. Then it had to be used strategically, since each team could still only use it once. Now (or at least in recent seasons), when it only appears twice in the whole race, strategy isn’t really in use…if you’re one of the two or three first people to get to the cluebox, you go for it, since you know you probably won’t get another chance to use it.
In the first 6 or so seasons, when there was a FF available every leg (but you could only use it once) it added a ton to the race in terms of strategy and game play.
But apparently it was crazy-expensive to set up a FF for every leg–especially since sometimes it never got used.
I’d love them to come back but only under the circumstances that they had in those early seasons.
And…y’know? One thing with the last few seasons? I miss airport drama. I don’t want it to be the only thing in the race or to overwhelm it like it used to, but a moderate dose of it occasionally would be nice.
All these prearranged, spoon-fed flights are boring. I want teams to be able to get ahead by being airport-smart occasionally, even if it means stuff like where Myrna and Charla got like 30 hours ahead of the next team by making a flight that the producers didn’t think was possible to make.
:: Shakes fist at JayJay :: Stop stealing my material, mister, or else I’ll break your ox!
Also, watching Phil’s twitter feed during the show it looks like he often barely gets away from shooting his stand up at a location before the teams start arriving. I imagine that having one team shoot ahead to the end of the day really messes with his schedule.
I didn’t start watching until around season 8 so I guess I missed when the Fast Forward was a good gimmick.
I can understand why sometimes they need to pre-determine the flights. If there are only two flights a day out of remote city X, you’re going to want to pre-book those for the players rather than relying on walk-ups two hours before departure (and can you imagine how much extra time they must spend in security buying walk-up tickets with no checked baggage?).
But I think drama could be reintroduced where possible by expanding on the hired drivers and making the players self-navigate as much as possible. That could include that they have to tell airline ticket agents what they want to buy, they can’t just ask them (or anybody else “find me the best ticket”). Even when the flights are completely up to them, using travel agents pretty much eliminates any possible drama since the information systems they use are pretty standard and good enough when used by professionals.
But I am pleased with the number of times this season the players had to actually figure out where they were going, but I’d still prefer that they have to put effort into figuring out how to get there once they’ve figured it out.
“Follow that cab” is a valid strategy. If your driver calls ‘that cab’ and ‘that cabbie’ gives up the info, I see nothing wrong.
I sense a bit of collusion to eliminate the strongest team. And then there’s editing to create drama. I could watch it again just to see if there are any editing cuts.
ie. Sandy: “Our cab just called the other cabs and told them where the pit stop is. This could really bite us in the ass”
Possibly originally: “We all want to eliminate the Snowboarders so Our cab just called the other cabs and told them where the pit stop is. If the snowboarders went to the right place, This could really bite us in the ass”
Because otherwise I think Sandy and Jeremy would have been shouting, “NO DON’T TELL THEM!”
The editing has been interesting this season. There’s a team in the final three whose names I honestly don’t know, I have damn close to zero recollection of seeing them all season, and yet here they are in the final three.
We had that happen on the first(?) All-Stars. Two teams got stuck in some country that had a holiday and couldn’t get out for like 3 days after all the other teams had left.
There’s a middle ground though–spoon-fed flights for stuff like that? No prob. But “Fly from New York to London”? As long as it’s not the first episode, just let 'em at it and bring back a little airport drama!
I agree, but even when they let 'em at it now it rarely produces drama because they all end up at travel agents who put them on the same planes. The one time this season a team took a risk ("we’ll just fly to X and assume we can get something faster from there) it turned out to be a complete non-event.
Of course, watching teams bicker in internet cafes trying to tell if they got the best flight isn’t great TV, but it does increase the odds of someone getting completely sideways.
I think the cab drivers had our best interests at heart. Maybe they’ve seen The Amazing Race in Panama. I figure they were hanging around together during the Detour or something, and one of them said “hey, my passengers are bible-thumping tools. Once you figure out where the Pit Stop is, call each other. I’ll just show these two guys the Canal or something.”
Something else I just remembered from last night; at the Roadblock, it was pre-determined which team member would have to do that walk between the towers. Somebody (Sandy, I think) mentioned that her partner had already done 6 Roadblocks. All the teams were in the same situation, Wikipedia (updated after last night’s show) shows all four teams at 6 Roadblocks for both players. And there was a brief camera shot where you could even see it was written on the clue. That means the clues must be written and sealed within about a day of when the teams get them. I wonder if the production staff hauls around their own printer and empty envelopes on their travels.
So what’s the Roadblock rule for the last leg; two Roadblocks, each team member does one? Choose carefully on the first one.
From the preview:They showed them in a full-motion, professional flight simulator. I would so kick ass at that.
Or perhaps their own best interests. Who wants to spend more time driving around aimlessly with a couple of freaking-out Americans in the back seat alternating between yelling “Rapido! Por favor!” and less than silently berating their cab driver?
I don’t think they had any idea it was happening. I think it as more a matter of the drivers spending all day together and feeling they should help each other. In hindsight I am surprising something like this hasn’t happened before.
Twikster - You mean Anonymous White Couple? That’s what I call them every time I refer to them. Totally forgettable. It’s like there’s a spell to make you forget them as soon as they pass from your sight. Like the Silence from Doctor Who.
I disagree that you cannot penalize the two luckmeisters for Taxi-Gate. IIRC, the clue said that they needed to find the location on the dancers, not simply stop and look around then go to the pitstop. They never found the location on the dancers so they did not complete the task and a penalty would be in order. At the very least like they do in other legs they should have to go back and identify the clue then go back to the pitstop.
Fairest answer? Let the Snowboarders compete in the final leg.
Exactly! Middle daughter and I were discussing the outcome last night, and we couldn’t think of that couple’s names immediately after the show! As in, between the elimination and the previews for next week! This is a pretty bland finale for me, but I still have a soft spot for Marcus, because he’s just such an enthusiastic big doofus… kind of like a golden retriever puppy. (I wonder if he was like that during his NFL career? “Ball! Ball! Gotta get the ball!!!”) And Amani seems very level and down-to-earth. So I’m rooting for them, even though they have the navigational skills of a slice of cheese.