I searched for a thread but can’t find one, so I guess I’m it.
Finally, homophobe mom shows her true colors, as she yells at teams near Victoria Falls to “go straight!!” 
Poor choice on the Express Pass, but that’s just stating the obvious, especially as Team Green managed to nab the first place spot.
Double u-turn has been pretty anticlimactic thus far. But the leg continues, so we’ll see.
It was too bad about the express pass. I don’t like the guy on the green team, but I didn’t realize the other teams felt so strongly about them.
Using the Express Pass the way they did was one of the dumbest things I’ve seen on the show. Anyone who has watched previous seasons knows that the U-Turn happens at the end of a Detour, since it makes the team chosen do the other Detour. I have no idea why they thought it would have been earlier. What was the U-Turn supposed to make the other team do, if it had been when they thought it was?
Just dumb. Serves them right.
All of this scheming to get rid of another team on The Amazing Race is just unseemly. You can’t vote them off the island; the only way they’ll be eliminated is if they come in last. Even then there could be a non-elimination leg or, like in this episode, a double leg. Just run the fucken race and don’t worry about the other teams no matter how much they annoy you.
I thought their plan to U-Turn the Green Team and then have the next team U-Turn them, so that the Green Team could not U-Turn anyone, was a good plan. It might have worked if they had waited to use the Express pass at the Detour, which is usually harder than the Roadblock.
Which still might not have worked if the green team beat the other teams there and U-Turned another team. What happens if you U-Turn a team ahead of you, they don’t have to come back right? I think we’ve seen that before.
It took me a bit to figure out what was going on with the Express Pass, I didn’t get why it felt strange that they were using it then. Yeah, that might cost them big time in the end.
I’m not sure if I’ve seen too many seasons now or not, but I’m not that excited about watching the show as much. I also noticed that it’s about 40 minutes long which means they are shoving in more commercials.
Like I wrote in last week’s thread I could see how Green guy might be hard to take in real life but as a viewer I am warming up to him. He is really happy to be there. Their laser like focus on getting rid of him was kind of weird.
The team that does annoy me are the Bickersons. No idea what their names are but the couple who seem to hate each other and constantly argue. Listening to them is like being at the World’s most comfortable dinner party
Green guy keeps bragging about how the other teams fear him because he has studied previous seasons of the race, yet has made a couple of really dumb mistakes (like the FF in the first leg). He kind of reminds me of the dentist team a couple seasons ago where the guy kept talking about how they were the best team to ever run the race, even as they were screwing up. Just shut up about it already!
I guess Team Texas’s personal pipeline to God didn’t help them much this leg.
I was very annoyed at The Amazing Editors this week, in particular, the sound effects guys. Why did they have to put stupid “monkey” sounds over every shot of a baboon? ISTM to be clips of capuchin monkeys, that’s not even the same continent!
This is what baboons sound like.
By far the best episode this season, but still no challenges worth a crap. Everyone spotted that huge banner right away. “Go to the pedestrian bridge along Victoria Falls!” Taxi Driver: “Uh, OK.”
I remember the first time they did a “spot the banner from afar” challenge. It was in a crowded city and took a long time to find, then they had to memorize where it was and figure out a way to get there from the building they were on top of.
Still waiting for a task that requires just a little bit of skill or intelligence or perseverance.
Does someone have Phil’s number? I’m willing to volunteer my house for next season. The contestants can either clean it up inside or rake my leaves in fall. That would fit in with what the tasks have turned into. I’ll even feed the crew, no charge.
If the guy in Team Green is such a sooper-dooper-TAR fanatic, why didn’t he notice that the “Knife’s Edge” was the first(? maybe second) stop on the very first Amazing Race. And that the second challenge (the staining one) tied into the second challenge (the racers had to pick up a bunch of the statues and give them to a tribal chief.)
That aside, a couple more comments:
How much hair gel does the younger Texas brother carry? I mean, is that 90% of his backpack? Because he could lube a car by rubbing his head on the engine block.
Team Newscasters is growing on me a lot. His delight at seeing the baboons was great.
Team paparazzi is working my last nerve with the petty-ass bickering. (Assuming scruffy looking bearded guy is team Paparazzi.)
All the tasks have been fairly boring. “Paint a statue” or “Play Croquet”? Really? Did someone hurt themselves on a task an sue TAR? Because this bubble-wrapped/padded corners version of the race is just blah. This isn’t Fear Factor and I don’t want anyone seriously hurt, but doods–you gotta have at least some possiblity of risk to the players if it’s going to be exciting. (Being in a cage while sharks swim by (next ep) doesn’t count as risk any more than a trip to the zoo)
And while too many seasons were nothing but airport drama, I’d like a little airport drama back please. Not entire episodes of people in airports, but c’mon…I’d kill for an old fashioned “No travel agents. You’re here, get to there. Figure out the best/fastest way” that occasionally leaves someone stranded in Istambul or something.
Lastly, I really, REALLY want casting diversity back: frat brothers. Lesbian ministers. A Vietnam vet and his wife who wear paper underpants. Bowling moms. etc. Give us a wide range of people, not 30-something hardbodies in “sexy” professions.
I thoroughly enjoyed the disastrous failed Express Pass plan. I hate it when teams try to use scheming and strategy, rather than just running their own race, and it was delightful to see it come back to bite someone in the butt. I’m just hoping that they get really stuck on a challenge at some point (probably an intellectual one, like something involving math or time zones), and end up cursing the fact that they no longer have the Pass.
Although it originally looked like the doctor and dentist would be the annoying Bickersons, they have become more tolerable, while the Paparazzi are harder and harder to watch.
As an aside, I just checked. That footbridge was the very first destination of the very first leg of the very first episode. And it had an actual clue. You know…a puzzle. Not a “go here, do this” piece of information. When they arrived in the country, they were give a clue that said “Go to the smoke that thunders and walk the knife’s edge”.
That is a clue. How many years has it been since we’ve actually seen a real, “figure this out” clue?
Just a few seasons ago, I recall racers being given a postage stamp, and they had to figure out that they had to go to the place depicted on the stamp. Nothing too cryptic. Given that it was a famous landmark, all they had to do was show it to a friendly local who could recognize the place and point them in the right direction.
I don’t pay much attention to strategy and even I was like :smack: when they did the express pass. For a minute I thought they might be smarter than my first impression.
And I forgot to watch the last two episodes until I saw a thread about them.
To be fair, we don’t actually have evidence that he didn’t recognize it was a repeat stop do we? Did he say something like TAR has never been here before?
I do agree that Green Guy is annoying. I generally don’t like loud people, but his loudness is usually positive. I do agree that laughing at the Texas guys’ broken boat was a dick move though.
I guess I don’t blame Texas for hating the Green Team, but I do think they need to chill out.
I don’t think anyone will use the U-Turn. Since the U-Turn is literally feet away from what teams will assume is the pitstop, the U-Turn won’t save a team in the back of the pack. Even if you are second from last, you know you will beat the last team because the mat is right there!
The only use of the U-Turn would be to fuck over a specific team, and the only team people were talking about screwing over was the Green Team.
And all the slimy deals! That was fantastic. Texas schemes with TV Anchors. TV Anchors scheme with Green. Then when things turn sour Texas makes a deal with Green. I don’t necessarily disagree with the deal, but they looked seriously dickless there.
Amen to the person who said we need more team diversity. There are too many generic pretty athletic type teams.
While they obviously should’ve saved the Express Pass for the Detour (especially since the task they skipped was a minimal-skill, everyone-will-take-the-same-amount-of-time task) what really tripped them up was the “wait til 8:00” break in the middle.
I agree with both of SpoilerVirgin’s points. I don’t care for the Green Team either, but I care even less for trying to team up and pull shenanigans against individual teams. Especially when it’s executed so poorly. Glad to see it blow up in their faces. And the Paparazzi Team… ugh.