Control-freak Cindy.
Thanks!
I felt like there was something a little too Toddlers and Tiaras about the fact that they kept showing the kid’s picture, too. And am I misremembering, but did she say something about the daughter being blonde and blue-eyed? (I watched this episode online in the middle of the night when my cold medicine had failed, so it is entirely possible that I misremembered).
True, that. A classic animal task, as in the “Don’t pick the --” guideline, is where the Racers have to control, manage, guide, or otherwise rely on the animal.
There was a task a while back where the Racers gave a horse a spa treatment (trim hooves, cut mane and tail, comb pelt). Professional horse handlers handled the horses for the Racers.
Seriously though. Carrying a sheep? That’s it? Make them herd the sheep.
BTW, on my list of Amazing Guidelines, the relevant ones for a Detour are:
- Never pick the needle-in-a-haystack / random search task, unless you are so far behind that you need incredible luck to avoid elimination.
- Never pick the task where you control an animal, provided you have any skill whatsoever at the other task. This does not apply if TAR staff handles the animal for you.
- If the choice is between handling an animal and a random search, you’re screwed.
Not sure which pedal they were trying to replace but I was wondering if the guy fixing it knew that the left pedal on all bikes is reverse threaded. Maybe that’s why he struggled.
I noticed they had a camera shot of the pedal falling off. Either it was a pickup shot taken after the fact, the pedal was already loose, or the cameraman got very lucky.
I fully disagree – it’s a very good strategic move.
I’m in first place. I finish a task and then see the players in last place. My immediate thought is that they’re in last place for a reason. If, up to this point, I’ve been able to put such a huge lead on these folks, then these are exactly the players I want to stay in the competition. I’d rather have the stragglers remain in the race at the expense of a likely better team, so if it’s not going to hurt me directly, of course I’m going to be helpful to the poor team in last place.
And as an added bonus, if I’m having a problem a couple of legs from now…“Hey, Marcus, remember how we gave you the Buddha hook-up? Howzabout returning the favor, buddy?”
And yes, I realize there are valid counterpoints to everything I’ve said – you don’t know you’re in first, you don’t know they’re in last, they were in last because of a bad break and not because they’re a bad team, etc etc. – still, the strategy applies.
I don’t think he was questioning the strategic element of it, just that it goes against the idea of a race. It’d be like someone running a half-marathon carrying the slowest runner on their back. That’s not how races should be run; you’re penalizing other people for being good. It’s unfair.
There’s always been an element of luck and social play involved. It’s happened that U-turns have been as much socially-based as strategically, for instance. It’s more a competition than a pure footrace.
And many people here derided the U-Turns as well. Just because there’s a history of it doesn’t make them good ideas.
I find the “not racelike” arguments uncompelling because TAR has almost nothing to do with racing. It’s all about taxi luck and airport bunching, with little else of relevance going on.
The Eco Challenge, now that was a race. This summer’s Expedition Impossible had a bit of a race flavor, but that wasn’t much of a race either. And it was a million times more race-y than TAR.
For the marathon analogy, imagine if that marathon involved checkpoints at every mile marker where all racers had to wait until everyone got there and then everyone could start again. That’s what airports do to TAR.
Everything inbetween the bullshit is racing. They race to the bunching points and from them. If they didn’t, they might as well roll dice to see who wins.
There’s a difference between luck and cheating (yes, I realize it isn’t officially cheating since it’s permitted…). At least everyone has the same chance of getting a good or shitty cab driver. When players give the worst teams the answer, they’re actively promoting playing the game poorly. Not only will that lead to less competitive races later, but sets a terrible precedent for future seasons. It’s simply far more unfair than any of the “luck” that’s intrinsic to the show. Fortunately, the team this week was too retarded to make use of it.
I’m not saying TAR is perfect–far from it, in fact. But that doesn’t mean it can’t be improved by fixing some of the things wrong with it.
You forgot the step where you shoot the last team to arrive. Up until the final leg, the only thing you have to do is Not Be Last. Very different from a traditional race.
I’d say Expedition Impossible had built in bunching as well - no matter how far ahead you were at the end of each leg, the next leg started with the last team starting about 10 minutes after the first. None of the TAR business where you spread them out with the same intervals as they arrived previously.
And face it, if it was just a race without bunching, you’d wind up with the lead team hours or days ahead of the last place team. Maybe more fair, but not as good on TV. The whole “always one mistake away from elimination” element makes it a more interesting show.
Oh yes, agreed. I characterized it as “This summer’s Expedition Impossible had a bit of a race flavor, but that wasn’t much of a race either.”
The race aspect of EI was that teams had to travel miles over rough terrain under their own power multiple times per leg. In TAR teams have to sit in the back of a cab and hope their cabbie doesn’t get lost. Major difference, but the fact that both are chock full of artificial bunching makes them very un-racelike.
I’m not saying it’s a bad thing. I’m merely saying it’s not a race, so arguments that something is bad for the show because they aren’t racelike don’t hold much weight with me.
Amazing Race.
It’s a race with luck, bunching, and borderline cheating.
You can engage him all you want, of course, but at least to me it’s clear that Ellis Dee is only looking for petty semantic arguements and trying (in a half-assed way) to stir the pot.
Between this and the people who choose to spend the first ten posts of these threads pissing and moaning about football, this thread is more complaining than discussion.
I am no longer complaining about football.
The football discussion is traditional (:D) and it’s almost the end of the week, so the actual episode discussion is naturally about played out anyway.
I’m responding to petty semantic complaints about the show.
That misses the point as much as the complaints about there not being enough survival on Survivor.