You’re up early.
I think product placement may be the price necessary to get new, matching cars for all the teams to drive. And I do like that element of the race when the teams are forced to do their own navigation and not just take taxis everywhere (perhaps in part because it took out a team that I’ve disliked from the start).
And it’s better than some manky old gnomes.
Congratulations to the CBS editors for totally giving away that Josh & Brent were in the final three during an after-leg interview near the beginning of the second-to-last leg, thereby rendering the last part of the leg moot. Way to go.
Taxi Assessment:
Stuck in the Desert and Officially Detained - or, Philiminated with extreme prejudice.
Rob & Sheila and Amy & Daniel and Caitlin & Brittany and Gary & Will and Rob & Kelley and James & Abba and Abbie & Ryan - Already eliminated.
Natalie & Nadiya (down from “Rapido!”) - Josh & Brent gave Natalie & Nadiya a sporting chance to beat them, but in the end Natalie & Nadiya just weren’t quite as clever in chopping up bits of meat. Or in navigating, really. Or in figuring out how “alliances” work, I guess, although they can be forgiven for trying to ham-handedly cash in their “alliance” chips, because, really, what’s the downside for them?
Flat Tire - or, not likely to get anywhere soon.
No one.
Stopping for Gas - or, not broken-down, exactly, but not a good sign.
No one.
“Rapido! Por Favor?” - or, making meaningless ineffectual comments from the back seat, but in no immediate danger.
No one.
In the Passing Lane - or, ahead of the pack, but not quite comfortably.
Jaymes & James (holding steady) - I’m not sure how far behind Jaymes & James were at the end, but it looks like it might have been close enought that their inability to find the circus poster at the beginning of the last leg was the difference at the end. That was a pretty tricky clue, but probably one they’re still kicking themselves for missing. I’m a little sad that Jaymes & James didn’t win, but only because of Jaymes’s(?) sly self-deprecating humor, which I find really endearing.
Trey & Lexi (holding steady) - I think Lexi held up her part on this team throughout hte season admirably, but of the final six contestants, she was probably the worst-suited for the last task. As Josh said, the word-matching came down to more of a math problem than a language problem, and I don’t think Lexi saw that as quickly or as easily as the other teams. It was a good Race from these two, and though they were the stereotypical young pretty couple, they had a serious lack of experience in international travel (this is where an “alliance” - with Natalie & Nadiya in this case - can do some good). But trouble on the last task in the last leg is the worst place to have trouble, and Trey & Lexi wind up third.
Cruisin’ with Earl - or, drivin’ on the shoulder, takin’ shortcuts, and generally kickin’ butt.
Josh & Brent (up from “Stopping”) - I’ll be the first to admit that I was completely unprepared for a win by Josh & Brent. They just edged out Natalie & Nadiya on the eleventh leg, making an amazing string of seven legs where they finished next-to-last or last (on an NEL). To be fair, the whole point of the first eleven legs isn’t to finish first, but rather to not be eliminated. Josh & Brent, though, took this to an extreme, and wound up depending on several rather unlikely strokes of luck through the Race just to be able to edge into the final three. Still, luck is part of the game, and Josh & Brent made it to the last leg, where they started even with the other two teams. In the end, they were the best team during the only leg - and, really, the only task - that actually mattered.
Did they have extra flags and words? I could do 4 of them off the top of my head, but if there were extra flags then it would have made it a lot harder. It took me a long time to figure out that the players were actually getting a signal that they were right or wrong, I thought that was just for the viewers.
Over all I thought the season was ok, there were a lot of really good tasks, but I think there were a lot more really boring tasks. Hopefully they can make up for it in the next season.
I was also thrilled to see the Twinnies go down and completely shocked to see the Beekmans win.
At first I couldn’t figure out why they kept focusing on the Houdini poster at Coney Island, but it wasn’t until one of the closer-in shots that I saw the Race clues on the poster. It was interesting that everyone was looking for Race colors instead of the yellow and black clue envelope format.
The straightjacket escape didn’t seem too terribly difficult, but I gotta say that if they’d have dropped me 15 stories upside down on a bungee cord when I wasn’t expecting it, I would have needed a new pair of pants.
I loathed the “Fabulous Beekman Boys”. They were such defeatists throughout the whole race and their bickering and nitpicking was like Cam and Mitchell on Modern Family without the humor. What really got my goat (pun intended) was them bitching about how the teams had an alliance, but of course they seemed to have forgotten their alliance where they just practically held hands with a team through Russia. I would have rather watched Flo and Zach again that’s how much they annoyed me.
On the three shows of this type that I regularly watch, “Big Brother” and “Survivor” the other two, there’s always someone whining about how they just can’t believe that a competitor would do a perfectly legal thing to try and defeat them to win the show. :smack:
One of the things that I would have in my Amazing Fanny pack is a ‘dictionary’ of common words and phrases in languages that I was likely to encounter on the race.
When we we are the plane to Moscow, I would learning how to say “Hello” “Goodbye” “Please” “Thank You” “Where can I find a taxi” “Do you have internet” “Where is the Bathroom” etc.
I think they did have extra flags. Here’s a video clip of the flag task. About 20 seconds in there’s an aerial shot, and it looks like each of the stations has five stands that hold four flags each; so 20 flags of which only 16 get used.
That was actually a really good final task because it rewarded memory, language skills, and methodical planning. I could have done French, Spanish, and Russian off the top of my head, and I think I could have sorted out some best guesses for at least a few other countries based on the sound of the words, but I’m not sure I would have been able to do better than Josh.
A good point - I might have done the same, although “please” and “thank you” and “where is…?” and “how much?” would have been above “hello” and “good-bye” on my list of useful words to learn.
Like others, I was shocked and gleeful that the twinnies were taken out in the first leg of the night. Although, I have to give them props for being upbeat in their post-leg interview and not being all weepy and mad at each other. They’re incredibly annoying but they have good team dynamics, that’s for sure.
I would have been okay with any of the F3 winning, but I was least happy with the Beekmans winning because they were such terrible racers all season. Even tonight they were waiting for other teams, helping the other teams out, etc. In France they could have used their language advantage to get some separation from the others, but even when they knew they were outside the alliance they still helped the other teams. That makes them nice guys but poor racers.
Still they hung in their and the final task (and city!) was right in their wheelhouse, so good for them. I’d like to see the Chippendales show up in the next all-star race, though.
At the Speed Bump, didn’t one of the twins express disappointment that the other teams in the alliance didn’t wait for them to finish the task? Unbelievable.
That plus it apparently took both the Beekmans and the Chipmunks multiple tries to get the final flag - without extra flags, it would have taken 2 tries at most.
I’m sure this has been answered in TAR threads for other seasons but do 2nd and 3rd place win any money?
On the flag task I could have gotten 4.5 right off: France, Spain, Russia, China and Netherlands Hello. I would have been clueless on the others. I’m glad The Twinnies were eliminated by the Evil Gays. They would definately be on if TAR ever has a Heroes vs Villians (or just Villians) rematch.
And one of those teams that didn’t know had a college student thus showing me again that any idiot can apparently get into college.
And I assume that the racers are asked to say specific things about the vehicle that is being shilled. Thought it was funny that even though the teams only needed on basket the producers had them bring a dozen just so we could see the amazing hands free hatchback open.
If that’s the trade-off for living in a world with DVR, I can deal with it.
And yay Evil Gays! I was rooting for James and Abba to win (I was big into White Lion back in the days of L’Amour and Studio One), but once they were gone, I was pulling for the Beakmans. Woot!
Flabbergasted at the outcome. The Beekmans (why are they called that, btw?) were also the only team to screw up the pizza delivery…but they just hung around and hung around, aced the final task, and backed into a million dollars.
The fact that the Coney Island clue didn’t have the yellow and red TAR colors was probably a huge factor in the difficulty of that task. (Although it did have the word “AMAZING” in huge letters)
Boo for product placement. But damn, a hatch you can open with your feet is pretty freakin’ clever.
Yes, they were actually showing some vulnerability. Before they got to the Speedbump, they were screaming for the other two teams to wait for them, and also claiming that the Beekmans had been faking the taller one’s (Josh?) injury and therefore were untrustworthy. Oh, yeah, they’re the ones you can’t trust. :rolleyes:
And the word just below it was “RACE”. Somehow, I think that was supposed to convey some sort of message…
So what is stop thieves from waving their feet underneath bumpers of Ford Escapes to open the hatch?
I guess there is something in the key fob that activates the feature?
Yes, if the trade off of Product Placement is the FF through commercials, I can live with it. I seldom watch any program that is not DVRed.
What I didn’t like was that task was totally lame. Get empty baskets and load them in car. I would have like to see them load something that was at least heavy or very bulky and it was necessary to be hands free feature.
For people who can’t manage the little button on the key, I guess.
Plus, that’s probably the first thing that’s gonna’ break and repairing it would cost more than the car would be worth.
Another silly solution to White People Problems that nobody was asking for.
Too bad we didn’t get to hear the director’s voice in those segments. “Alright, now act like this is the greatest thing you’ve ever seen in your entire life!”
I would assume the car has to be unlocked for it to work. So even if your hands are full, you still need to click the unlock button on the key fob.
God forbid we have to bend over and put down what we’re carrying long enough to open the hatch. Americans certainly don’t need that kind of exertion.