And back to back episodes seems like a good time for a non-elimination in the first hour.
Good point - either a NEL or one of those “you’re still racing” legs…
A thought about the last episode: Didn’t they used to put the U-Turn after the detour? So you would get done with one and find out you had to go back and do the other.
Yes, that’s how I always remember it being done.
On the good side, at least this U-Turn was before the Roadblock, so a team could (and did) get a chance to make up time. I still really don’t like those two racers, though. They’re kind of awful. Not as awful as Shamir, but still kind of awful.
During last week’s episode, I kept thinking that Becca & Floyd seemed like really good people and while their style wasn’t mine, I could at least (in limited doses) appreciate their energy and enthusiasm. Then she turned quick. That is a scary, scary person.
Well, technically they didn’t make it to the mat in last place.
It seemed like the “Fast” Forward was taking forever, but I assumed they were just editing it that way. Has a team ever completed a FF and not come in first before?
In the very first season, Team Guido got the FF but decided they had time to spare, and spent the night in a hotel before going to the Pit Stop. They actually checked in LAST, but it was an NEL. It put them seriously behind everyone else, though.
Wow, that’s amazingly stupid. Yeah, I’ve seen FF’s where more than one team could attempt the task, and one team completed it and the other team was screwed, but I couldn’t recall a team ever completing one and not coming in first. (Season 1 was before I started watching, I didn’t get into TAR until around S9 or 10.)
To be fair, it was the first season and NOBODY knew what to expect or what the best way to do anything was.
With a double episode, I thought for sure that the first half would feature a NEL, but the Amazing Editors pulled a switcheroo on us. Not before Shamir got another injury though.
Brooke is the new Flo. “I can’t do this! I can’t do this! I can’t do this! I can’t do this! I can’t do this! I can’t do this! I can’t do this! I can’t do this! I can’t do this! I can’t do this! I can’t do this! I can’t do this! I can’t do this! I can’t do this! I can’t do this!” Just shuddup already and race. Why is Brooke so down on Vanck and Ashton? I don’t recall the teams interacting much.
I wonder, since this wasn’t a NEL but a “keep racing” episode, does that mean Team Fun can still use their Express Pass?
Also, despite getting the villain edit, I think the boys are the only team that haven’t turned against each other at least once.
I think I remember it having happened once or twice before (but I could be wrong).
I dislike at least half of most of these teams and am unimpressed by the remainder.
Brooke’s inability to do anything is remarkable. How did she manage to get this far in life? Do people around her need to talk her through everything?
Ashton is just an awful human being. Vanck’s thought to take a look at pictures of the doors online was a good idea. Her petty whining and bitching about it and refusal to even look was stupid and childish. Her entire attitude toward Vanck is awful and she’s not that impressive as a racer to make up for it (she doesn’t need to look at maps because she has common sense? idiot.)
Redmond is just a jerk (but at least he’s competent while he is a jerk)
Michael doesn’t handle being disoriented well (not on the first leg, not on this one). But his line “a piece of paper is not a compass” sounds like something I’ve said when arguing with someone about how a map worked.
Neither LoLo or Joey & Tara race smart - but at least they’re mostly competent and nice to each other.
Looking online it looks like the next ferry was 3 hours later (and if I was on that first ferry I definitely would have asked). I don’t know why Scott didn’t just say to her that she had 3 hours until the next team showed up and to just take her time.
Some additional footage just released on Youtube shows a hell of a lot more fighting between Vanck and Ashton in Zanzibar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywh9hp3P-Sk
Ashton just does not understand her partner at all. Despite this, they were able work together well enough in Norway, unlike Liz and Michael who completely fell apart.
Brooke just needs to die. What did she expect when she came on this show? “It’s just toooo haaaard. I just can’t doooooo it.”
There was also one around season two, three or four with an (allegedly) uptight Methodist minister dad who had an (apparently flaming characture) gay son* and the dad apparently didn’t approve.
They chose to use their FF (everyone got them on every leg back then, but you could only use it once per race) but were so far behind that they ended up being the last team on the mat and were eliminated (after getting chauffeured from London(?) to Scotland)
That said, this is the best season we’ve had since like season 15 or so. The challenges are actually hard, the bunch points are generally well set up, the dynamics of two strangers trying to find a good way to work together is working fantastically, and the tasks are largely country specific, the weird food is just a “eat a local dish”, not “eat until you puke, then eat some more”, and don’t feel fake ("The Spaniards (?) love some kind of bird or other, so put on this bird suit and jump off a cliff into a pond.
And best of all for me, after largely wimped out, dumbed down races, we get to see the return of a phenomenon largely lost around S14 or so: Killer Fatigue. It’s where usually one member of a team that’s mostly functioning well has jet-lag, lack of sleep, lack of food, lack of showers, etc all kick in at once and fry their brain. The big biker-looking guy? He has it and bad. The way he went from happy/competent to whiney griping jackass in one episode was classic Killer Fatigue.
I hope this season is good enough ratings-wise to keep the show going with this format for a while more. They really have their groove back.
Also, I like seeing them in the rest area between legs again and the occasional bit of cooperation and general decency.(helping that one woman with the ladle challenge). Yes, it’s a race, but only one pair is going to win the prize and nobody wants to be remembered as “That asshole who kept “accidentally” beating his wife.” It costs very little to throw a bone to a really struggling team, especially if you’re in the front of the pack, and it often pays off later. Plus, you can’t get the bad-guy edit as easily if you run your own race and show moments of kindness
*He lisped. Did the limp wrist thing. I didn’t buy it. There seemed to be a hell of a lot of affection between
I must have made that comment, why did she agree to be on the show, at least half a dozen times while watching last night. Stop crying and bitching and complaining and run the damn race or take your sorry ass home. I get some of the challenges push contestants to the limits, but I don’t ever recall one of them consistently having a defeatist attitude like she seems to have.
Ashton and Redmond are both kind of awful people, but is anyone else getting a Sam and Diane vibe? If this were a sitcom, I’d fully expect the two of them to hook up by Season Three.
They don’t come across as nice, but like my daughter said, you have to give them props, they are running a good race.