Lingo

I'm really glad the partner swap turned out to be a big nothing. I was really worried that they were going to force these people to race with strangers for the rest of the race! I'll admit I've considered the idea in the past -- on a purely theoretical level, it could introduce some interesting dynamics as to interteam relationships for example. I even think that it may have made sense to try it last season, where the players were all strangers to begin with. But to do it to contestants who are expecting to have their friend/loved one by their side for the duration of the race would have been cruel. For a moment I thought that maybe Kristi and Jessica might be eliminated, and then Cody and Jen would have been forced to continue the race together while all the other teams got to return to their original partners. That would have been something (something crappy). It was so inconsequential it did feel like an hour-long Intersection. It's a little different than an Intersection -- with those, the official idea was to force two teams to work together rather than swap partners (although I remember that in one Intersection, two racers were required to leave their partners and do a Roadblock together). So this is a bit different, but it didn't really feel much different. Why do they keep putting the U-Turn boards before the Detours?! That's totally bogus.

Kristi and Jen rocked both roadblocks tonight, and seemed to be great at the Detours too. On both legs they came just shy of winning first. Not to belabor the point, but if they get knocked out for some stupid reason like a U-Turn or another lost cabbie, I am going to lose my shit.

OMG where did her shoes go?

Re your first point: yes! Am I right in that the first 5 legs have been won by 5 different teams? It seems like that rarely happens. Usually a few teams dominate the whole race. Although the skiers have been doing really well, perhaps in the top 3 of every leg so far? I am just really loving them so far, they seem to be good at everything. Yes, I think the ring must have been hidden in Lucas's headphone bag or something. I loved the look of puzzlement on Brittany's face when he asked for those on the race to the pitstop. I think she said that she thought his ears must have been cold! In some ways, that Head-to-Head (which I still don't mind) was much better than the first one. Culturally relevant -- incorporating a local game -- and strategic as well as physical, and you can learn plenty from earlier tries, which gives teams in front more of an advantage. And most of all, NOT GOOFY. On the other hand, it is a bit of a slow-paced game. Not an adrenaline-raiser. Yes I noticed that too. They seem not to like the Yalies for some reason. I hope they don't gang up against them.

Yes! Basically I am bothered by the fact that they've nerfed almost all these superheroes -- including and especially J'onn. What's the point of having all these superheroes on this superhero show when only one of them (Supergirl) is allowed to use her powers to their full potential? I mean I watched all of Season 2 and I'm still not sure what Mon-El's powers are. And why is Supergirl the only one allowed to have a colorful costume?? Everyone else including Reign is in all black. Strut your stuff, people! Get some zing! Take a cue from the Earth next door! On the other hand, I almost wouldn't mind if they killed off Kara if that meant Melissa Benoist would have to play as J'onn badly impersonating Kara every episode. That will never get old! But then I'd miss Kara and Alex's warm playful banter on that couch every week, which is always the best part of every episode. Katie McGrath has chemistry with everyone! Katie would have chemistry with a brick wall. Or ... maybe ... Katie McGrath only has chemistry with me ... Katie .... (This is hilarious to me because I have coworker literally named Katie McGrath. No joke.)

Cedric made a very simple, understandable mistake: he took the Roadblock clue and ran off, and just plain forgot that he still had his backpack on! Once he realized, I'm sure he thought, "Oh that's okay, I can manage" ... until he found out how long this roadblock was actually going to be, which no one knew at the beginning. Well it's a rookie mistake ... you can be sure he'll never make that one again. Even so, I was amazed that he managed to come out first out of the 2nd zipline ... then crushed that he still managed to finish the RB last. Man that RB! The RB was like a mini-leg in itself, it was so long and had so many lead changes. This whole leg was very similar: almost all the tasks were very physical, but they almost all demanded attention to detail too. It made for a great leg. And I'm thrilled the Yalies finished first despite the physicality. I do wish sometimes wish it wasn't so physical and that older teams like the BBall players could compete and stay in it more often. It'd be great to have another team like Ian and Teri make it to the end (well, Ian and Teri with better personalities). Was really worried about the Skiers at the beginning ... thrilled they finished 3rd. I laughed when I heard Phil describe the RB because I'd finally gotten around to watching that same Bourne movie a couple weeks ago!

I was amazed that all 10 teams got the clue to the crane at the same time, and yet 6 teams got so lost that the first 4 teams finished the crane task and were gone before the other 6 even showed up! And they were traveling on foot, so you would have thought that the bottom 6 could have just followed the top 4?

I like that idea, although I think having an empty cart would give you too big of an advantage. One bag minimum, I'd say. And I imagine they could pull the cart, although I don't think that would have been any better--probably just as hard to steer, and you wouldn't see when you dropped a bag! (Or you'd be driving backwards, even worse.) I was reminded of the old Intersection twist as well. That one was often bad because sometimes a team would have to wait a long time for another team to show up (I think for hours in one instance in Season 11!) -- which was really bad because those two teams are still competing with each other as well as the other teams. So the timing is key here. Which I think is another reason to have this thing at the end of the leg -- even if you have to wait, you don't have to keep competing with teams ahead of you after having lost time, because the mat is right there, and there's probably bunching on the next leg. I wonder if they'll have one of these on a non-elimination leg??? Now that would be extremely irritating!

Why? Why would getting another clue, jumping in a car, and driving to another random location and beating some other team who just beat you at this head-to-head be any better? It's just one random task versus a different random task. What makes one better than the other? I mean, we've already had plenty of episodes where a team who came in last at the last Task got to the pit stop not-last because some other team got lost on the way to the Pit Stop. Just last week for example, and maybe 20% of all episodes of all past seasons. We've seen it play out that way so many times. I don't mind having the last task be right at the pit stop for once (which we've also sort of seen before as well). That's a good point, and I hope they only use it in legs like this one, where there is unlikely to be much of a separation between teams. Or in cases where there's very likely to be bunching at the start of the next leg -- which, let's face it, is most legs these days. The point of the head-to-head was that it was an elimination competition. To have the finish mat anywhere else would be missing the point.

I thought the Head-to-Head Competition was an interesting concept. It's definitely not the worst twist they've ever had (that would be introducing teammates at the starting line and forcing them to pretend to be romantically interested in each other!). Not the best either (that would be ... um ... making the teams divide up their Roadblocks evenly I guess?). I disagree with the notion that it's not merit-based or not fair or that it makes the rest of the leg pointless. It is in fact very fair and merit-based from my point-of-view. You get to the end first, you get the most chances to win the HtH. If you get there last, you only get one shot. If you get there second-last, you get two shots, etc. Evan and Henry had to do it 7 times, but getting there so early meant they got 7 shots (and an 8th if they didn't beat the Goats). I guess the only way it fails in that regard is that the first team to arrive gets no advantage over the second. But other than that, it preserves the advantage of getting to a clue before other teams, which is a big check mark for me (I really hate bunching points that wipe out the efforts of what came before it). That said, I would prefer a task that has more of a learning curve, so that a team that gets there first has even more of an advantage. That would make a re-occurrence of an Evan/Henry situation less likely. Although I wouldn't have hated it if a team I disliked got there in the front and got eliminated because they couldn't finish this one challenge. That happens all the time on the Race. And I would prefer a head-to-head that involved both teammates competing instead of just one, considering that elimination is at stake. What I didn't like about it most are primarily two things: (1) it took too much time away from other parts of the episode, and (2) as a task, it was boring and goofy -- even deliberately so, by forcing them to wear the dumb costumes. It was basically just a dumb party game that had only a nominal connection to the culture surrounding it, and that really killed the mood for me. This should be a big deal because it's for elimination, but instead it just fell flat. In my mind I'm comparing it to other head-to-head competitions on other shows, although due to my limited viewing experience (I don't watch Big Brother or the Challenge for instance) I couldn't think of many. I think the best ones are Project Runway, where they occasionally force the Bottom Two to make a new dress in an hour. It's contrived but the challenge is directly relevant to the theme of the show, and it feels very dramatic. Survivor's fire-building challenges and other occasional head-to-head competitions (e.g. the Redemption Island challenges) are also pretty good too; they know how to build the challenges and edit the footage for maximum impact. This just doesn't compare. If this had been a true contest of significant skill, then maybe it would be a different story. And you know, this show has seen its share of truly genuine, dramatic, virtual head-to-head competitions. Think back to Season 4, for instance, of Millie & Chuck versus Jon & Kelly in the bat cave. I'm sure you can think of other cases. So the show doesn't need this. But I'm willing to watch it play out for the rest of the season. I could have used less of Phil's running commentary too. They're trying to make him do Jeff Probst's job here, and Phil just doesn't have the experience for it (although Probst often goes overboard as well). At one point after we'd already seen several head-to-heads, I heard Phil say something like, "The key here is to not drop any of your french fries." You don't say, Phil! Speaking of Phil: Is it just me, or does he seem a lot more soft-spoken this season so far? He hasn't been shouting anything, he's just been talking at a normal conversational volume. I wonder if he was nursing a touch of laryngitis. I will say that I really liked the Detour: mental challenges, very detail-oriented, and at least a little bit related to the locale. Good stuff.

They didn't have to go back.

Oh, so they ARE dating. I wasn't sure while I was watching. At first I assumed they were, but then I heard Evan call Henry "buddy", which I thought was kind of a strange word to call your boyfriend!

I just finished watching the entire new season on USA's website, since I couldn't watch it on demand on my TV at present. (It's only 4 hours, so ....) I have to say that the first couple of episodes left me cold and I was having trouble remembering why I liked the show. But as it went along, I began to remember, and I think the show itself remembered as well. Later on there's more of that playful back-and-forth banter that they do so well. And that loving warmth! It got good and funny, even when it became suddenly serious ... or I should say, especially when it became suddenly serious. It's a shame USA is burning it off in 4 short weeks, but it was fun while it lasted. Can't believe it took them 2 years to bring it back! I'm surprised Tara didn't write an article on the premiere episodes. Maybe on Monday?

What really struck me about this episode is what a poor, whiny, entitled schmuck Jimmy has become! He acts like the world is trying to bring him down, as if it's somehow not fair, but there is not a single negative consequence he is currently enduring that he did not bring upon himself. He DID switch the numbers on the MV contract, he knows it, Kim knows it. He DID break-and-enter Chuck's house more than once. And now he's dealing with the consequences of his suspended license. Which of course means the community service and the lack of his usual attorney income. He brought all of this on himself! And he seems to have completely forgotten that he WON the disbarment case. He got to keep his license, and he didn't even have to serve time for the break-and-enter! He won the big battle. And now he's whining about the entirely forseeable and deserved consequences, like give me a break. And, as pointed out, he's making it worse for himself, because of some really dumb stubborn emotional reasons -- primarily his desire to be seen as someone self-sufficient and dependable and worthy of Kim's respect. So despite Kim's very reasonable suggestions, like letting Francesca go and offering to support both of them for a while, Jimmy's pride can't let him accept it, and he digs an even deeper hole for himself. And he could just buckle down and work hard and honestly to get through it, but he can't even do that. He has to resort to tricks to get the fast bucks. The ironic thing is that he denigrates his father for not doing the "hard" thing, which in his mind is to cheat and steal and break the law. In reality, his father was doing what's really hard, which is getting through this life with honesty and integrity, while Jimmy is always looking for the easy way out.

Heh. I didn't think of that one because I was just thinking of all these recent casting gimmicks they've done in the last few years as a desperate ratings grab. But I guess the Family season counts as a gimmick too, which I would probably put ... hmm. On the one hand: boring route, boring tasks. On the other hand, teams I liked better than the ones on 24 or 26. So maybe I'd put it in the middle? Then there's the first two All-Star seasons, which didn't really feel like gimmicks to me. Season 18 is definitely my favorite of the bunch, I put it on top. Season 11 ... was often anticlimactic and the worst team won. But it didn't feel like a "gimmick" because all reality shows have all-stars seasons, and by that point we were asking for one. So I still put it near the top of this short list.