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PhD-Purgatory15

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  1. Anyone want to hazard a guess as the total count of "C'mon Dad's" for the entire season? Over a hundred (that we heard on air) at least.. Rob & Corey got the perfect final task, because Rob didn't need to say his quote out loud while he was memorizing it. Hearing someone else vebalizing a diferent quote while I was trying to memorize my own quote would've driven me crazy.. It did seem like Ana Leigh had done a ton of RB's (generally quite fast). So it wasn't surprising to learn that Steve was going to have to both. And really, it wasn't on his RB performance that they ultimately lost. It was there navigation (wondering if AL was unable to drive a stick at all, or if she just realized she would be better suited for the navigator role). They lost time getting to swimming challenge, the hurling RB, pretty much everywhere that required driving.. First time in how long that we have an all male Final 6?? It feels like Greg & John's to lose (just because they never seem to have any issues with almost any RB or Detour tasks & they for the most part have been rock solid navigators). I'm also assuming "taxi luck" won't play a major role in the final leg (although I could be wrong).) As someone of Irish descent w/ negative levels of natural rhythm, having Phil eliminate me after 87 unsuccessful passes at Riverdance would've been a combination of mortifying/infuriating/tragic. So kudos to Steve & Joel for getting close enough after 8-10 tries to get a pass from the judge. BTW, I'm on team Corey + His Irish Dance Teacher as well :-)
  2. If it plays true to form, then basically all of the females except for Ruby & (maybe) Lila are in immediate jeopardy tonight. I expect some combination of Kara Tenae, Mara Justine, Nini Iris, & Azan to be the 3 who go home. I thought Mac was his usual solid self. I thought Tanner at least took a homerun swing with Fall Out Boy. His execution only reached the level of ground rule double. Maybe. Every time I want to be more impressed by Huntley than I actually end up being. I think Jackie Roar will survive tonight, but I do wonder if doing a song that wouldn't have been super well known was the right play on the very first audience voted on show. I never know quite what to think about Jordan...
  3. aradia22, your comment made me think back to the Social Media season and Burnie/Ashley (the married couple from RoosterTeeth). That theme about being cognizant of how they would portray themselves on reality tv for posterity came up over and over again in their "inside baseball" recaps/podcasts during and after that season. I even thought all the way back to Real World: San Diego and the last two contestants ever who approached that show with even a thought to their own dignity, a guy named Jahquise and future respectable actress Jamie Chung. The following season in Hawaii had Ruthie & Teck skinnydipping in the pool in the first 5 minutes of the very first episode lol.. I also think Todd and Ashlie didn't end up making the Subway train that teams 2,3, & 4 did. I think the editing was to make it seem like Ana Leigh was seeing Todd & Ashlie, when actually she was seeing the other three teams (including the Beardos) on the Pit Stop Mat basically waiting for them to finish up.
  4. Please tell me at the Maypole roadblock, somebody made a snarky comment regarding Midsommar the horror movie and the Amazing Editors "chose" to leave it out of the episode.. If anything, I think the Recycling challenge could've been a lot harder. It seemed like all the workers at the facility were not going to let the racers fail. Perhaps, because that would've meant more work for them.. Honestly, Ana Leigh should've raced with her husband/fiance (or maybe a female friend). You have to simultaneously understand what your partner (Dad) is capable of and still try and push him to his absolute limit (especially when it's down to a footrace. Kudos to her on the Maypole task. That's not the first RB she's taken and absolutely crushed to make up some time (that her Dad can then use when they are running around a giant city).. I was of the mindset that once you had a bunch coming into Stockholm, whatever was first (RB or Detour) Rob and Corey should've played that Express Pass to get the lead & get a cushion in case they picked the impossible side of the Detour and needed to switch. PhD Mom thought differently, and it ended up where she was right. In hindsight, they should've watched for a minute or to to see how (relatively) easily that RB played out and then they could've used it at the Detour and most likely cruised to a win..
  5. FFS Niall! You had one job! And that job was to not take Nini & Mara to the lives. They might has well be the same person (or onstage singing persona). Huntley was a no-brainer, despite being a little underwhelming for the second performance in a row. Julia was a no-brainer to supersave based on her Sia performance. She was also a no-brainer to let go because True Colors was too nervous & shaky to advance, especially the first verse. Claudia B. was quite good, and I would've of been crushed had she of been Niall's 3rd choice. Fields of Gold is one of my all-time favorite songs, and when I heard Alexa was going to do it, I just knew she was going to deliver at worst an A minus level performance. Cynical PhD brain wonders, did Niall do that in part to help clear the road for Huntley? Because ultimately Nini/Mara will cannibalize each other and they will be eliminated sooner rather than later..
  6. Figures. One of the few singers I was remotely interesting it, the girl that could pass for a doll who happens to sing a mean Paramore gets montaged and we don't even get to here second of her KO song. And she loses to that trashy country singer that thinks she a little too cool for school. And a random different contestants actually sings another Paramore song when she absolutely shouldn't of.. Disappointed in Rachel (the young girl on Reba's team from Hawaii) decided to sing Maddie & Tae's Die from a Brokenheart. That was absolutely the wrong song for her, and I wonder if Reba saw it as a little bit of pandering to her.. Huntley wasn't as good on Wanted Dead or Alive as he should've been (and was during rehearsals. Interested to see who might be brought back. I gotta believe Niall is going to bring back that really young 13 year old from his final KO. Not sure about anybody else. Maybe the young kid who had just lost his mother who seemed to bond w/ Reba??
  7. Part of me thinks that if the 3 breakaway teams would've managed their train roulette correctly, they still would've ran into a hours of operation bunch up at the glider challenge once they made it to Slovenia. AL was pretty much her normal race self (with some added Killer Fatigue). The only time I might give her a pass was when they were lost & they could see the gliders flying over them. Knowing my own personality, that would've broken my brain at some point. Maybe, if they would've studying the EP challenge and had a thoughtful conversation about whether they thought anyone else could've physically completed the stairs I might be more lenient. But you both ran by a race flag with the word taken on it!! That should've sent them home, just on the principle of being one of the worst race decisions you could ever make.. Anybody else have flashbacks to the poor sisters who (if not for Phil mercifully philiminating them after 11 hours or some other insane amount of time) might still be unrolling giant hay bales from an early TAR Season.. This leg reinforces my belief that we are probably getting a Greg/Jon v Rob/Corey match up in the final leg. I can't decide who gets the final spot. TAR history says it's probably Todd/Ashlie, but because she's been the dominate race personality (for better or probably worse) I wonder if surviving today is what allows Steve & Ana Leigh to rally and end up in the Top 3..
  8. Harry doesn't bug me as a much as some people. I guess I just assume the show will devolve into a popularity contest every season. If you absolutely don't want someone to win (or make finals even), it's simple, don't cast them in the first place because you never know what is going to happen. Bill Engvall made the finals his season. Ty Murray missed making finals by one week. Grocery Joe had no noticeable dance ability and still finished 6th. The one thing I would push back on is Rylee & Harry's work ethic. I'm not locked into all the social medias, but nothing I've seen makes me think Harry isn't trying. That Rylee isn't still trying to figure out how best to teach him. He just sucks as a dancer & nothing comes easily for him. His waltz last night was probably close to his ceiling as a dancer.. Of all the dances we've seen, Xochi & Val did not deserve the first perfect score for that dance. You could tell she couldn't go full-out because of her ankle throughout the dance! Makes me wonder if she isn't pulling the votes the producers would like to see from her. I'm rooting for Alyson at this point. Someone who has improved incredibly since week one & is surprising herself as to what she's capable of. Charity & Ariana are kind of interchangeable to me. I guess I'd like to see Ariana go farther (mostly for Pasha). Hearing that Jason was sick makes sense, because that wasn't up to what he's usually able to perform..
  9. Well, if you would've asked me to bet money on which team (the second self-navigation aka driving became involved) would've gotten so lost that Phil would have to eliminate somewhere along the leg? I would've bet a decent amount on the "Out-of-Towners". We were overdue an anti-climactic (although don't tell that to the Beardo's who were having their own issues all through the leg) episode anyway.. Everybody keeps hating on Ana Leigh, while I'm over here watching the older of the two sisters in horror. She hates, no loathes her little sister with a passion. It literally drips off her every time she belittles her. Speaking of Ana Leigh. If you are the true alpha of your team, which she clearly is you MUST be the navigator once self-driving comes involved. Unless your partner can't drive a stick, that's the only acceptable exception. The Purple & Grey ladies have an "interesting" friendship, I'll just leave it at that. Corey figuring out an actual technique/strategy for the foot darts (which I've actually seen a couple times when ESPN2 becomes ESPN8 "The Ocho" for a couple of days each year in honor of the Dodgeball movie), serious kudos to him. I didn't think anyone was going to be able to hit 66 on the nose. If I had to guess right now, I'd say we might be looking at a Final 3 of Rob & Corey, Todd & Ashlie, & the Brothers. I'd like to see the Beardos sneak in there too, but I worry about their task ability. I think the other 3 teams will all melt down and dissolve over the course of the next 4 legs..
  10. This is the first season in quite a while where I could legitimately see just about any order of elimination from here on out. Alyson is in the running for "most in-season improvement", possibly ever. She looks almost unrecognizable compared to her first couple of dances. Barry is solid, and enjoyable but is always going to be limited. Even w/ the standard dances where you'd think he might be able to maximize his scores.. Harry might have least natural dance ability/rhythm anyone on DWTS has ever had. He is trying, he really is. Rylee seems to be working incredibly hard (if not smart) w/ him. He just doesn't have it. As someone who performed in choirs, but always struggled to hear the beat and stay on time w/ the music..I can commiserate. I will say in the team dance, what little bit you could see it did seem like he was somewhat in time w/ his teammates. He didn't stick out like a sore thumb at least. I'm not sure I'm getting Bobby Bones vibes just yet, but unless the judges go the Master P route and start giving out 3's or 2's I think he's going to outlast a couple more people. Ariana, Charity, Jason, & Sochi are so close together. Usually by now there's some clear "tiers" but right now they are a giant jumble (and really Lele was right in that jumble or just off of it). They are all so close together, I think judges shenanigan's may play an even bigger role going forward..
  11. Part of me almost wonders if there was some ambiguity in how the directions were written regarding the turning in of the receipts. Like after the fact production realized that the phrasing on the clue could've been construed that you had to turn in the receipts "after the detour was completed" well, for the U-turned team technically isn't until both tasks are finished. Other than that possibility, I don't really have a great answer to why someone at the Bricks task got involved (either on his own, or on the behalf of TAR producers).. Part of the conundrum of the U-turn, for me (someone who always thinks you should use it to try and knock out a team from the back) especially in this format is that none of the trailing teams going into this leg had shown any capacity to be a Top team (except for maybe the sisters who have been imploding these last three legs). Again though, I still don't understand U-turning a leading team such as AL & S. If not for the one mistake they made (which might not have been completely their fault), they could've won this leg doing both sides of the Detour. That's how far ahead they were! AL doesn't bug me as much as some people. For me the two sisters in Blue are way more annoying & exasperating than she is. Yes, she's high strung & driven (she wants to win every leg. It's not like we haven't seen those character traits in TAR competitors before) Maybe if she was older, less conventionally attractive, & had a more hardscrabble backstory she'd come off in a more sympathetic, and likable light. And to be perfectly honest, I can't remember very many U-turned teams who reacted the so-called "right way". Everyone takes it personally, especially if it happens in the brutal heat & chaos of a big city in India..
  12. This probably rings true for most seasons' battles, but this season it seems like too many of them have the contestants that too similar to each other or too many of them are on the other end of the spectrum where the contestants are way too far apart musically for the duet to make sense. Then if you add on judges playing favorites like Reba w/ Ruby & Al it's even worse. I was disappointed for LVNDR. She was a rare blind audition this season that was actually somewhat intriguing.. Noah was pretty impressive, going from Zach Bryan to a much smoother, poppier sounding take on Ed Sheeran.
  13. Now this was an awesome leg. My heart was pounding when we could see Joe & Ian running steps behind the back of Lena/Morgan's rickshaw. I know we don't always know what magic the editors are working, but it did literally look like L&M's rickshaw driver's "shortcut" gave them the extra ninety seconds or two minutes that they needed to get to Phil first. PhD_Mom & I were convinced they were going to roll up at the exact same time and Joe & Ian would've won a footrace to the mat.. I'm also loving how the detours seemed to be evenly paired with each other. There isn't an "automatic" choice amongst the two that every team is doing. Corey & Rob choosing to do the puppets saved their butts after the son's debacle of a dance roadblock. Although thinking back, they probably would've have known that all stations at the mural challenge would've been full already, which in hindsight made the puppet choice for them (and the bearded dudes) the only right call they could make.. It does feel like heavy foreshadowing that Steve & Ana Leigh will probably get U-turned. The question will be, how is the leg designed? If the detour is immediately at the beginning of the leg w/ some travel & a roadblock afterwards I don't think they'll have an issue surviving. But if it's designed where everything else happens first before the detour and it's very close to the pitstop, then they are going to have to hustle like crazy to give themselves enough cushion where they can do both detours & not fall all the way back to last..
  14. Valny, I know the edit gremlins could've been messing with us..but the interaction between Niall & John made it seem like the final brunette that Gwen pressed for was literally the last audition. Either Gwen was mandated to hit her buzzer, or they told her that if she passed on her they would have to start bringing back previous zero chairs for another try.. Tonight was the night that might've broke PhD_Mom for good. Her favorite voice of the entire season (Jackson) and another voice/personality she really enjoyed (Ephraim) both booted and not stolen. I'm not sure she will recover, going forward. She also is seriously not a fan of Lennon's voice so knowing ahead of time that he was either going to be kept by Niall or stolen by someone else infuriated her that much more..
  15. You need an "alpha" amongst the panel of 4 judges, and this year there really isn't one. Blake (& to a lesser extent Kelly) have filled that role. I sort of thought Reba would kind of fit in that role too, but it just hasn't happened during the Blinds. The last guy from Tuesday night's hour of new auditions can really sing. He's like a younger version of John Holliday (the Music Professor) from a few seasons back. That being said, he destroyed "Another Sad Love Song" & not in a good way. It made me long for Toni Braxton's slinky/groovy original. I actually liked the R&B girl that went w/ Gwen better. She had the vibe/groove where he was just showing off every trick in his Magic Act all at once.. The girl that did Rainbow, might be Reba's second best option (behind Mac Royals) & best country option so far. She's way better than Al Boogie (and her line up of 1 chair turn female artists), and I prefer her to Jackson (the AA kid who was on Idol a few seasons back).
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