Fretful
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Posts posted by Fretful
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With Bruce, I think we may see the end of the bitter, pissy-faced jury at tribal. I just don't think he has it in him to hold a grudge over a game. However, I can imagine its return if Dee or Drew get voted out next week.
But unless something drastic happens soon, Dee or Austin wins this season. Both are playing excellent games. I think Dee has a stronger post-merge resume, but Austin still has those 2 idols...
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This show has become predictable to the point we don't bother to catch it until it shows up on line somewhere and we can ff through.
I think week 3 my friends and I predicted the final 3, that Christian would save Rami, and that Rami would win one challenge just before the end.
We almost don't need to watch the final. I can pretty much imagine their collections
I get it, these are repe0at contestants and they each have their signature, but this season has been very flat for me.
I would have loved if they threw them all off and went to a final two.
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4 hours ago, Artsda said:
That was a horrible final 3.
Who would you have preferred? I think either Carson or Lauren might have won had they made it to the end, but I think Yam Yam beats anyone else on the jury.
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Were Carolyn and Yam Yam on the same giant rock that attacked Matthew (I can't keep all the beaches straight in my mind). I'm sure there's a metaphor there.
I always wonder what would happen if EVERYONE sat out the immunity challenge for the rice. That way, they all make the same sacrifice for the same reward. I'm sure it would make Jeff's head explode, and whoever came up with the plan would get the worst edit ever.
I liked this episode. A nice balance of camp, strategy, and challenge. Very little Matt/Franny smitten smirks- although I am rooting for them outside the show- it bothered me that in previous episodes, every time she said something they cut to his reaction.
Has Carolyn ever been on the wrong side of the vote? How fun would it be if she went on an immunity run?!
Carson is probably playing the smartest game right now, but I can't help but think that down the line he overplays and makes a major blunder that causes his demise.
Smiling Jaimie could get dragged to the end where she is shocked, shocked, shocked that she doesn't win.
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I think Heidi absolutely intended to save Yam Yam- she knew she only controlled one Lauren vote. I also get the feeling that it's a decision that changes the balance in the game. I suspect that in the next episode or two we'll see a real shift in alliances away from "tribe strong"
ONOH-I really thought Carolyn would rock the challenge and surprise everyone. See how good I am at reading people?
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On 2/9/2023 at 3:46 AM, DEL901 said:
I’m very disappointed with the challenge design this season. There has been only one overtime challenge with no women (the ice challenge) which was at least partially because it was designed based on the weight of the participants which levelled the playing field.
And the women have lost every single overtime challenge they participated in. Now the individual competition is down to five men and one women. Did they cast the women poorly or are the tasks always geared to the men’s strengths?
It is kind of disheartening since the women seem to be there as tokens only.
We have this concern every season. A woman DID win the whole thing last time, but as a rule they get picked off one by one. This season is especially bad. It makes it hard to watch, and this is probably the end of the line for me and this show.
Note to producers: there's more than one kind of tough.
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On 1/17/2023 at 12:57 PM, blackwing said:
Just finished watching the season. Overall, I liked it very much. I suppose I can buy the explanation for Gamache's accentless English. But I would think that he and Reine Marie should be speaking to each other in French. They don't say more than a few words to each other in French. It surely can't be for the viewers, because Olivier and Gabri talk to each other in French and we hear French with subtitles. Pierre Arnot, his wife, and the Gamaches... all French-Canadian and yet they speak to each other in English?
My guess is that Alfred Molina doesn't speak French.
I wish they had wrapped up the last storyline a bit better. We know who killed Arthur Ellis and why, but none of the specifics. No explanation about the note, or the 3 days of clothes, or why left hanging (and the coincidence of the Hangman). Oh well, I guess police work is like that sometimes.
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On 2/2/2023 at 2:42 PM, bunnyface said:
And his babushka scarf.
To me, it looked like he had shorts on and maybe some kind of brace on that leg. But with Jordan you just never know.
Jordan has been wearing that one leg athletic pant the entire season. I appreciate that he has his own style, but he needs to bring a point of view to it. Right now it's all over the place and just seems odd. It's as if he'll wear anything just because it's different.
I feel like it's probably the opposite with Bananas. I suspect he'd rather lose the entire Challenge than look "uncool."
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On 12/10/2022 at 4:01 PM, eel21788 said:
I also want a penalty for teams pairing up and doing the tasks together or even offering helpful hints.
This is nothing new. In season 3 Oh Brother and the Wondertwins had a "share information" alliance from almost the beginning. It made it interesting to see their strengths play out, and it's one of the reasons that elimination was such a toughie. And who can forget the ill-fated twin hunt from that season. Good times.
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Yay! So much strategy, double-crossing, and social game. A telenovela indeed.
I think Jesse might have just cost himself the game. If he uses his idol to get himself to 4, he then HAS To win immunity to get to 3. And. as Jeff said, he's the only one who hasn't won immunity. It will be interesting to see who they vote out at 4. Karla would be the obvious choice, but she's a bit of a challenge beast.
Gabler- I can't figure out if he's playing a great game or he's a great goat. He does seem to get people to do what he wants.
Cassidy- has played a good post-merge game. I don't think she beats Karla, though.
Owen- was on the wrong side of the vote too many times.
So, for me it's a toss-up. I've thought all along that Karla was getting the winners edit, but these last two tribals have been brutal for her. I wonder how it would have played out if she had won immunity.
Very happy to have a separate reward challenge.
After this season, I never want to hear Jeff say "you'll run through a series of obstacles" again.
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YAY! To a postcard with a picture of the location of the clue.
Michelle's energy is infectious, but also "this close" to being annoying. Luis does bug me, I think he feels less authentic than Michelle. Still, they're racing well, and if they win they deserve it.
How is it that only one team knew which flag to look identify (because of the Tour Guide) but they all got it on the first try. Were the other flags obviously wrong?
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58 minutes ago, Nashville said:
Noelle was DOA the moment Peachy started holding her up as the living embodiment of the Survivor Spirit (or whatever the fuck he was going on about); after all his speechifying, NOBODY wants to be sitting beside her at F2.
Actually, One of the things I'm glad came through editing was that they were very much targeting her for her gameplay. Several times they mentioned how strong she was at the social and strategic game, that when the game pivoted she pivoted with it, and when they tried to get rid of her allies she made stronger allies. It's too bad that her "story" overshadowed that.
As for the family visits/letters. It seems every season that they have them, the Survivors are extremely impacted by them, no matter who they are. And every season there are a few people here who just don't get it, and criticize them for their reactions. But the reactions are so universal among players that clearly there is something to it Rather than judge it, why not just accept that it's some piece of empathy that you just don't happen to have.
Did Noelle even try to shimmy along beam on her belly (I think it was Jesse? who managed that way). It seemed like a better idea than trying to hop over.
Tough week for Karla, who seemed to be queen bee until now, but I'm beginning to see why they target Cassidy. She's playing a very strong but low-key game.
I like that every week Gabler has a TH where he explains why he's so important and everyone comes to him for advice, and then I completely forget that he's there.
Cody's story line sure has faded from early in the season. It's like he's at summer camp now, and Jesse is the older, cool kid talking him into smoking.
Win or lose, I think this show has been a game-changer for Owen. He hardly seems like the "lovable curmudgeon" we saw early on.
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10 hours ago, aradia22 said:
Took note of Claire trying to talk about her friends getting her to play rugby and Derek immediately needing to cut her down. This is what I mean about him undermining her.
I found that funny and it looked like Claire did too. They seem to have a relationship of equals. I notice that they work together on the tasks and communicate well. In this episode Claire reminded him to learn the poem in French when he got distracted. Last week at the carnival games and several times throughout the race he has expressed appreciation for her figuring out the best way to do a challenge. From where I sit, they appear to have a strong, fun, supportive relationship.
Otherwise, I found this to be another dull episode. I do like self-navigation, but I wish they would show us where the drivers went wrong. Bring back the Amazing Yellow Line, even if it's only over the map of town. The rugby took about 30 seconds, so even if someone had to do it a few times they could be out of there in 10 minutes. Both the poem and the bricks were pretty straightforward and pretty quick. So, do two easy tasks, plus a couple of hours of driving. I don't see how KF could be an issue here. Each leg is a half day, and then they're sequestered in a nearby hotel. If the show is going to limited the travel options, they need to pick it up somewhere else. Make the tasks harder -not American Ninja Warrior hard, but harder to figure out. Bring back the clues rather than instructions. Remember when they got just a picture of a man in Mexico City and were told to find him? That was fun.
If they aren't traveling the world, maybe stop pretending they are. Perhaps it's time for an Amazing Race around the US (yes, I know that the Family Edition did that with little success, but we and that were not expecting the great RV Race). Show us quirky small town America. Or they see Phil's wonderful New Zealand for a whole season. Something. Right now it's drive, easy task, drive, find a clue, drive, easy task, pit stop.
Dang, I fell like we never really met M and Q, and now they're gone. They looked like they were having a good time.
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I find this interesting. When Christian (who was well-liked here) carried on for 2 hours about string theory in order to distract himself from the challenge at hand, people thought it was charming and adorable. When Gabler (who is not popular here) gives a list of names to do the same, he is considered pompous and boring. I am no Gabler fan, but I think what he did was quite smart- he took that challenge one minute at a time.
I was also SO SURE That Cassidy and Karla were going to be the weakest pair, but they were among the fastest on the first two sections until Karla (with her hand cut from the last challenge) fell. So ---shows what I know. I'm not sure how well they would have done on the final section, but I suspect at least one of them would have outlasted Dwight.
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5 hours ago, Brynnjk said:
I wish though that they would make the tasks harder. They are just so easy compared to TAR Canada's tasks or past TAR US tasks. It just feels dumbed down a little from the early days. Or maybe I've just watched too many international versions of TAR. I want really hard tasks. Come on TAR US - make them work for it.
100% this. I understand that the travel element has changed and we can't have cab or airport drama at the moment, so let's compensate somewhere else. Each of the tasks to MAYBE 30 minutes to complete. Plus a few hours of driving. Done by noon.
TAR Canada and Australia each stay in their own country and without the cultural/language barriers have to adjust to make the race compelling. One way they do that is by making the challenges difficult and unique. TAR USA needs to find a way to do this. Right now, it's a snooze-fest. Casting saved this season.
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17 hours ago, tracyscott76 said:
Sami. Ugh. In Joe's Primetimer recap, he notes that Sami seems incredibly angry in all his confessionals, and I agree. I'd add a level of smugness that is not pleasant to watch. Yeah, he seems to have the upper hand on Elie and Jeanine but he's just so...ugh about it.
Exactly this. Sami is actually playing a pretty good game- everyone on his tribe trusts him and he does well but not outstandingly at the challenges. He plays the middle well yet still makes moves But he's just so smug, and arrogant, and seems angry whenever anyone else dares to have a strategy. I imagine once they get to the merge, he'll be eaten alive.
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11 hours ago, Skooma said:
Actually Gary & Dave did do the metal detector detour at first until they looked up and saw multiple teams soaring above them so they switched over to the hang gliding too since the metal detector was indeed very hard. Gary even explained how large an area it was and the metal detectors back then were bigger and much heavier too.
And yes the Race has been dumbed down a lot over the years since those Season 2 teams would soon be scrambling to get on various different buses for more than a 12 hour ride and two of the buses broke down along the way where teams had to react to that too including Chris jumping in and helping their driver change a big huge bus tire.
And now I am reminded of how wonderfully cast this show used to be.
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In season 2, a detour had teams searching 1.5 miles of beach in Brazil with a metal detector. 1.5 miles. (no one chose this detour, as the other detour was hang-gliding). Man, this race has dummied down.
Quinton really should not have been running around Jordan in that completely open, side-less shirt. I noticed that Linton wore leggings under his shorts, and all the other men had knee-length shorts and tee or polo shirts.
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This episode reminded me how much I prefer a separate reward challenge. I realize in a 26 day season it's just not feasible, but it just brings so much more depth to the tribal dynamics and game play. I get that they don't have time for it, and it might be too much physically (although the reward challenge wasn't particularly taxing as Survivor goes) but I wish they had them more often.
I'm sure it wasn't going through their heads right that minute, but it made sense for Vesi to help defeat Coco, because otherwise the tribes would have been 6-4-4, and that most likely would lead to a tribe swap. Instead they are 5-5-4 and probably buy themselves at least one more tribal before a swap. I suspect their only thought at the time was trying to weaken Coco.
Karla was an early pick for me and she continues to impress. I'm keeping my eye on her, but I think she's getting a quiet winner's edit.
I suspect there will be a big Gabler/Elie war somewhere down the line. They really are building to it. Whoever wins that probably goes deep.
Ok. Cody is growing on me a little. He's no Luke, tho.
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I know they weren't long for this race, but I didn't realize until the very end how much I really wanted T-Rex to stay and Dom to go. I'm sure IRL she's seen as a very positive person, but here she just seems wound too tightly. I can not tell you one thing about her partner- I kinda know what he looks like, I guess.
Otherwise, too many of the young and fits are blending together.
Pity the poor instructor who had to teach the twins to dance but couldn't tell them apart. I noticed at the end that one of them had tied a scarf around her neck- maybe to help him out.
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2 hours ago, 30 Helens said:
I don’t know why everyone didn’t rush to vote off Nneka, even those who wanted to align with her. Any time she was visible during the challenge, she was standing off to the side while everyone else did the work. At this stage of the game, the biggest goal is to make it to the merge. If you keep people who don’t even try, you’re making it that much harder on yourself, and you need to pick better allies.
That's one line of thinking, and one of the reasons we see older people voted off first- "Keep the tribe strong." Another point of view is to vote by loyalty- vote with someone who is not going to vote you out no matter what. Personally, I would follow the latter- the goal is to get ME to the merge so I would pick off the people who might go after me.
Spider!
I, too, normally find it skeezy to go through a bag, but this time it didn't seem that bad-it was information they already had, just looking for some clarification. It's interesting to me that they did it so they would know when they could vote Gabler out, but they won the challenge because he was such a beast with that snake, and that gave them the lead they needed. I have no doubt he's going to lose that spear, though.
I love Owen- his running dialogue while he was bringing the water was hilarious- and also very real.
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Did T -Rex and The "M" brothers arrive at the PIt Stop without their bags? I didn't think that was allowed- I was sure Phil was going to send them back to the cars to get them.
No Express Passes for the winners. Yay! I always hated that advantage.
This issue I have with the No Non-Elimination is that if I were on the race and far behind on a difficult task, I would probably just stop. I know you can always hope that someone else screwed up and got a penalty, but realistically, I'm not going to kill myself for last place.
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On 7/14/2022 at 7:27 AM, Pepper the Cat said:
I wonder if they got to order what type of subs they got?
I think they did, one team verified theirs were vegetarian, and one fellow made sure he had extra, extra pickles.
On 7/16/2022 at 5:55 PM, TVbitch said:Canada always brings the harder challenges and lots of self-navigation, and I love that about it.
I love it too. I think they have to because they rarely leave the country, so they don't have travel/airport drama. I know TAR Australia intentionally upped the difficulties of the challenges last time because production arranged private travel for the teams.
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Jonna deserved to win if only because she carried 60 pounds, while her partner only managed 40.
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S36.E01: You Can’t Drive While You’re Crying
in The Amazing Race
I believe Derek and Drew (season 3) joined them as a Fast Forward.