Supay

Two out of the three latest seasons have gimmicks that exclude returning racers, i.e. selfies are back:

The last season to film in SD was anything but standard! It would be the first of only two times that four F/Fs were casted, plus the debut of a Kentucky belle and her stalwart pop, not to mention the original stuntcasted YouTuber(s), adorkable Glee sidekicks, avuncular middle-aged sages, and a trifecta of amusing villainy in the form of YDC. The course is a sheer delight both in terms of daring and novelty, and the tasks are just as creative, resulting in even placement standings to a degree never before achieved in the show's history. This shining opus just works on multiple levels, be they in terms of airtime/editing balance, challenge logistics (including flight scrambles), uninterrupted entertainment, etc. Oh, and bless ye watermelons.

First ever team of brothers to win the million later than "Sooner".

The final US season to feature twelve teams overstacked its deck with too many couples as if in response to last time around, though pretty much all the annoying ones leave in the first half besides the elderly one. Other than the waterslide incident and that leg designed to destroy the sole F/F team, not much of note happens until the penultimate episode and finale, which raise the more or less steady mediocrity of the previous ten rounds into something noticeably better.

If Season 5 was greater than the sum of its parts, then this one is even more so. The first four boots are among the most infuriating possible, the arc between the Indian Ocean and Continental-Climate Europe is a chore to sit through, and the F2 are simply the two worst teams in the cast; nonetheless, the other finalist is the first F/F team to get that far, the final eliminees (and the sixth-placers to an ever so slightly lesser extent) make for worthy All-Star representatives, and the route is one whose eccentric and innovative grandeur manages to overcome its individual shortcomings. All in all, it's the superior of the two least light-hearted warm-weather Northern Hemisphere seasons (the other being the abomination with the all-couple F6).

IIRC, one of Lena and Kristy (a.k.a. the Two against Haybales) helped cast this season; alas, the task designers' insatiable and inexcusable appetite for needle-in-the-haystack challenges all but guaranteed the least satisfying permutation of finalists that in craftier hands would've upped the odds of a mom/daughter, nerds-in-love, and oldies F3.

Farewell, Cast-Lineup at the Starting Line:

Talk about the perfect revenge for Season 6: not one couple gets past the F8! Alas, being the first season to limit the route to Eurasia plus the "new country count" to 1 as well as the only season to host three episodes in the same nation mars logistics considerably; production even got the memo to eliminate ESM (Eat, Sleep, Mingle) halfway through, resulting in an abrupt change of tone from a pleasant first half to a downright rancorous second. Somehow, though, these increasingly negative end-gamers emitted enough charisma even without the hindsight of racing once again in two years' time that their conflicts were compelling even in their nastiness. (The finale is unfortunately rather anti-climactic after the iconic penultimate round.)

Worst sibling team/winner ever, and on a course with just one self-driving leg to boot (c.f. the previous season with the same number of episodes).

The aphorism "quality over quantity" has never rung truer: two fewer legs than before plus a NEL/TBC sequence as punishing as Season 3's and 4's ensured a fast pace to this season, albeit robbing the sixth and fifth place teams of well-earned spots in the finale. Thankfully, the penultimate episode restored the balance by booting an exasperatingly griping girl (and her boytoy) on her very birthday; as much flack as the winners get for being milquetoast - especially over the clearly legendary runner-ups who would hold onto the record of "highest-placing parent/child" for a half-decade until the birth of TAR Canada - one must give props to the solver of the finest finale RB to date. (Bonus points for being the first non-sucky season to host an opening round in Europe!)

At least one of the Chilean legs should've been replaced with, say, a round in Palau between Macau and Guam; more urgently, this season needed a win from any other team in the F7 in order to rise above that very Castaway crossover and her husband on the one hand plus Dr. Will's henchman on the other.

I'm still quite unclear about that subplot between his and Marsha's grievance against Linda and Karen regarding Argentine currency - perhaps someone who saw the Innertube/Bonus-Vids/Insider-Clips a decade ago might recall the context?

Team Guido from Classic a.k.a. Joe/Bill are the trendsetters that the most anonymous third-placers ever wished they could be ~

Delhi is such a commonplace stop whenever any TAR edition goes to India these days that it obscures the original visit's combination of poverty shock and cultural dissonance, e.g. a ticket vendor actually refusing to sell train tickets to the first-ever mom/daughter team.

Damn, Jodi Wincheski's alleged rigging to get her former competitors on Unfinished Business retroactively improved Season 14, yet the opposite happened to this one save perhaps the Bali-boot(s). Anyhow, the foolish (and grossly overrated) runner-ups ought to have embarked on the following course of action in the tenth leg: Acknowledge that their alliance with Hockey, as the remaining team noticeably stronger than everyone else (only one of the F5 with an average ranking < 3.00, the other four having > 4.00 each), will be of no further service so late in the game. Break said alliance behind Hockey's back and approach Derby/YouTube with mutually beneficial offer to U-Turn the brothers out of the game. Secure seats on the Berlin-Edinburgh flight not just for themselves, but also the moms and the other M/F team (effectively limiting their former alliance members to the other, later one). U-Turn Hockey (doesn't matter if YouTube gets ahead since they already used their U-Turn back in Hanoi). Have Derby U-Turn them in the same manner that Texas U-Turn'd the Chippendales after the latter already U-Turn'd the Divorcees (yes, all were already racing at the time that episode was airing, but then people still blame Season 14 for having a negative cast despite the sequester thing not occurring until halfway into that season). Let the Singers and YouTube fight it out to see who gets the final elimination.

Shanghai to Dhaka x2 is easily the worst first half of a TAR season, but Istanbul to NYC is one of the greatest second halves in the show's history: the counterparts on the other two CBS shows would be BB(US)14 and Survivor: San Juan del Sur.

Baku was a cool-looking new destination, but other than the "find the right fruit in this vehicle stuffed with them" Detour, the HoO at the Zoroastrian fire temple was the only worthwhile thing - the FF/RB could have been performed anywhere else and the other Detour was as tasteless as that facial hair trimming gimmick in the previous country. Thank goodness that it's the round with the least amount of drama among the largely poisonous cast. Asuncion, on the other hand, looked like a random city in interior Mexico with equally generic challenges: it's one of the most unjustly praised episodes ever, with a subpar leg winner and a pointless "race for last!" between two crappy teams.

The eighth episode is the season's overall finest - and would basically reign as "Best Scandinavian Leg" until the country's own revisit three years later - though the eleventh's Switchback to Family Edition is arguably the most memorable.

Hooray for TAR's answer to Survivor's "Heroes versus Villains"! As the show's first foray into HD, it nonetheless keeps the old-school BGM/SFX and quick-cut editing of the SD seasons intact, a precursor to the exquisitely well-made Canadian franchise two years into the future. Any quibbles about certain casting decisions were swiftly put to rest with the elimination order, with admittedly one tragic exception shortly after the halfway point. In addition, this unofficial second All-Stars made the best of overused countries by having unvisited regions host the rounds, be they quaint Asian wilderness or scenic European resorts. It's perfectly fine that the "seasonal count of new nations" amounted to a grand total of 1 when it not only featured one of the most original RBs in TAR history, but also - in the very same episode - provoked hilarious overreactions from those invested in a team facing the consequences of a poor social game. Add in a medley of fun and challenging tasks along with an ending to right the wrongs wrought by Season 11 and the product is this masterpiece.

The original gimmick season, and truth be told, the lack of legs/episodes set in New England, the Heartland, or the Pacific Coast states was more disconcerting than anything else.

A route that fails to circumnavigate the globe, a stunt-casted team that consumes the other contestants' attention as well as the majority of the airtime, and a mostly unpleasant boot order are all the signature hallmarks of TAR failure. Somehow, though, the eleventh hour leads to a miracle of a victory, a unique blend of deus ex machina and a happy ending, conspiracy theories about planes and cabfares be damned (plus those simplistic attempts to paint them as a poor man's sequel to the winning couple two seasons prior).

The most European course ever: a shame about the first five eliminated teams except for those boys from the Big Apple, though.

That colour strategy ought to have been part of the unofficial Switchback 23 seasons later - if quite a few Shetlanders emigrated to NZ, then they would've passed down their pastoral ways and/or livestock to the current Kiwi generation(s), no?

She's now engaged to someone besides him.

TP/NY uploaded a selfie to her Instaccount yesterday en route from NYC to London via Air China: