BarneySays

I'm not sure about that. I always assumed there was a day or two of orientation at the start point before the race. If true, they probably did that in London and then dropped them off a starting point.

Some points on the UK stuff: 1. Boris notoriously rode his bike to work and was often photographed with his big head in that bike helmet. It was a playful jab at his “character.” 2. Brexit was a long drawn out process. The referendum was in June 2016, with a long period-which was extended twice (if I recall correctly)- and then resulted in a snap election- before the final exit in January 2020, complete with a ceremony of them removing the UK flag from EC building. (As an interesting side note, there was discussion of removing English as an official EC language upon exit because it is not a language of any member state. Since English is the universal language of the EC- and world- this seems to have gone nowhere.) it’s odd to me that those not very familiar with brexit would assume the UK had not left because the default position from 2016 on was that the UK would be leaving. It seems likely that this pack of idiots knew nothing more than the word brexit and had no idea of it’s actual meaning. 3. Norway is not an EU member state, but it is an EEA and EFTA member, which gives it equivalent economic rights to the EC member states. 4. In February, sunset is still early in the UK. It would be fully dark by 6 pm. It was likely not as late as it seemed to the viewer. 5. Did they fly into Gatwick? 6. It appears they were prohibited from taking the tube. I wonder why that was. It could have added some interest to the tedious digi-whatever detour. Cabs in London are a pain in the ass due to traffic patterns, and quite expensive. It appears they were given limitless money- which would be another dumbing down move. it’s very odd that these clods did not ask anyone what the Bobby is. There are always some tourists by Big Ben taking pictures. Someone would have known. ETA: *represent the old timers! At age 47? My, how far we’ve fallen. I always enjoyed the competent older teams- Meredith and ? (I see her vividly and hear her say, oh, Meredith, but can’t recall her name.), Fran and Barry, etc. they’re no older than the guidos (ugh) who were not considered “old” on the show. * the darts challenge would have been better if they had to go through the board- hitting 1, then 2, etc., ending with a bullseye. *I would think that flying from home would disadvantage the west coast players, given that an 8 hour jet lag is harder to overcome. I wonder how long they sat in London before starting. This appears to be a cost cutting move. Boo.

Hmm. Never thought this show could sink lower than last season, but it appears convicted today do so. Everything has been dumbed down to the point of tedium and one team is dumber than the next. Too many of them couldn’t grasp the basics. The palace is directly down the road from trafalgar and there are signs indicating this all over the place. The clue can’t be the clue!? the roadblocks and detours were embarrassing. Run here and then there and then there. What? And these morons had difficulty with that! The cake detour was excellent- except every team could see what the other was doing and merely copied. I know this is in the eu! which country? I don’t know but I have it on my jacket! Fucking hell. This is the level we’re going to get? I am a huge fan of the show and hopes this gets better, but it seems clear this is going to be The Amazing Race: Idiot Edition. Blech.

What a disaster. As someone pointed out above, there is no surviving on this show any longer. The fresh clothes and overall lack of any wear and tear on their standard costumes and bodies give the clear impression that this group has been coddled throughout the season. When you add the fact that we rarely see any wide shots of the camp (note how the entire show is in close-ups and tight shots), there's something shady about this season. That box choice also seemed shady. It appeared obvious Jeff was signaling which box to select. And the intense look he had when offering a chance to switch seemed more of the same. It seemed that DeShawn's soliloquy was intended to manipulate shan (her exit really got to him). I fast forwarded the rest because I don't take social discourse from the likes of Probst and CBS. Personally, i find the notion that voting out the former dominant alliance may be racist by the mere fact its members are black to be very problematic. It is not only commonplace when there is a tight alliance, but also the smart move for the former minority. This is akin to arguing that math or standard english is racist.

Garbage clothes. Garbage people. Garbage show. Cancel it.

That's very surprising to me. The French are almost maniacal about finding that perfect balance in all things- portion, taste, preparation. Even something as simple as an omelette is always cooked perfectly, unlike in the US where it's near impossible to get a good omelette. As for Gabriel, I would not be surprised if production went out of their way to give him a slanted edit to avoid any claims of favoritism given he used to work for colicchio. He seems a little fussy, which can take some adjustment, but does not appear to be an asshole. Just as Maria appears to be an attention craving drama queen, but also an okay person. Dawn is the one who gives off bad vibes in this cast.

why would the source of one's wealth matter? The issue is how money affects the playing field. I find the emphasis on expensive rags to be dull, but there's really no way to rectify the problem. This ending was befitting the dumpster fire of a season this was.

Not probably. They actually did. Nany was, as usual, the straggler. There's a lot of humble pie to dish out after this season. Of course, fessie gets the largest slice, but, of course, he won't eat it. Sadly, that stunt has secured his place in this franchise as a character viewers will tune in to watch in the hope he loses each episode. What a loser. Not only would he not do what he was hired to do- compete- but then to be so ungracious as to blame his partner, who did respect the show and viewers by doing what she was hired to do when only she knew whether she would be able to finish the final. It's amusing to me that, of all the women fessie tried to push throughout the season, kaycee was the one who capitulated to him and received a painful injury for it. Let that be a lesson to the women who get stuck with him in the future. Notwithstanding that she let him push her to exhaustion and a foolish misstep, he felt no commitment to her to finish the eating challenge. Worse yet- he blamed her for his cowardice. Kam also deserves a healthy slice. And needs to retire her Killer Kam shtick. She barely outpaced Nany, of all people. She looked out of shape and weak during that final. There was nothing impressive about her. And Kam, being the runner-up is not winning. LeRoy at least has developed the self-awareness that he does not possess the skills to ever win one of these. His only skill seems to be getting along with people who help bring him far in the game (see bananas). Despite being athletic, he lacks basic body mechanics skills. How could he not know how to maneuver the canoe? He's afraid of water and heights. His endurance is not that great. He lacks the mental acuity for problem solving. Likability is his strength as a competitor and character on the show. In the end, the payoff may have been worth the long and often torturous season. That was the first real final they've had in a number of seasons and was enjoyable to watch.

This is the key. All of the grandstanding and virtue signaling typically comes from white people who have lived segregated existences in their comfy class suburbs. Most of them have not even walked through a black neighborhood, let alone patronized a restaurant in one.

You weren't completely wrong. He did a hall brawl (I think) with someone (nelson?) where he played real dirty, grabbing the face guard, etc. I think this is why TJ said something like, keep it clean, guys, at the start of the brawl this time. He's scum.

She doesn't seem arrogant to me, but defensive and insecure. Yes, feigned arrogance is often a defense to insecurity, but I think it is a very different beast. Candy behaves like an insecure 14 year old who talks incessantly to avoid hearing any criticism from others and who constantly puts the focus on others for the same reason. It's such an ingrained defensive mechanism, she almost can't help herself. It's the behavior of a pubescent mean girl/bully. She realizes this on occasion, which is expressed in her showing concern for others. But the behavior will never go away until she develops some real self-esteem. And this has nothing to do with race. It's behavior that all humans are capable of descending to. As for the show, on the metric of presenting the essence of their doppelganger, Candy and Gottmik were the bottom two. Neither of them gave any hint of the others presentation. Gottmik did the same naive middle class attempt at "punk" while candy didn't seem to do anything gottmik-like. On looks, the mugs on denali and olivia were atrocious, but they did at least try to channel their teammate. I knew at the outset Symone and Utica would run away with this- and they did. As for utica's concerns, this is the world that wokeness creates- fear of the true and real due to a shallow, provincial, small-mindedness on steroids.

The legal term is gross negligence. Although they can waive their claims for acts of simple negligence, public policy would not permit the show from insulating itself from its own acts of gross negligence. Whether having contestants run back and forth on a wooden dock covered in slippery material constitutes gross negligence is a determination for the trier of fact (jury). Certainly, the harm that ensued was foreseeable.

YMMV, but stating someone had to leave implies the agency lays with the actor. Yes, it could mean he had a personal situation or missed his girlfriend or decided he didn't want to compete any longer (although in the latter two cases, they would typically say he chose to leave the game). He wouldn't have to go home because he broke a rule, he simply would not be permitted to continue because of it. They also went out of their way to make it clear to the audience that he didn't do anything wrong in the nets incident. This incident was handled very oddly.

I would applaud the show not trying to bury him and would like to think this was their motivation. But then they could have simply said Mikey has left the competition. Saying he had to go home would have been a false statement. It doesn't make sense that the show would lie to protect a contestant. I still contend the likely scenario is that he sought immediate medical treatment (after that fall, he would have wanted to do so to make sure he was not injured) and then decided to seek legal redress.

Wow. That was worse than one could have even imagined. Frankly, I thought the top three were Symone, Rozay, and Gottmik, the third simply because the rest of the lot were all universally horrible. When I heard Harriet Tubman, I thought, oh, no, please don't let snatch game go woke. But Symone brought real wit to her portrayal. A real risky choice that she pulled off wonderfully. I got bored at the runway and turned it off, certain that Symone had it in the bag. Rozay's choice worked because she played with the accent and references. Gottmik was not witty or clever in the least, but at least had a consistent character. I guess she continues to get propped up. Yawn. The entire rest of them all should have been in the bottom and at least two of them should have been eliminated for that disgrace. The male choices were universally bad- and not proper subjects for snatch game unless you can do something truly great with them. Kennedy's Little Richard stands out as the best snatch game performance IMO because she called out that LR was essentially a drag queen. Her commentary on LR was incisive and hilarious. That's how it's done. Alexis's Mercado was also funny, but only because of the non sequiturs and accent. The fact that so many of the contestants on this show cannot master this challenge is a damning commentary on their lack of wit and insight. You don't have to do a great impersonation (I thought alaska's mae west was reductive and dull), but you do have to bring humor to it. Yara Sofia is a classic example. Her amy whinehouse was all wrong, but so right. I see the iceberg coming one knot from starboard.

Yeah, just saw that. It sounds a tad fishy to me. Ordinarily, these shows are quite happy to scold an offending contestant on air. It's odd they would say he "had to go home," clearly creating the impression in the viewer's mind that he had a personal matter to tend to, if he in fact broke a hard and fast rule. That means they chose to lie to the viewers. Not a good look. When you consider the initial statement and then the announcement that they determined his action was not intentional, this late breaking rule violation seems like a clumsy- and false- attempt to stop the speculation. That's a shame because I've always thought highly of Phil. I like the show and particularly enjoy seeing real regular americans- instead of mactors, fame whores, and the overprivileged- working together, ethically, like most people do. Freight Train's sincerity during that challenge was touching in its decency and concern for his fellow (wo)man. As for the nicknames, that it extremely common in the trades. Sometimes, it is just a shortened last name, but often it's a nickname given to them on the job. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that knuckles got her nickname because she kept rapping her knuckles when first working a wrench. My father was a tradesman and his friends had names like Cozmo, Buff, Legs, Bozo, etc. I never knew their given names. You can't yell out, Joey or Johnny, hand me that because there were likely more than one who would turn around. As for the talk of needing the money, this seems very sincere from those who have brought it up. Just because one has a decent job (although some here are not making decent money), doesn't mean they and their families don't have basic needs. Some of these folks don't work- and don't get paid- if the weather is bad (too hot, too cold, too wet, etc.). I think these folks are very differently situated than most reality contestants who complain about needing the money. My major disappointment with the second season is that the losers no longer complete their task once they've lost. I really respected that they would continue to work to get the job done. For example, when the tall woman lost the elimination challenge last season and people came over to help her, I had major respect when she told them no and got it done on her own. I hope they fix this problem if there is another season.

This was my immediate thought as well. That was a very hard fall. I imagine the show didn't want to make any comment on him because they've probably already heard from eyebrows' lawyer. That was a dangerous condition that they shouldn't have allowed. Very stupid- and potentially costly- move.

This show is dreadful. Everything is so plotted and planned it is not only dull, but enervating. What the purpose of the faux conflicts for the musical parts- when it became obvious that the parts were already decided beforehand because of the costuming? It's this kind of shit that makes the show unwatchable. The tops and bottoms apparently are chosen to spur social media commentary, not provide a critical/artistic assessment. Symone, who shone as a star at the outset, clearly belonged in the bottom, with Candy. But I would have put olivia there with them. She's far too twee and really does not impress (except her $1 mm smile). Tina was put in the bottom simply for drama. I think Elliott's dance in the musical number was a, if not the, highlight. And her runway was well done too. But she will never get the love. It's in the script. I will say this was the first time I found gottmik appealing. She really made you watch her in the musical, without stealing focus. Really love RoZAY, but either she has lost the spark or is being edited that way. The show has degenerated into a drag version of american idol. Whereas the latter was nothing but hollow and dull vocal pyrotechnics, these lipsynchs have become the performative equivalent. They all pull out the same set of moves, throw every trick in the book (regardless of its appropriateness) and ru guffaws like a dimwitted hyena. That lipsynch was a complete mess. Neither of them were compelling and the camera work is so horrible (intentionally, I would argue) that the viewer can never assess who is truly performing better. Very few of them have handled the lipsynch element- especially this week- so we are reduced to watching overindulged children careening around their living room while mommy encourages them. Booring.

I think this is ultimately a cultural issue. T is, as the english say, taking the piss. She is not being serious at all. In fact, the royal treatment is self-mockery. This is why they all smiled and laughed as they tended to her needs. The whole thing was a put-on.

It is too cliche for the beardos, who waxed on and on about how they wanted the three of them in the final and how they loved the other two teams so much, to be so churlish and childish when they came in third. Their vanity convinced them they would win and when reality smacked them in the face, they pouted like two overprivileged children. Good riddance to them. As for the winners being smart racers, I would disagree. They repeatedly- repeatedly- failed to read clues. And they don't appear smart at all. They didn't know what a rikshaw is and showed lapses of basic knowledge throughout the race (can't recall the specific incidences). Yes, they practiced tasks (probably for the internet) and prepared the usual geography and flag information, but that is SOP for most racers (typically, the recruited reality tv whores and stunt castings are the teams that don't prepare). The minute the first task was announced, I knew this was going to be as hideous as the chicago final leg (or the las vegas lights one), with little excitement. Where is the suspense in having volunteers randomly toss beads at contestants? How did this task ever get past the spitball stage? The jump was similarly ridiculous and pointless. And the globe? I thought adding the- it's not done well enough- bit to the globe task was gratuitous and pointless. Turned it off at that point. As for bad cab luck- this seemed more like the beardos jumped the gun and got out of the cab to finish getting to the park, which was a stupid impulsive move. They did not appear to get clear directions to the front entrance from the cabby. In addition to protecting against these kinds of alliances, TAR has too often had uneventful final legs. If the show returns, which I doubt it will do, they need to do much better with the finales.

I agree. One other problem is that the tasks were generally banal and too many of them involved visual/perceptive skills- decorating a truck, identifying portraits, the virtual people, the bracelets, the movie scene, the binary numbers, There were very few physical or building challenges that involved anything more than follow the numbers. As for Rob, he's a perfect example of the debasing of a good show by unsportsmanlike conduct. He may single-handedly be responsible for rules changes. Not only did he try to interfere with other racers by telling travel agents, etc. not to help the other teams (even bribing a bus driver to withhold opening the back door to delay exit), he commandeered people in a number of cities (including, I believe, the original Fern) to shepherd them around. Yes, he was playing his character, but if that conduct would have been allowed to fester in subsequent seasons, the show would be a vague memory. An apt analogy to this alliance nonsense is professional tennis. There is no rule that prohibits serving an underhand lob, but all players know that if they used this shot, it would detract from the game and ultimately destroy it. So, there is a sports(wo)man's agreement not to engage in this conduct. The argument that it's permissible under the rules so players should use it is rejected out of respect for the sport and a desire to maintain its integrity. If only these alleged fans had the same respect for TAR. Just because you can DO something does not make it the good or ethical thing to do.

TAR has always had a social element to it. The relationships between teams has always been part of enjoying the show- the rivalries and camaraderies. Forming an alliance like this season is not social, it's strategic. And the absence of this is one of the things that has made TAR a superior show to the banal survivor and bottomfeeder big brother. Waiting for someone to get screwed by the alliance seems a small reward for week after week of predictable outcomes, but YMMV.

This is simply an assertion that can never be proved. That is precisely why there is so much "fury over the alliance"- because it deprived viewers (and the other teams) of knowing what the result would have been without the outrageous assistance they provided each other throughout the entire race. They were spared of foolish brain freezes and race fatigue by the assist of the others. Shades of Ernie and whatsherface and their ladyboy past. As for reading the clue, it is my recollection that Gary was vigilant about reading the clues closely throughout the race- and observing the demonstrations. It seems clear that they did read the clue properly, but simply could not identify the fourth country. If DeAngelo had to do that last task on his own, they'd have taken up residence in Manila while DeAngelo goes out every morning to try to solve the task. As for taking the penalty, the Law of Subway Waiting would come into play. The longer you wait for a train, the more committed you are to staying put because- surely one will come soon?! Anyway, if they had taken the penalty, the coven- if they knew about it (which they would have to do)- would have only openly helped each other sooner.

It's not possible to get an accurate read of performance when there was so much propping up of alliance teams who were flailing. The only hope on this point is that in the season with the insufferable green hat guy he got 90% of the air time, only to suffer a royal comeuppance later. It was small comfort, but something.

I actually appreciated DeAngelo's reaction, as it comes close to my own disgust with the way these teams have conducted themselves. To stand there congratulating themselves for fighting so hard- after once again failing to read the clue!- made me want to burn down the show as well. He was perhaps not the best messenger, but the message was spot on. I do give the show credit for including his outburst and anger. I guess they figured it is the only catharsis the audience will get from this trainwreck. They really should have burned the entire footage a year+ ago.