rlangmit

I saw part of the leg (the final task) being filmed last summer. After waiting a year, I've finally posted some photos and videos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/8559533@N04/sets/72157709278981053/ They're not all great. We were far away, confused about what was going on, and being threatened by an overzealous local security person. But Colin leaving the final task and the video of them running to the cab are, IMO, pretty awesome. I've also written up a long summary of the day here: https://www.reddit.com/r/TheAmazingRace/comments/c69e2k/my_experience_watching_the_filming_of_the_final/ I'm glad the episode lived up to the excitement of seeing it live!

I was at Hart Plaza last year. (I see I made a brief post about it above, though I wasn't really trying to be a spoiler.) I've finally posted my pictures here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/8559533@N04/sets/72157709278981053/ I also wrote up a long blurb on FB about the day, intended for friends of mine who watch the show. It's pretty long, so I won't repeat it here, but you can find it on Reddit at: https://www.reddit.com/r/TheAmazingRace/comments/c69e2k/my_experience_watching_the_filming_of_the_final/ In retrospect, I wish I had spoiled myself before I went downtown. It would have helped us identify the teams and get to the right places at the right times. But it was still a ridiculously awesome way to spend a summer afternoon.

There was only one bullet left in the gun.

I was at Hart Plaza and talked to a producer who told us the Afghanimals had tons of problems with some task inside the Guardian building. The final task was assembling a drum kit. He said it took much longer than expected. It was possible to watch Colin (in his blue shirt, which stood out, though I was unspoiled and didn't actually know who he was then!) and Christie running back and forth through the band, over and over. It took forever for them to finish, including one break for the band. So sick of Seven Nation Army!!

The race may be ending in Detroit (where I live!). https://www.freep.com/story/entertainment/music/2018/06/27/seven-nation-army-amazing-race-detroit-belle-isle-denied-musicians-white-stripes/739645002/

I didn't even think of that as being bad when watching. In any case, it's way down the list of horrible things teams have done on this show. Vanck and Ashton have been much worse to each other (mostly Ashton to Vanck). And I repeat that even if it was the meanest thing ever, I don't want to watch a show where people "vote people out" based on how well they get along. Well, actually I do, and it's called Survivor. It was built for that concept. Even on Survivor, though, the smart players often keep around people they can't stand in order to give themselves a better shot to win. When TAR breaks out the "social game," it's always a group that thinks they are wonderful, lovable people getting out the bad apple, when to the audience they often just come off as a bunch of obnoxious assholes. (See TAR 24.)

Well, said team was denied a chance to win a life-changing amount of money and continue on a once-in-a-lifetime trip around the world, not because of their own skill level, but because a group of people got together and decided they weren't cool enough. It may not have been bullying, but it wasn't fun to watch either. They should have picked a strong team (like Seth and Olive--though I hate to see strong teams go out via U-Turn too). Or teams should have U-Turned teams behind them based on the circumstances of the moment. But this was a calculated plan to take out someone they all didn't like. It made the episode boring and made all the teams (though some more than others) look like "mean girls" (and guys). The real problem, though, is the U-Turn itself. First, we had the Yield, an attempt to add unnecessary drama to an Emmy-winning show. The U-Turn was an improvement, since watching tasks is better than watching paint dry. The Double U-Turn was even more of an improvement, since it can place two teams in direct competition (though even that can fail). But now they've put the U-Turn before the Detour (which is stupid), and they've apparently removed any limit on how many times you can use the U-Turn (which is stupid). And all the U-Turn does is foster the "social game" part of the show, which was not part of TAR Classic: If you didn't like a team, that was fine, but you still had to beat them on the race course. I'm also tired of teams helping each other find places and complete challenges. It makes the show less competitive, because the outcast team (or, on a better episode, the team that just happens to be behind) gets put at an even further disadvantage. I'm a huge fan of this show. I've been to many TARcons. I'm super happy it's back, and I don't even mind the season's twist. But I am continually being reminded of why I started to lose my love in the mid-20 seasons: the "social game" and ganging up on teams, tasks that are too easily skipped by getting the answer from the other teams, tasks that are too easy or have no/limited ability to change the order, short legs, badly designed legs (e.g., mid-leg ferries and Fast Forwards which take longer than the other tasks), dressing up in silly costumes for tasks, lots of so-called "locals" who have nothing better to do than hang around tasks and laugh at stupid Americans, Phil being less serious and more like the drunk uncle along for the ride, the choppy editing leaving out the start order/the order at each major checkpoint/the finish order announcements, apparent undocumented changes in the rules like how long the roadblock limit applies or if you can U-Turn twice...etc. This season has been a big improvement in terms of locations and tasks, though. I thought the scenery was gorgeous and the restaurant and ghost tasks both interesting and locally flavored.

Except he (inexplicably) has top billing.

Muffyn, your interpretation of last week's episode is exactly how I interpreted it. Of course, it was vague because the show eschews dialogue in favor of wordless emoting by actors who can't act. But I was hoping that Chris would explain his side of the story this week. Instead, he went BSC for no apparent reason. I really, really hope Celia was drugging people. Of course, Daniel was already hearing voices weeks ago--but he wasn't this crazy, Nick seemed to be adjusting well to the apocalypse, and Chris's struggles seemed logically motivated. Also, I was surprised how little Chris was actually mentioned in this episode. You'd think this would be big news: Chris threatened his step-family with a knife and then ran off into the zombie apocalypse. Madison mentioned the situation straight away in order to get Travis started on his search, but otherwise no one really seemed to express an opinion on the matter. This plot would have been better off being its own standalone episode/arc without all the other crazies to distract from it. In an alternate universe, the gang gets to the house and Chris's unstable, dangerous behavior gets them in trouble with Celia before everything goes all Herschel's barn redux (if it even has to).

Huh?

Possibly my favorite edit comment of all time. I thought this episode was really good, even if I hated the ending. In general, I think it's been a good season, with mostly likable and competitive teams doing tough tasks in good locations. I'm sure there have been some flaws along the way, but my gut feeling at the end of most weeks is that this has been better than recent seasons. But yeah, I'm really, really sick of Tyler. I still want to like Korey, but why did they have to go all evil just because Burnie told everyone he'd found a clue? It's not even like Burnie was part of some pact to not say anything. I loved when Burnie passed Tyler and Dana on his own. Too bad about the Bald Snark. I also think Dana is one of the nastiest significant others I've ever seen on this show. I usually don't mind bickering couples if they're amusing, excellent racers, or have other good qualities. But this isn't even a bickering couple; it's completely one-sided. Matt is continuously abused without showing any signs of life. So I guess I'm rooting for Sheri and Cole? Sheri is awesome, and Cole has grown on me. I was really happy for them tonight, even if I'd rather Burnie and Ashley had made it through.

This was my favorite episode in a long, long time. Everything about it worked. There was a beautiful new country with cool sights to see. (The travelogue part of the show has really been top-notch the last few weeks, after I had conceded they weren't really trying anymore.) The candy Detour was difficult and allowed skilled racers to jump ahead. I'm not usually a fan of limited availability tasks, but this one created interesting strategy as one team stayed and another one left. The wine Detour required less skill, but it was apparently at least somewhat tough to find. All of these elements combined to form some excellent Bald Snarking (and pseudo-Bald Snarking? Does it count if you don't ever get to a task?). Then there was an extremely difficult Roadblock...but one, I suddenly realized, that was perfectly suited to a team at the back of the pack. On the way to the Pit Stop, one of my two favorite teams was in the lead...only to get lost and lose the win to my favorite team! And then a dance showdown, bag mixup, and footrace to the mat?! With the better team winning? After an episode in which I was convinced they or Dana & Matt were getting the doomed edit, only to look back and see the splitting of "Blodie" (ugh) expertly foreshadowed? This is why I fell in love with this show.

Then they should have auditioned for American Idol! This is a great way to put it. Right now I'm listening to these acoustic songs that Kris released randomly today (did you see them?), and I'm still struck by how much I love his voice. I've loved it since Man in the Mirror. It may not be Adam Lambert's otherworldly voice, but I just...like it better. And I like his style of singing, genre, everything better. Yeah, but they aired Kris winning directly behind Daughtry. It was pretty blatant. Also, there was some positive stuff about Taylor on the show. (I'm sick of Taylor shade too. I never followed him after the show, but he was my fave in S5. Stop creating shows where America picks the winner if you don't like America's picks.)

Yeah, as a fan of Kris, this made me very angry. For one thing, Kris has actually been quite successful relative to many alums (including recent winners). He had a platinum hit and, according to Wikipedia, is #10 among alums in terms of digital sales. (That doesn't mean he's anywhere close to #10 in overall sales or "success," whatever that means, but it's certainly nice to see his name up high.) He's made four post-Idol albums and tours often--I think he's doing fine with a career he would have never had if it weren't for winning Idol. It's just that he has become the poster boy for "America got it wrong," as if that's possible in a show which is defined by America's arbitrary vote. From the very beginning, the show went out of its way to slam Kris, from Simon's look when he won to Ryan's nasty comments on radio the next morning. I think they should have embraced him, as in "This guy managed to beat the GREAT Adam Lambert," thus promoting both equally (in the industry and on the show in mentions, return appearances, etc.--though Kris was on quite a bit this year). Instead, they helped propagate the meme that Idol fans didn't always vote for "the voice," which had two effects: (1) A little show called "The Voice" took that to heart and (2) Idol decided it needed to manipulate things even more, to the point where the audience barely voted in season 15. That didn't work out so well for them, did it? Sorry for the rant. I don't mind Kris not being interviewed--there are lots of ex-Idols, with busy schedules--but the negativity thrown on his win was totally unnecessary and ruined what was otherwise a very enjoyable and informative documentary.

That's too bad. I got blocked by Tasha from Survivor years ago for asking her why she voted the way she did, and I'm still kind of pissed about it. It's pretty thin-skinned, if you ask me. You have to be ready for criticism as a reality contestant, and permanent blocking should only be used against actual harassers. It almost makes me regret tweeting her with sympathy about the poor leg design, including both the ridiculous end-of-leg bunch and the continuing inability to design tasks which can't be done in groups. It's not the other teams' fault for taking advantage of collusion opportunities, and the girls were way too whiny, but come on, show. And to think, if the other teams *had* helped the girls, we would have had a nine-way footrace to cap off an even more useless episode! Sigh. What a waste of beautiful scenery and a cool detour. I'm sure lots of racers in lots of seasons have done silly things, but it's the producers' choice to feature the footage. Hated the romance angle--when did we start beginning the show with that crap and not "This is Cartagena, Colombia, [random fact about Cartagena]. It was also the third pit stop in a race around the world"??? I give up... Brittany said on Twitter that they needed to get tickets, so it wasn't as close as it looked. On the other hand, it could still be their fault. She said they could have bought tickets on the train but only had US currency...so why hadn't they changed some money beforehand? And why couldn't they get all the necessary tickets at the first station? Two things: First, if there are N segments of bench and a non-integer number of newspapers fits in each segment, then you'd have to make a rough estimate of the extra newspaper fraction. The error in this estimate could cause you to answer outside the correct range if it and N were large enough. Second, if you don't have to do the whole thing multiple times, you could just keep guessing numbers once you had a ballpark value. The whole point of the task is the careful step-by-step measurement, not simple math estimates followed by guessing. Though I guess your strategy is good for getting a rough estimate that your long measurement will refine. And seeing if you're roughly counting right as you go. (I would have kept some record of intermediate counts, I think.)