aradia22

This is their audition video. Surprisingly informal. They're just super charismatic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsmJOfDAXbM&ab_channel=GregandJohn

I don't think Rob reacted until he saw Padraic reaching down for the clue. I remember this moment. Also, pretty sure her name is Anna May (however it's spelled). When they were near the goals they put a halo around the ball so the audience could see. I thought this was helpful. Also, maybe Greg and John have their numbers wrong but the discrepancy between what they've said and what was shown on TV makes me think the editors may have altered how many attempts it actually took for each team in some challenges.

In hindsight, they've had memorization tasks in other languages before... they might have actually slowed some teams down with a memorization challenge in Gaelic.

From Greg and John's recap, you're absolutely right. They went through the motions and then stopped filming before they actually confirmed any purchases. Everyone was on the same flight and in the same hotel.

Greg and John also disagree about whether the food was real or not. Greg thought it was real. John thought it might have been real but it had a weird glaze over it and didn't smell so it definitely wasn't edible.

Watching their recaps is a little dull but they provide extra background. More travel and navigation drama that's maybe too boring to include in the episode. They use phones and google maps a lot but were also disappointed the few times they were able to try to break away from the pack and it didn't work out with getting on an earlier flight, etc. since they thought that would be a strength going into the race. They do have a lot of special skills. Greg mentioned he has tried knitting and crocheting. Greg drove a stick shift car in college. John is proficient with musical instruments. So it's not just skiing, snowboarding, and kayaking. I like that they found racers who were so well rounded and competitive. They are still very likable but they are even more thoughtful and strategic in their recaps. They really planned for the race. Also, they did find some of the tasks easy as well and admitted the struggle was just navigation or the length of the leg or the struggles of traveling without sleep. Also, they gave away the bratwursts after the mustard task to people who helped them with directions. John apparently has very bad eyesight. They did get a little annoyed with Robbin and Chelsea following them and not even attempting to get directions themselves.

They were really great concerning the difficulty of what they had to teach to people totally unfamiliar with that style of dance and whom (as far as I know) don't have professional dancing experience. However, I'm glad they still had the instructor repeating the order of the steps during the routine because it would have taken way longer for the racers to pass the challenge without that constant reminder. I'm assuming they were going off the dance challenge in India? But it got me curious about her pageant talent. Google says she's a speech pathologist/flight attendant but I don't think anyone has talked about their jobs except Greg and John (tech), Garrett (UPS driver), and Jocelyn and Victor (supermarket). Morgan has her fancy business degree and Todd used to play basketball. Joining you in the shallow end. At least we still have Greg and John. And it's kind of nice to see gym bodies on TV that are not bulked up with steroids. The way it was filmed, I'm pretty sure there was a judge cueing them for every attempt. Too many awkward pauses and tight reaction shots. Or maybe there was signage held up while the racers' backs were to the bar. Read an article somewhere about how it's trendy to give young people fancy titles (sometimes instead of paying them more and such). My knowledge of Joyce comes from the terrible off-Broadway musical Himself and Nora. So bawdy and scatalogical and horny.

I was worried I was losing interest in this season but nope, this was a great episode. Starting off with the swim to get the clue was not that interesting (They can play all the dramatic music they want but having tourists happily milling about decreases whatever intensity they're going for.) but I was bribed with attractive shirtless men so I was content. I feel like they were really trying to play up how far behind Steve and Anna Leigh were but obviously there wasn't much of a gap because all the cars where they when they arrived and they were able to follow Greg and John driving out after the task. The Riverdance task brought all the challenge I've been missing in the last few episodes. Also, I got very invested in Corey and Anna Mei's flirtation. It was very chaste, of course, but so are Hallmark movies. Interested to see what he says in the recap about admitting he thought she was cute. I didn't even think about the challenge of heeled tap shoes until Corey almost fell. I think Corey did especially well since the executive producer told him to "keep that shirt." And Padraic seemed genuinely thrilled for Steve after he succeeded on his 9th attempt. It was a good, tough judging. He wasn't so strict on expecting them to be at the level of the professionals with posture or clean footwork but if they obviously missed a step, he wouldn't let them just pass. Impressive that Corey and John made it through on their second attempts. If you watch the recaps from both teams, they really are fierce competitors. I'm glad casting went with two very competitive and strategic teams this year. Like, they are decently well traveled and they have actual skills beyond being vaguely in shape. It was interesting then that Corey took 7 attempts at the Croke Park hurling task since, according to him, he has basically tried every sport. I wasn't paying that much attention (cooking) at that point in the episode so I missed what he was struggling with. Garrett took 6 attempts while Greg and Steve managed in 2. The pub task with the James Joyce quotes didn't seem like that big of a deal. They talked it up a lot but it was like any other memorization task. The added bonus of getting watched by a totally silent pub and then cheered or booed was probably the tougher part if you're not comfortable with public speaking. In this episode I learned "fascinating" is a Corey euphemism. I was confused at the very end when John said the other teams had only won one leg apiece. Just looked at the tally and I forgot Steve and Anna Leigh winning twice and Robbin and Chelsea winning once. Rob and Corey have gotten second so often, I was just remembering it like they'd won. Also, Joel and Garrett have apparently finished second or third way more often than I realized. Great season so far and a great feeling heading into the finale. I won't be disappointed if any of the teams win but I'm definitely rooting for Rob and Corey.

Turns out Rob and Corey had back luck with their taxi driver this leg and that's why they got to the skydiving so late. Also, the memory of the lotus task did dissuade them from making the wreaths in addition to their confidence in handling detours. According to them, the lotus bouquets had taken around 2 hours and the Sort task this leg was about 25 minutes.

My assumption is that people who wear contacts generally do so for vanity and switch to glasses only when their eyes are tired or they're in private. It's more noticeable if someone only wears contacts for sports or special occasions. People who wear contacts seem to use them most of the time. Also, I haven't researched this deeply, but use of contacts is being investigated for myopia treatment so it might be increasingly prevalent for people to choose contacts over glasses going forward. My eyes are too forked at this point to switch.

I'm used to prop food looking plasticky. Like the displays they'll put in front of restaurants so you can see what the dishes look like. But there was something that looked like it had ladyfingers and one fell over when John was holding the plate and he had to put it back which makes me think it was real food. Whether it was real or not, I don't think they ate it for food safety. But I hope if it was real, the rest of the stuff on the table didn't go to waste. Though now I'm thinking about how chaotic it could have been if multiple teams had picked this task instead of recycling.

Yeah, this is where I am. I really want Rob and Corey to win. I'd be happy for Greg and John if they won. If the other two teams win, I'll be fine with it but I mostly want to see some more interesting challenges for the final legs. Were the two tasks close by? And more importantly, close to the next clue? There might have been some extra travel time as well.

Yeah, okay then watching people race to do simple tasks quickly is not my idea of entertainment... especially for 90 minutes. I'd rather see them do something difficult as quickly as they can. Make it a challenge.

I started watching their youtube recaps. Interesting to learn that they did not have interpreters during the legs. They only had them at safety briefings and post-race interviews/talking heads... which explains things like Rob struggling to get feedback and figure out what he needed to fix at the lotus bouquet task. Also, Rob is only 48 and Corey is 25 so even though the race is tiring, it seems like it's more the way they push themselves than a lack of athleticism or stamina. Though they did plan ahead to have Corey try to take the brunt of the physical challenges.

Just conjecture but I wonder if past roadblocks like the lotus bouquets made the teams nervous. Basically everyone (except Ashlie, I think) commented on how they were less precious about the task after seeing Anna Leigh tear through it. You don't know how harshly it's going to be judged until people start getting checks. If I remember correctly, Rob, Ashlie, Greg, Steve, and Joel were the ones doing the lotus task on their teams. That means Ashlie and Greg were the only ones who chose to do both tasks. I do think it comes down to challenge design. Everyone shouldn't be completing the tasks in roughly the same amount of time. The intermediary tasks to find clues (e.g. find the violinist, go up a spiral staircase) just seem like time wasters and there isn't enough skill or chance involved in the detours and roadblocks to be all that interesting. It feels like it's been like this since they got to Europe. Maybe production thinks it makes the teams look more competitive when there's a lot of bunching but I find it dull... especially on the last leg.

I don't think the world needs more influencers but if he somehow ended up being on camera more after this... maybe hosting educational videos or a children's program... I wouldn't hate it. Also, random but was the food real for the Serve task? Or was it prop food? I remember her at the maypole and at the mat. I think sometimes people go on TV conscious of how they present themselves... but then emotion gets the best of them. I don't think that's happened with Greg and John. Of course, they might be getting a favorable edit. But Greg fell in the water at the pomelo task (I think because John moved or because John didn't reach out to help steady him) and if they fought, that didn't make the edit. They might get mildly frustrated at taxi drivers but we haven't seen a bad mood linger even when they aren't at the front of the pack. It doesn't seem like they're repressing feelings but instead they manage to keep everything in perspective. It's admirable. It made me not want to visit Sweden. Because apparently the subway stations are difficult to find and no one knows how to give directions. More handsome? Without glasses. Cuter? With glasses. But I have a Clark Kent thing so I like the glasses.

Am I getting tired of the season or was this a boring episode? I don't think I'm over it because I was excited to sit down and watch. Partially it was the gloomy weather in Sweden, which the producers can't do anything about. But it also felt repetitive and like there was too much bunching so the tasks were not difficult enough or they were exactly the same amount of difficult for everyone. Greg and John running past the clue box even though they got their first was a bad mistake but it's impressive they still ended up second to the mat. I'm sure the racers had fun but skydiving was not exciting for me to watch. It's just difficult to get good footage. And it was very repetitive. The maypole was deeply awkward to me. It didn't seem that difficult to assemble the wreath and then... you know the less said about the singing and dancing, the better. Rob and Corey bailed pretty quickly with the express pass, but aside from using it for the detour, I don't really see a good place for them to skip. Again, too much bunching. Credit to Anna Leigh for racing thing through the maypole roadblock so their boat got back right after Rob and Corey. I don't love the top two teams working together but I get that to some extent, it's going to feel awkward going in the same direction and being super competitive about getting there minutes before another team. When you're on foot and taking public transportation, you're not really going to get that far ahead so you might as well be nice if you're going to be following each other anyway. Did they know the recycling signs would be in Swedish. Weird they all chose the physical task. I would have taken the Serve task with memorizing the menus and like Greg and John, I speak enough French it would have been simple enough. Also, there's the hidden advantage of being comfortable inside while the other teams are running around cold in the rain doing a physical challenge. I didn't understand how Stromparterren was a museum from Phil's description. How did they lose track of a 16th century town within the last 50 years? Then we had the slow, chaotic race to the mat with a lot of pointless running around. It didn't show the Swedish metro to any advantage. Of course, working together messed up the initial top 3 and Joel and Garrett got to the mat first. No tension because I figured Todd and Ashlie would be out unless those three actually got on the wrong train and went somewhere else. Those departing comments at the mat from Todd about how five or six years ago they were not as secure in their marriage and "God restored our relationship" makes me think there was a lot of stuff the editors cut out. I am glad that the editors suddenly deciding we should learn Garrett's daughter didn't mean they were going home.

I think they've been more entertaining at other points of the race... singing little songs and that sort of thing, but they were pretty focused this leg. I find them naturally charismatic. Todd seems the closest to wanting to be famous. Maybe it's just class clown energy but I find his humor lame (and not in the cute dad joke way like the beards). It's all referential like how he was talking about 2 Chainz and whatnot while Ashlie wanted him to hurry up with the task. He's done it before like in the other episode with mattresses... "Pivot" from Friends in the staircase. Unless it grates on you, I feel like it goes unnoticed because it's not very funny, but I do get the vibe that he's trying to play up to the camera. I do get some influencer vibes from Corey as well but I think it's very muted because he's racing with his dad.

I was having TV issues (DVR didn't record the parade) so it's possible I would have enjoyed this episode more had I watched when I'd planned to yesterday afternoon. But it also seemed pretty cloudy the day they were filming and there was very little mystery about who was going home this episode so maybe this one just didn't need to be 90 minutes. The roadblock with arranging the 12 utensils didn't seem that difficult. John breezed right through it and most everyone else didn't really struggle though they were forced to be cautious. Only a few of them dropped items and Chelsea was the only one who did it wrong and had to go back. Credit to Anna Leigh for making up some time there. I thought it was cute how Greg signaled he was talking about Steve and Anna Leigh with a "howdy" Going into the caves was a cool visual. I'm not sure how difficult it was. Corey mentioned it was chilly but a lot of them left sweating. It might have been the distance or the effort of assembling the dragon. I think I might have felt a bit claustrophobic getting that deep into the caves, especially with the tight tunnels. It didn't seem like anyone struggled with the assembly that much. Again, Greg and John aced it. Todd and Ashlie had a tough time but I think they were just bickering at that point after missing the exit and driving an extra 30km and I don't think it really set them back that much. Robbin tried to be more positive this episode but ended up... being Robbin again. I feel like they gave them a bit of a nicer edit since they were already going home. Credit to Steve and Anna Leigh for getting up to 3rd place heading into the fish farm task. Swap Out seemed like the better task if you're good in a kayak. Scrape Off seemed like the physical task if you don't trust yourself in a kayak. They started off the day fresh but I'm going to assume there's just KF at this point in the race or they were scrambling because things were so tight because it seemed like there were just dumb mistakes. Greg and John were in perfect formation and easily secured first place. I don't know if it was in the clue that if they removed a buoy, they had to swap out that one and couldn't just find another but Rob and Corey went about that task crazily. By the time Rob was thinking about getting in the water, they should have switched. Todd and Ashlie similarly made a challenge for themselves by not grabbing the chains to start off with. I appreciated Joel and Garrett's likable dad energy this episode. I hope they continue to stick around to have fun on the race. I was happy they managed to rise to second place just getting things done and not getting lost. I don't have any strong feelings about teams helping/not helping each other this leg. I did appreciate the suns out, guns out from Greg and John. 😏 Without Morgan and Lena, Todd and Ashlie and Robbin and Chelsea brought the bickering and dysfunction but there wasn't much worth commenting on. I hope there are some fun tasks to come because with five teams left, 90 minute episodes are going to be tough if there's this much bunching.

I guess we interpret that completely differently because to me it's very clear he's diminishing his responsibility and shifting blame to her. She wasn't mad at herself. She was mad they had wasted time. But he wanted her to only be mad at herself. And then he didn't want her to have any (justified) feelings about it at all

Again, I'm not asking for more backstory. But I would prefer the American Idol approach where you know the basics upfront and learn a little more over time. This is not information that should be introduced in episode 8. I'd compare it to Robbin who got to talk about her personal tragedy in episode 1... but then barely had it mentioned (maybe once or twice) since then while the editors decided to give her something of a villain edit. And Liam and Yeremi who kept getting to talk about their relationship as brothers because they'd cry on camera. Like, I truly don't understand what the editors are doing sometimes. The point of the backstories is to manipulate audience sympathies. It'd be like The Bachelor knowing one of the contestants has a dead relative/partner and only bringing it up mid-season after a villain edit and expecting the audience to care. That's not how it works. Also, if it was information we knew the whole time, it wouldn't be such a giveaway they were going home when they talked about it again. I know you do rewatches so I'd pay particular attention to what Todd was saying when they finally found the stairs. I think it was around the time they quit to let Rob and Corey take it. He was definitely pushing all the blame on her. Also, there's a difference between not coddling and always giving "shake it off" kind of advice. It's like when she thought she broke her finger during the mattresses and he said he's broken his finger many times and she was fine. He wasn't slowing down for her or helping her until later. It is unkind not to offer someone any sympathy when they're struggling and he has a habit of letting her drag herself along being him when they could easily race together. Of course, having Rob & Corey and Greg & John on the race does put the others in a bad light. I hope one of them wins. They're two of the more likable teams we've had in a long time.

It's definitely possible that I wouldn't feel as kindly towards Anna Leigh if we hadn't experienced Sharik and Linton last season and her increasing frustration when asked to do anything culminating in a total meltdown in Italy. As someone with non-specific allergies, I get it. I'm just assuming I'm allergic to pollen because of seasonal spikes but I have no problem with flowers and it could be dust or any number of things. It's not severe enough for me to get tested. The hay task was like diving into the deep end of exposure. Like someone who wasn't consciously avoiding nuts but never ate enough to notice a reaction suddenly being asked to eat as many nuts as the number of bugs Morgan and Lena had to eat in episode 1. I get that it was about the express pass, but I did feel bad remembering them doing that only to see them get eliminated later in the episode. I can't feel too bad though because they got in their own way with bickering and poor navigation. I don't know if that would be worse for Morgan and Lena or their camera person. I would hope they could just get directions at that point instead of driving around arguing.

I feel like this could be better incorporated into the race design. For instance, make something like the shopping for groceries task mandatory. And we don't always see it, but choreography tasks involve interacting with locals rather than just doing tasks and then getting judged. They're very different shows so I don't expect identical challenges, but they could also take a page from Taskmaster. Getting certain pieces of information from someone who can only speak/write in their native language would be interesting.

I think these are both fair criticisms but the latter bothers me more. There's a way to pace things and draw focus so there is some suspense. But TAR likes the races to the mat and the talking heads. Making the episodes 90 minutes only amplifies the problems. Why not show me Morgan and Lena getting lost for longer? I kept checking the time towards the end of the episode. That's part of the pacing issue but also a bit of a race design flaw. Rather than tasks that challenged the teams and slowed them down, it was another leg with a lot of self-navigation and also some random stuff to tire them out. With Morgan and Lena gone, my preference tips heavily towards the 3 all male teams. I mean, Ashlie is fine; I just don't like Todd. I still find Steve and Anna Leigh tolerable but they're not going to win so they should just be allowed to go home. And Robbin and Chelsea can leave yesterday. I hope they can enjoy their downtime wherever TAR sends the racers until the finale. For what it's worth, I feel like Morgan forgets the awful way she talked to Lena in between legs. Whereas Steve and Anna Leigh clearly hold onto resentment and it's wearing on them. Yeah, I know they said it's old TAR but I'm suspicious about whether tasks would be ready if any of the racers happened to get a big advantage with flights. Another thing... I have a hard time believing this is the first time Morgan and Lena have talked about their cousin. Not that I want more backstory but the editors are not doing a great job of sprinkling that stuff in naturally which you might expect with 90 minute episodes. Hopefully, if they continue with this episode length, they'll figure out the pacing as they go along. That was a lot as a response to one word. iirc AL was the one who decided to go for the Express Pass. 🤷‍♀️

The episode started with travel drama but it was really boring travel drama since the top 3 teams ended up losing their 8 hour lead through delays and transfers and so none of it amounted to anything and they ended up bunched up again. I get why they showed it to us because they wanted to build suspense (and the rest of tasks this episode were also boring) but meh. This was definitely an episode that didn't seem like it needed to be 90 minutes. The express pass led to a lot of mistakes this episode. First Todd just charging ahead not looking for a marked path and then spending a good chunk of the time until the hay detour blaming Ashlie and being entirely unsympathetic to her skiing struggles. Really remembered why I don't like him in this episode. I could have used more clumsy skiing but it seemed like most of that ended up on the cutting room and it didn't slow anyone down nearly as much as the navigation. I felt bad for Greg and John and Corey (and maybe some of the others) for their hay allergies. Seeing how things worked out, it made no sense to choose the bee house assembly/painting task. But I wonder if they had any plans in place other than forcing people to choose the other detour. Especially since it seemed like most of them didn't know they had hay allergies until they did the task. Joel and Garrett need to stop leaving things behind at tasks. They've managed to recover but they can't be lucky forever, especially as the pack is thinning out. Happy that Greg and John won the foot race for first. And that Chelsea and Robbin weren't able to follow them and had to self-navigate though if I had my way, they'd be out instead of Morgan and Lena. While I did like Morgan and Lena as racers, I'm not shocked they left this episode. I'm more shocked that Morgan was so nice to Anna Leigh and yet continued to bicker with and criticize Lena. Just no sympathy throughout the skiing and probably even more navigation drama than what we saw. Oof. I was worried for Steve this episode. I hate stairs. And I was certainly sympathetic to Rob and his good natured complaint when they had to climb the spiral staircase. But Anna Leigh not seeing the sign and making him climb all those stairs... without an express pass as a reward? I kind of want them to go home next episode just to put them out of their misery.