Falafel

Wait, the next season is going to be an entirely Big Brother cast? Ew. I was excited to have rediscovered this show after I stopped for 10 seasons, but in protest I think I'll take another break again.

Replying to the above... yeah, I distinctly both Colin & Christie and Mirna & Charla getting massive leads because of smart flight maneuvering but the thing is, that happened in Season 5 and I remember airport drama being a staple right until I stopped watching at about Season 19. Was the change ever addressed on the show or did they just stop showing the flight jostling and act like that was normal?

So, I am someone who stopped watching TAR around season 19. (I'm not sure why - it's a great show.) I picked it up again in this last season and I couldn't help but notice how different it was. They didn't show jostling for flights at the airport at all. That is a huge departure from when I last watched the show - finding the best flights was a key component of every leg and at least the first 1/4 of the episode would be devoted to it. I still remember that some of the very best teams did so well because of how savvy they were with finding flights, like Mirna & Charla and Colin & Christie in Season 5 stand out in my memory. Has this difference been explained in any articles anywhere? Do teams chose from pre-selected flights now or something? I do recall some episodes where a team got so far ahead, or a team got so far behind, that the leg wasn't very suspenseful. (Who else remembers when Charla & Mirna couldn't do the detour because of a "storm" when they arrived the day before everyone else.) Or do they just not show airport stuff unless it significantly changes the order of the race? And is there a specific season where this changed?

I couldn't watch live -- just watched the finale now. I hate that Big Brother won. I just don't get the sense that Cody and Jessica are nice people, and I don't see them as particularly appealing heroes for a large cash reward. I thought Jen was going to be able to win the final task, but it seems like the real trick was understanding what each symbol meant. It seems simple enough to just make sure each leg is represented once -- unless you don't know what the symbols are referring to. I really wanted her to get it and I was bummed Kristi & Jen didn't win. On that note, I think the final task should've been a partner task. The race basically came down to one racer's puzzle skills (or guessing skills) and it would've been nice if the final task required them to work together. Oh well, the team I was rooting for didn't win. The thing about the Amazing Race is that usually that's the case. That's why it's "reality" TV and not a scripted Hollywood movie, I guess.

Caught up on the episode behind everyone else. Read through the thread and I don't have much to add... I did think it was out of the blue that Cody mentioned he has a daughter - had he ever mentioned her before? He sounded very non-committal about even using the money to provide to her. It was so odd to me and so disjointed with the "character" the show has assigned him. Evan and Team Yale have gotten a pretty crap edit. They obviously don't vibe with the other teams and they may not be likeable people in group settings like the race, but is that really such a crime? I notice in reality shows "isn't friends with other contestants" is instantly equated to "villainous asshole you should root against." It kind of drives me batty. I have no problem with Evan or Henry and I think they are probably good, thoughtful, caring people. They do have a very direct manner of talking through things that seems to work for them, though I am sure others could find it off-putting. So what, I say. The scorpion task was horrifying. I'm a vegetarian, and not because I have an ethical objection to eating meat, but because I find eating meat disgusting, so I'd instantly be fucked if I came across a task like that. As a side note, I felt bad for the way those frog were manhandled, but then we later learned they were going to be grilled up and eaten anyway. Yuck. It's a bummer Ocean Rescue lost the passport and sucked the suspense out of what could've been a competitive leg. I guess I admire that they attempted to keep going, but you just knew Phil was going to greet them in the middle of the night somewhere. I wish them well with their marriage and life together. I'm definitely rooting for Kristi & Jen. The race car dudes seem nice enough, but honestly I'm just not super amped by the idea of two athletic men winning the race again. They really could back-to-back breaks: going to Bahrain and knowing their way away from racing there, and then getting the taxi driver from heaven. Sorry fellas, but here's hoping the luck runs out. The thought of Big Brother winning is just... unpleasant.

Following up on my inquiry about whether or not the song the racers had to sing had an unusual beat, which I think only I care about: A few music theory people in this thread think it is a mixed-metric song, which is harder to follow along than your usual pop song. The fact that there is no consensus answer tells me it's a complicated song. Again, you can listen to the song again here - it's been in my head for days now.

I'm noticing, listening to it back, that it would be a lot harder to know where to jump in and sing when it's just the music and there's no one to sing along to. Because while I find the melody very simple and I thought it seemed pretty easy, I had the benefit of trying to sing along with the singer. The beginning part without the vocals, it's not immediately clear where you have to start singing. I'll trust others on the time signature, but it does remind of the song "Electric Feel" by MGMT, which has a 6/4 time signature, or even "Money" by Pink Floyd, which has a weird 7/4-4/4 time signature -- both those songs have a sort of "looping" quality to them that I don't know how to explain. Pasi Pano Pane Zviedzo feels like it has a similar loop and does not sound like a 4/4 time signature to me, but it could be other elements that are throwing me off. I have not studied music in any capacity, but I do know that the vast majority of pop songs and music we know today is 4/4.

During the task, she did tell Jessica to get back on track and stop complaining about Evan. But it was afterward that she was complaining to her partner and told her not to help Evan. The partner just listened to what the blonde had to say regarding Evan's behavior and seemed to think Evan was mean or backstabbed them, which couldn't have been further from the truth. The blonde should've let it go afterward, but she didn't. It's also bizarre that Evan got the blame from Jessica and the blonde, when the twin she was with wasn't falling over himself to give away the answer either. Serious double-standard there. But someone needs to tell everyone this is a RAAAAACE. Say what you want about Boston Rob and Amber (I wasn't a fan of then even being cast on the show) but at least they got that it was a race.

I'm playing catch-up here... What was with the outfits Team Yale were wearing in their final to-camera interview after they landed at the mat? I don't know if that's considered cool at Yale but it looked like they were wearing disguises or something. It was hilarious to me. I can't stand the Big Brother team and it would be great if they'd stop casting people from CBS's other dumb reality shows. Cody sounds like an ignorant, ugly American and it was absurd that Jessica expected Evan to just give her the clue. I like the all-girl team, but man did the blonde's stock drop when she was paired up with Jessica - she was just as ridiculous for thinking Evan owed it to them to "work with them" when the other team had clearly been struggling and needed help. I wasn't sure about the partner swap but it wasn't bad. It added a new dynamic to the race and it was directly going to decide who stayed and who went home. I'm interested to see if those allegiances continue. I thought it was really dumb to split the tasks though. It should've been obvious that four minds are better than two and they could've all worked together. Cody and his partner finishing first did nothing for them, and I suspected that was how it would work - you need both partners to arrive to move on. That final task was ridiculous. They managed to give teams the clue even when they were so off beat and pronouncing everything wrong. It was totally arbitrary. As someone with natural rhythm, it's fascinating to me that some people just can't sing to a beat and keep a beat - I feel like they could've eventually gotten it right, but maybe not? The beat didn't sound that hard to get the hang of to me. Question for people who know music: What time signature do you think the song was? It's called Pasi Pano Pane Zviedzo and I found video. It may not be 4/4 and perhaps it was throwing the racers off, but it sounded really simple to me. They seemed to struggle simply with combining some of the syllables together instead of waiting for the next beat. If any strong teams asked me for help, I tell myself I'd make up shit and try to get them eliminated. "Oh yeah, Cameron's hardware was on the left side of the street down a set of stairs." But I'm a bad liar and a blabbermouth, so I'd probably end up helping teams too.

I came here to wonder why Cedric wore his backpack for the entire detour and I see everyone else noticed that but no one knows why he did it. I assume maybe it was just a mental lapse, like he had it on and forgot to take it off, and once the detour started he just kept it on, not realizing how long and physical it would be. At first, I figured they just had to go to the first roof -- going to three locations surprised me. Even all the racers who did the detour without their bags seemed exhausted. I would be so terrible at this show.

I didn't love the head-to-head race twist, but I can accept it. It did seem set up to penalize whichever team lost because there would be compounding fatigue -- and even with the french fry stacks, foot racing still favors taller people and men, which is lame. But it took me a long time to accept the idea that some Amazing Race legs don't result in an elimination and it should be seen as a twist, just like a detour or a roadblock. I've come around to accept that was long as it's not blatantly engineered by the producers, everyone has a chance at any time and luck is a legitimate factor, so I can accept this head-to-head twist. Like, the producers once created "bunching" right at the very end of a leg where everyone had to wait together and then race up and down some sort of temple -- it was total bullshit and it was a manufactured dramatic finish. That's a bit what this felt like, but I do think every team had a better chance to finish and get through this. The teams that arrived last and second last to the fry race were penalized for their poor positioning because they could only do one or two races to get through, which seems fairer than just bunching everyone together. That said, if the Yale team got eliminated, I probably would've felt more outraged on their behalf. The secret is that fries in Belgium are double fried. They had them in Amsterdam when I visited and they were amazing. I was wondering the same thing when half of the goat yoga team got turned around mid-race. I wonder if it would've been faster or easier though -- maybe not.

I hated this episode. Felt like it was from a different show entirely and didn't connect to the arc of the season whatsoever. Aziz Ansari and Alan Yang should make a short film if that's what they want to do. That said, I think these are interesting stories to tell, but it would've been far more impressive if they had found a way to do it through the established characters and the established tone of the show. If Master Of None was a show that focused on different random characters each week, I'd stop watching, and as it is I'm wondering why we have barely seen Denise and Brian this season. I miss this being a show that's a commentary on modern life for people in our 30s, which was what the first season was about. So far this season has felt like excuses for Aziz to hang out in Italy and try out new film school project ideas. Can't say I've enjoyed it compared to the first season.

If the producers hadn't spoiled their own show, I would've been shocked at Rachel being cut. She had the best chemistry with Nick of all the women. She's a gem. I hope that I don't like her less on her season, which is normally what happens when a contestant is picked to be the Bachelor/ette. I can't fathom that Raven is in the Final Two. She looks like a member of the Addams family with her jet black hair and goth make-up, is 25, and her interests include mudding and shooting guns. Of course the 36-year-old aspiring actor in LA should pick her to be his wife! I think Nick will pick Vanessa. I think he loves that Vanessa is demanding and a little emotional -- you could practically see him getting turned on by that weird "I'm not traditional" conversation that I hope was edited because it made no sense. But how is Raven still here? The Women Tell All was all filler and rehashing of storylines that weren't that exciting the first time around. Danielle L. exclaiming, "I'm so confused!" was just painful. Girl, let me clear it up for you: Nick loved your rack, but then realized you have the personality of a tree stump and he cut you. My favorite sentence uttered in the whole thing: "Everyone knows Liz as someone who slept with Nick but I know Liz as someone who builds wells at orphanages."

I just want to say, that episode was dumb as hell. Even for this show. Thank goodness for Rachel because the rest was just a hot mess. Way too much producer set-up garbage. "Hey P.A., pull this string and shake this book shelf." "Hey Taylor, go interrupt Nick's date with Corinne and tell him what he doesn't know." Hey me, zzzzz.

Finished Season 3. That season wasn't as fun as the previous two. I agree with those who didn't like Maya's storyline. When she started watching the horrible news all night, I was like "Girl, I feel you" and I thought it was going to be more about feeling scared or anxious. I've stopped reading the news because I realized it makes me depressed. But then it went down this weird route of the death photos and it was never explained in a satisfactory way. Like, Saad said almost nothing, but you would've thought there was something to explore about him coming from a war-torn region. Instead, Maya is obsessed with death and it's not super clear why, and I too couldn't help but think, "where was this when Cam kill himself?" I agree it didn't seem like a natural place for the Maya we know to go to. I didn't mind the stuff with Tristan and Miles, except a guy being in a coma isn't the most relatable storyline, which is what I think is Degrassi's strength. (Hello, period storyline! That happened to me once!) I just sort of didn't care that much about it. And everyone was so aghast that Miles might move on but I'm not sure I'd blame him (although he is a bit slutty -- maybe he needs to not fuck around and work on himself?). That play was ridiculous, but I thought the actual production of it looked cool in the end. I just hope when Season 4 rolls around, Tristan is fine again. I'm always a fan of the gay storylines, since Degrassi is the only show that seems to do a decent job with them, but Zoe was so selfish and ridiculous, that I couldn't root for her at all. I saw what was happening a mile away, and it was dumb for her to act out at her mom's wedding. Lola's abortion happened pretty quickly, one episode and done. But I guess that's refreshing -- it wasn't this crisis and she didn't change her mind and keep the baby. Not that abortions are shown on TV all the time (especially in the U.S.) but it was interesting that they acknowledged for some women, the decision is clear from the beginning and they are relieved with it. The Frankie/Jonah pairing is not that interesting. Which I guess was maybe the point of their struggles. They really need to break up and be done with it. I sense Jonah and Grace getting together in the future. I dislike Zig so much. He seems so vapid and devoid of original thoughts. Also, try wearing sleeves every once in a while!