Tough As Nails - General Discussion

[Grizzly]

I like Marcus too, such a gentle giant. But I have difficulty understanding him. Really wish it had been Paul in overtime so Cheryl could have kicked his ass. I'm tired of hearing about how out of shape he is from beating cancer. Maybe he should have waited before applying to the show. And like you said, Akeelah is one of my favorites but she needs to take the criticism down a notch. Has she been crew boss yet? Then she could tell her team what to do.

[Browncoat]

I am beyond ready to punch Paul out.... er, for Paul to punch out.  I wish it had been him against Cheryl, too.

Did they use all the bruised and broken apples for the pressing at the end?  No way any of the apples they picked up and slung around were going to market as is!

[KeithJ]

I didn't really care for Akeela from the beginning and, after last night, I can't wait until she punches out.  It seems all she does is complain about her team and then last night just accuses them of not giving 100% and then saying Jessica was lying about it.

[Lamb18]

On 7/15/2023 at 5:12 AM, Browncoat said:

I am beyond ready to punch Paul out.... er, for Paul to punch out.  I wish it had been him against Cheryl, too.

Did they use all the bruised and broken apples for the pressing at the end?  No way any of the apples they picked up and slung around were going to market as is!

Yeah, I was hoping CBS would reimburse the orchard for the apples ruined by this challenge. Although I think the bruised apples would be OK for cider. Only the pressed juice comes from the apples and I think the bruises would be left with the pulp.

But probably sll the apples picked and used in the cider would be considered wastage. I'm sure there's quality control steps that normally would be performed.

I'm watching tonight's episode now. As usual Paul is beimg a big complaining dick in the big Rona store (like a Canadian Home Depot from what I can tell.)

[KeithJ]

Good morning / afternoon?  Those were some pretty long shadows for late morning / early afternoon.  Then it’s all of a sudden night time when they did the challenge?  I guess they needed the store closed for it.

[DEL901]

And another woman bites the dust.  

[Lantern7]

I think this show is more background noise for me. I’ll watch, I’ll try to care, but I’m not that intent. Even with the occasional dickishness from the contestants, it’s still a decent watch. I also think that if CBS would run commercials for Big Brother, Fire Country and Ghosts in an hour-long block if they could get away with it.

Phil is still Phil, and that’s better than okay. If the Emmy voters really gave a damn, he’d get nominated for Best Host for this and TAR.

Edited July 17, 2023 by Lantern7

[Grizzly]

Great strategy there. What happened to I hope 2 Savage Crew are in overtime? Then with every team a combination, that wasn't going to happen. Cheryl gave it her all, have to admire that. Akeelah won me back with that challenge dedicated to her father. I tear up just thinking about it.

[bunnyface]

I assumed (hoped) all the apples they were slinging about were already "wastage" by the orchard.  Because you know they weren't worth a crap by the time they got done with them.  And Akeela can shut her mouth any time.  To accuse others of not working hard enough and then tell them they are lying?  I hoped she would punch out but when it came down to her and Cheryl  (Cheryl (blank) Leitau!!) I knew where it was heading.  I don't like about half of Savage Crew, so I hope Dirty Hands wins big.

[wintrygal]

I was beginng to think that Cheryl was getting a winners edit she got so much camera time.  I was getting a bit sick of the repetition of all her abilities, her fighting spirit and by extension, sick of her.   Some of them you rarely hear anything from, guess it's like that with most reality shows.  Mostly rooting for Savage Crew, tho i do like one guy on Dirty Hands, think he's the fisherman? 

[mlp]

I don't like Akeela and her attitude but I was sort of glad she won because I was worried about Cheryl whom I do like.  She is pushing herself so hard that she's jeopardizing her health and safety.  She still has to participate in the team challenges but some of the pressure will be off I think.  At least she won't have to do the individual ones any more.  I wondered why neither of them thought to carry a half-filled bucket in each hand on the beam.  It seems like that would have helped them with balance.

I don't mind Paul.  He's worked hard all his life, supported his family, loves his wife.  He's just a guy who has spent his career working with men who have similar communication styles and aren't easily offended.

 

[Maverick]

 I like Cheryl well enough but I was getting tired of her eating the show too.   Is Rona (an unfortunate post-2020) what Lowe's operates as in Canada?   Because that looked a LOT like a Lowe's.   I thought that's where they were. 

 The Sob Story Light is focused on Akeela this week to explain why she;s so intense and rude to her teammates. 

[Taeolas]

Rona was an independent nationwide home hardware chain (that always had blue branding), but in the past decade or so, they've been passed around a bit. They were bought by Lowe's in the mid teens, but just last year (according to wiki) Lowe's sold off their Canadian operations to a different holding company. 

 

Since that happened so recently, I wonder if TaN had planned a Lowe's sponsorship for this challenge but the last minute company sale forced them to avoid explicitly mentioning it when they were filming. 

 

Home Improvement stores in Canada are a bit of a mess. We do have Home Depot and they are the 900lb gorilla in the market. Rona did well enough as the secondary chain for the most part, but they're mainly Ontario West as usually happens. Out in the Maritimes, the Irvings locked down the market early on with Kent, and they've bought a few other maritime chains through the years (in Newfoundland and Nova Scotia mainly; New Brunswick was always Kent). I don't think Rona/Lowes ever made it into the Maritimes, certainly not to any significant degree. 

The third major chain is Home Hardware. While some of their stores do deal in lumber, they mainly focus on tools and hardware. They've been around for a long time, and often serve as the small town Home Improvement store. 

[Browncoat]

As much as I admire Cheryl for getting things done in the team competitions, and for her efforts in the individual ones, it is not worth a potential permanent injury to continue on a game show.  I get not wanting just to quit, but she could have ended up in the hospital, or possibly not able to work ever again. 

[RunningMarket]

Catching up on episodes, so just finished the one with the ATV-log challenge. It seemed unfair to those who went later, as the mud pit got deeper and more difficult to navigate after others had completed. You could see that more competitors were using the winch in later heats.

[TeapotWakeen]

Interesting article on Reality Blurred about the ATV challenge (they did a major reset in between each match) and how women fare in the competition. https://www.realityblurred.com/realitytv/2023/07/phil-keoghan-tough-as-nails-season-5-rhap/

[jpgr]

*Dancing a little jig*

Not off my screen, but out of the running.

 

[Browncoat]

Doesn't hurt my feelings in the slightest.

What do you suppose the show would do if one team did get all the wins straightaway?  I mean, I know it isn't fixed so that the lagging team catches up, but what would happen if they didn't?

[Taeolas]

I think if one team got all the challenges at once, that team gets the bonus money but they still do the team challenges because that's still money the other team could get (if they could smarten up). I doubt it would ever be that off balanced, but they'll still give both teams the chance to get the challenge money even if the bonus is off the table. 

[Browncoat]

Well, I guess that answers my question.

[Grizzly]

So did Savage Crew have to finish their part of the playground or did the guys in blue shirts do it?

[DEL901]

38 minutes ago, Grizzly said:

So did Savage Crew have to finish their part of the playground or did the guys in blue shirts do it?

I was disappointed that the winners didn’t go over and help the losers finish.  

[jpgr]

3 hours ago, DEL901 said:

I was disappointed that the winners didn’t go over and help the losers finish.  

On the one hand I understand that, but on the other hand I was so annoyed when Paul went to help Carly finish (and she didn't want him to, she said she wanted to finish with dignity getting it done herself).

[DEL901]

6 hours ago, jpgr said:

On the one hand I understand that, but on the other hand I was so annoyed when Paul went to help Carly finish (and she didn't want him to, she said she wanted to finish with dignity getting it done herself).

6 hours ago, jpgr said:.

Agree with that because she finished.  But the team left a playground unfinished and just walked away from it.  

[Lamb18]

Congrats to Dirty Hands for winning overall! I was cheering for them pretty early on. I am cheering for Kenji to be the individual winner. He can do so many things and is always pleasant and humbe, but confident! Little did he know thatvworking in the bike store for free when he was a kid eould help him win $8000 on the individual challenge. I think he's racked up $28,000 so far.

[bunnyface]

14 hours ago, Grizzly said:

So did Savage Crew have to finish their part of the playground or did the guys in blue shirts do it?

On one hand, I hope they did all work to finish it, even behind the scenes.  On the other hand....I'm hoping that somebody who knows what they are doing went behind and finished it or made sure it was right.  They put everything together so fast, and I know they have to meet a minimum standard, but if kids are going to be playing on these things "for decades" I'm hoping somebody went behind them and made it all right without the time pressure.

[KeithJ]

4 hours ago, DEL901 said:

Agree with that because she finished.  But the team left a playground unfinished and just walked away from it.  

Unless I'm remembering wrong, didn't the teams finish their tasks even after losing on previous seasons?

[Taeolas]

The briefing from the First Nation chief was a bit unexpected. From TAR:CAN and other big events, we've gotten used to these First Nation recognitions, but I didn't expect to see it on a US production. Good to see the international recognition like that. And the implied touch on the Residential School tragedy was nice to see too; going into details was out of place for this show, but the "No child left behind" flags were focused on for a bit. 

[KeithJ]

It was nice to see Carolina pull out the win in the team competition at the end but I was practically yelling at her when she was originally challenged by Cheryl.  Cheryl has fallen a couple times and her legs don’t seem 100%.  That means log pull not axe chopping!

[DEL901]

Tough As Nails learned what Survivor did….you let Canucks compete and they will win!

And props to the F3.  

[KeithJ]

How did Kenji not realize he couldn't use the same strategy for driving the pole as he used in the previous challenge?  Wood is much more dense than dirt.

[Silver-hyren]

I would have been fine with any of the F3 winning but Ben was a shoo-in simply because the gauntlet is heavily skewed to brute strength.  Todd gave him a run for his money, though — I thought for a moment he was going to steal it right out from under Ben.  Would have been awesome seeing a scrawny, unassuming looking older man win!  Poor Kenji got too in his head and couldn’t figure out why the strategy that had served him so well before wasn’t working and course correct.  

[Browncoat]

I have to say, it doesn't hurt my feelings that the final three were all from Dirty Hands.  Savage Crew just annoyed me this season.

[candall]

Cheryl was my favorite this season.  I was impressed with the Dirty Hands strategy to repeatedly name her as crew boss.  It made their team much more stable than switching leaders and everyone trying to figure out what the new boss's management style was going to be, task to task.

I was relieved when Cheryl clocked out, though, for her sake.  I couldn't even watch her torture that sprained ankle (or whatever leg part) trying to navigate that balance beam with buckets of water.  ow ow ow ow

 

 

In the final, Kenji's despair was also hard to watch.  I thought, right along with Kenji, that the post driver section would be his secret advantage because he knew the trick.  Unfortunately, I caught on a little earlier than he did that the formula for success had changed.  Poor Kenji.

It would have been so great if the sheer determination of the small guy had made an even match-up with the experience of the older guy and the power of the big guy.

I liked all three of them.

###

It was a good season!  It would have been nice to hear a little longer update on each of the contestants--if anyone runs across that, please post it up.

[Lamb18]

I wanted Kenji to win, and when that became impossible, I wanted Todd to win. Oh well. The winner is a perfectly nice guy. I just like the other guys more. 

[bunnyface]

I was totally Team Dirty Hands, so glad they were all in the final.  But that guy Todd really snuck up on me.  I didn't even notice him for a long time and then there he was, really giving Ben a run for his money.  I'm glad Ben won but a Todd win would have really been something.  It was an exciting finish.  I wonder if Kenji really did finish everything before he climbed to the finish.  I noticed Ben wasn't absolutely dripping with sweat any longer when Kenji got up there, so I wonder how long it was.  I liked Kenji, but when he wouldn't change on the post setting and then started sobbing, I kind of was over him.  What a way to go out.

 

[KeithJ]

46 minutes ago, bunnyface said:

It was an exciting finish.  I wonder if Kenji really did finish everything before he climbed to the finish.

I don't think he did.  If you play it back, there are only two poles going up to the final platform and he climbed up Todd's pole.  You can also see he didn't do the wood portion of the challenge.  With the way his poles were bent, it wouldn't surprise me if he never even made it past that part.

 

 

 

Edited August 1, 2023 by KeithJ

[jabRI]

I agree, the follow up was lame compared to past seasons.  Did we even see everyone?

 

[mlp]

I would have been happy with either Ben or Todd winning but I was sort of pulling for Todd.  I would have loved to see the older guy with grandchildren beat out the young guns.  In the end, I was happy for Ben and Todd came so close that he earned some bragging rights even though he lost (by a very narrow margin).

Kenji must have gone some place in his head where he wasn't thinking rationally.  He kept up his repetitious actions long past a time frame that made any sense.

I also wished the follow up had been a little longer.

[Grizzly]

Ben is the type of winner we were tired of after season 2. For that reason I was rooting for Kenji or Todd. Not going to begrudge Ben the win. He was able to harness his strength to power through rather than try to overpower the course. Opposite of his approach to the log chopping. Looking forward to the next season.

[Grizzly]

If anyone loves Phil, you should check out his episode of Secret Celebrity Renovation. I learned so much about him that I never knew. And the reunion of him and Boston Rob worked better than you'd think.

[bunnyface]

3 hours ago, Grizzly said:

If anyone loves Phil, you should check out his episode of Secret Celebrity Renovation. I learned so much about him that I never knew. And the reunion of him and Boston Rob worked better than you'd think.

I wanted to watch that and then something happened and I missed it.  I'm glad it was good and I'll try to find it.  I luvs me some Phil.

 

[DEL901]

3 hours ago, Grizzly said:

If anyone loves Phil, you should check out his episode of Secret Celebrity Renovation. I learned so much about him that I never knew. And the reunion of him and Boston Rob worked better than you'd think.

Can you give highlights?   It isn’t available where I live.  Thx!

[kaygeeret]

The show is on CBS.

I stumbled on it and completely enjoyed it as the guest celeb was PHIL!

It appears the Rob is running the construction crew for the season.

Not sure if it is his crew or he is just the celeb head.

[Grizzly]

5 hours ago, DEL901 said:

Can you give highlights?   It isn’t available where I live.  Thx!

Spoiler

He grew up on Antigua and had this neighbor that was so welcoming. He honored her by fixing up a hospice on the island that she volunteers at. He and Boston Rob did a lot of the work. Phil thought Boston Rob should be called Bossy Rob.

 

[kaygeeret]

OOPS, my bad.  My post referred to a show titled Celebrity Home Makeover.

I apologize to everyone