Tough As Nails - General Discussion

[Fiftyninth]

8 hours ago, leighdear said:

So glad to see my beloved Phil looking tough & healthy.  And did I see the name Louise Keoghan in the credits?  His wife, sister or daughter?  Cool to make a show with a loved one

Louise is his wife. She was an executive producer on season 1 as well.

 

Phil was great on the Rob Has a Podcast recaps for season 1. I hope he joins them again for season 2 (and maybe brings Louise along).

[aemom]

I'm really glad that they changed the format this season and said that the team that wins the most challenges will get a bonus. Last season, the business where the team that won X challenges would be the big winner looked really sketchy. 

The nurse is starting to annoy me with her grandstanding and booty-shaking dancing with respect to her team winning the challenge.  Nobody likes a sore loser, but everyone really dislikes a gloating winner.

Edited February 15, 2021 by aemom
Typo

[rollacoaster]

I'm cool with a joyful celebration of winning. Why not celebrate if your team won a tough challenge? 

[Lamb18]

What struck me most in this episode was Mikey "Eyebrows" saying he saw his girlfriend's face in a vat of slime eels.

[Maverick]

4 minutes ago, Lamb18 said:

What struck me most in this episode was Mikey "Eyebrows" saying he saw his girlfriend's face in a vat of slime eels.

 Yeah, I heard that and thought "dude, she's not going to find that as endearing as you think she is."    Snot eels?  Really?   That's a thing?   Really?  No, just no.   And no.   They climb.   Their own eel snot.  Eels that can climb their own eel snot.  And someone saw this and thought "hmm, looks tasty" instead of "it is evil, the work of the devil. It must be eradicated from the the face of the Earth"?   They didn't even give them gloves, much less an apron or googles.   My ass just would have went straight to OT.   Since this show loves nicknames, mine would be "Fuck You and Your Snot Eels".    

[mtlchick]

This eel thing would have been one hell of an Amazing Race Roadblock.  
 

Angel and Merryl are getting some major sympathy edits.

[aemom]

On 2/16/2021 at 4:28 PM, rollacoaster said:

I'm cool with a joyful celebration of winning. Why not celebrate if your team won a tough challenge? 

There's nothing wrong with celebrating, but she seemed to be doing it many, many times over the course of the show. It really rubbed me the wrong way.

[Quickbeam]

I really dislike the message that these people need to power through obvious injuries. I felt badly for Tara. And the hagfish challenge was just disgusting.

[mertensia]

Loved that Celi was all "back's hurting. Yep, climbing in with the hagfish". You just know this will be her " oh, yeah!? Top **this!!" story for years.

Man, that final task just wiped them both out.

 

[cowgirlwen]

That overtime challenge must have been tougher and taken longer than it seemed.  When they were first getting instructions on the tugboat, it was morning, wasn't it?  And they didn't finish up until after dark.  No wonder they were exhausted and hurting!  Felt bad for Tara getting defeated on her own turf, so to speak.  

[mtlchick]

10 hours ago, Quickbeam said:

I really dislike the message that these people need to power through obvious injuries. I felt badly for Tara. And the hagfish challenge was just disgusting.

Then again, Swifty was telling her if she just stopped for a while to take a break, he would take the break with her because he knew if she left, he would win be default (not to mention it he would welcome it.) 

[leighdear]

WHY DO THEY LET THEM COMPETE INJURED?   This drives me nuts.  Tara said she had surgery on her hand, so it's not like she got injured on the way to filming the first episode.  Pre-existing!  Disqualified!  You know they have backup, B list contestants ready to jump in.

And Swifty has a &^#$%@ hole in his foot?  WTF dude, really?   Another DQ.  

I do love the challenges, but I have to mute my TV when they do the head-to-heads.  It's constant screaming, gyrating & shouting, as if a single second of air time simply CANNOT be unfilled with shrieking noise and movement.  I know it's all supportive, team encouragement, yada, yada, but just take it down a notch, people!  

/rant  🙂

Edited February 18, 2021 by leighdear

[Browncoat]

1 hour ago, leighdear said:

WHY DO THEY LET THEM COMPETE INJURED?   This drives me nuts.  Tara said she had surgery on her hand, so it's not like she got injured on the way to filming the first episode.  Pre-existing! 

You're assuming that the contestants owned up to being injured when they got the casting call.  Swifty admitted in his talking head that he hadn't told anyone.  But if any of them has an open wound, they need to get that cleaned out very very well after all that slime.

I would have been pissed off if I'd been the captain of the "losing" lobster boat.  Those traps were NOT organized at all.  I'm surprised they didn't all fall off when the boat left the dock.

[HurricaneVal]

I hope Tara stays in, but it seems to me that competing with a hand injury is not really a viable choice.  Maybe not all the tasks require actual hand labor, but I know a lot of them will.  She was an early favorite, and I like how she just got down to work and didn't crow about it being a maritime set of tasks that she, as a seasoned seawoman, could just bang out.

The overtime task last night seemed to be designed--though I know it wasn't--to be the most torturous for someone with a hand injury or a bad back.  All that bending, and the manipulations with the rope, and the endless pulling and pulling of the free line through the knots.  I wonder how they got identical tangles in both sets of line to make it fair?

It looks like production had to do some fast talking with Tara to get her to grudgingly go back onto the boat and clock out.  She did not look happy, but I think a lot of that was just injured pride and humiliation to go out on "her" specialty.  Do we know if she quit permanently, or will she be back next week?

So, slime eels/hagfish are a delicacy?  I, uh, after seeing that, am not really interested in trying them.

[leighdear]

Tara did have green tape on her hand at the beginning of the task.  Then a huge bandage at the end of it, after checking with medical. 

Something's not right with Phil allowing contestants to compete without having a complete medical exam by the show's own staff.   That is a lawsuit waiting to happen and I just can't see the show, airing on a major network, casually assuming that kind of liability when the tasks themselves can be very dangerous.  I don't get it.  

I imagine the ropes were tied in the same configurations by 2 people.  All buoys' threaded on to each rope and pushed to the end.  Each person  measuring out a specific length of rope, tying a standard knot, measuring more rope, pulling a buoy into position, tying another specific knot, until the rope ends.  Rope tying is a cool skill to master.  

It's a lot like beading necklaces, actually....*LOL*

[mlp]

I liked Tara until she walked off the last task without talking to people.  I know we see what the producers want us to see but it looked like she didn't even talk to Phil first, just left.  With her hand problem, she never could have made it through some of the grueling tasks we saw last year so it's just as well she left early.  Swifty is probably in the same boat.  

I like the UPS guy but I doubt he'll make it past the halfway point.  He's less fit than some of the others and also slower.  I also like the woman who was a pilot and rose to the rank of colonel.  That's impressive plus she's calm and organized.  I don't think she'll make it to the end though.  The nurse can leave any time.  

[jabRI]

Tara had a previous injury that required surgery.  Since she's still working on boats, I have to assume she's found ways to adapt.  But both of these tasks required repetitive hand movements that seemed to last hours, with no way around it.  So I don't think she's at fault here, but I think the medical staff/producers could have done better screenings to see who could handle those kinds of tasks.

[wintrygal]

I'm amazed more of them didn't slip on those steps  or even on the dock as there was slime everywhere, I don't care for that guy, but would hate to see someone incur a serious injury, didn't seem well thought out to me.

[Eolivet]

I still can't get over they kept the same team names from last season and carried them over, which leads me to believe they were fed to last year's contestants by producers. Why shouldn't contestants be trusted to come up with team names? They did it on a certain reality show hosted by an ex-president.

This would be like every Survivor season since 2016 being Vanua versus Takali, because those were the two tribes on the season they returned to Fiji.

[HurricaneVal]

I don't like the eyebrows guy either.  It seems like he's a big drama queen.  At every single individual task (OK, two so far...) he has this "OMG, I'm dying here, I have to quit!!!!" moment where he collapses dramatically and gasps for breath like a fish out of water, then sucks it up and has a talking head about how he gave himself a pep talk that gave him the fortitude to go on.  This last time he saw his girlfriend's face in a barrel full of hag fish, and that gave him the motivation to go on.  I'm sure she's thrilled about that.  He must be one very high maintenance boyfriend, lemme tell you whut.  Even though we only have two examples so far, I'm starting to suspect he's faking this for the camera, and trying to be a featured "character" so he can leverage this time on TAN for future money.  Fan appearances, guest shots on other shows, free drinks at the bar, that sort of thing.  I think he's manufacturing all this drama to suck up screen time.  Maybe next week he'll gin up a chronic injury to waft on and on about, considering how much Tara and Swifty were featured on the last episode.

One thing I love/hate about this show is that unless someone completely quits, even though they lose the overtime task, they're only eliminated from the individual competitions and prize, not from the competition as a whole.  So people stick around.  Which can be good if you like them, and highly annoying if you don't!

[bunnyface]

I thought the same thing about eyebrows and was going to comment.  I didn't get to watch the entire episode this week because of an interruption but I saw the beginning and he's talking about how much stamina he has and how strong he is.  Meanwhile, every time you see him, he's bent over and sucking wind.  He's not all he thinks he is.

[DEL901]

And wasn’t eyebrows the one who knocked the delivery guy into the water.  He was a lot calmer about getting dunked than I would have been and kudos to Tara for realizing it would make more sense to keep him on the boat with her.   Also kudos to Angel who didn’t keep whining over causing last weeks loss.  He just hauled ass and impressed everyone.   
 

Swifty...the guy with the hole in his foot bugged me.   Not sure why.  Maybe because he kept saying how he didn’t tell anyone about the hole while he keeps talking about it over and over. 

[Lantern7]

Looks like the start of another eventful season. And since TAR is on the shelf indefinitely, this is now our prime source to see Phil.

Watching Tara mentally burn out does raise a question . . . if someone has to leave the game, what happens? Is a substitute brought in? Would the other team have to lose a member? Or maybe sit out the team challenges? I can’t blame Tara for the breakdown. Ditto for Swifty trying to gut his way through injury. My concern was that the final challenge would have involved more slimy eels. I think both competitors would have preferred those.

Damn, those eels looked nasty. I can buy them being a delicacy, but there wouldn’t be enough cooking for me to eat that.

Yeah, I get the complaints about the surplus of nicknames. It’s minor, though. Also, I keep imagining Knuckles snapping and shouting, “For the last time, I do not know ‘de way’!!!”

[jpgr]

On 2/19/2021 at 10:49 AM, bunnyface said:

I thought the same thing about eyebrows and was going to comment.  I didn't get to watch the entire episode this week because of an interruption but I saw the beginning and he's talking about how much stamina he has and how strong he is.  Meanwhile, every time you see him, he's bent over and sucking wind.  He's not all he thinks he is.

I laughed so hard at the cut from him talking about how strong he is to an immediate shot of him doubled over. The editors don't like him.

[DEL901]

I wish there was some time penalty or something for shoddy work.   We saw the older woman contestant get eliminated last season when the guy she was against finished first but did a crappy job.   It almost happened again last episode with the stacking of the cages.  Luckily the team that did the better job won. 

[aemom]

Mikey eyebrows is a total dick.  He brags about how fantastic he is while wheezing like an old man. Then the cherry on the cake is when he shoves the delivery guy into the water and doesn't even apologize. I despise people like that.

Celi was much better this week. It could be because her team lost, but time will tell.

I felt really bad for Tara. Perhaps she might agree to stick around in a project manager type capacity. She did that very well for the cage challenge. 

 

 

Edited February 22, 2021 by aemom
Typo

[Clare]

Quote

I still can't get over they kept the same team names from last season and carried them over, which leads me to believe they were fed to last year's contestants by producers. Why shouldn't contestants be trusted to come up with team names? They did it on a certain reality show hosted by an ex-president.

Phil talked about this on Rob Has a Podcast.  They want the contestants to feel like they are joining a bigger team, it ties in to the Unions.  They are hoping that they will feel more of a connection to previous contestants.

  It was also funny because he was talking to 3 Survivor superfans and asking if anyone really remembers the tribe names from Survivor.  He came back the 2nd episodes and said he got a really hard time for saying that, LOL, he was surprised anyone knew the tribe names.  It was pretty funny.

[BuckeyeLou]

Well, Mikey "Eyebrows" has gone home....hmm...wonder what his story is?  As folks have pointed out, he did not seem to have much stamina.

[bunnyface]

Ah, Mikey.  The guy I was loving to hate.  Hope he's okay.  

[DEL901]

34 minutes ago, BuckeyeLou said:

Well, Mikey "Eyebrows" has gone home....hmm...wonder what his story is?  As folks have pointed out, he did not seem to have much stamina.

Phil also made no explanation, no expression of sympathy.   Maybe he got turfed because of pushing that delivery guy into the water?

[mlp]

I thought it was curious that Phil said why Tara wasn't coming back but just said that Mikey was gone with no explanation.  I also wondered why he didn't clock them both out at the end.  

That team challenge looked really complicated and difficult, especially since most of the contestants hadn't used the equipment before.  The second one looked like fun - assuming you figured out the controls.  

So far, my favorites are Scott and Merryl.  I don't care for any of the bottom three.  Angel seems angry and hostile.  The nurse doesn't seem too bright and the other gal is too introspective and whiney for me.  

 

[mertensia]

I wondered if maybe Mikey didn't temper tantrum quit.

Meryl continues to impress.

I liked that the races were random and you could be racing against a teammate.

[HurricaneVal]

Oh man... I was just getting a good "hate on" for Mikey Eyebrows.  There was absolutely no explanation, no discussion.  I wonder if maybe they found something in his background check that didn't add up.  Or he just quit because he couldn't stop thinking about his girlfriend.  Or he quit because someone looked at him funny.  He struck me as someone who is rather mercurial and prone to poor judgement and poor impulse control.  

[Browncoat]

I wondered if they requested that someone on the other team drop out after Tara had to, just to keep things even, and Mikey volunteered.  If so, I’m sure he was rewarded handsomely.

Phil didn’t clock Tara out because Tara had already clocked out after overtime last week.

[jabRI]

I felt bad for the 'knuckles' woman talking about her insecurities.  I disagree that she is 'whiny' my thought is she has (like my son) learning disabilities that can often be blamed on 'laziness' when they actually put in a lot more effort than anyone realizes just to stay in one place.

[dshgr]

15 hours ago, DEL901 said:

Maybe he got turfed because of pushing that delivery guy into the water?

My husband supposed that push was one of many issues with Mikey.  We're sure he was booted for repeated a$$hole moves.

[Grizzly]

I don't wish ill on Mikey or his loved ones but I'm enjoying the show much better without him. Scott seems to have positioned himself as the one to beat.

[bunnyface]

Somewhere else there was speculation that when Mikey slipped down the steps and landed on his back, he really hurt himself.  But Phil didn't say he had an injury, which he did say with Tara.  Also speculation about the push, but if that is it, they *should* have said he violated the rules, this was violation, this was the consequence, don't do this.  And maybe they did, off camera.  Because no one seemed surprised at what was going on.  But it would have helped up.

[preeya]

23 hours ago, HurricaneVal said:

Oh man... I was just getting a good "hate on" for Mikey Eyebrows.  There was absolutely no explanation, no discussion.  I wonder if maybe they found something in his background check that didn't add up.  Or he just quit because he couldn't stop thinking about his girlfriend.  Or he quit because someone looked at him funny.  He struck me as someone who is rather mercurial and prone to poor judgement and poor impulse control.  

Or he didn't want to miss an appointment with his eyebrow Esthetician/Cosmetologist.

 

Edited February 26, 2021 by preeya

[aemom]

On 2/24/2021 at 9:51 PM, mlp said:

I thought it was curious that Phil said why Tara wasn't coming back but just said that Mikey was gone with no explanation.  I also wondered why he didn't clock them both out at the end.  

I'm wondering if perhaps there was a Covid bubble violation? That would be the type of thing that would get you unceremoniously dumped like that.  I'm not sorry that he's gone, because he seemed like such an asshole.

[SVNBob]

Getting caught up after the bad week here in Texas.

On 2/24/2021 at 8:35 PM, DEL901 said:

Maybe he got turfed because of pushing that delivery guy into the water?

To be fair to Mikey, he technically did not push Patrick.  He pushed the stack of Dirty Hands' traps that were legitimately blocking some of Savage Crew's access to their boat.  Tara had tried to get her crew to stack them closer to the Dirty Hands' boat, but this was early enough in the challenge that they didn't quite get what she meant and why.  And it looked like Patrick was moving behind the traps to try to move them out of the way/on to the boat right as Mikey shoved them.  Him in motion over the water + the movement of the trap stack = Splashdown.

That said, I wouldn't be surprised to learn that deliberately interfering with the other team's/other contestants' equipment during a challenge is grounds for a DQ.  Which would also explain Tara going over and pulling on Swifty's rope during Overtime.  She might have been thinking "better DQ'd for a rule violation than to actually quit."

Props to Swifty though.  While he wanted to win Overtime, he didn't want to win that way.  Him offering to keep it fair by having them both take an equal break is just another example of how this show is different. 

Same with both Sarah and Iradia helping Merryl up after her faceplant at the start of the hagfish challenge.  Sarah helping made sense, since she and Merryl are both Savage.  But Iradia is Dirty Hands.  And it was an individual competition to boot. 

Moving on to the most recent episode, I wasn't surprised when "Knuckles" was one of the worst two in the individual challenge.  She'd been getting a lot of the "sob story spotlight" in the episode, which is typically an indicator of someone about to lose.  Angel's been getting the spotlight in every episode thus far, like Danny and Murph from Season 1, so I'm currently expecting hm to make the finals.

[jabRI]

19 hours ago, SVNBob said:

Angel's been getting the spotlight in every episode thus far, like Danny and Murph from Season 1, so I'm currently expecting hm to make the finals.

Uggh, I hope not. I'm sorry but 'I'm in Miami, my kid's in Chicago'.. just bite the bullet and move. You are a working man, you can make something work.  Not to disparage by any means, I'm just saying his skills should be able to translate to a new environment, if it was really important to him.

[HurricaneVal]

If he wasn't on a TV show shot near LA, the answer to the question of why he doesn't move might be "the conditions of my parole don't allow that" but another reason could also be "my ex has a restraining order."  On the flip side, it may also be that he's taking care of an elderly relative, or has others depending on him for food or shelter anchoring him to Florida.  

I'm sure, however, the simplest answer is Angel can't afford the first and last months rent plus security and cleaning deposit right now, or his credit score is too low to pass a landlord's criteria.  I don't know much about his background, but if he's paying child support and living basically paycheck to paycheck, amassing that much in savings might be impossible.

I like Meryl, and I'd like for her to win just because I think her accomplishments in life as a woman of color flying fancy spyplanes are amazing, but I also have to think (hope) she has a pretty good military retirement after retiring at the rank of colonel.  Everyone needs money, of course, but she maybe needs it a little less than some others.

I think Angel might need it a little more than some of the others.  His job is, what.... moisture mitigation?  I don't know much, but it seems to me that's kind of an entry level construction job, and doesn't have the rate that HVAC, plumbing, concrete, carpentry, tiling, bricklaying etc. can command.

Which is one reason I feel uncomfortable with this show over other reality shows like Survivor, The Amazing Race, or Big Brother which also have cash prizes at the end.  On the other shows, people want to win and they want the money, but most of their talking head interviews are all about the gameplay and the game.  On this show, it is all about how they need and want the money, and how hard they work in their real lives to make money.  I almost feel like I'm watching The Hunger Games when watching someone totally bork a task after having a talking head about how much they need the money and how much of a change in their lives it would be.  If I feel guilty after watching a show, that's not good entertainment.

But Phil is here, being at his charming best, so I'll watch.

[sharkerbaby]

On 2/27/2021 at 1:11 AM, SVNBob said:

Props to Swifty though.  While he wanted to win Overtime, he didn't want to win that way.  Him offering to keep it fair by having them both take an equal break is just another example of how this show is different. 

Same with both Sarah and Iradia helping Merryl up after her faceplant at the start of the hagfish challenge.  Sarah helping made sense, since she and Merryl are both Savage.  But Iradia is Dirty Hands.  And it was an individual competition to boot. 

I think this is a product of having "real" people as contestants.  Many of these competitive reality shows start this way but quickly devolve into contestants whose primary objective is to become social media influencers, break into show business, or some similar "15 minutes of fame" motivation.  These types tend to perform rather than compete and showboat rather than display good sportsmanship.  My personal sense is this is Celly's actual reason for being there; one just has to refer to her show profile where she self-describes as a "diva" or watch her over the top celebrating and constant effort to make herself front and center during and after competitions.  My fervent hope is that given the pool of people this show pulls from, the "wrong reasons" contestants will be kept at bay and show up only occasionally rather than being the norm.

Edited March 1, 2021 by sharkerbaby

[PhD-Purgatory15]

HurricaneVal, you kind of hit it on the head why I feel a little bit of discomfort watching this show versus TAR (and ocassionally Survivor). Because so many of these contestants are poor or not comfortably well off it does have a whiff of watching "desperate gladiators" from up on high in the colosseum. The occasional, extremely poor team that finds their way to TAR (like Dave and Mary, or Mark and Bopper come to mind immediately) change the feeling of watching TAR a little bit because of that.

That being said, whoever their game design people are (team, indvidual, OT) they collectively need a raise. That's what I was blown away by the last season and so far this season. Is how watchable yet detailed/involved they've been able to make the various job site challenges be. If nothing else, I'll keep watching just for that reason alone.

Add me to the list of those who are still wondering why Mikey Eyebrows mysteriously disappeared. It does seem like it wasn't fall/injury/health related or Phil would've simply relayed that to the other contestants along with his info on Tara not being medically cleared to continue. I was thinking some family situation might have forced him to return to NJ on short notice, but actually the thought of a Covid bubble violation (similar to the Pop Opera singer guy on the last season of the Voice) makes maybe even more sense.

I'm tipping Scott as the winner at this point. He gives me major Murph vibes. The guy has a broader skillset that everyone else combined and I just think he's going to be very hard to beat in most of the individual challenges..

Edited March 1, 2021 by PhD-Purgatory15

[bunnyface]

40 minutes ago, PhD-Purgatory15 said:

 

That being said, whoever their game design people are (team, indvidual, OT) they collectively need a raise. That's what I was blown away by the last season and so far this season. Is how watchable yet detailed/involved they've been able to make the various job site challenges be. If nothing else, I'll keep watching just for that reason alone.

 

I agree that the challenges are great.  My only quibble is that I wish the criteria were to be done first but be done RIGHT.  Not traps hanging half off the side of the boat, not trash strewn all over the street, not pavers all crazy instead of in correct placement.  

[TVMovieBuff]

I don't like any mention in a reality show, that a contestant is doing it because "I really need the money". Going on TV is a really unreliable way to make money, mostly.

The money is a prize. You compete in a contest, and based on your performance in that contest, you win the prize or you don't. If we were going to base the winner on who needs the money the most, we don't even have to have the contest. A contestant coming on and mewling about how bad they need the money is being unfair, hinting the competitors should let him win. That is the way it comes off.

That phrase shouldn't ever be used. I need the money.

[DEL901]

2 hours ago, TVMovieBuff said:

I don't like any mention in a reality show, that a contestant is doing it because "I really need the money". Going on TV is a really unreliable way to make money, mostly.

The money is a prize. You compete in a contest, and based on your performance in that contest, you win the prize or you don't. If we were going to base the winner on who needs the money the most, we don't even have to have the contest. A contestant coming on and mewling about how bad they need the money is being unfair, hinting the competitors should let him win. That is the way it comes off.

That phrase shouldn't ever be used. I need the money.

Agree.   Same when someone talks about how much that want it, they really, really want it.   Neither need nor desire are the criteria for winning.  

[Lamb18]

Hey competitors, that is straw, not hay. Hay is too valuable for amateurs to mess around with.

At least Phil knows the difference and called it straw.

Also those look like Hereford cattle.

Edited March 4, 2021 by Lamb18

[Lamb18]

From a distance the straw bales look like rice Krispy bars.