S32.E12: Now It's About Winning

[BK1978]

4 hours ago, ByaNose said:

That really was an uneventful ending. By 8:45 I knew it was over before it ended. It wasn’t even Will & James fault this time. After the baby task it was all she wrote. After, that none of the 3 were in the same shot. I did find it interesting that confessionals were in voice only. I don’t think that’s ever been done. 

I remember saying in episode three, "Will and James are going to win this, because they are the one team I really do not want to see win."  Sure enough.  When I was watching the actual episode live, I was in the same boat as you.  I looked at the clock at around 8:40 or so and said, "Well it looks like they have this in the bag."  I should have watched The Challenge live.

4 hours ago, lgprimes said:

They weren’t my team (in our family we have to pick teams the beginning of episode one, with very little insight- I had the beards), but I can’t really hate on a super fan winning. I’ve watched since season one and applied a few times too. It feels really good to see a fellow super fan win!

That was the one silver lining in them winning.  That was the only reason why I wasn't really pissed that they won.

4 hours ago, Twopper said:

The only success this episode had was making me a tad homesick for NOLA.  I may have to make beignets for breakfast Saturday.

I have never had beignets from New Orleans (I had them in Disney World in Florida) but damn those things are as addictive as crack.  I wish I knew how to make them.  I guess I could look it up, but I am a terrible cook.

4 hours ago, wintrygal said:

I enjoyed it also, enjoyed the whole season actually. Congrats Will & James.

I didn't hate the season.  I was indifferent towards it.  The outcome is not what I wanted, but they did earn it so I can give them that.

3 hours ago, zoey1996 said:

I still don’t know which is Will and which is James. 

Every single time there is a same sex team, I hardly ever know who is who.  To this day I could not tell you who is Leo and who is Jamal or who was Connor and who was Dave.  Just using them as examples as they were the first two that came to my mind.

[Fake Jan Brady]

56 minutes ago, BK1978 said:

Every single time there is a same sex team, I hardly ever know who is who.  To this day I could not tell you who is Leo and who is Jamal or who was Connor and who was Dave.  Just using them as examples as they were the first two that came to my mind.

If you can remember the order of their names, that's how they're supposed to stand on the mat [first name to our left, second name on the right].

[HawaiiTVGuy]

What the heck, what a horrible episode. No actual skill related tasks, just a bunch of luck/heights stuff?  And no final puzzle relating to remembering stuff from the race?!

[Door County Cherry]

5 hours ago, redfish said:

And for so-called confessed "superfans" then why did Will/James use Big Brother/Survivor tactics? If they supposedly love the show so much why did they disrespected everything the show is about with Survivor tactics?

Alliances have been apart of TAR before.  They're just not usually as successful as this one.  Something happens that separates them. So I dont think they betrayed some secret TAR covenant.   

5 hours ago, Stardancer Supreme said:

Will loves cake! Plus he was eating the King cake as he was searching for the baby.  Beignets on top of that and they probably hadn't eaten since the plane ride.  I was happy that we didn't see him hurl in the shop! 

This was my favorite part of the episode.  Will was happily chowing down on cake not knowing what was to come only to get a dreaded food challenge.  

[mojoween]

Anyone know if Will and James have had their wedding?

There was just something about Will that had an underlying mean-spiritedness I couldn’t quite put my finger on.  He always seemed like he was about ready to snap no matter the situation; maybe he and James complement each other because James was the opposite.

Chee chose the baby task because he thought it sounded heavy which left Hung to have to do what she hated with the bridge.  I wonder what would have happened if they had swapped.

[Netfoot]

5 hours ago, Fukui San said:

As human beings, I don't find them particularly objectionable compared to some of the more troublesome racers in the show's history.

They might be more bearable under circumstances where they weren't doing their best to be the focus of everyone's attention. But would they ever want to live that way?

[Haleth]

Blech.  Glad I didn't bother watching.  Of the three distasteful teams left Will and James were the team I least wanted to see win.

Phil, hope you and the other producers are spending the covid break fixing the show.

[raven]

5 hours ago, Fukui San said:

As reality show contestants, Will and James brought in gameplay elements I didn't enjoy and which detracted from the season.

As human beings, I don't find them particularly objectionable compared to some of the more troublesome racers in the show's history.

This is how I feel.   I was actually enjoying the season until the last two episodes.  I don't like seeing answers handed out and the finale was boring with the winner easily determined, based on the contestant placings and tasks.

It seems like a perfect storm of the dumbing down of TAR over the years - the spoon fed transportation resulting in everyone being on even playing fields coupled with simple tasks - go here and give this to that person; watch while someone else does something, etc - along with a group feeding each other the answers.    All of this sucked the fun and spontaneity out of the show for me towards the end.

It was nice this season to see people being decent to their partners and to the locals.  I don't think W&J are horrible people and it's the show's fault, not theirs, that they were able to play the game the way they did. 

[alexa]

12 minutes ago, raven said:

This is how I feel.   I was actually enjoying the season until the last two episodes.  I don't like seeing answers handed out and the finale was boring with the winner easily determined, based on the contestant placings and tasks.

It seems like a perfect storm of the dumbing down of TAR over the years - the spoon fed transportation resulting in everyone being on even playing fields coupled with simple tasks - go here and give this to that person; watch while someone else does something, etc - along with a group feeding each other the answers.    All of this sucked the fun and spontaneity out of the show for me towards the end.

It was nice this season to see people being decent to their partners and to the locals.  I don't think W&J are horrible people and it's the show's fault, not theirs, that they were able to play the game the way they did. 

That is a good summary.  I didn't like the alliance at all, but as you mentioned there were so many more issues with the Race design that contributed or certainly didn't help.  They weren't bad people and in a normal season, without the alliance, and a better challenge in the finale, the final three would have seemed okay.

Editing to add that whenever there is a season in a show like this where we have a lot of conversation here, I like to look other places, such as facebook or twitter, etc, and just checking facebook, the sentiment about this season was exactly what we have been saying here.  So they are definitely seeing the reactions of the lackluster season. 

Edited December 17, 2020 by alexa

[Sammie]

I thought the tasks were pretty boring and I'm surprised none of the teams messed up on the bridge.  Besides not finding the baby in the cakes, the brothers got messed up with directions right off the bat even though they seemed to do a decent job of catching up.

I have to say, I don't get the hate for Will and James.  They are smart racers and that's what it takes to win the race.  The alliance was a genius move for them and the others involved as they reached their goal of making the final 5.  They were smart with u-turns as well.  

[sinycalone]

The Alliance of 5 teams was a Survivor/Big Brother tool.....not something most of us want on TAR.  For Superfans, they had to know that....but didn't care.

[seacliffsal]

The highlight of the episode for me was the obvious bitterness of Riley and Maddison.  Sure they had bad taxi luck, but the blonde sisters had bad taxi luck on every leg (it seemed to me).  I think what really bothered them (based on nothing but my opinion) was that their gleeful, and at times spiteful, participation in their alliance came back to bite them.  I wonder if they considered at all that if they had honored their super secret alliance with the NFLers that they might have won.  They may have thought that since they were professional athletics that they would win by out-running the other teams.  

I also liked that as bitter as DeAngelo was last episode, he certainly looked happy for everyone at the finish line.

So, if they didn't win, would there still have been a proposal?

[Twopper]

6 hours ago, BK1978 said:

I have never had beignets from New Orleans (I had them in Disney World in Florida) but damn those things are as addictive as crack.  I wish I knew how to make them.  I guess I could look it up, but I am a terrible cook.

You can order beignet mix directly from the Cafe du Monde website;  I think I have seen it at Walmart and Publix.  I have a recipe for it, but I am lazy and the mix does the job.  Don't forget the confectioners sugar.

 

13 minutes ago, Sammie said:

the brothers got messed up with directions right off the bat even though they seemed to do a decent job of catching up.

If I remember correctly they told the taxi driver they were in a race and in a hurry to get to the park, and the driver said he knew a shortcut.  They weren't clear about being dropped off at the park entrance so he probably let them out at the back or side of the park.  In broad daylight, they could probably have found the entrance and clue box fairly fast, but not so in the dark. It isn't a huge park, but I think it covers about the equivalent of several city blocks.

[toodywoody]

You could see the Beards were pissed off. Yes you had a big a bad cabbie, but this is also why you don't share info and help others get to the final leg. Whine would still be at the turbin task if not for Gary's help. The Beards did seem to run a pretty clean race besides not unturning when they had a chance. Chee also looked pissed off. And that is also why you don't help anyone. Him and Hung also ran a good race and should have not stayed around and gave the answer in Berlin to anyone.

[bunnyface]

When going through reruns (I think we're up to Season 17 right now), I think I'll watch Family Edition instead of this one.  Blech.

[chaifan]

2 hours ago, raven said:

It was nice this season to see people being decent to their partners and to the locals.  I don't think W&J are horrible people and it's the show's fault, not theirs, that they were able to play the game the way they did. 

 

1 hour ago, Sammie said:

I have to say, I don't get the hate for Will and James.  They are smart racers and that's what it takes to win the race.  The alliance was a genius move for them and the others involved as they reached their goal of making the final 5.  They were smart with u-turns as well.  

I will give Will & James credit for being good racers.  I've said it in other threads - as much as I hated the "Mine 5" alliance because it (combined with spoon fed flights and bunching) made TAR boring, it did exactly what Will & James wanted it to do.  It got them in the final 5, 4, and 3.  It was good strategy.  I also give them a lot of credit for being probably the best prepared racers we have ever seen.  They practiced the bottle dance!  The studied geography, they memorized country flags.  OK, their pre-race stick shift driving lesson left them wanting, but at least they took lessons.  I almost always will root for the super fan.  But...

My issue with Will & James is that from Leg 1, they weren't on TAR just for the love of TAR, but as an audition for the next reality show that would come along.  They were playing Reality Show Whore Bingo from day one.  Side eye to the camera.  Check.  Snarky comment to the camera.  Check.  Secret alliances.  Check.  Over the top mustache-twirling "aren't we the smartest ever" confessionals.  Check.  On-air proposal.  ugh, check and Bingo!  All they need to do now is have a public breakup so one of them can be the first gay Bachelor, only for the other to crash the mansion and reunite on-air. 

 

 

[SG429]

I'm too cynical to believe that the engagement on the mat was not carefully planned out by both of them.

[doodlebug]

10 hours ago, zscore said:

Imagine people driving themselves in a race for a million dollars. It will never be allowed to happen.

How about they all get a car and a driver and it is up to the teams to tell the driver how to get to their destination?  Give them a street atlas or not, but the driver doesn't do anything but follow instructions and obey all traffic laws.

The biggest problem with this leg is that there was virtually no opportunity for teams to pass one another after they arrived at the initial task.  The only possibility was at the king cake task and 'needle in a haystack' tasks don't really depend on skill as much as luck.  The pieces to the globe puzzle should've been harder to find or required some sort of mental or physical challenge to win them.  They could've had to assemble a Mardi Gras float There needed to be some sort of challenge that required either mental or physical prowess to give the teams a change to change positions.

[preeya]

7 hours ago, HawaiiTVGuy said:

What the heck, what a horrible episode. No actual skill related tasks, just a bunch of luck/heights stuff?  And no final puzzle relating to remembering stuff from the race?!

The "SAUERKRAUT" & "MUSIC/FLAGS" challenges were much more difficult than those in the finale.

[Cotypubby]

16 minutes ago, SG429 said:

I'm too cynical to believe that the engagement on the mat was not carefully planned out by both of them.

Yeah. I fast-forwarded through all that. It was such a calculated “Reality TV!!” moment. I didn’t care to see extra screen time being spent on those fame whores.

[hendersonrocks]

Quote

Will was happily chowing down on cake not knowing what was to come only to get a dreaded food challenge.  

I thought the clue said upfront that the six beignets would need to be eaten after finding the baby - am I misremembering that?

Will and James are A Lot of personality, and they would have been my third choice out of the final three to win, but I appreciated that there was never any suspense in the episode. I had a solid 52 minutes to get comfortable with them winning.

There's no question I'd feel better about their win if it felt like it was an actual contest. This felt like the team that found the baby first wins the race - there was really little else to shake things up, and I was shocked at how little complexity there was to the bridge task and globe assembly. 

It was fun to watch people race around the world in before times and I will always love this show, I just wish the conclusion felt more satisfying. In that way, it's very on brand for 2020.

[curbcrusher]

Today (or last night watching the show) I learned that DeAngelo was right, this race sucked.

[hhawks]

This season is best summed up in one word - sauerkraut.  To bring this lousy season to an end, a dumb food challenge that was strictly luck with no skill.  How many baby cakes were wasted in the filming of one challenge?  Well over 100.  I never imagined that TAR would have an even worse season than the lousy Big Brother season that was also dull as dishwater with very little suspense.  Unlikable teams, an unlikable alliance, and poorly constructed challenges with a pointless "mega leg."  I haven't seen every season, but I've seen most of them, and this was by far the least entertaining.  At least Gary was likable and fun to watch.

[seacliffsal]

Maybe two of the teams now regret targeting the weaker teams while in an alliance with stronger teams (i.e. the sisters, the brother/sister, etc.).  Things that make you go "hmmmmm."

[mbluecpa]

While I’m not a fan of the team that won, they’re nonetheless very competent racers.

I thought for a final leg, the design was really poor.  Bunching at the start, and a needle-in-a-haystack to decide it.  I doubt the brothers lost too much time at Armstrong Park, but it was a bad start for them and I figured the beginning of the third place edit.  I was surprised the final task had a judging element, but it seemed like one that each team would fail once then tighten up.  I knew it was over when the camera showed Chee’s baby on the table and the show didn’t cut to a commercial.  I’m curious as to the time gaps between teams, as I expect it wasn’t all that close.

Minor note: at some point - I think going to the bridge - the teams were to take marked cars/black SUVs.  Did Maddison and Riley arrive in a taxi (or at least, did the camera shot show a taxi)?

[RunningMarket]

Echoing many of the previous comments about what an absolutely snore of a finale this was. Teams should have had to find each piece of the their globe separately around the warehouse. That might have given other teams a chance to catch up/move ahead, because it was a foregone conclusion about 5 minutes into the episode who was going to win. And the music task should have been their final "memory task".

While alliances have been used in the past, never to this extent. I hope the race finds some way to curb this, as none of these teams got to the finale by completing a single road block without a significant amount of help from other teams.

[Eolivet]

If that was Will and James' winner's edit ... what would their loser's edit have looked like?

1 hour ago, seacliffsal said:

Maybe two of the teams now regret targeting the weaker teams while in an alliance with stronger teams (i.e. the sisters, the brother/sister, etc.).

THIS. I never understood why the alliance all went along with keeping the strongest teams in the race, giving them all tougher competition in the end. For all the Survivor/Big Brother strategies these teams adopted, "drag a goat to the end" was not one of them.

[ElleryAnne]

Everyone's already said it, but I'll agree.  These tasks were not good choices for the finale.  Finale tasks should involve memory/knowledge of places visited, and should require, well... something more than luck.  Needle in a haystack tasks, if they must be on TAR at all, belong in a detour in a middle leg, when the other half involves animals or making deliveries to hard-to-find places.  Not in a finale.

Also, I don't like eat-stupid-amounts-of-this-food tasks.  I'm not entertained by watching people retch.  I'm not even entertained by watching them eat.  (And what would have happened if the members of a team were diabetic or something?  Too bad, so sad, two-hour penalty?)

James and Will may not be the worst people in the world, and not the worst Racers in the world, but they're definitely in my list of unappealing winners for this show.  If they end up on Survivor 50, the Tag-Team Season, may I can root for them there.  I'd probably love them on that, actually.  But on TAR, no.  I don't want teams to form the kind of long-term alliances that target the removal of other teams - I want teams to read the clues, play clean, represent the US with class, and appreciate the gift of being on TAR.  And I don't want to feel like they're trying to make me aware of that last one with all the little disingenuous things they do or say.  

Count me with those glad to see DeAngelo looking happy again.

Victoria may be her mother's favorite, but I think the editors liked Michelle better.

 

3 hours ago, seacliffsal said:

So, if they didn't win, would there still have been a proposal?

I'd say yes, complete with an, "I'm really still a winner, 'cause I have you," speech designed to take half the spotlight off whoever would have won instead of them.

 

3 hours ago, Sammie said:

I have to say, I don't get the hate for Will and James. 

Others have said it better, but I'll just say that for me, they tried too hard at playing a different game than the one I was watching for.

[RunningMarket]

11 minutes ago, ElleryAnne said:

[SNIP]

Also, I don't like eat-stupid-amounts-of-this-food tasks.  I'm not entertained by watching people retch.  I'm not even entertained by watching them eat.  (And what would have happened if the members of a team were diabetic or something?  Too bad, so sad, two-hour penalty?)

I caught a tweet from Leo last night, who is diabetic. He said that Alanna would likely have to eat all 6 for them. He carried extra insulin with him, but said he never asked the production team for accommodations regarding eating challenges.

[meep.meep]

The two highlights of the show that no one has mentioned:  Phil dancing!  And Hung's reference to her Tyrannosaurus Rex arms!  But you're supposed to call them Raptor Arms and do the chop with them.  I too have Raptor Arms.

[Fukui San]

16 minutes ago, RunningMarket said:

I caught a tweet from Leo last night, who is diabetic. He said that Alanna would likely have to eat all 6 for them. He carried extra insulin with him, but said he never asked the production team for accommodations regarding eating challenges.

Given the show's love of having the racers eat unhealthy amount of stuff over the seasons, that was a huge risk on Leo's part. Particularly when paired with the show's penchant for misleading clues.

[Onecattoo]

I dislike them so much, deleted the episode from DVR without watching it after checking first to see who won. Worst season ever. 

[ByaNose]

While not the worst season it did have a very uneventful ending. I liked all of the teams less Will & Will. I just remember Phil’s opening line how it was going to be the most difficult season ever. It seemed to be the total opposite of that. The only difficult one that gave the teams trouble was the flag challenge from last week. And, we all know how that ended. 

[Stardancer Supreme]

2 hours ago, hendersonrocks said:

I thought the clue said upfront that the six beignets would need to be eaten after finding the baby - am I misremembering that?

No. But this crop of racers never got the hang of fully reading a clue.  Will was so busy shoveling King cake in his face (which they were NOT told to eat) that eating 2 beignets afterwards almost did him in!  I wonder if James didn't eat sweets the way he carried on about eating the 4 remaining beignets.  If my partner was making vomit noises, I would have eaten the fourth beignet without complaint.  I might have read the clue and told my partner to not eat the King cake... 

[Tango64]

I"m so over the height/bungee/rappel challenges. They've been used so much that every contestant knows they'll face one and even the people afraid of heights just do it with little fuss.

Probably because they've seen enough of these stunts to know there is zero chance of being hurt. Whenever they show another height challenge all I can think of is the CBS-lawyer-in-charge-of-not-being-sued-for-killing-a-contestant talking with the stunt riggers: "There must be zero chance of anyone getting hurt." Well, yes if everyone follows instructions.... "No, not if. There must be zero chance of anyone getting hurt."

 

[blackwing]

I didn’t understand them crying about eating the beignets either... they’re donuts!  Even if they were heavy and thick, so what, drink some water!  Especially for a million dollars I would have eaten three in no time at all.  The fact that these two were bickering over who should eat more was very telling of their relationship and perhaps not a very good omen for their future.

When everything is coming up roses and they feel comfortable and preen for the camera, life is great!  But when faced with the slightest adversity, they quickly resorted to being demanding and snapping at each other.  “Drink some water!”  “YOU eat it!”  Will seems to be the nastier of the two and appears to be the alpha in their relationship.  Can you picture them changing diapers of the babies they hope to adopt?  “I did it last time, YOU do it!”  “I’m going to vomit, I can’t, you do it.”  “Just hold your nose, you do it!  Do it now!”

Way back when they showed us the clip of Will and James practicing the bottle on the head, I assumed they would win.  That clip was so out of place.  I assumed it was from their audition video.  But I don’t think we’ve ever seen snippets of a team’s audition video apart from maybe the first episode when we are introduced to the teams.   And in recent times, I don’t think we’ve seen any audition videos at all.   So it was either an oddly prophetically inserted audition video (“this is why they are deserving winners, look how prepared they were!”) or the show actually asked them while in post-production to go back and find video of themselves practicing.

1 hour ago, ElleryAnne said:

Also, I don't like eat-stupid-amounts-of-this-food tasks.  I'm not entertained by watching people retch.  I'm not even entertained by watching them eat.  (And what would have happened if the members of a team were diabetic or something?  Too bad, so sad, two-hour penalty?)

I don’t think accommodations would have been made.  One of Nat or Kat or both were vegetarian and not only did they have to eat meat, but it was a sheep’s head.  So I agree that Alana would have had to eat all six.

I’ve also wondered about food allergies or religious restrictions, and I’m not sure if there would be any accommodation made either.  What if someone was allergic to peanuts?  What if a Muslim team had to eat something prohibited by their religion?  I think it would be oh well, too bad.  I remember the time that teams had to get some Buddhist or tribal blessing and Millie the Mole talked about how uncomfortable she was, but she did it anyways.

[watch2much]

I concur with the prevailing opinions here.  the show should have used the music boxes comp for the end.  it would have been great to see those three teams having to do something that difficult on their own.  it would have made for some great tv!  I found Will and James to be over acting and on all the time which got annoying, but they were fairly competent.  I didn't notice the beards reaction and I've already deleted the show on my dvr.  But, duh!  if you have brought strong teams to the final 3 then it's not a done deal to win.  I give Will and James credit for pushing the alliance and using it to their advantage.  maybe that's what was going thru the beards and chee's heads when they hit the map.  they finally realized who benefitted the most from the alliance.

[Cotypubby]

11 minutes ago, Tango64 said:

I"m so over the height/bungee/rappel challenges. They've been used so much that every contestant knows they'll face one and even the people afraid of heights just do it with little fuss.

Probably because they've seen enough of these stunts to know there is zero chance of being hurt. Whenever they show another height challenge all I can think of is the CBS-lawyer-in-charge-of-not-being-sued-for-killing-a-contestant talking with the stunt riggers: "There must be zero chance of anyone getting hurt." Well, yes if everyone follows instructions.... "No, not if. There must be zero chance of anyone getting hurt."

 

I find them so boring because they are basically just "Get in line, do this task, and leave in the order you arrived." When it's just a "jump off this thing" task, there is no way for a trailing team to make up any time, because it involves no skill or strength. To have one in the finale is so lame. Which is a fitting end for this season.

[leighdear]

14 hours ago, Lantern7 said:

Yeah, Will & James were camera hogs. Yeah, they probably didn't have to work as hard as past winning teams. And yes, the Mine Five undermined the premise of the series. But this is TAR. We had exciting locations. We had two great new formats in Mega Leg and City Sprint. We didn't have the damn Face-to-Face. And we had Phil. The guy who can dance n Bourbon Street. The man who could run in high heels. The hardest-working mofo in reality TV. Yeah, the latest Survivor was great, but it was preceded by some schmuck who got voted out winning $1 million, followed by an asshole bad-touching others and making every week A Very Special Episode.

At least we'll have Tough as Nails. And maybe we'll get a new season sooner rather than later.

Seriously.  Nobody FORCED the teams into an alliance, it was formed because they ALL.WANTED.TO.TAKE.SHORTCUTS.  Then they all deceived, lied to, and misdirected the other teams, knocking them off one by one. 

The word is "Consensual".   Say it with me. 

The show isn't called "The Amazing Group Hug", it's a competition.  And those that want to sing Kumbaya around the pit stop campfire, braid each other's hair & make S'Mores are on the wrong show.  If you think you won't eventually get stabbed in the back, you're stupid. 

I'm fine with Will & James winning, they practiced, they prepared and worked their asses off.  Good for them and I hope they adopt a dozen little babies that learn to balance things on their head doing Yoga poses, run in high heels and make Beignets.

And come on, "Tough as Nails"!  I love that show!

Edited December 17, 2020 by leighdear

[RunningMarket]

33 minutes ago, blackwing said:

I don’t think accommodations would have been made.  One of Nat or Kat or both were vegetarian and not only did they have to eat meat, but it was a sheep’s head.  So I agree that Alana would have had to eat all six.

If I recall correctly, that task was a Fast Forward, so they could have chosen to not do it. And I read later that Nat/Kat (whichever was the vegetarian) said that she was actually ill for a few days, as her body didn't know how to process the meat (especially that amount!) but she pushed through without complaint.

[Dobian]

Well that was the boringest, most anti-climactic finale I think I've ever seen. The producers pretty much gave up on trying to edit the episode to make it look suspenseful after Will and James left beignet place while the other two teams were still trying to find the baby (we actually ordered a king cake with a baby in it for desert in a restaurant one day when we were in New Orleans in 2015).  It really just came down to who could find the baby the fastest, since all the other challenges were low degree of difficulty.  Something more complicated than that globe puzzle would have added some suspense and given trailing teams a chance to catch up, like some of the ideas people mentioned above.  They even extended the final mat segment, usually you don't even hear the other teams talk.

Edited December 17, 2020 by Dobian

[MartyQui]

12 hours ago, BK1978 said:

I still don’t know which is Will and which is James.

Will had Longer Legs.

[SG429]

56 minutes ago, leighdear said:

The word is "Consensual".   Say it with me. 

The show isn't called "The Amazing Group Hug", it's a competition.

And surprising that the professional athletes couldn't even grasp that concept until it was too late.

[bunnyface]

1 hour ago, Tango64 said:

I"m so over the height/bungee/rappel challenges. They've been used so much that every contestant knows they'll face one and even the people afraid of heights just do it with little fuss.

Probably because they've seen enough of these stunts to know there is zero chance of being hurt. Whenever they show another height challenge all I can think of is the CBS-lawyer-in-charge-of-not-being-sued-for-killing-a-contestant talking with the stunt riggers: "There must be zero chance of anyone getting hurt." Well, yes if everyone follows instructions.... "No, not if. There must be zero chance of anyone getting hurt."

 

Every time one of those comes up, my watching partner is "oh hell no" and I'm all "I wanna!"  My rationale is that no one has died on the race yet, so it would be fun.   Any ol' schmo can hook up a line wrong but you know production is over it all a million times.  I'd feel completely safe.  Right up until I was the first death.

[Dobian]

The group hug thing was a little strange, but one thing about Amazing Race finales is that they always feel a little off to me.  You see all the teams from the race, having watched them, listened to them, gotten to know them.  But at the final mat they stand to the sides like props, they smile and clap, and are just "there".  In contrast, you watch finales of The Great British Baking Show, and all the bakers are there along with the families of the three finalists.  And there are clips of all of the bakers talking to the camera and interacting with each other and the show hosts.  It's much more engaging.  They even show "what are they doing now" video clips during the closing credits.  At least this finale of Amazing Race was more engaging than past ones, while failing in just about every other way.

Edited December 17, 2020 by Dobian

[curbcrusher]

3 hours ago, ElleryAnne said:

Also, I don't like eat-stupid-amounts-of-this-food tasks.

But this wasn't "stupid amounts of food" it was three friggin beigents each. Unless you're allergic to good food, that's like half a single serving each.  🙂

[BarneySays]

It is too cliche for the beardos, who waxed on and on about how they wanted the three of them in the final and how they loved the other two teams so much, to be so churlish and childish when they came in third.  Their vanity convinced them they would win and when reality smacked them in the face, they pouted like two overprivileged children.  Good riddance to them.

As for the winners being smart racers, I would disagree.  They repeatedly- repeatedly- failed to read clues.  And they don't appear smart at all.  They didn't know what a rikshaw is and showed lapses of basic knowledge throughout the race (can't recall the specific incidences).  Yes, they practiced tasks (probably for the internet) and prepared the usual geography and flag information, but that is SOP for most racers (typically, the recruited reality tv whores and stunt castings are the teams that don't prepare). 

The minute the first task was announced, I knew this was going to be as hideous as the chicago final leg (or the las vegas lights one), with little excitement.  Where is the suspense in having volunteers randomly toss beads at contestants?  How did this task ever get past the spitball stage?  The jump was similarly ridiculous and pointless.  And the globe?  I thought adding the- it's not done well enough- bit to the globe task was gratuitous and pointless.  Turned it off at that point.  

As for bad cab luck- this seemed more like the beardos jumped the gun and got out of the cab to finish getting to the park, which was a stupid impulsive move.  They did not appear to get clear directions to the front entrance from the cabby. 

In addition to protecting against these kinds of alliances, TAR has too often had uneventful final legs.  If the show returns, which I doubt it will do, they need to do much better with the finales. 

[tinkerbell]

8 hours ago, raven said:

This is how I feel.   I was actually enjoying the season until the last two episodes.  I don't like seeing answers handed out and the finale was boring with the winner easily determined, based on the contestant placings and tasks.

It seems like a perfect storm of the dumbing down of TAR over the years - the spoon fed transportation resulting in everyone being on even playing fields coupled with simple tasks - go here and give this to that person; watch while someone else does something, etc - along with a group feeding each other the answers.    All of this sucked the fun and spontaneity out of the show for me towards the end.

It was nice this season to see people being decent to their partners and to the locals.  I don't think W&J are horrible people and it's the show's fault, not theirs, that they were able to play the game the way they did. 

Yes - to all of this.   But, I would add, that the editing has also been a problem.   IN past seasons, they would show teams struggling with tasks, we'd see how their relationships worked or didn't work under stress, and there was a certain amount of anxiety that the teams had about being lost, not having the skills to do the task, etc.   Those things either didn't happen, or we didn't see them.  We got the idea that some racers were afraid of heights, but never SEEING anything other than "I'm scared, but I'll do it."

The struggles, the meltdowns, the perseverance, are what gave previous seasons  that "edge of your seat" quality.  

1 hour ago, curbcrusher said:

But this wasn't "stupid amounts of food" it was three friggin beigents each. Unless you're allergic to good food, that's like half a single serving each.  🙂

Seriously.  Like someone said upthread, my only experience with beignets was at Port Orleans Resort in Disney World.  But damn! it's like scarfing down 3 donuts.   Makes me wonder if the task was to eat them without drinking any water - cause that might be hard.  

[Hera]

3 hours ago, Tango64 said:

I"m so over the height/bungee/rappel challenges. They've been used so much that every contestant knows they'll face one and even the people afraid of heights just do it with little fuss.

Probably because they've seen enough of these stunts to know there is zero chance of being hurt. Whenever they show another height challenge all I can think of is the CBS-lawyer-in-charge-of-not-being-sued-for-killing-a-contestant talking with the stunt riggers: "There must be zero chance of anyone getting hurt." Well, yes if everyone follows instructions.... "No, not if. There must be zero chance of anyone getting hurt."

3 hours ago, Cotypubby said:

I find them so boring because they are basically just "Get in line, do this task, and leave in the order you arrived." When it's just a "jump off this thing" task, there is no way for a trailing team to make up any time, because it involves no skill or strength. To have one in the finale is so lame. Which is a fitting end for this season.

These tasks are definitely hold-overs from earlier seasons where there were people who would hesitate to do them, or—if they were part of a detour—would choose the other, slower side of a detour in order to avoid them. But now, even though the editing always tries to make it seem like someone flinched at having to do the heights-based challenge, I suspect no one actually does anymore. I think they need to introduce more elements like the word scramble to these challenges so that they stop being first in, first out. If they want to stop teams working together, they can make the question at the end different for each one, for instance, by lighting up different letters each time so that everyone has a different word to unscramble, or have them look out for/count different things as they're going down ("How many cars were in the parking lot below?" "What country's flag was hanging out the window on the fourth floor?" etc.).

But honestly, I don't mind teams working together. Yes, the alliance was annoying about it because Hung told people the answer before some of them had even asked for her help (and waited around for people to finish instead of moving on to the next task), but on the other hand, Leo and Aparna also worked together on that task to stay ahead of Kaylynn, and it doesn't seem like anyone had a problem with that. I suspect the difference is that Leo and Aparna actually seemed to work it out together, rather than one of them already having the answer and then giving it to the other. Also, the arrangement was spontaneous and temporary—it allowed them both to stay out of last place. I think those tactics are valid and sensible for the racers and provide an interesting dynamic for me as a viewer (it might affect the choice of who to U-Turn/Yield down the line, or it might cause hurt feelings if one team decides to end the collaboration before the other team was ready) and that's why I can't get on board with a blanket ban on teams working together.

Edited December 17, 2020 by Hera

[nilyank]

8 minutes ago, tinkerbell said:

Seriously.  Like someone said upthread, my only experience with beignets was at Port Orleans Resort in Disney World.  But damn! it's like scarfing down 3 donuts.   Makes me wonder if the task was to eat them without drinking any water - cause that might be hard.  

No because when Will was struggling eating his 2nd beignets, James told him to drink water with it, so there was no restriction on either one of them to eat sweet, delicious puffy desserts.