S36.E10: The Longest Minute of Your Life

[GenerationX]

I appreciate that we got a likable, competent, supportive group of final 3 teams, and Ricky & Cesar certainly deserved the win.

[proserpina65]

So glad that Amber and Vinny didn't make the final.  But I have to confess, I was a little disappointed that Ricky and Cesar won.  Not really sure why.  They were a good team, always pleasant to each other and other people, smart and resourceful.  I guess it was just how dominant they were.  I would've liked the final to be a bit more competitive at the end, I guess, so I was disappointed when Juan and Shane made that terrible mistake with the Pat's/Geno's clue.  Although they did a great job with the tasks after that and made up a lot of time.

Speaking of Juan and Shane, they clearly aren't from anywhere even near Philadelphia.  I live an hour south and I know about Pat's vs Geno's when it comes to cheesesteaks.  Either they completely misunderstood both the clue and the directions they got or their not understanding the clue factored in to them getting bad directions.  Probably didn't help that they kept saying they were looking for a pizza place, because any Philly native would've directed them to the right spot if they'd been talking about cheesesteak places.

[proserpina65]

11 hours ago, MerBearHou said:

Cesar, I can promise you that, even though I grew up in the US, I would not know the order of when states were ratified!!  So I don’t think that’s a disadvantage you can claim.  

I only know that Delaware was first.  Because they do not let you forget that.  It used to be on all their state signs.  Right above "Home of tax-free shopping".

 

[rr2911]

Not having a "U-Turn" this season benefited the winning team.  They certainly would've been targeted especially if teams had to vote.  

[Netfoot]

I was born and raised in this city. I used to live 10 blocks from here. I was a professional mascot, and I am the inventor of the tee-shirt cannon. Betsy Ross is an ancestor of mine and the family still owns her diaries, which I have memorized. We have a full-sized replica of the Liberty Bell in our home.

Now, let us run the race, fair and square!

[iMonrey]

The bartending challenge did indeed seem too easy since all they had to do was make one drink at a time. They could have made it harder by requiring teams to take all eight (instead of six) drink orders at once, then remember who ordered what. In fact that's kind of how Phil described it, so I think the rules for this one were just a little too lax. 

[PaperTree]

13 hours ago, Browncoat said:

Cheesesteaks!

It's a plus living here.  Grew up in North Jersey and never knew they existed until I was transferred to the flatlands of SJ.  And here in suburbia there's like 20 pizza places within 10 min of my house.  They all have cheesesteaks, some are better than others.

Never been to Pat's or Geno's though.  City is too much hassle.  Been there, done that, seen the sights.

Pat's now has branches all over, none close enough to bother with, but now I think I'll make the effort😎

[PaperTree]

1 hour ago, proserpina65 said:

I only know that Delaware was first.  Because they do not let you forget that.  It used to be on all their state signs.  Right above "Home of tax-free shopping".

Delaware is a cool little place.  Mom retired to Dover in 2006, 90 min from me.  Sister now lives in Rehoboth.

They have painted all the overpass bridges on the highways blue😎

[eel2178]

15 hours ago, Lantern7 said:

Well, this wasn’t the best season

Very boring end to a very boring season.

[PhD-Purgatory15]

R & C winning just left me underwhelmed. Definitely in the bottom third or fourth if we are rating TAR seasons 1 through 35..

Part of me wants to know how much of a lead Ricky & Caesar and Rod & Letiticia get diving off of the boat? Feels like maybe 30 minutes? Ricky took 21 attempts to Wind-balance for a minute and they still beat Amber & Vinny (who to be fair, screwed up the drink challenge the worst of all four teams and probably cost themselves a little bit of time doing that)..

Of course, the only time in the whole race that Ricky & Caesar would've been racing from last for even one little section of one leg..they bunch them back up at the Rocky Steps and put everyone back on equal footing.

Of course Ricky grew up in the final city. It's not like the overwhelmingly best team at navigation & self-driving needed any extra help winning the final leg.

Wonder if it might've been really close had the pilots not visited NJ? It feels like they ran a relatively similar looking leg without that giant error (I'm an Ohioan who has never been Philly and I know Pat's & Geno's are cheesesteak icons!!).

Mostly, I just want to erase this season from the memory bank & have the next season get back to actually traveling the world. Some combination of countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and/or Oceania..

[eel2178]

16 hours ago, MerBearHou said:

Way to go with that balance, Leticia!!! 

Women have a lower center of gravity, so the balance part is easier for them than the men. The men would have had the advantage if there had been some actual wind because it takes a lot of upper body strength to pull the sail up against the wind.

[eel2178]

15 hours ago, nilyank said:

They crossed stateliness?

Geez.

It looked as though the only reason they were given $20 at the start of the race was to be able to pay the toll to get back into PA.

[eel2178]

13 hours ago, mertensia said:

So they had a book of recipes and Vinny still screwed it up. 

The last thing I would ever be willing to do would be to let that guy give me anesthesia. 

[chaifan]

3 hours ago, iMonrey said:

The bartending challenge did indeed seem too easy since all they had to do was make one drink at a time.

I agree.  Especially for the penultimate leg, it was a softball challenge.  (Which Vinny & Amber still managed to screw up.)  I would have even been happy if the recipe cards were at the bar stations, but the pictures showing the glasses were elsewhere, requiring either memorization or going back and forth. 

1 hour ago, PhD-Purgatory15 said:

Part of me wants to know how much of a lead Ricky & Caesar and Rod & Letiticia get diving off of the boat? Feels like maybe 30 minutes?

They left in the standard 15 minute increments.  10:00 and 10:15.

1 hour ago, PhD-Purgatory15 said:

Of course, the only time in the whole race that Ricky & Caesar would've been racing from last for even one little section of one leg..they bunch them back up at the Rocky Steps and put everyone back on equal footing.

I honestly can't remember...  in normal (non-covid) seasons, do the final 3 all start out at the same time, or are departure times based on prior mat-arrival times?  For some reason, I think they all start at the same time for the final leg. 

 

Edited to add:  I wonder when this was filmed. It's obviously cold, but almost all the trees were full leaves and fully green - no "fall colors".  Cold snap in September, maybe?  Also, all 3 teams kept their packs on right to the final mat.  Only Rod dropped theirs on reaching the mat, the others all kept theirs on as long as they were up there.   

Edited May 16 by chaifan

[PaperTree]

28 minutes ago, eel2178 said:

It looked as though the only reason they were given $20 at the start of the race was to be able to pay the toll to get back into PA.

You can come into NJ for free, but you have to pay to leave.  LOL

It's $5 to get into PA in the South.  $15 to get into NYC.  There are still a few free bridges across the Delaware in obscure places😎

Edited May 16 by PaperTree

[Neveragain]

Hey Philly people, don’t hate me for this.  (Or, go ahead if you must!)  We were in Philadelphia several years ago and decided to taste test the famous cheesesteak rivalry for ourselves.  We started at Pat’s.  Wow, it was awful!  Terrible bread, very tired steak, bland cheese.  We couldn’t even bring ourselves to go across to Geno’s on the assumption it was just as unappetizing since the whole point is they are equal rivals.  We both said that the cheesesteak in our local mall in Jersey is way better, and it’s not that good!  l am not exaggerating the one in the mall is just serviceable but still far better than those tourist traps!

However, fellow tourists, all is not lost!  If you find yourself at that infamous corner then you’re only a few blocks from the Rim Cafe. We stumbled upon it by accident. And I said let’s go in I really need a cup of coffee.  Don’t get the coffee! Get the Volcano hot chocolate. I have never drank anything as delicious and was completely understanding why it cost $12!!  It was so decadent and incredible and I have taken the 90 minute trip to Philly several times since, just for that hot chocolate and the other delicious desserts. I’m so glad I chose it even though I went inside for coffee initially  If the owner Rene is there have him make the Volcano for you, he puts on quite a show.

 You’re welcome!!  

[Skooma]

6 hours ago, proserpina65 said:

So glad that Amber and Vinny didn't make the final.  But I have to confess, I was a little disappointed that Ricky and Cesar won.  Not really sure why.  They were a good team, always pleasant to each other and other people, smart and resourceful.  I guess it was just how dominant they were

I'm the opposite.  I love to see outstanding excellence whether from my sports teams or TAR Racers.  So I loved there was an A+ team -- especially not a stereotype alpha male team -- like Ricky & Cesar this season.  They were a joy to watch.

5 hours ago, rr2911 said:

Not having a "U-Turn" this season benefited the winning team.  They certainly would've been targeted especially if teams had to vote.  

I always hated the U-Turn and other reality show style junk TAR added as the years went by.  It always pulled down a class show that was so NOT based on silly reality show tricks used for cheap drama. 

I still miss the eat, drink and mingle teams used to get to do at pit stops.  The comradery made it so much more about racing and less about Big Brother-ing.

2 hours ago, PhD-Purgatory15 said:

Mostly, I just want to erase this season from the memory bank & have the next season get back to actually traveling the world. Some combination of countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and/or Oceania..

What you really mean is you want to erase covid from your memory bank.

1 hour ago, chaifan said:

I honestly can't remember...  in normal (non-covid) seasons, do the final 3 all start out at the same time, or are departure times based on prior mat-arrival times?  For some reason, I think they all start at the same time for the final leg.

The final leg departure times in the US were traditionally based on when a team's plane arrived back in the US and they cleared customs.

If all three teams all made the first flight out then where they sat on the plane became important for disembarking and standing in custom lines. 

Also how fast their camera crew got through customs with all their equipment.  Teams usually had to wait for their crew since the crew had more stuff for customs to inspect.

Edited May 16 by Skooma

[Lovecat]

1 hour ago, Neveragain said:

Hey Philly people, don’t hate me for this.  (Or, go ahead if you must!)  We were in Philadelphia several years ago and decided to taste test the famous cheesesteak rivalry for ourselves.  We started at Pat’s.  Wow, it was awful!  Terrible bread, very tired steak, bland cheese.  We couldn’t even bring ourselves to go across to Geno’s on the assumption it was just as unappetizing since the whole point is they are equal rivals.  We both said that the cheesesteak in our local mall in Jersey is way better, and it’s not that good!  l am not exaggerating the one in the mall is just serviceable but still far better than those tourist traps! 

Philly people are not going to hate you for this; we know that Pat's and Geno's are crap.

[Arkay]

1 hour ago, Neveragain said:

Hey Philly people, don’t hate me for this.  (Or, go ahead if you must!)  We were in Philadelphia several years ago and decided to taste test the famous cheesesteak rivalry for ourselves.  We started at Pat’s.  Wow, it was awful!  Terrible bread, very tired steak, bland cheese.  We couldn’t even bring ourselves to go across to Geno’s on the assumption it was just as unappetizing since the whole point is they are equal rivals.  We both said that the cheesesteak in our local mall in Jersey is way better, and it’s not that good!  l am not exaggerating the one in the mall is just serviceable but still far better than those tourist traps!

However, fellow tourists, all is not lost!  If you find yourself at that infamous corner then you’re only a few blocks from the Rim Cafe. We stumbled upon it by accident. And I said let’s go in I really need a cup of coffee.  Don’t get the coffee! Get the Volcano hot chocolate. I have never drank anything as delicious and was completely understanding why it cost $12!!  It was so decadent and incredible and I have taken the 90 minute trip to Philly several times since, just for that hot chocolate and the other delicious desserts. I’m so glad I chose it even though I went inside for coffee initially  If the owner Rene is there have him make the Volcano for you, he puts on quite a show.

 You’re welcome!!  

Great advice! Rim Café sounds delicious and I’ll have to give it a try!

[IvySpice]

My thoughts, watching Cesar crush the flag challenge and memorize the Declaration of Independence in his second language:

Immigrants. We get the job done!

[endure]

4 hours ago, chaifan said:

Edited to add:  I wonder when this was filmed. It's obviously cold, but almost all the trees were full leaves and fully green - no "fall colors".  Cold snap in September, maybe?  Also, all 3 teams kept their packs on right to the final mat.  Only Rod dropped theirs on reaching the mat, the others all kept theirs on as long as they were up there.   

Filming for this season began on October 25, 2022

[Artsda]

This was a pretty bad season.  No U-turn, the lose your crew elimination, the cheating by the alliance basically.

Caesar and Ricky deserved the win but it also seemed like they had leg up the entire time. Down to final leg being where they lived. 

[Browncoat]

22 minutes ago, Artsda said:

Down to final leg being where they lived. 

Frank and Margarita lost in their hometown.  Colin and Christy lost in their hometown.  Having the final leg in your hometown is not necessarily an advantage.

[DEL901]

Some people train for competition…others just have a wide variety of interests and experience.  

[DrBriCa]

6 hours ago, chaifan said:

I honestly can't remember...  in normal (non-covid) seasons, do the final 3 all start out at the same time, or are departure times based on prior mat-arrival times?  For some reason, I think they all start at the same time for the final leg. 

IIRC, normal seasons have the racers book their flights back to the US after they leave in the order they arrived at the mat. Most of the time, the teams get on the same flights, so they essentially start from the same point after landing, but there's still the rush to either the parked cars or taxis, depending on how they get around in the last city.

Some noteworthy examples of teams not all racing at the same time would be season 7 with Rob/Amber getting the earliest flight out of PR, but Uchenna/Joyce getting onto the plane even after the gate had closed. (It was also an example of a taxi-based finale in Florida.) And of course, Season 1 had the third-place team a full 24 hrs behind the top 2, with the awesome footage of them reading about Rob/Brennan's win in NYC while they were still in Alaska.

10 hours ago, rr2911 said:

Not having a "U-Turn" this season benefited the winning team.  They certainly would've been targeted especially if teams had to vote.  

They were so far ahead of almost all of the teams in most of the legs that I doubt a U-turn would've impacted them. Maybe if there was one during the Mega-leg... but even then it would've only been the pilots ahead of them. If anything, I wonder if their dominance was a reason for trying out the group-vote U-turn we saw last season.

[HelloooKitty]

The way I screamed “say no! Say no!” At my tv….

[eel2178]

2 hours ago, Browncoat said:

Frank and Margarita lost in their hometown.

It was really because they were in their hometown that they lost. Frank thought he was telling the cab driver to take them by the route that would have the least early morning traffic even though it wasn't the most direct route. That cost them too much time.

[eel2178]

3 hours ago, Artsda said:

This was a pretty bad season.  No U-turn, the lose your crew elimination, the cheating by the alliance basically.

I did my monthly viewer survey for CBS after I watched the final episode and told them pretty much what you said and more.

I gave them my usual passionate plea to stop collusion between teams, so we'll see if I make a dent in TPTB this time. I told them that in the spirit of the race, contestants who can't do the tasks need to be eliminated not carried across the mat by other teams.

[SuburbanHangSuite]

12 hours ago, PaperTree said:

Pat's now has branches all over, none close enough to bother with, but now I think I'll make the effort😎

Don't bother.  The pizza places near you probably have better.  The real pizza places.  The pilots are better than me because I'd be ready to go back and whup the guy's ass at the Linc who told me I was looking for a pizza shop.   It's like they found the one idiot in the city that misled them. 

All of the tasks were kind of easy and lame.  I guess the windsurfing was the trickiest but even that seemed too easy for a Final 3 spot.

Such an underwhelming season.  

[Wonderlad71]

Congrats to team Pooh Bear : Ricky & Cesar !

Also glad that 3 likeable and competent teams made the finale, but yes was not the most exciting season - still some Amazing Race is better than none.

 

[PurpleTentacle]

Well, this certainly was a season of the Amazing Race of all time...

It wasn't a great season to begin with, staying in South America for almost the entire race is very reminicant of the family edition staying in North America for the entire season. Complete with very lackluster tasks and super short legs. I guess the latter can't be helped that much with this being a covid-season, but the former could have been avoided. The covid-seasons set in europe and the middle east managed to bring a bunch of different cultures and localities to the table, where this season felt like they stayed in the same place the whole time.

Ricky and Cesar were very competent. Between the two of them they seem to have done everything. But I don't think that makes the race unfair. It just means that they are a very well rounded team that on top of having a bunch of life experiences, prepared well for the race. Their navigation was always on point, only toped by Danny. You got to imagine that they trained hard for that and it wasn't just in their inate skillset. So they more than deserved their win here. But on the other hand, seeing a team dominate this hard, without much struggle, isn't very interesting television. No fault of theirs of course, probably more to do with the very short legs and easy tasks, but still not that exciting to watch.

On top of these two things we have the very sour taste of production screwing over a team royally and then pretending like it was the team's fault.

Overall I was just really bored most of the time and infuriated some of the time, but even that not in a fun way. I think I have to rate this as one of the worst seasons of TAR ever. I'm actually not even sure if I'd rate it above the family edition. It's been too many years since I've seen that one, but I don't remember it being this bad.

At least there is reason to hope. 35 was a great season, probably in the top 10. If that is the general direction they are going, plus maybe adding 1-2 more tasks per episode, to fill the 90 minute format, the future is bright.

[PurpleTentacle]

On 5/16/2024 at 4:53 AM, chaifan said:

For me, the worst was counting poker chips.

That was the worst. Compounded by the fact that a team got screwed over, because their teller kept checking their work incorrectly and thus unjustly failing them.

On 5/16/2024 at 7:40 AM, Skooma said:

PS:  I guess Ricky & Cesar will finally get their million after the longest wait for a winning team to get their pay out since contracts for these shows stipulate they don't get the money until the season is broadcast fully.

I'm pretty sure there have been longer waits between filming a season and it airing, but I couldn't tell you which ones and how long, right now. Would need some research.

15 hours ago, PhD-Purgatory15 said:

Part of me wants to know how much of a lead Ricky & Caesar and Rod & Letiticia get diving off of the boat? Feels like maybe 30 minutes? Ricky took 21 attempts to Wind-balance for a minute and they still beat Amber & Vinny (who to be fair, screwed up the drink challenge the worst of all four teams and probably cost themselves a little bit of time doing that)..

Starting times were staggered by 15 minute intervals, like the rest of the season. So in principle those 15 minutes, but Ricky and Cesar also made up time during the bartending task, so maybe 20 minutes all in all?

14 hours ago, eel2178 said:

The last thing I would ever be willing to do would be to let that guy give me anesthesia. 

He is a nurse, not an anesthesiologist, so no danger there.

He might administer other medication though and I wouldn't want him to do that either...

14 hours ago, chaifan said:

I honestly can't remember...  in normal (non-covid) seasons, do the final 3 all start out at the same time, or are departure times based on prior mat-arrival times?  For some reason, I think they all start at the same time for the final leg. 

Start times are also staggered in the final leg.

14 hours ago, chaifan said:

Edited to add:  I wonder when this was filmed. It's obviously cold, but almost all the trees were full leaves and fully green - no "fall colors".  Cold snap in September, maybe?  Also, all 3 teams kept their packs on right to the final mat.  Only Rod dropped theirs on reaching the mat, the others all kept theirs on as long as they were up there.   

October 25 – November 17, 2022

So pretty late in autumn,. Some trees also had red coloured leafs and there were some leafs on the ground. Other trees were still green though. Must have been a warm year.

13 hours ago, Skooma said:

The final leg departure times in the US were traditionally based on when a team's plane arrived back in the US and they cleared customs.

If all three teams all made the first flight out then where they sat on the plane became important for disembarking and standing in custom lines. 

Also how fast their camera crew got through customs with all their equipment.  Teams usually had to wait for their crew since the crew had more stuff for customs to inspect.

Not quite correct. They used to start the leg in another country and the flight to the US was traditionally part of the leg. The start in the other country was staggered by arrival time, just like any other leg. Of course since there is usually only one viable flight, it basically becomes what you described in practice.

That's also how last (35) season went. They started the leg in Dublin, with the traditionally staggered starting times and had to fly to Seatle within the leg, which bunched them up.

6 hours ago, eel2178 said:

It was really because they were in their hometown that they lost. Frank thought he was telling the cab driver to take them by the route that would have the least early morning traffic even though it wasn't the most direct route. That cost them too much time.

As far as I remember and understood it, he told the cab driver to take a route he thought would have very little traffic period. The problem was that they got to the city at like 5am, a time where Frank is probably usually not even awake and thus the most direct route also had no traffic.

[mbluecpa]

23 hours ago, GenerationX said:

I appreciate that we got a likable, competent, supportive group of final 3 teams

Definitely one of the few things I’ll remember from this season, along with last week’s Yvonne/Melissa epilogue.  I don’t recall ever fast forwarding through TAR episodes, but I did some times this season; I even checked the first page of this thread Thursday morning to see if I should watch the finale - and confirmed with the first elimination that the answer was yes.

I appreciated that the Amazing Editors seemed to lean in just a bit more to the support/teamwork moments in the last couple of episodes: Ricky/Cesar on the beach post-windsurfing, Juan/Shane in the dune buggy (paraphrasing: “sorry if I snapped at you; it’s a race, but that’s no excuse”), and Rod/Leticia’s cutaway talking head segments.

I’m still chuckling a little at Juan absolutely nailing the first paragraph of the preamble, followed by Shane looking at him and saying “Bro, really?!?!”  

[One Imaginary Girl]

As someone who lives a couple of blocks away from Pat's and Geno's, I almost cried at how the episode made our city look beautiful and interesting.  I never even knew the race was here.  Who knew that a secret like that could be kept for a couple of years?  It did seem strange that nothing happened at that location, though.  At first I assumed they were going to have to assemble a cheesesteak or eat an ungodly number of them, but then it did turn out to be an eventful part of the race in a weird way.

PS Yes, if you ask the locals, those are touristy places to get a cheesesteak.  If you're visiting, I recommend John's Roast Pork.

[chaifan]

Something that stood out to me this season was the number of times teams got to a clue box, just to be told to go somewhere else.  I just don't remember that happening before - the norm is you get to a clue box, and there's a challenge in that location.  Not just instructions to go to a different location.  Am I remembering correctly?

Also, some of the post-race interviews have commented on how short many of the legs were.  I'm wondering if the lighter race schedule was done specifically to keep the teams (and crew) from getting physically exhausted (killer fatigue) because then they would be more susceptible to Covid?  They benefited from short flights between countries, too.  There just wasn't the KF we usually see by mid-race. 

In Shawn & Juan's post-race interview, they said they were about 40 minutes behind Ricky & Cesar getting to the mat.  Wow!  I can understand that, with their out of state detour.  But how did Rod and Leticia fall that far behind???

A comment on all the "worst season" comments...  I'll agree that there was a spark missing from this season, I chalk it up to covid restrictions, but I still enjoyed this season.  Staying in one geographic area took out a lot of what we watch TAR for, but that didn't kill it for me.  For me, having enjoyable teams to watch trumps locations or challenges.  I will never re-watch a season with Rachel from Big Brother, because I can't stand her on my screen.  She single-handedly ruined 2 seasons of TAR for me.  I purposely spoiled myself on her second season, just to find out when she was eliminated.  I came close to just not watching at all because she was there 'til the end.  ugh.  I feel almost the same about Boston Rob.  The last 4 seasons (since the "mine five") have been some of the best cast seasons, in my opinion.  3 of those 4 I wasn't rooting anyone off (Vinny & Amber being the exception). 

 

[jah1986]

17 hours ago, Lovecat said:

Philly people are not going to hate you for this; we know that Pat's and Geno's are crap.

Absolutely, do real Philly people actually go to Pat's or Geno's? Kidding. I don't and I never take my friends there when they visit. I still have a soft spot for Jim's. 

I could not figure out how I missed the Race filming in Philly but looked back at my calendar and realized I had Covid when they were here, so other things on my mind. Loved seeing the city in a good light.

[proserpina65]

22 hours ago, PaperTree said:

Delaware is a cool little place.  Mom retired to Dover in 2006, 90 min from me.  Sister now lives in Rehoboth.

They have painted all the overpass bridges on the highways blue😎

I live right next door to Delaware.  It has its good points.  And the closest beaches.

22 hours ago, PaperTree said:

Pat's now has branches all over, none close enough to bother with, but now I think I'll make the effort😎

The famous cheesesteak place is Philly does not have more than one location.  Pat's Select is a different company.

https://www.patskingofsteaks.com/

18 hours ago, Neveragain said:

 We both said that the cheesesteak in our local mall in Jersey is way better, and it’s not that good!

There's an episode of The Goldbergs where the eldest son journeys from their Philly suburb into the "wilds" of New Jersey and finds a place with what he describes as the best Philly cheesesteaks in the world.  It was quite funny.

Did you get it wit whiz or witout?

14 hours ago, Browncoat said:

Frank and Margarita lost in their hometown.  Colin and Christy lost in their hometown.  Having the final leg in your hometown is not necessarily an advantage.

Didn't Will from TAR2 claim he was so familiar with San Francisco that he & Tara had such a huge advantage?  Yeah, didn't really help them either.

13 hours ago, DEL901 said:

others just have a wide variety of interests and experience.  

That would seem to be the best advantage for TAR.

5 hours ago, PurpleTentacle said:

He is a nurse, not an anesthesiologist, so no danger there.

He's a nurse anesthetist so there is some involvement in giving anesthesia.  A description from the Mayo Clinic College website:

"A nurse anesthetist provides pain medication (anesthesia) care for patients before, during, and after surgery. They administer medications to keep patients asleep or pain-free during surgery and constantly monitor every biological function of the patient's body."

 

[Lovecat]

16 minutes ago, jah1986 said:

Absolutely, do real Philly people actually go to Pat's or Geno's? Kidding. I don't and I never take my friends there when they visit. I still have a soft spot for Jim's. 

I was born in Philadelphia but my parents moved to the Lehigh Valley right before my 3rd birthday.  I lived in the Philly 'burbs for about 20 years as an adult before moving back to the Valley, so I claim dual citizenship ;)  I know the city well enough that I could follow the Racers without a map.

Fun story:  I did not eat a cheesesteak until I was 18 years old.  Family lore has it that my mom craved Pat's cheesesteaks when she was pregnant with me and would send my dad out at all hours of the day and night to get her one (so I guess we can say that Pat's and Geno's are for tourists AND pregnant ladies :) )  Growing up I never ate cheesesteaks or cheeseburgers--the thought of melted cheese on meat made me feel a little oogie!  We always joked that I had gotten enough cheesesteaks in the womb to last me a lifetime...but as it turns out, it was only enough to get me to 18.  Now I will knock you down for a cheesesteak, and I'll take your onion rings to boot.

On topic?  Still so very thrilled to see Ricky & Cesar win!  They seem like they'd be fun to hang out with, and they ran a GREAT race (though I just about died laughing when Ricky OF COURSE was a mascot for his high school...those guys contain multitudes, yo).  Team Boyfriends FTW!

Edited May 17 by Lovecat

[SDVegas]

1 hour ago, One Imaginary Girl said:

As someone who lives a couple of blocks away from Pat's and Geno's, I almost cried at how the episode made our city look beautiful and interesting. 

After watching this episode, I said, let’s go to Philadelphia this weekend!

[rr2911]

14 hours ago, DrBriCa said:

 

They were so far ahead of almost all of the teams in most of the legs that I doubt a U-turn would've impacted them. Maybe if there was one during the Mega-leg... but even then it would've only been the pilots ahead of them. If anything, I wonder if their dominance was a reason for trying out the group-vote U-turn we saw last season.

Well, I don't mean in the finale.  There could've been a uturn at another time.  That uturn could've slowed them down.  That's all I'm saying.

[lilysmom]

On 5/16/2024 at 10:44 AM, rr2911 said:

Not having a "U-Turn" this season benefited the winning team.  They certainly would've been targeted especially if teams had to vote.  

You know, that's the one part of the Amazing Race that always bothers me. It doesn't seem fair that because I beat you to the U turn, I can cause you to stand a greater chance of being eliminated. (I am aware that teams have been U turned and still stay in the race.) The race is amazing enough as it is. 

Besides, you can only be u turned if you come in after another team. With the success  the winners had at coming in first or second, the chances were great that no one would have had a chance to use it on them. 

[rr2911]

28 minutes ago, lilysmom said:

You know, that's the one part of the Amazing Race that always bothers me. It doesn't seem fair that because I beat you to the U turn, I can cause you to stand a greater chance of being eliminated. (I am aware that teams have been U turned and still stay in the race.) The race is amazing enough as it is. 

Besides, you can only be u turned if you come in after another team. With the success  the winners had at coming in first or second, the chances were great that no one would have had a chance to use it on them. 

Maybe under the old uturn system where teams did not have to uturn anyone.  But last season, teams must vote on teams to uturn.  The father and daughter team from Texas received news they had been uturned when they arrived at their next challenge.  But who knows, the winners might've been successful anyway.

[rr2911]

Just my opinion here, but there weren't really any good strong teams.  Sure you had Danny and Angie but they were mostly concerned in making alliances than winning.  Leticia and Rod, Vinny and Amber all benefited from Angie and Danny's help.  The firefighters didn't know north from south.  The pilots also didn't navigate well.  The rest were weak. I'd like to see this season's winners go up against really strong teams.  Now let's see what happens!

[sinycalone]

As a born-and-raised Philadelphian....I was so happy to see my hometown as the final destination.  I worked for many years in the center of the historic area....and it was a great experience.  

The guard at the stadium had to be a transplant from the west coast.  Anyone raised even remotely close to Philly has to be aware of Pat's/Geno's location.

I think others have  mentioned that you only pay the bridge toll traveling into NJ...so Juan/Shane would not have had a lot of advance notice that they were on a bridge approach.  Once you see the signs overhead giving exiting directions....it's too late to do anything.  They were such good sports about their mistake, though.

 

Yes, visit Philly...in addition to the sites included in TAR...there are more museums, beautiful neighborhoods, and actually good spots to eat.  And......you have the opportunity year round to watch pro football, baseball, ice hockey,  basketball or soccer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 17 by sinycalone

[iMonrey]

8 hours ago, PurpleTentacle said:

Overall I was just really bored most of the time and infuriated some of the time, but even that not in a fun way. I think I have to rate this as one of the worst seasons of TAR ever. I'm actually not even sure if I'd rate it above the family edition. It's been too many years since I've seen that one, but I don't remember it being this bad.

Family Edition was worse. But this was pretty bad. I didn't hate it, exactly, but I was mostly bored with it for the reasons you enumerated above. It was a weak cast compounded by limited geography. 

I suspect editing was also a factor, considering this was originally edited to be an hour long, so who knows what kind of discarded footage was still available. 

I'm open to the conspiracy theory that CBS sat on this season, not because it had already been edited into one-hour episodes, but because they knew it to be a very weak cast, especially compared to the next one. The editing excuse doesn't hold a lot of water, episodes could have been re-edited week by week if need be. 

[bankerchick]

On 5/15/2024 at 11:05 PM, TheRabbi said:

I'll look back on this season overall fondly.

I, on the other hand, will have forgotten everything about it by the weekend.  No shade on this group, but much as I love shows like this and Survivor, there's nothing about it to make it memorable, except that a woman accepted a proposal from a guy she should have run from.

[Netfoot]

3 hours ago, One Imaginary Girl said:

As someone who lives a couple of blocks away from Pat's and Geno's, I almost cried at how the episode made our city look beautiful and interesting.

<sigh> I wish I could say the same about my country...  

[eel2178]

28 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

I suspect editing was also a factor, considering this was originally edited to be an hour long, so who knows what kind of discarded footage was still available.

One of the questions I was asked on my viewer survey was if 90 minute episodes were "just right" "a little too long" or "way too long."

They're definitely rethinking that choice. I think that with the writers strike, they just didn't have anything filmed to fill out the out the last hour of primetime. That shouldn't be the case in future seasons, so hopefully they'll listen to the viewers and not try to make it something permanent.

[watch2much]

Congrats to Ricky and Cesar.  I think they deserved the win.  I was worried they would lose during wind surfing but glad they pulled it out.  I was a bit surprised at the pilots not being better at navigating.  don't they get taught how to survive if they crash?  Still nice guys.  as to the language, many of the teams seemed to have someone with varying degrees of proficiency.  and really, most of the places they went were places that got a lot of English speaking tourists so finding someone to communicate shouldn't have been difficult.  Rod and Leticia were a pleasure to watch as a couple.  Rod, being a professional athlete being just naturally extremely competitive was nothing but gracious to the winner. 

[PaperTree]

1 hour ago, sinycalone said:

I think others have  mentioned that you only pay the bridge toll traveling into NJ...so Juan/Shane would not have had a lot of advance notice that they were on a bridge approach.

It's the other way around.  You can come into NJ for free, but you have to pay to leave😎