S27.E06: My Tongue Doesn't Even Twist That Way

[Quilt Fairy]

Can someone remind me of which season they had 2 detour tasks amongst a French reenactment of a WWI battle and one of the tasks was (I think) trying to understand Morse code in French over a field telephone? There were only one or 2 teams that attempted it and it absolutely destroyed them. I don't think anyone got it.

[auntlada]

Can someone remind me of which season they had 2 detour tasks amongst a French reenactment of a WWI battle and one of the tasks was (I think) trying to understand Morse code in French over a field telephone? There were only one or 2 teams that attempted it and it absolutely destroyed them. I don't think anyone got it.

Season 16. One team got u-turned and had to do it, but couldn't.

[Maysie]

 

They are going to be an absolute disaster if they end up in the middle or the bottom.

 

Well, based on Justin's crying in the first leg when they weren't able to do the fast forward, I'd say a melt down would be pretty much a given. I don't like him at all, for many of the reasons already stated here. I feel like he's really made for television; I haven't had so much of a "the camera's on me vibe" since the hippies. He seems very contrived, which is one of the things I hated about the hippies, too.

 

I expected to dislike the cheerleaders, the paps and the anchors for purely superficial reasons. As it turns out, I like the anchors and the cheerleaders more than I anticipated and the paps are worse than expected. It really is a blah season and I kind of feel like it's more about rooting against Justin and the paps at this point. I agree that some real tasks requiring skill would make a difference.

[dgpolo]

I think when we end up with seasons like this it just goes to show that TAR is a show that TPTB can only manipulate to a certain degree. Quite a few of us here wanted to see more of the dancers and the cousins, and the athletes, too. But, they were eliminated, so I guess we should be happy that the show didn't 'cheat' to allow them to stay. 

 

Every time the reporter appear on the screen I'm surprised 'cause I never remember them. Hopefully now that there are fewer teams we'll see more of them.

[AussiesRule]

 

I'm rooting for the reporters at this point as the classic "hey, who are these guys?  I can't remember them from any previous legs and they're in the finals" type of racers.  Because they've been completely ignored in the editing.

Maybe the reporters are getting the Amy and Maya edit. We hardly saw them all season and then they won the whole thing!!

[TheOriginalDonald]

Bust A Crab? Will a future task involving coloring eggs be called Easter Williams?

[Netfoot]

Buster Crabb?  Will a future task involve diving under a Soviet Cruiser in Portsmouth Harbour, and never being seen again?  

[aradia22]

Oh, good Lord. I get that they didn't want to make them do the plane thing again but the pronunciations of "liberte, egalite, fraternite" were PAINFUL. Did no one have that memorized from high school history at least? Admittedly, I liked history and went up to AP French but still, I feel like it's one of the few things that sticks with you.

[andromeda331]

I really want to fly in one of those planes, they looked really fun.

[Hanahope]

My ears winced so much at hearing the French butchered so badly after the plane ride.  The rap wasn't as bad, but then, they had people telling them how to pronounce the words.  The whole episode had me thinking how quickly my husband and his friend (who are planning on trying out), would have raced through the tasks, given that they're both French originally.  They wouldn't even had needed the plane ride, or at least they could have enjoyed it fully without having to look for the words, and they'd need like 5 seconds to look at the french rap before starting the 'performance.'  I would have though fraternite would have been relatively easier for those that went to a college with a fraternity.  And the rap was clearly based more on performance, and Denise needs to realize that and quit stopping in the middle.

 

I didn't understand why the Alabama team had such a hard time finding the detour tasks.  Couldn't they have taken a taxi?  Or found some hotel to direct them?  They are really allowing the papparazzi team to beat them, and I'd hoped we'd be done with them after she missed the third word, and obviously didn't know it.

Edited November 3, 2015 by Hanahope

[Guest]

I guess Alabama didn't realize they could write the rap out phonetically.  Though Denise is right that some sounds are 'funky', like in 'miens'.  

[still hoping]

I did take French years ago and remember very little, never use it but could pronounce the "slogan" easily and kneewr it anyhow...but...we are not in Canada and there is no reason to think that these racers would have any reason to know French JMO

Now if this was TAR Canada....LOL

I bet many of them took Spanish which in today's USA is more useful - wish I had

I thought it was interesting to see that Diane and Justin have not really been together that much IRL...

and the cracks are showing

I can't wait to see them eliminated

Contrary to others - I like team Texas - easy on the eyes, cute and funny

I like the reporters and I don't mind the Paps - they handled last place very well I thought

I have a dislike for the Chacs - yeah we know you are a doctor, thanks for reminding us every episode yawn

and I can't wait to see the superfan Justin eliminated

[Quilt Fairy]

I think when we end up with seasons like this it just goes to show that TAR is a show that TPTB can only manipulate to a certain degree.

I disagree. I think it's showing us just how much TPTB can manipulate the show. Someone signed off on this boring, unmemorable cast. Someone signed off on these boring, unchallenging challenges. Someone signed off on all these spoon-fed flights (I think it's 100% at this point). Someone signed off on not allowing the teams to drive themselves, even in a European country where getting lost should not be dangerous.

 

If CBS continues to think of TAR as a cash cow that will continue to produce Emmys while it squeezes it's budget more and more, maybe it's better to put old Bessie down.

[Guest]

I don't think this season is any worse than past seasons.  It's just the 27th time around.  So not so much budget issues as creativity ones?  

 

And I'm glad they didn't manipulate the race to save them but I think the most rootable players did leave already and that's not the show's fault. 

[RCharter]

I don't think this season is any worse than past seasons.  It's just the 27th time around.  So not so much budget issues as creativity ones?  

 

 

Agree with this.  There is nothing to suggest they are skimping on costs from what I can see.  I would blame budget if they were doing a majority of the legs in rural Ohio, but the locations seems to still be pretty exotic.

[biakbiak]

I thought it was interesting to see that Diane and Justin have not really been together that much IRL...

and the cracks are showing

I can't wait to see them eliminated

Does anyone know how long they have been dating? What Justin said was that the last year and a half of their relationship had been long distance, by the way he said it I imagined that they had been dating a lot longer than that.

[Guest]

I think you're right.  It looks like Justin moved from Philly to Phoenix to be a producer on the Mix 96.9 morning radio show hosted by Matthew Blades.  I don't listen to morning shows but I sometimes flip to that station.  I'm surprised Justin calls himself a morning radio personality.  I've never heard of him, just Blades.  Who bugs me.  He sounds about 19.  Which is true of most morning radio hosts, to me.

[blackwing]

The way Justin talks to Diana is terrible.  She was in the cab making humming noises and he snaps "stop doing that" and she retorted something like "the way you just said that".  It's like she's not even a person to him.  It's very evident that TAR is his dream, and the only reason why she is there is because he needed a partner.   However, she seems fully aware of the way he treats her, and she seems to accept it because "we haven't spent much time together and he gets stressed".  Alrighty then.

 

My favourite teams are Texas and the Reporters.  The Reporters seem like genuinely nice people.  I am neutral on the cheerleaders.  It was fun seeing how much they enjoyed the rapping task.  

 

I have mild dislike for the Chacs.  Once again, another reference from him to remind us that he is a doctor.  I suppose it is possible that someone is prompting him off camera before every shot, "how is this like being a doctor", but as I've said before, I don't recall other doctors in the past getting fed similar prompts.  "Oh I see, using the knife on the shellfish is just like using the knife on people!"  I believe he's an OBGYN.  Yeah, sticking a knife in a clam and violently twisting to pop it open is JUST LIKE how he uses a knife on his patients.  Ass.

[RCharter]

The way Justin talks to Diana is terrible.  She was in the cab making humming noises and he snaps "stop doing that" and she retorted something like "the way you just said that".  It's like she's not even a person to him.  It's very evident that TAR is his dream, and the only reason why she is there is because he needed a partner.   However, she seems fully aware of the way he treats her, and she seems to accept it because "we haven't spent much time together and he gets stressed".  Alrighty then.

Well.. she just needs to get over the way he talks to her.

 

But he doesn't have to just get over her humming in a cab.

[Netfoot]

It's very evident that TAR is his dream, and the only reason why she is there is because he needed a partner.   However, she seems fully aware of the way he treats her, and she seems to accept it because "we haven't spent much time together and he gets stressed".  Alrighty then.

 

I've felt for a while that she is just his Race Partner, and her only job is to make the team up to two members.  It's like he doesn't care if he is offensive, because he won't need her after the race is done!  So, if she dumps him after, it's no biggie.  But what if Diana just gets fed up and walks off the race?  That would be a bit of a shocker for our Justin, wouldn't it?  

[RCharter]

I've felt for a while that she is just his Race Partner, and her only job is to make the team up to two members.  It's like he doesn't care if he is offensive, because he won't need her after the race is done!  So, if she dumps him after, it's no biggie.  But what if Diana just gets fed up and walks off the race?  That would be a bit of a shocker for our Justin, wouldn't it?  

sweet baby jebus.....please make this happen.

[doodlebug]

. Someone signed off on all these spoon-fed flights (I think it's 100% at this point)

 

I think that the spoon-fed flights have come about for a number of reasons, most of them out of the control of TPTB.  First and foremost, the first season of AR took place before 9-11, which changed air travel forever.  Then, in Season 5, Colin and Christie, who were masters at figuring out airline schedules, got ahead of the pack by almost a day.  I believe they arrived in Paris before Phil was able to get there from the previous pit stop.  TPTB figured out from that incident that they needed to keep the racers all on the same 'lap' so to speak and on the same continent or they'd run the risk of having one team running away from the pack.  Logistically, too,  they've got to keep them on the same leg or they'd have to be filming multiple legs at the same time which would be virtually impossible. Limiting the choice of flights was the easiest way to do this although it did take a lot of the airport fun away, but it prevented future airport wizards from outsmarting them and breaking away. I also seem to recall that, in seasons long past, racers weren't limited to the major air carriers and, especially in Asia, were on tiny airlines with very poor safety records etc and TPTB felt they needed to be sure everyone was using major carriers with decent safety records.

 

I miss the airport shenanigans too, but I don't think TPTB had a lot of choice in the matter.

Edited November 4, 2015 by doodlebug

[dgpolo]

I disagree. I think it's showing us just how much TPTB can manipulate the show. Someone signed off on this boring, unmemorable cast. Someone signed off on these boring, unchallenging challenges. Someone signed off on all these spoon-fed flights (I think it's 100% at this point). Someone signed off on not allowing the teams to drive themselves, even in a European country where getting lost should not be dangerous.

 

If CBS continues to think of TAR as a cash cow that will continue to produce Emmys while it squeezes it's budget more and more, maybe it's better to put old Bessie down.

 

I think maybe you and I have very different ideas of manipulation. None of what you've said above has anything to do with who is eliminated and who is first. On those spoon fed flights, someone still exits first and someone last, someone finishes the challenges, no matter how boring, ahead of someone else. Someone gets a better cab driver than someone else, all those things are things TPTB cannot control, including . On shows like Project Runway or Top Chef the judging is subjective, on the Race, whoever comes in first, wins. That is what I meant about they can only manipulate 'to a certain degree' I'm sure they thought the athletes would go farther but there is no way to manipulate a team that DOESN'T READ THE CLUE!!. What could they do, have the camera guy beat them over the head 'til they read the whole thing? No, they had to let them lose. So if they cast a bunch of teams for certain reasons (whatever they may be) and then teams they thought were not boring and were memorable are eliminated and teams are boring and unmemorable stay, what can they do?

[Netfoot]

So if they cast a bunch of teams for certain reasons (whatever they may be) and then teams they thought were not boring and were memorable are eliminated and teams are boring and unmemorable stay, what can they do?

 

TPTB don't don't know the applicants for each race.  So they watch application videos, then they interview and observe and do their best to figure out the... let's call it Entertainment Quotient of each candidate team before them.  Within the bounds of their self-imposed race makeup, they try to choose only teams with the highest EQ.

 

But after the race gets going, the shit hits the fan.  Mr. & Mrs. Dynamo that they were sure were going to be the hottest racers ever have a brain-fart and are out at the end of the first leg.  The Personality sisters catch early KF, make some regrettable comments, and turn out to be a pair of harpies.  Team Stupendous show that in fact, they are dead b-o-r-i-n-g.  And so it goes.  The best laid plans of TPTB collapse in the reality of The Amazing Race, and they have to do the best with what ever they find themselves with.

 

Of course, they don't like this.  So they eschew ordinary people and stunt-cast and talent-spot, in an attempt to identify teams with guaranteed EQ, which... honestly? Doesn't seem to work out, but they keep trying.

[Guest]

I'm actually ok with the casting of this show.  They said they only had a pool of like 20,000 applicants, mostly all white, and around 1/3 of them had been on at least one other reality show or turned down by several.  

 

I'm more interested in teams like the GlobeTrotters and cowboys and the Soul Surfer girl and even TMZ than the pool of 'average white people just trying to get on any reality show'.  

[RCharter]

I'm actually ok with the casting of this show.  They said they only had a pool of like 20,000 applicants, mostly all white, and around 1/3 of them had been on at least one other reality show or turned down by several.  

 

I'm more interested in teams like the GlobeTrotters and cowboys and the Soul Surfer girl and even TMZ than the pool of 'average white people just trying to get on any reality show'.  

I really hope they give TMZ another shot in the future.  I think they would have had such snark.

[Bryce Smith]

RCharter, on 04 Nov 2015 - 02:55 AM, said:

I really hope they give TMZ another shot in the future.  I think they would have had such snark.

They'd have to do a season of past first-outs for that.

[RCharter]

They'd have to do a season of past first-outs for that.

I don't see why they couldn't just do a season of people who "went home too soon" or even bring TMZ back as a one off even among a cast of new racers.  I don't think they would truly have an advantage since they only did one task, which they failed spectacularly at.  I've seen shows do that, where they will being back one contestant that went home first, or didn't make a cut.  I believe PR did that, and it wasn't for an all star season.

[selkie]

. I also seem to recall that, in seasons long past, racers weren't limited to the major air carriers and, especially in Asia, were on tiny airlines with very poor safety records etc and TPTB felt they needed to be sure everyone was using major carriers with decent safety records.

 

I miss the airport shenanigans too, but I don't think TPTB had a lot of choice in the matter.

 

 

They also need to get insurance for the production of the Race and no sane underwriter offering that at a reasonable cost for an American production will let you fly on Lion Air or the rather large list of other SE Asian carriers on the EU's 'banned from operating in our airspace' list.  Someone on RFF got a photo of the extended clue for airline bookings on one of the SE Asia legs of TAR 26 and the banned airlines list was pretty much the usual discount Indonesian carriers, Air Kotyo, 'any other airlines that production fels is unsafe at time of filming' and a few other known not great options. The only surprise banned airline was Malaysia Airlines and I suspect that was because they might have had a route that would get someone ahead of Phil.

 

Another bad flight snafu was during the first All Stars season where production didn't check the local calender and had Racers trying  to get out of Mozambique and into Tanzania smack in the middle of hadj and school holiday departures. Mirna & Charla begged their way onto a flight that got them to Zanzibar literally 36 hours before any other team while the Guidos were eliminated when the only route they could find required a connection in Amsterdam or something insane like that.

[jhlipton]

 I couldn't tell the difference between track star girls and cheerleader girls until the track girls goofed on their clue. 

 

For me, it was like the difference between black and wh... day and night!

 

#Reporters for the win!

[blackwing]

I really hope they give TMZ another shot in the future.  I think they would have had such snark.

Sorry, I disagree.  I don't see why they would get another shot over many many other teams that went out first or second.  I have no doubt that we will see another Unfinished Business season.  But I liked how teams that were on Unfinished Business were generally strong teams that made one poor decision (such as stopping to pee) or got a bad break.  My issue with TMZ being on Unfinished Business is that I feel like their elimination wasn't because of one mistake or because they got U Turned by another.  They were just all around a pretty bad team.  Having snark potential doesn't qualify them in my book for a repeat appearance.  I would prefer to save Unfinished Business for strong teams like Aly and Steve from last season, who got that flat tire.

[Pallas]

Logan and Chris weren't in last place though, so they weren't going to be eliminated no matter what.  And they were mildly more tolerable this episode

 

Maybe Chris was sanguine because it was Logan and not he who failed. Chris may be someone who can weather any disaster not of his own making, yet falls apart in the face of his own fallibility. He could be terrified of drawing blame -- which to his mind, inevitably leads to punishment. Punishment made horrible because he feels he brought it on. He seemed almost relieved by Logan's error: with this misfortune, he got to Express Pass right to the punishment, and U-Turn the (self) blame. 

[RCharter]

Sorry, I disagree.  I don't see why they would get another shot over many many other teams that went out first or second.  I have no doubt that we will see another Unfinished Business season.  But I liked how teams that were on Unfinished Business were generally strong teams that made one poor decision (such as stopping to pee) or got a bad break.  My issue with TMZ being on Unfinished Business is that I feel like their elimination wasn't because of one mistake or because they got U Turned by another.  They were just all around a pretty bad team.  Having snark potential doesn't qualify them in my book for a repeat appearance.  I would prefer to save Unfinished Business for strong teams like Aly and Steve from last season, who got that flat tire.

I want to be entertained, I find TMZ entertaining.  Much more entertaining than I would find Steve and Aly.  I would like to see a fair race, but that doesn't mean that I need a fair criteria for why teams are chosen.  It's entirely possible they were simply having a bad day, they got to both tasks before other teams so I don't think that they were automatically bad racers.  Steve and Aly also got much further in the race, so in the name of fairness, they have had their chance and shouldn't really be allowed to do the race again.

[Jersey Guy 87]

I want to be entertained, I find TMZ entertaining.  Much more entertaining than I would find Steve and Aly.  I would like to see a fair race, but that doesn't mean that I need a fair criteria for why teams are chosen.  It's entirely possible they were simply having a bad day, they got to both tasks before other teams so I don't think that they were automatically bad racers.  Steve and Aly also got much further in the race, so in the name of fairness, they have had their chance and shouldn't really be allowed to do the race again.

 

I want to see teams that race competently, I'm not interested in characters on TAR.  Giving TMZ another chance because they might be good at snark is playing towards characters, not racing ability.  TMZ might have been able to navigate competently but they weren't very impressive in actually doing tasks.

[ProfCrash]

I was tired of their snark by the end of the first episode.

[Netfoot]

I was tired of their snark by the end of the first episode.

 

Snark is just another word for unwarranted rudeness, isn't it?

[lexington11]

Many seasons ago, they had a woman who finished second in Big Brother Season 4 (I can't remember her name now) and her boyfriend on the Race.  Se treated him so horribly (she was mean on BB, too), that he dumped her as soon as they returned home.  So, he didn't exactly dump her on the show, but you could tell it was coming.

There's also the pageant queen and her soldier boyfriend that were on Rob & Amber's first season. From the beginning of the race, those two were getting in digs at each other in almost every leg, so it was no surprise that the two split up shortly after they came back home.

[selkie]

Damnit, I'm watching the news out of Paris tonight with tears in my eyes and wondering if the location curse has struck yet again. Odd how what seems to be a simple reality show so many times ends up being a time capsule of sorts to show how a place used to be before things changed forever.

[hendersonrocks]

I am also watching coverage and - embarrassing as it may be - thought of the Race when President Obama said "liberté, égalité, fraternité" in his brief remarks.

[Camera One]

Just caught the episode, and I too winced at the pronunciation of the motto.  Yikes.

 

Justin is cocky but this episode, Diana was being annoying too.  Can't stand bickering couples.

 

It's too bad about the mother/son... it does seem like the longer she did it, the more she missed up.  Not a smart call to choose that task, even if the son liked rapping.

 

I didn't realize one of the Cheerleaders was a speech pathologist.  

 

Looks like Team Texas is finally struggling and making mistakes.  

[hincandenza]

On 10/30/2015 at 5:58 PM, Haleth said:

Never ceases to amaze me how dumb some of the racers are. No one knew the motto of the French Revolution? Most of them could not pronounce egalite? (Eagle-ite?)

Fun episode. The bi-planes looked awesome! The rapping was brutal but what a gorgeous setting.

Replying a year and a half later (watching on Hulu), just to say I was blown away by this as well; is the state of American education really that bad?!  Our two countries basically shared a revolution, flag colors, military minds, etc... and now I guess that's all forgotten in the long shadow cast by the era of Freedom Fries.  :'( I mean, I went to a pretty generic public school in NH in the 80's and early 90's, and even I was disappointed not one team seemed to guess the rest of the phrase after the first word- and then to add onto that the gleeful obliviousness in pronouncing words like "eagle-ite"!

I'm sure the rules prohibit it, and the local guides are instructed to fly the same length of time in the same pattern, but with these kinds of challenges if I were on the race I'd have probably just walked up to the judge and had this conversation "Uh, we're in Paris and you're looking for a three word phrase... is it by any chance liberte, egalite, fraternite?  Great, thanks!!!  So wait, do I still have to actually fly in the plane?  Oh, okay.... well, can he just take off then immediately land again, and save us like 10 minutes?  He can?!  Awesome!!!".  

I feel like TAR should allow that; it basically rewards people for knowing something about the country they're in, sort of a merit-based educational Express Pass.

Edited June 10, 2017 by hincandenza

[dustoffmom]

1 hour ago, hincandenza said:

 

I feel like TAR should allow that; it basically rewards people for knowing something about the country their in, sort of a merit-based educational Express Pass.

 

An educational express pass?  Count me in!  I LOVE that idea!  I get so tired of the ignorant people they seem to find every season.