S15: Talk

[Whimsy]

Since some older seasons are available to view on different platforms, we are starting all episodes threads for each season.

[ApprenticeFan]

Another season of TAR taking place in Eastern Hemisphere in which affected the H1N1 virus (Swine Flu) affected travellers around the world. From Japan to Indochina, then far west to the Arabian Peninsula, then up northwest to The Netherlands, east to Sweden and through Estonia, then to Czech Republic, the latter two countries are newly visited.

Meghan & Cheyne dominated the Race, the very first starting line task taking place in LA river to find Japanese license plate, Eric & Lisa looked difficult to find the right match and have no shot to start their journey. Too sad they were eliminated in the starting line.

Zev & Justin got more issues in Cambodia that when realize Zev's passport goes missing, he and Justin lead on a unusual elimination and eventually brought back three seasons later in UB.

Edited January 14, 2016 by ApprenticeFan

[Supay]

The final US season to feature twelve teams overstacked its deck with too many couples as if in response to last time around, though pretty much all the annoying ones leave in the first half besides the elderly one.

Other than the waterslide incident and that leg designed to destroy the sole F/F team, not much of note happens until the penultimate episode and finale, which raise the more or less steady mediocrity of the previous ten rounds into something noticeably better.

[scowl]

I just started this one. The funniest thing so far is Maria dragging her rollerpack around like a tourist instead of wearing it on her back. 

[Supay]

I always did wonder if she got a tipoff from flight attendants Christie and Jodi of the season immediately prior. :)

[scowl]

And this is the season in which a team came in first but was eliminated because they lost a passport. Nice to see real people living my nightmare.

[scowl]

In the next episode we see Maria and Tiffany destroy a car with no real penalty because a new one arrived before they finished the task.

In the same episode, pretty Mika is driving down the freeway saying how much she loves the car because she feels like she's only going 60 MPH when the speedometer says she's going 120. 

Looks like it will be a good season. 

[scowl]

The finale of season 28 a few nights ago was quite a contrast to the season 15 episode I saw. Contestants jumped off of a building to grab a clue and every team did it. 

So I saw the season 15 episode in which Mika gave up and was eliminated because she didn't want to go down a waterslide. She whined and whined! "This is stupid! Stupid stupid STUUUPIIID!" She made Flo sound like a mature adult. 

[Supay]

Kind of an iPhone to New Black comparison, in light of how Zach's Jewfro has more coping skills than Canaan's "career".

[TheRabbi]

Kind of a forgettable season, with the exception of that crazy elimination on the water slide, and Zev and Justin being cool dudes.

[Supay]

More like a blessing in the form of a premature ouster for the one who cracked racist jibes throughout Unfinished Business while perennially playing the Asperger's card.

[beeblebrox]

I just finished this season. I liked most of the teams who were middle of the pack and seemed nice. Brian & Ericka were awful. Not shocking that they divorced. What's with all of the LA starting lines? Since I'm binge watching it, there seems to be about 5 seasons now in a row that have started in LA. I liked the Red Rocks start or the Chicago start. Why can't they pick other cities to start the race in? I also noticed that that typically end on the West Coast too. What about the East Coast or the Midwest? Is it a production thing?

[Lamb18]

I liked this season. I picked Meghan and Cheyne to win before the race started, from their video, and it was fun to see that happen. Then I got to meet them at my first TARCon! I miss TARCons.

[TheRabbi]

Beeblebrox - it's a budget/production thing. The show's budget took a hit around this time, and starting in LA lets them save some funds for the locales that matter more. Since season 12, there have only been 3 seasons that have started outside LA/SoCal, and all 3 have instead had LA as the final city, so obviously it's a budget trade-off. I'd rather keep the LA start and add variety to the finales.

Edited September 29, 2016 by TheRabbi

[Kanaloa]

Since the first All-Stars, the ratio of good final legs to bad ones holds steady regardless of location: 2 hits (17, 25) to 1 miss (28) for Los Angeles and environs versus 9 hits (12-16, 18, 20-21, 27) to 5 misses (19, 22-24, 26) for elsewhere. 

In other words, World Race Productions should've already made use of San Diego and the Inland Empire for finish lines while having former finale cities host premieres, e.g. San Francisco's Muir Woods, Philadelphia's Liberty Bell, Dallas's Arboretum, etc. 

[cherrypj]

Somewhere, Lena and Kristy shed a tear: that hay bale switchback is awful. 

I agree with @beeblebrox: Brian and Ericka hit my last nerve, with their holier than thou attitude. I didn't like Cheyne either: I dislike when a guy calls a woman, "girl."

Flight Time's name is Herbert!

[Star Aristille]

On ‎9‎/‎6‎/‎2017 at 5:15 PM, Geenee said:

Er, Dan and Sam were considerably more grating to watch than either Team Zebra or the eventual winners: the latter two teams only started to suffer from Killer Fatigue in Czechia - the last non-finale country of the route - whereas the brothers were already irritating in Sweden. 

I would actually say that Sam & Dan got irritating in Cambodia.  They already started breaking down around then.

[Roccos Brother]

Just completed this season, here are my thoughts/notes -

- Overall, a pretty good season IMO. There were a lot of teams that I liked -  sadly, many of my favorites went home way too early. Justin and Zeb being the most obvious, but I also liked Marcy and Ron. I especially hate when teams get eliminated as a result of choosing a detour that nobody else chooses.

I don’t think I’ve ever been more thirsty for a team than I was for Sam and Dan. Not only are they gay brothers with matching wardrobes, but they’re adorably down-to-earth type gays, as opposed to super alpha muscle heads with perfect bodies. Although they still don’t compare to my #1 fav team of gays – TeamChaCha! I do wish Sam and Dan had a little bit more “YAS KWEEN” sassy fabulous-ness in them though – AND I CAN SAY THAT BECAUSE I’M GAY, OKAY. All the gratuitous yelling was a bit hard to understand tho – but I guess that’s their sibling dynamic and it works for them.

I also liked the Poker girls, and found their fake background story charade to be highly amusing – sad that their attempts to manipulate didn’t play out longer or benefit them in the end. I was frustrated though that they were SUCH a weak team. They got saved from elimination not once – but twice, the latter being due to unplanned misfortune befallen on another team. And in the end, they gave up on what was considerably some of the easier challenges in the scope of the show.

I would say overall, the cast this season had a lot of weak competitors, but I still enjoyed the dynamics and personalities.

- I can’t believe none of these people were able to recognize Jackie O!

- Mika was really pretty and her flotation armbands were adorable.

- The opera singer in Prague eating the sandwich and then eventually sitting and waiting for the last team to finish was hilarious.

- Biggest complaint - not enough Sam and Dan nudity!!!

[Roccos Brother]

1 hour ago, Geenee said:

It's one thing to skip Family Edition on a chronological marathon, but S12 deserves no such snub.

I jumped ahead a bit, but I'm backtracking now. Currently on S11. Thanks for following my progress. Lol.

[dgpolo]

One of -the- most forgettable seasons for me. The only standouts were the Globetrotters and Zev and Justin. Watching the teams being introduced was 'Who?' 'Who?'. I'm sure in 5 minutes I'll have forgotten the top 3 again.

I was also surprised when no one recognized Jackie Kennedy, especially the team talking about her Cambodian features. I think Zev did and Gary.

I would never be able to do the gold task, math is my downfall, numbers in general are my downfall. I can barely remember my phone number.

Why did they add the ringing of the bell to the dance challenge? they don't usually add something extra like that, and they also added eating the fish afterwards. The timing also attributed to the Poker players non performance I think. They switched before another team came to that challenge and switched back after everyone else had done it so got no clue about how to hold the mallet to hit with more force.

The clue to wearing wooden clogs is lots and lots of socks. Not that anyone would take the time to do that.

The hay bales were still a nightmare but at least everyone finished.

I just felt so bad for Big Easy not being able to get Franz.

Sam and Dan noting how fit the male volleyball players were reminded me of T&K in 31. (and the Chas in All Stars talking about their pianist)

The poker chip counting seemed made for the girls, too bad they didn't make it to the end.

It does seem that certain challenges on certain seasons are chosen with certain racers in mind. I know there was a major conspiracy accusation leveled in the surfers season. But even if they do that it doesn't guarantee that the racer in mind will get to do that task. Or even choose to do that task so all in all I don't mind this.

[morakot]

If someone like Mika is terrified of heights and water, why would she apply to go on TAR when, in almost every episode, people are in water or jumping from heights?

[doodlebug]

On 5/20/2020 at 2:05 AM, morakot said:

If someone like Mika is terrified of heights and water, why would she apply to go on TAR when, in almost every episode, people are in water or jumping from heights?

Because she wants to be on TV more than she cares about her phobias and TPTB love footage of people freaking out about heights and water.

[bunnyface]

More than a dozen racers (probably, I didn't count) have said they came on the race to face or overcome a fear of a specific thing.  When it came down to is, she just couldn't overcome that fear, for whatever reason.  

[Giuseppe]

Just finished re-watching this one. Of all the "middle" seasons, this one has always stood out to me for some reason. I just would always picture Ericka rappelling down the side of the Mandelay Bay, Mika crying at the top of the waterslide, and Sam and Dan at the muddy volleyball detour for...reasons. Did not remember this being the season of the switchback hay bales roadblock, though.  

But, I think this was the first season during my re-watch binge that I truly had absolutely zero recollection of some of the teams. Namely Garrett and Jessica and Lance and Keri. I even somewhat remembered the yoga teachers, but that's probably because they were completely fucked over by that stupid twist that eliminated them before they even started. But the other two? Not one memory of them. Especially odd for Lance and Keri since he was such a character and made it nearly halfway. 

And for some reason, I had mis-remembered Tiffany and Maria being mean girls, but they were perfectly pleasant. Sucks how they went out.

Also noticeable on re-watch was this was the first season since TAR6! that didn't feature a team of like nearly identical blonde girls wearing pink, lol.

On 11/20/2017 at 4:42 PM, Roccos Brother said:

I do wish Sam and Dan had a little bit more “YAS KWEEN” sassy fabulous-ness in them though – AND I CAN SAY THAT BECAUSE I’M GAY, OKAY

Why? Would that have made you like them more? They were fine the way they were, aside from the cab-stealing and the somewhat out-of-the-blue animosity towards the Globetrotters. If we're going to tell each other to be ourselves, let's let each other be ourselves without wishing us to act more gay. I agree they were fun to look at, though!

And speaking of, I don't know if I realized it originally, but this season and the previous one seemed to really up the skin quotient, with all the strip down to your underwear/bathing suit tasks. I guess production was going with the sex sells tactic for ratings around this time, haha.

I was rooting for Brian and Ericka. He was so adorkable. Sorry they ended up divorcing.

Edited September 26, 2020 by Giuseppe