S17: Talk

[Whimsy]

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

[Supay]

The last season to film in SD was anything but standard!

It would be the first of only two times that four F/Fs were casted, plus the debut of a Kentucky belle and her stalwart pop, not to mention the original stuntcasted YouTuber(s), adorkable Glee sidekicks, avuncular middle-aged sages, and a trifecta of amusing villainy in the form of YDC.

The course is a sheer delight both in terms of daring and novelty, and the tasks are just as creative, resulting in even placement standings to a degree never before achieved in the show's history.

This shining opus just works on multiple levels, be they in terms of airtime/editing balance, challenge logistics (including flight scrambles), uninterrupted entertainment, etc.

Oh, and bless ye watermelons.

[cherrypj]

I forgot how loud Mallory could be. 

[cherrypj]

Thoroughly enjoyed this season, much of it because I was happy to root for Kat and Nat. The final leg wasn't set up too well, though: it didn't feel like there was any chance for lead changes once they left the airport. Oh well.

[Cirrus LaMark]

Since this is next in @Roccos Brother's binging marathon, I thought I'd comment.

Everything about this season was pretty much perfect.  A great start, a vivid, memorable cast, in which pretty much even the early-booted teams had something about them to remember, no team felt a dud, there was drama and comedy, and the cast mostly seemed to generally get along, a nice, refreshing respite from the toxic environment of the season before.

Take a dash of John & Scott from TAR9 and a pinch of Dana & Adrian from TAR16 and you have first boots Ron & Tony.  It was nice and refreshing to have a black gay team (as before then, the only full gay team of minorities we'd had was Oswald & Danny).  They were nice, friendly guys, but ultimately cannon fodder, as shown by their tragic navigation skills in London.  Andie & Jenna were another new type of time in that they weren't a typical mother/daughter, but a biological mother having reunited with her biological daughter after giving her up for adoption.  It was just a shame that a lot of their team's edit seemed to be more about Andie than it was about Jenna.  Connor & Jonathan were a strange case in that while Connor was very pleasant, Jonathan was probably one of the biggest wienies in the history of the race with his outright refusal to do Roadblocks.  It made the fact that their elimination came by way of him sucking so hard that much more pleasing.  Katie & Rachel were probably the only real ciphers, although the moments in London in which one of them nearly drove off without the other and in Sweden in which they quickly knew to just switch Detours when one of their techsleds went over the cliff were titter-worthy.  Though their true personalities really didn't come out till Elimination Station, in which they came off more obsessive and creepy over not wanting the first winning all-female team to come about if it couldn't be the two of them.

Michael & Kevin were a funny team, even though they had some cringe-worthy moments when Kevin had his "my dad sucks" moments about Michael (not that he was totally wrong, of course, since they got booted by him basically sucking, too).  Gary & Mallory had their first run on this season, and while they had many, many funny moments here, they would come back to become a well-realized team (in terms of story editing) instead of the more comic relief team they were in this season.  Chad & Stephanie were another interesting case in that they could have several terrible, groan-worthy moments, but then turn it around in another episode and have some heartwarming moments between them, including Chad's on-the-race proposal to Stephanie in Oman.  Them getting engaged kind of softens the blow of their elimination in Bangladesh on the next leg.  Nick & Vicki were kind of the opposite of Chad & Stephanie in that their lighter-hearted moments of sheer stupidity came at the beginning of the season, but they slowly devolved into the darker parts of their personalities (especially Nick's) as the race hit the second half.  You actually feel sorry for Vicki at various points, since she seems like a sweet, nice person in comparison to Nick.  Still, Nick calmed down on their final leg and showed hints of his early-race persona, so that was something.

And that leaves us with the F3.  Jill & Thomas were pretty much like a smarter version of Nick & Vicki.  Their more tolerable moments came at the beginning of the race, but their darker sides -- Thomas's, especially -- started to come out as the race went along.  And theirs came out even sooner than Nick & Vicki's did.  At least Nick & Vicki waited till the second half.  Jill & Thomas kept their true colors hidden for only the first third of the race before the masked slipped right on the fifth leg.  However, like Vicki, Jill was at least a bit more sympathetic.  Though unlike Vicki, Jill could, at times, be just as bad as Thomas, or almost as bad.  Though a lot of the dislike went to Thomas for playing such a huge part in her deepest insecurities.  But in the end, they ended losing awesomely to two of the best all-female teams ever to race.  One was a team home shopping hosts named Brook & Claire, who were unabashedly the stars of their season with their amazingly positive attitudes, their sheer enjoyment of the race, and their tendency to be liked by almost every local they met.  Even in spite of their small sizes and Claire's inability to run very fast, they were one of the strongest teams in that season, and but for the structure of that final leg probably would've won it.  But who did win it?  Well, the intrepid doctors Nat & Kat, whose calmer, cooler, more collected approach to the race made for the perfect counterpart to their race-long allies' sunny dispositions (which really only faltered in Bangladesh and South Korea).  Their racing was also excellent, even if it wasn't as consistent as Brook & Claire's, and they made the perfect representatives of the race's first winning women's team.

The route was also incredibly amazing, with first-time visits to Ghana and Bangladesh, second-time visits to Oman and South Korea, and even delightful visits to the countries previously visited several times.  The tasks were also much better (save for the way-too-linear final leg), and the teams actually did have to work for their survival, yet still seemed to be having fun a lot of the time.

Great cast, great route, great tasks, great season!  It was one of the biggest breaths of fresh air in such a long time!

[Roccos Brother]

Yaasss for all female final two teams! It’s about time! And even more yaasss for the doctors winning. They were my early-on favorites from the start. My other favorite teams were the acapella singers and the theatre actors, both of which went home way too early.

I thought this was an OK, slightly boring season tbh. Something about the editing and mapping out of the route felt very formulaic and lacking the spontaneity of previous seasons. Every episode was fly to here, do a roadblock/detour, pit stop, with little in-between. The structure became very routine and predictable.

Also none of the couples were likeable and they all lasted longer than I cared to see them in the race. And. So. Many. Blond. Women. At a certain point, I could barely distinguish any of them. The non-distinct volleyball girls were nasty attitude-wise and didn’t even have a remotely interesting backstory. I don’t know why they were even cast. I especially remember when one of them referred to Michael/Kevin as “The ASIANS” in a catty tone.

Kevin/Michael were an entertaining team, but sadly, Michael is no Ron from season 12. He just did not have it in him at his old age. They also made a really dumb rookie mistake with the taxis.

There was one non-elimination leg where Nick/Vicki weren’t required to do a speed bump. Anyone know what happened there?

Bye bye 4:3 SD!

[Kiara Nett]

5 hours ago, Roccos Brother said:

There was one non-elimination leg where Nick/Vicki weren’t required to do a speed bump. Anyone know what happened there?

The one responsible for the Classical Music Detour in Russia messed up and told a lot of times they had the wrong scores when they'd actually had the right ones.  That bit of incompetence screwed several of the teams over.  So to compensate, Nick & Vicki had their Speed Bump waived.

[Roccos Brother]

12 hours ago, Kiara Nett said:

The one responsible for the Classical Music Detour in Russia messed up and told a lot of times they had the wrong scores when they'd actually had the right ones.  That bit of incompetence screwed several of the teams over.  So to compensate, Nick & Vicki had their Speed Bump waived.

How bizarre. You'd think that something like that would be hard to mess up.

10 hours ago, Geenee said:

Jeez, no love for the Home Shopping Hosts?

The whole "kiss count" was annoying, but they grew on me towards the end with their color-coordinated outfits. Would have liked to see them return in the future.

[TheRabbi]

They were asked back for season 18 but one of them was pregnant. 

I find 17 to be a good season, if a tad overrated in TAR lore. Upon rewatch, I found Nat and Kat to be quite boring actually, albeit competent. Brooke and Claire were all kinds of awesome, and I enjoyed Nick and Vicki's antics. It's a shame the finale turned out to be such a snoozer in the suspense department, because the greeter final task was amazing.

I agree the other couples on the show were a bit dull, and it' a shame the first 3 boots weren't around longer, as they were 3 of the more entertaining teams of the season. 

[Mrs. P.]

Nat and Kat are my all-time favorite winners.

[dgpolo]

Loved this season, so glad Kat and Nat one, my favorite kind of racers, didn't argue with each other or the locals. They stayed calm and did what they had to do, ate the sheep's head, jumped from heights. Other than the girl on the waterslide has anyone ever NOT done a heights challenge when they needed to to continue? People always sound so hopeful that someone will chicken out.

Loved Brook and Claire, too bad there couldn't be 2 winners. That watermelon had to hurt.

Jill and Thomas, not much to say but at least he acknowledged that the all girl teams were strong unlike some of the other guys.

The float challenge could have been one that rearranged the teams, if one had been completely bad at it.

A new rule came into play, you can no longer hire a cab to lead you somewhere. Or was that just for this season?

Nick was a vile person, I can't stand to look at him on my screen, he and Jonathan are two of a kind with how they treat their partners.

Liked Gary and Mallory though she was a bit screechy.

Wish I had seen more of Tony and Ron. I want there to be a race of first outs sometime.

First Express Pass, first Double U-Turn.

I don't know what Connor and Jonathan were thinking with the Roadblocks, did he think they were going to get easier as the went along or did they think they wouldn't make it far.

I liked Kevin and Michael. But did they read any clue or any rules?

People were forgetting rules or not reading the clues all over the place, Brook and Claire caught their mistake on one leg then did it again on another leg. But at least they didn't overreact when Phil said 'you are the first team to arrive' but waited to see what else he was going to say, unlike so many other teams that should really know better by now.

I'm wondering, now that I know from the last season that they get security briefings, if they had one for the S. Korea leg in the DMZ.