S28.E10: Monkey Dance

[needschocolate]

10 hours ago, PreBabylonia said:

You're doing better than me. I can't even remember Justin OR Hayley! 

You are so lucky! I'm jealous.

[iMonrey]

Quote

 I agree that Burnie and Ashley will be my #1 pick for this year, but I also won't remember them after the season ends. Maybe it's Reality Fatigue?

It's casting fatigue. We get the same cookie-cutter teams every single season, and the generic "dating couples" and even married couples are the ones that are so forgettable. I agree Burnie and Ashley are nice enough, but there's nothing especially memorable about them. I think the Beekman boys were the last memorable team to have won the race (although, arguably, not in a good way).

[PhD-Purgatory15]

I think that plays into the one, massive unexpected consequence of the Social media cast, iMonrey. Everyone (minus Dana) has been on their best behavior, and largely minded their p's and q's. Because of that IMO we've seen pretty sanitized versions of their individual personalities and intra-partnership dynamics. If my livelihood was largely due to whether people like me and what people think of me (in an online sense), I'd have probably approached the race in the exact same way.

And sometimes TAR just gets burned by early eliminations or lack thereof. I do think Marty and Hagan (very few Mother daughter teams throughout TAR history) could have been a non-cookie cutter team this season and I really enjoyed Marty's personality for the two legs we got to see it. Just using TAR wiki to go back a couple seasons, the show lost the two small cousins, and the two African American dancers extremely early in S27. That was disappointing. We were a couple idiotic teams unable to figure out a beach side puzzle away from seeing Justin and Diana vanquished on leg 1. Think again about how S27 would be remembered (or completely forgotten) if that had played itself out...

Going back a little farther, S26 was a train wreck from the second they made it the Blind Date gimmick, but if you go back to S23, four of the more interesting and diverse teams happened to be the first four teams to be eliminated.

[Quilt Fairy]

23 hours ago, PhD-Purgatory15 said:

Broadly speaking, the make-up of how the teams are actually challenged now in S28 compared to S1....you might as well be talking about a different show. At the beginning, self-navigation and the opportunity to gain time transporting yourself (via multiple plane, train, or bus options) were critical. Now...you can be a horribly challenged navigation team like Sherri and Cole (and if you catch a NEL break here or there) make the final four. The little bit of self-driving they did in Dubai should have crushed them if not for the NEL. That's the only self-driving the teams have done through the whole season!

I have always liked legs where they had to drive through France, because there are apparently a lot of different ways to get from "here" to "there" with tradeoffs as to whether it's better to go on expressways or little country roads. And of course, there's always the chance they'll use regular gas in a diesel car. Good times.

[Wandering Snark]

Burnie had my backing at "thanks for taking care of her". That was the sweetest. I've really come to like those two lately. I've also become a big fan of Sheri's as she continues to kick ass.

I'm pretty sure that they were just joking/cutting tension saying "Ooh we'd best not be here when they get to the mat" and NOT being "chickenshit" about facing up to their actions.

And that "hyuck hyuck hyuck" laugh of Tyler's gets more annoying every day and his always approaching things like he's a deaf boy hearing for the first time; complete with mouth agape wonder, makes me throw up in my mouth a little every time.

Edited May 4, 2016 by Wandering Snark

[greyhorse]

I have no problem whatsoever with how the double u-turn was played here.  It's part of the game.   I always thought it was crappy that the team that got u-turned could simply u-turn a team behind them, but I suppose that's the only possible option the team has to save itself.  I feel like Burnie and Ashley are the only team that "got it" and realized they should burn the u-turn by choosing Tyler and Korey.  Not surprised, them being gamers and all.   I'm not so sure that Sheri and Cole or Matt and Dana would have thought of it had they gotten to the U-turn second.  Cole especially couldn't even figure out what had happened but was just happy not to see his picture up on the board.

Seems like all the racers aren't using sunscreen, as all of them had weird looking tank top tans that was really noticeable when they put on their swimsuits.

How did Matt and Ashley hold a yellow can in their hands gotten out of a clue box and not realize that it contained the clue?  Just stupid.

[valen]

I too wondered if they weren't using sunscreen, and if not, WHY? They all looked so burned and it must be so painful!

[kingshearte]

On 4/30/2016 at 8:15 AM, seacliffsal said:

I think Cole's good performances this week show what happens when parents aren't able to 'protect' their children.  Sheri was about to have a meltdown because her 'baby' was going to have to jump off of a cliff...yet he did it without too much hesitation because he 'had' to.  I think Cole has quite a bit of potential (i.e. last week's salt task which he quickly dealt with) and that, if anything, Sheri's babying of him is not allowing his to realize some of his potential.  I kind of liked Cole this episode as he just took care of business (he also did well with the cocoanuts).

Definitely a fair point, and I don't entirely blame either of them for it. It's not entirely surprising for a parent to want to protect their kid (although there does come a point when you should realize that it'll be better for them if you let them fall on their face occasionally), and if you have someone willing to make life easier for you, it's not entirely unreasonable to let them. I think Cole would benefit greatly from a little distance from mom. He has demonstrated that, while he'll let her do something, if push comes to shove and he has to do it himself, he'll get it done. As a result, my opinion of him bounces around a lot.

On 5/2/2016 at 9:21 PM, K.M. said:

Maybe they should put the U-Turn pictures in a simple puzzle box, or other small speed-bump-like task. How much do you want to U-Turn someone? Enough to sit and fiddle with the box or do the task? Is it worth slowing yourself down or losing a few minutes of your lead? I think I'd prefer it if they dropped the idea of hitting another team with a disadvantage and simply gave optional advantages. Here are some possibilities that occurred to me:

Everyone gets one Express Pass to use during the Race. This would go back to the "choose when it's most advantageous to go for it" of the early seasons without the expense of setting up Express Pass tasks. You would probably get some legs where several teams would burn their passes so as not to be left behind, but those strong or crafty enough to keep theirs would earn the advantage it could give them later in the race.

Or maybe they should introduce a new kind of pass:

Team Pass - Allow teams to turn a Roadblock into a Detour, so they wouldn't skip it, but the team members would both be allowed to work on it and presumably finish faster than the other teams.

Switch Pass - Allow teams to switch which member is doing the Roadblock. This might save some teams which get completely stuck because the one member is physically or otherwise unable to do the task.

I love all these ideas, especially the benefit ideas instead of the disadvantage-someone-else things. Especially the idea of giving everyone an Express Pass. The old model of having an FF every leg kept things interesting by shaking up the order more often, and I agree that your Express Pass idea would regain some of that without incurring the extra cost. Plus, since you'd only be skipping one task, it's not as much of a guarantee of sailing right to first, which should help keep the endings a little more interesting than when the teams that used an FF would check in when the episode was only half done.

[Bouquet]

On 30/04/2016 at 0:01 PM, QuantumMechanic said:

The show should either have all U-Turns be single U-Turns or change the rules so that if a team (knowingly or unknowingly) U-Turns a team that has already passed the U-Turn, the U-Turn slot in question is still "alive".

I think there should at least be a rule that on a Double U-Turn you cannot U-Turn the team whose picture is displayed in the first "U-Turned by" slot. Then any strategic play of a dead second U-Turn requires that team to either know or guess another team who's in front.

[Jersey Guy 87]

1 hour ago, Bouquet said:

I think there should at least be a rule that on a Double U-Turn you cannot U-Turn the team whose picture is displayed in the first "U-Turned by" slot. Then any strategic play of a dead second U-Turn requires that team to either know or guess another team who's in front.

If you're going to have the W-turn then I have no problem with allowing the u-turning of the team that gave out the first u-turn.  Either it's a strategic element or it's not, that was good game play by Burnsie ans Ashley even if it eliminated a team I liked.

[Bouquet]

51 minutes ago, Jersey Guy 87 said:

If you're going to have the W-turn then I have no problem with allowing the u-turning of the team that gave out the first u-turn.  Either it's a strategic element or it's not, that was good game play by Burnsie ans Ashley even if it eliminated a team I liked.

I do have a problem with teams u-turning the first u-turners, because it's a too-easy way to turn it into a single U-Turn, almost certainly (and usually not entirely deservingly) dooming one team, instead of the Double U-Turn's intention of preserving an exciting elimination-avoiding duel.

[valen]

I really, REALLY  like the idea of everyone getting an Express Pass. Can we submit that suggestion?

[Supay]

Miss Ayu is a living embodiment of "noblesse oblige":

http://youtube.com/watch?v=zlA8OME5oFM

P.S. Shame on whoever decided that the phinisi captain from the previous leg merited an omission (Leg 4's musicians just pale in comparison and were already from the same city as Monsieur Jean-Marie).

[lianau]

On 4/30/2016 at 2:49 PM, weightyghost said:

I don't remember when someone has purporsely u-turned a team in front to prevent the uturned team from doing it, but my historical knowledge of this show deletes itself as soon as the seasons end. However, I do remember teams (most likely in the blind u-turns) accidentally u-turning someone in front with the belief they were behind. If they changed the rules and made teams in-active once they pass through the area, I think that would be just as unfair. The whole suspense of it is the fact that sometimes they have no idea who is behind them so it's a bit of a risk. 

The one thing I think we can all agree on though is that it's removed all together... I did prefer it when the show didn't have it at all. 

The Twinnies came up with it and then talked their race friends into going along with it while the twins hopped on the fast forward (was that the fish eating on the boat/bus thing) and left them on their own . It resulted in the Beekman Boys trying to self eliminate  by staying with their fellow airport victims instead of racing.  Apparently  they suffered from brainfartitis or something .

We should call this twinning the u-turn .

[kingshearte]

On 5/7/2016 at 4:41 PM, lianau said:

We should call this twinning the u-turn .

Can we not? If we do that, I'll be reminded of them every time it comes up, and they are definitely among my least favourite teams ever. Just the thought of them makes my shoulders tense up and my fingers approach my ears for sound blockage.

[NewDigs]

4 hours ago, kingshearte said:

Can we not? If we do that, I'll be reminded of them every time it comes up, and they are definitely among my least favourite teams ever. Just the thought of them makes my shoulders tense up and my fingers approach my ears for sound blockage.

And it's getting harder and harder, imho, to "translate" some of these named tasks.  If you don't buy into a favored nickname or just plain can't keep them all straight, it's difficult to follow conversations.

I'm "meh" on the twins, did not remember their u-turn strategy and prefer not to go, Huh?, every time I run across those types of references. Makes my brain hurt. Too many seasons, too many "insider" mentions, for me, anyway.