S30.E02: You're The Best French-Fry Ever!

[Boilergal]

1 hour ago, Bryce Lynch said:

That was a poorly designed task, with the clues falling off.  I also noticed that a couple of the partners were yelling encouragement that could have been interpreted as instructions., something like, "One rung at a time."  An argument could made that they should have received penalties like the NBA players received last episode.   

Last week if the Baller on the sideline said something more generic like pay attention to details - I'm sure there wouldn't have been a penalty .   Since he was specific and said pay attention to the O's, which is something he would have heard when partners rejoined  that the puzzle solver would not have heard in the field of play.

[Bryce Lynch]

33 minutes ago, Boilergal said:

Last week if the Baller on the sideline said something more generic like pay attention to details - I'm sure there wouldn't have been a penalty .   Since he was specific and said pay attention to the O's, which is something he would have heard when partners rejoined  that the puzzle solver would not have heard in the field of play.

I get what you are saying and I think it is borderline.  But, I think an argument could be made that suggesting techniques for climbing could be considered helping.  

[blackwing]

25 minutes ago, Special K said:

I too was comparing Phil's commentary to Jeff Probst's.  Jeff would have been all:  "Henry fails AGAIN!!  He CANNOT get a hang of this!  He's MILES BEHIND his competitor!!!"  Phil was:  "It must be so hard to be Evan and Henry right now, giving it their all, staying upbeat, but clearly exhausted."

I'm loving "Pineapple."  would you rather hear that than "Shut the &%$ up and calm down!"

Jeffy would be more like, "and here we go again, Henry against yet another big strong handsome hunk that I want to lick!  And right from the start, Henry loses a bag of fries!  And they fall AGAIN!  Those fries just DO NOT WANT to stay on Henry's cart!  HUNK is just POWERING through this course!  Look at the flex on those leg muscles!!  Henry is WAY BEHIND!  HUNK has a HUGE lead!!!  HUNK is just cruising to victory!  HUNK WINS!  And Henry loses AGAIN!!!"

Phil is more like a golf or tennis commentator, making polite and quiet observations without blatantly rooting for anyone like Jeff always does.  I prefer Phil.

I noticed that Phil had a "Hosted by Phil Keoghan" pic in the credits last week but was booted this week.  What gives?

[Special K]

1 minute ago, blackwing said:

Jeffy would be more like, "and here we go again, Henry against yet another big strong handsome hunk that I want to lick!  And right from the start, Henry loses a bag of fries!  And they fall AGAIN!  Those fries just DO NOT WANT to stay on Henry's cart!  HUNK is just POWERING through this course!  Look at the flex on those leg muscles!!  Henry is WAY BEHIND!  HUNK has a HUGE lead!!!  HUNK is just cruising to victory!  HUNK WINS!  And Henry loses AGAIN!!!"

LOL, so on point!

[Rinaldo]

2 hours ago, Netfoot said:

Still, if this is what TPTB hope will boost ratings thereby making them give TAR another season, I'm for it.

I've decided that I no longer think this way. If the race gets compromised this much (yes, this head-to-head was my line in the sand), it deserves to be cancelled.

2 hours ago, Lady Calypso said:

purely physical, no advantages for the team who might have kept losing (this time, it was Henry/Evan, clearly not physical competitors)

I can't disagree, the physical is clearly not their strong point... but they're not totally hopeless in this area either. I don't know that I could have made it to the top of that rope ladder under those circumstances, for instance, but Evan managed it not markedly worse than anyone else. In running situations too, they seem to hold their own (I mean through cities; we haven't had a real footrace for them yet). I wonder if the team did some light physical training once they knew they were chosen, as they're smart enough to know it won't be all mental.

1 hour ago, Boilergal said:

I think the safe word is a good idea - usually when someone says relax...that starts a much bigger argument that begins with I AM RELAXED!!!!!!!  QUIT TELLING ME TO RELAX!!!!!

Exactly! A team has to know each other really well for a safe word to be useful/needed, and when it's used in a situation like this, it becomes shorthand for "Sweetie, here's where you've just done that thing you do, which while it's happening you're utterly convinced you're not doing it, but you really are. So take a second and regroup."

[Netfoot]

2 minutes ago, Rinaldo said:

If the race gets compromised this much (yes, this head-to-head was my line in the sand), it deserves to be cancelled.

I'm not there yet.  But I guess it depends whether or not they plan to have a head-to-head finish on every leg from now on, or what.  

I quite understand that the race can be compromised too much, but I've seen teams of four, blind dating teams, teams of "social media enablers", an entire field of strangers, and yet TAR has come back from all of that crap and remain essentially unchanged at it's heart.  

[Lady Calypso]

8 minutes ago, Rinaldo said:

I can't disagree, the physical is clearly not their strong point... but they're not totally hopeless in this area either. I don't know that I could have made it to the top of that rope ladder under those circumstances, for instance, but Evan managed it not markedly worse than anyone else. In running situations too, they seem to hold their own (I mean through cities; we haven't had a real footrace for them yet). I wonder if the team did some light physical training once they knew they were chosen, as they're smart enough to know it won't be all mental.

They definitely aren't. I think some physical competitions is fine. But I think the issue that got them to fall behind was the fact that the Head to Head was all physical, and the teams who lost had a disadvantage by having to do it more than once, exerting their energy that they've already been using up on the leg (Evan probably used a lot of her energy on the rope ladder), pulling the same weight with the dolly, and having the pressure of needing to beat another team in order to stay in the race. I mean, they even had Phil feeling bad for Evan/Henry on race #3. Which, sure, that's the thing about the race and all, in that some teams will have advantages over others and if this was a pure mental competition, maybe another team would have been stuck in the same boat as Evan/Henry. Which is why, if they do future Head to Heads, they need to make it both physical AND mental, but also not have it be the determining factor to who gets eliminated. Have it in the beginning or middle of the leg, not at the end, so it can give the last teams a chance to not get eliminated. Sure, the whole Head to Head was somewhat of a chance to not have Goat Yoga and Firefighters not get eliminated, but I really don't think the concept worked as well as the show had hoped. I just felt unsatisfied with what they did with a potentially interesting new competition. 

[Gummo]

That was fun, so long as they don't overdo the "twists." A 3-hour wait for your opponent? That's only fair if the next leg starts with all teams bunched.

Cody veers from being his old obnoxious BB self to just plain weird. Someone should keep count of how many times Jessica gives him her patented quizzical "was that a joke or are you just that clueless" look.

Love that Henry & Evan stayed positive and finally won! And I'm equally glad the Queens of Passive Aggressive Hostility, the Goats, are gone. Seriously, they didn't sound at all like friends, they sounded like a divorced couple thrown back together for the Race.

Yes, I'm just an overgrown adolescent, but I'm loving the beautiful greeters.

I can see how Brittany/Lucas may get our nerves down the line, but so far I am enjoying her sassy-with-just-a-hint-of-annoying attitude. And "pineapple" as your safe word? Arbitrary and silly, and I love silly! Maybe they're big SpongeBob fans?

I am in awe that the teams that chose the diamond appraising detour were able to get it down to the exact dollar. I'd love to know how long it actually took.

[ProfCrash]

There are so many ways to have added this thing, which is a regular part of international Races, that would not have sucked.

1) Apparently in the other versions this is not a race to the mat. The loser of the last race/event whatever ends up with a time penalty. Rob Has a Podcast said that it is similar to the Yield in the middle seasons of the US Amazing Race. The race can influence the race but there is a chance for another team to catch up. So, say this happens between the road block. Assume that the Goat Yoga team loses and takes a 30 minute penalty. They end up at the diamond task late but would still probably beat the fire fighters because they sucked at both tasks.

2) If they are going to do it as a final thing they could have evened it out a few ways. 

        They should have had two lanes to prevent the bumping and knocking people out of the way.

        They could allow for the removal of one bag of frites for each failure

        They could have a two part challenge using both members, a race and a puzzle or something intellectual

3) Just scrap the idea because it is that awful and ridiculous and totally screws with the race. There is no reason to be worried about how quickly you finish a task because you

Edited January 11, 2018 by ProfCrash

[Lantern7]

3 hours ago, TheRabbi said:

According to Sarah's Facebook page, they waited nearly 3 hours for the twins to show up to the challenge. That's pretty unfair. 

I posted (kneejerk) ideas on the Suggestion thread how to fix things. One of them was that teams would have to wait a set time before Phil brings them to the mat. Thinking about it, this might not encourage the best from contestants. Why kill yourselves and each other if elimination comes down to a janky carnival game?* Even if you didn't know for certain that a leg was ending with that, wouldn't it make more sense to conserve energy?

*That expression comes from Cara Maria at the end of The Challenge: Battle of the Bloodlines. While running around pushing a crate while dressed as frites was probably  not what she meant, I think the sentiment applies here.

Edited January 11, 2018 by Lantern7

[green]

14 hours ago, Rinaldo said:

I haaated this episode -- specifically the Frites Race. I promised myself years ago I would never say "jump the shark" but I may have to use it for this TAR leg and what it did for the concept of merit determining finishing order.

 

This french fry race was completely out of trash city Big Brother complete with a type of costume they would wear there.  HATED it.

Also I've always liked Phil but his strong suite is obviously NOT giving color commentary.  He was terrible at it.

12 hours ago, Silver Raven said:

Phil as a race narrator is boring.

 

"Boring" is putting it politely.

3 hours ago, TheRabbi said:

According to Sarah's Facebook page, they waited nearly 3 hours for the twins to show up to the challenge. That's pretty unfair. 

Totally unfair.  The BB-inspired "race" with stupid looking costumes and silly looking starter guy was beyond anything bad TAR has ever done.  It wasn't fun or exciting for me as a viewer and was totally cringe-worthy.  Trite, stupid AND unfair on top of that.  Good of the firefighter apologizing for winning and telling Phil that The Goat Ladies deserved to stay.

In summary:  Only really good thing about the episode was the Detour.  Climbing for a clue was okay but not too interesting.  And the typical BB-Style Race at the end was unfair, stupid and enough to jump a dozen sharks.

[Lady Calypso]

2 minutes ago, Gummo said:

I am in awe that the teams that chose the diamond appraising detour were able to get it down to the exact dollar. I'd love to know how long it actually took.

It seemed to take a lot longer than the old print detour, judging by all of the teams doing the diamond task arriving later.

Also, THREE HOURS, FIREFIGHTERS? I haven't been impressed with the twins, to be honest.

[iMonrey]

I'm torn on this head-to-head thing. On the one hand, it sort of rendered the Roadblock and Detour irrelevant. On the other hand, I found it much more compelling to watch than either the Roadblock or the Detour - in fact, it was eminently more watchable than any Roadblock or Detour in recent memory. I was really invested in each heat. I did feel bad for Team Yale and it did seem like an unfair advantage to some of the teams, but then again, strength and agility do have to be factors in a race.

I won't miss Team Goat Yoga, but I wouldn't have minded seeing the firefighters eliminated either. They look vaguely Deliverance-inbred. 

One more thing: when Shawn and Cedric were boarding the plane, one of them (Cedric, I think) had a toothpick hanging out of his mouth. That instantly irked me. What is up with men who walk around with toothpicks hanging out of their mouths? They seem to think it makes them look macho or something - like they think they're Clint Eastwood. I don't get it and I never have. 

[DammitHardison]

15 hours ago, InDueTime said:

I was hoping that Team Slam Dunk would've come in first, but good job on bouncing back. Good job on Team Extreme on flying through the Detour.

I see what you did there. I'm not sure if this was intentional, but great word choice when describing basketball players ;)

[blackwing]

6 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

One more thing: when Shawn and Cedric were boarding the plane, one of them (Cedric, I think) had a toothpick hanging out of his mouth. That instantly irked me. What is up with men who walk around with toothpicks hanging out of their mouths? They seem to think it makes them look macho or something - like they think they're Clint Eastwood. I don't get it and I never have. 

I've always assumed that the person could possibly be a former or current smoker.  When you can't or don't want to smoke, the toothpick perhaps acts as a substitute for a ciggy, and you still get a bit of the oral fixation.

[amazingracefan]

4 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

I'm torn on this head-to-head thing. On the one hand, it sort of rendered the Roadblock and Detour irrelevant. On the other hand, I found it much more compelling to watch than either the Roadblock or the Detour - in fact, it was eminently more watchable than any Roadblock or Detour in recent memory.

I thought the results of most of them were extremely predictable because of the physical mismatch.  I was just waiting for the two weaker teams to face each other.

 

The fact that the detour and even the navigation aren't as exciting as they used to be feels at least in part because of weaker editing and use of music.  Not that it's easy early in the race with lots of teams in it, but I've got a feeling they did a better job most of the time pre-season 22.  The only really weak episodes of classic TAR I remember were the first couple of episodes or so of the family edition and season 2.

[ByaNose]

And, Team Jody seems to be doing well, too. I'm sure being on BB has helped somewhat when it comes to doing the challenges. They also seem to get along. It's seems kind of funny that Jessica always seems surprised that they have completed a task successfully. At this rate, I wouldn't count them out of the Final 3. It doesn't look anyone is targeting them. In fact, it doesn't even look like any of the teams are working together. Usually, all the deals are made at the airports but so far they haven't shown any airport interactions. I know we are only 2 episodes in but the look and feel of the show is so different then before. It's like they thought Season 30 was the end and were going to do things differently production wise. IMO!

Edited January 11, 2018 by ByaNose

[Lady Calypso]

3 minutes ago, ByaNose said:

In fact, it doesn't even look like any of the teams are working together. Usually, all the deals are made at the airports but so far they haven't shown any airport interation.

They did show team Extreme (Skiiers) and Team Well Strung (Violinists) working together at the travel agency, though. They were communicating and then waited until both were done before leaving. I know it's not them working on a task together, but it seemed a bit chummy that could turn into benefitting each other in tasks.  So there may be teams working together that haven't been shown because it likely doesn't benefit the episodic storytelling yet.

[blackwing]

41 minutes ago, Gummo said:

I am in awe that the teams that chose the diamond appraising detour were able to get it down to the exact dollar. I'd love to know how long it actually took.

There was a formula that we very briefly saw on the piece of paper.  I think it was something like, some base number multiplied by weight to get a starting price.   Then say they look at color, there were only two options.  If clear then adjust 0, if yellowish then subtract 20% off the price.  Then inclusions.  If none, adjust 0, if some then subtract 20% off the price.   

The show made it look complicated but really, assuming they operated the scale correctly, there was really only four options for each diamond.  Perfect, yellow and with inclusions, clear with no inclusions, yellow and with inclusions.  They had to do three diamonds so even if they were completely clueless they could have just systematically run through all the combos of numbers.  4 x 4 x 4 = 64 possible combinations.  I guess that would take time, but three hours?

This of course assumes that the formula was as I outlined above, I didn't freeze frame to get a closer look.  I don't think they were being asked to grade various degrees of clarity or amount of inclusions.  I think it was just a yes/no for each.

I still would have chosen the printing, it seemed way more straightforward.

[sinycalone]

I didn't find the Frite race as a case of jumping the shark...just a little variety.  As I said before, not sure I want it back...but it was silly fun, but with some skill involved. Now that we know the Goat Yoga team had to wait almost 3 hours for the firefighters...it makes sense that April got to make that second attempt.  Still didn't like the team...and not sorry they are gone.

Not sure I could have finished the diamond challenge -- ever.  Was very impressed by the teams that did complete it...to the penny.  If the formula was as simple as Blackwing just described, it's obviously easier than I thought.  However, one of the men commented about not knowing what a diamond flaw (inclusion?) was...so I think some judging was involved.

Edited January 11, 2018 by sinycalone

[MyAimIsTrue]

15 minutes ago, sinycalone said:

I didn't find the Frite race as a case of jumping the shark...just a little variety.  As I said before, not sure I want it back...but it was silly fun, but with some skill involved.

That perfectly sums it up for me as well.

[ProfCrash]

I think they had to have the height and weight correct so if they were off on that at all it would effect the price so it is not as easy as dropping it into the formula and work through the various permutations.

[Wandering Snark]

2 hours ago, Special K said:

I'm not even afraid of heights and I don't think I could do that ladder climb.  Maybe I'm afraid of flimsy flailing rope ladders?

I'm having a hard time just looking at the screenshots posted upthread. That pov was enough to make me a little queasy. Ugh!

Safewords are supposed to be odd so that they wouldn't come up in the usual course of convo so they stick out when stated.

[backformore]

1 hour ago, green said:

Totally unfair.  The BB-inspired "race" with stupid looking costumes and silly looking starter guy was beyond anything bad TAR has ever done.  It wasn't fun or exciting for me as a viewer and was totally cringe-worthy.  Trite, stupid AND unfair on top of that.  Good of the firefighter apologizing for winning and telling Phil that The Goat Ladies deserved to stay.

Yes.  that was what made it so bad.  At least on Big Brother, a task like that determines who wins head of household, NOT who goes home.   The French fry race seemed out of place on TAR because of the head-to-head aspect, but also the ridiculous costumes.  I know there are other times the racers have been in costume, but these were BB-style costumes.   It was also not fun to watch. 

[Netfoot]

2 minutes ago, Wandering Snark said:

Safewords are supposed to be odd so that they wouldn't come up in the usual course of convo...

Which is why I hope they don't end up in Hawaii.

At least it isn't a trigger word.  "Pineapple!"  "Eeeeeekk!!"

[joanne3482]

54 minutes ago, blackwing said:

This of course assumes that the formula was as I outlined above, I didn't freeze frame to get a closer look.  I don't think they were being asked to grade various degrees of clarity or amount of inclusions.  I think it was just a yes/no for each.

I still would have chosen the printing, it seemed way more straightforward.

That seems more straightforward than I thought. I wasn't paying 100% attention and thought they had to get much more into number of inclusions and gradient of color which sounded nearly impossible to me.  I, too, still would have chosen the printing one.  

For now I'm okay with the twist as long as a - it isn't EVERY race and b - there's some variety in them.  If they were all physical challenges I wouldn't like that but this was the first one. I'm going to be patient and see. 

[survivinmt]

I liked this episode. And I like this cast. So they had to go head to head? How is that different than anything else they do? Some people are smart, some have good balance, some are great with puzzles or hidden objects games. Others are physical. I cannot run, jump, balance or win any feats of strengths but I am pretty sure I could have knocked either of those detour options out in no time. So I don't mind seeing a head to head as long as they are not ALWAYS physical. And not on every leg.

Edited January 11, 2018 by survivinmt

[HurricaneVal]

I saw them using pineapple as a cue to calm down as a way to take the other person out of the moment and have a bit of a jarring "Huh?!?" effect so they really pause to rewind a sec in a way that "calm down" or "please relax" can't accomplish.  As someone upthread mentioned, telling someone in the heat of the moment to chill out often has the opposite effect, but saying something nonsensical isn't as threatening and causes them to stop and think. 

I really liked the typesetting challenge.  Not only did they really have to think upsidedown and sideways, the words they were copying weren't in English, which made it all the more difficult to accomplish.  This was a great challenge that a determined, detail oriented, creative, and less volatile team would do great at.   I didn't really like the diamond challenge.  On the face of it, it looked really easy, just weigh and grade three diamonds, and add the resulting value to the existing value of that beautiful necklace.  Weighing the diamonds is (or should be) fairly straightforward.  Assessing the color, using that chart in front of them should also be straightforward.  However, it seems they weren't given adequate information to assess the flaws any of the diamonds might have had.  It seems that is a very subjective part of the assessment, and kind of unfair for total newbies to do correctly.  How can you look for occlusions if you don't know what an occlusion looks like?

 

I'm not going to comment on the frite run challenge.  My momma taught me if I can't say anything nice, I shouldn't say anything at all.

[CaioF]

I on the side of those that hated this twist. It screw with the leg and it can totally make a team that rocked in the other tasks to lose for a way behind team just at one try on a lame challenge. Since we gonna have more of this, I hope the next one its better than this (they racing close to each other allowed unfair moves to take other from the race). Lame, as I think the othe twist will be.

Still rooting for Kristi and Jen, they did great again, despiste their little self navegation issues. If they get it together, they can go all the way. And yeah, team BB are probably a lock to at least go untill the very end (just assuming from how they are performing, getting focus and how TPTB probably want to have them all the way) unless they mess up.

Edited January 11, 2018 by CaioF

[chaifan]

Post race interview with the Goat Yoga ladies.  They say that Henry & Evan were also waiting 3 hours for them to show up.  I really hope the next leg starts with an airport bunch or hours of operation bunch.  Otherwise, that's really unfair to any team that got held up just to wait for the next one to arrive at the frites race.

https://parade.com/636714/mikebloom/the-amazing-race-30-april-gould-and-sarah-williams-on-head-to-heads-and-butting-heads/

[CaioF]

1 minute ago, chaifan said:

Post race interview with the Goat Yoga ladies.  They say that Henry & Evan were also waiting 3 hours for them to show up.  I really hope the next leg starts with an airport bunch or hours of operation bunch.  Otherwise, that's really unfair to any team that got held up just to wait for the next one to arrive at the frites race.

https://parade.com/636714/mikebloom/the-amazing-race-30-april-gould-and-sarah-williams-on-head-to-heads-and-butting-heads/

IKR? Another lame part of this twist. Teams should leave one right after the other next leg or have a bunch otherwise this twist is more screwed that I thought.

[watch2much]

18 hours ago, Lady Calypso said:

my first thought when Sarah told the cameras that she wanted April to race again because she didn't drop any bags the first time, I just thought it was her way of passing the blame to April when they lost. Also, Sarah, you guys got there and only competed against two people. You have no idea how the other teams did. 

my thought exactly.  Sarah would have been rested and she has longer legs than April.  Yes, there was only going to be one chance but I think Sarah should have done it.  Don't think I'm a fan of the head to head, though.  If the Yale team hadn't made it through, I'd really hate it.

[blackwing]

Pure speculation here, but are Kristi and Jen the winners?   The footage at the beginning of the one saying she is going to yakk because of the Black Death was just so very odd.   What was the point of that?  It's so very extremely rare that the show ever addresses bathroom or gastric distress issues.  Her near-yakking didn't rise to the level of medical illness which we have certainly seen before.  

I'm hard pressed to remember when in recent seasons we have ever seen any footage of time in between pit stops and the start of the next leg.  I know there was the one on the strangers season with "I'm in Mensa" tattooed long beard guy with the short mom, where they talked out their differences, but that affected the team and was part of the theme.

I see no other reason for them to waste time airing a non-yakking than to have a clip that they can include in the "resume" of a final three team.  When Phil always lists the accolades of the final three teams in the penultimate episode and we see clips from the season.  "Kristi and Jen.   This team of extreme skiers started strong [clip from first leg, "You are team number one!"], overcame the Black Death [clip, "I'm gonna yakk!"] and remained consistently solid [future clip] throughout the race.  Do they have what it takes to finish as strong?"

[hendersonrocks]

Quote

 

Post race interview with the Goat Yoga ladies.  They say that Henry & Evan were also waiting 3 hours for them to show up.  I really hope the next leg starts with an airport bunch or hours of operation bunch.  Otherwise, that's really unfair to any team that got held up just to wait for the next one to arrive at the frites race.

https://parade.com/636714/mikebloom/the-amazing-race-30-april-gould-and-sarah-williams-on-head-to-heads-and-butting-heads/

 

This interview only deepens my intense dislike of Sarah. Girl, please stop throwing your partner under the bus.

[Netfoot]

9 minutes ago, blackwing said:

Pure speculation here, but are Kristi and Jen the winners?

They were the winners of the first leg.

[NeverLate]

Loved the twist( Henry might not agree)

 

Bye bye nasty goat girls.

WTG Jody!!!

[scowl]

18 hours ago, Jobiska said:

I was impressed that so many teams came up with different ways of figuring out the backwards type.  The skiers held the sample up to the light (and I think got it on the first try?), the lifeguards used the mirror after their first try, and the firefighters were pressing their arms into the inked type from their failed attempts (didn't help them though, but it was inventive).  

When I used a printing press from the 1920's in school (this was considered modern stuff in my school) I found I could press the type into my skin and the mark would show how it would print on paper. No ink needed. 

[dgpolo]

4 hours ago, blackwing said:

The show made it look complicated but really, assuming they operated the scale correctly, there was really only four options for each diamond.  Perfect, yellow and with inclusions, clear with no inclusions, yellow and with inclusions.  They had to do three diamonds so even if they were completely clueless they could have just systematically run through all the combos of numbers.  4 x 4 x 4 = 64 possible combinations.  I guess that would take time, but three hours?

I thought there was a 'blink and you miss it' moment when one of the racers said something similar -that they could systematically run though all the numbers- and get there that way. I noticed because I would run screaming from any challenge involving numbers. Someone upthread mentioned get the exact amount correct would be impossible, and that is what I thought. but I don't think they had to do it all themselves, they just had to plug in the right diamonds into the right combo. I think the ones that took 3 hours never figured that out and thought they had to actually do more with the diamonds than the really had to do.

[iMonrey]

Quote

 At least on Big Brother, a task like that determines who wins head of household, NOT who goes home.

On Big Brother, those two things are often one and the same. 

I don't know - I'm still torn. Yes, it was silly for them to dress up like french fries. But . . . I haven't been engaged by or invested in watching a Roadblock or a Detour in ages. Figuring out how to use an old fashioned printing press? Examining diamonds and doing math? Climbing a ladder? Yawn. But there's something about pitting two racers from opposing teams against each other on a head to head literal foot race/obstacle course I found really engaging. I didn't want to like it, but I was more riveted by it than any of the other tasks, and cared more.

Of course, that also speaks to how lame the challenges have become over the past several seasons. When I look back at the Roadblocks and Detours of the first five seasons I'm astonished by how positively grueling some of them were. A single leg of the earliest races contained more physical, exhausting labor than the entirety of the race for the past several  years.

[BarneySays]

I have always felt that the most unsatisfying moments on this show are when a team simply cannot physically complete a task and is eliminated as a result.  The gamblers and the height problem come readily to mind.  Personally, I find all of the energy is sapped from the race when there simply is nothing the contestant could do to overcome the obstacle.  I love watching them struggle to complete a physical task or use their wits to complete a challenge.  In most cases, tasks that seem impossible to some are ultimately overcome- like Fran and Barry pushing the canoes or some of the overweight contestants scaling a wall, etc.  So, my problem with this twist is that it reminds me of those insurmountable moments in that the less physical competitors are at an insurmountable disadvantage. 

I love the fact that this show tests many different skills, from the purely physical to the adventurous, to the artistic (dancing, painting) to the perceptive.  One's weakness in one area can be compensated by strength in another area.  So the physically weak team can use their driving directions or problem solving skills to compensate, just as some of the less intellectual can use their physical skills to keep them in the race.  This is how we have had older teams who were able to hang around (Meredith and 

Assuming reports are correct that the goat yogis waited three hours just adds salt to the wound.  All of the time they had accrued over the twins at the diamond challenge was erased for an arbitrary foot race three hours later.  Like many, I did not care either way for the yogis, but I can imagine i would be really disappointed if a team I like was screwed the way they were. 

Some have mentioned that there were other tasks where they competed with third parties in a task.  I can remember a couple of racing challenges where they had to beat a pro, but I think those were in the early seasons.  In the later seasons, they seem to race against a timer rather than a competitor.  Am I remembering correctly?

Edited January 12, 2018 by BarneySays

[Browncoat]

I would have had zero problems with the frites race if it had been against a clock -- you must finish in under x minutes and you get as many tries as you need and you can switch partners.  It still might have taken Henry and Evan seven tries, but at least they wouldn't have had to wait three hours between attempts.

[AuntieDiane6]

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The one on Amazing Race sucked just as badly. You put together a race that requires running and pushing a heavy hand cart and the team that loses is out. Yeah, that doesn't totally give an advantage to the athletic teams. There was no way Henry and Evan were winning until one of the non-Professional Athlete/Firefighter team showed up

Well, they lost because they had POOR TECHNIQUE.  It took the Yalies SIX TRIES to realize that they could race the cart in the MIDDLE of the path.  If you review their losses, they lost because they made too many SHARP TURNS.  Changing their pushing technique is why they finally won.  And Phil kept whining about how tired they were--what's tiring about sitting around in a day that was probably 50-60 degrees?  (Most observers had light jackets on).  It's not like they were running through an African animal preserve on a 100-degree day.

[Jobiska]

2 hours ago, BarneySays said:

Some have mentioned that there were other tasks where they competed with third parties in a task.  I can remember a couple of racing challenges where they had to beat a pro, but I think those were in the early seasons.  In the later seasons, they seem to race against a timer rather than a competitor.  Am I remembering correctly?

I was going to cite season 28 when they had to race bikes vs. camels, but I went and looked at a recap and there are not human camel-jockeys, only camels!  Well, they're local.  But then I remembered the boat race in Season 29 episode 1:  From Wikipedia:

 

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The first Detour of the Race was a choice between Scoot or Shoot. Both options required teams to paddle a traditional Panamanian vessel called a cayuco. In Scoot, teams had to beat a pair of professional canoers in a 400 metres (0.25 mi) regatta. 

That beard guy tipped the canoe a lot.  That's my main memory. 

I think it has also happened in other recent seasons, but those are two off the top of my head.

[Sandiscot]

Did the racers have safety harnesses, or anything, in the ladder climb? I don't remember seeing any.

[Netfoot]

16 minutes ago, Sandiscot said:

Did the racers have safety harnesses, or anything, in the ladder climb?

Yes.  They had a line from their harness up, and presumably through a pulley and belayed in some fashion.  It was a fine line, but modern climbing lines can be very strong for their size.

[Sandiscot]

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4 hours ago, Netfoot said:

Yes.  They had a line from their harness up, and presumably through a pulley and belayed in some fashion.  It was a fine line, but modern climbing lines can be very strong for their size.

 

Thank you. It would have been a long, hard fall!

[SVNBob]

Since this is "the Season of the Ultimate Competitors", I get why they added the Head-to-Head.  It's thematic.  They wanted to add deliberate direct competition between two teams, and not incidental moments like the foot-race at the end of the previous episode.  (Although it is a nice thematic accident that that happened.)

But even though I understand why they added it, that doesn't mean I necessarily like it.  I'm an old-school TAR viewer (much love to the TARCons past), so I still believe in the 4-word TAR mantra: "Run.  Your.  Own.  Race."  Twists like this fly in the face of that maxim, so I'm predisposed to hate them.  I don't fully hate the Head-to-Head, since there was still the element of running your own race involved.  But I do also agree that it would feel better earlier in a leg than as the last task before the Pit Stop, to give the last place team or a repeatedly failing team like the debaters a chance to overcome the task.

 

On 1/10/2018 at 9:22 PM, Lingo said:

I thought the Head-to-Head Competition was an interesting concept.... I guess the only way it fails in that regard is that the first team to arrive gets no advantage over the second. But other than that, it preserves the advantage of getting to a clue before other teams, which is a big check mark for me (I really hate bunching points that wipe out the efforts of what came before it).

If they continue with this twist, there is an easy fix.  Allow the first team to arrive a "practice run" of the course, while the second team (and every other team) has to go in blind.

 

14 hours ago, green said:

This french fry race was completely out of trash city Big Brother complete with a type of costume they would wear there.  HATED it.

Which is how I knew the Big Brother team would excel at it.  They're the only team used to doing stupid shit in stupid costumes like that.  No surprise to me that they aced it.

[etagloh]

It was funny that teams expected the change to the train in Amsterdam to be a big deal when a) the train station at Schiphol is in the airport; b) trains to Antwerp are sufficiently infrequent that it was always going to be a travel bunch and an Hours of Operation bunch, and they didn't even bother filming it because there was no drama and lots of tedious frite-racing to show instead. It was basically a classic relocation leg from a relatively remote destination with few flights where the primary aim for TPTB was to set up travel for the next leg.

I hate hate hate the head-to-head (from TARCAN Face Off experience) more than the U-Turn, because most of the time it essentially penalises a team for failure because the fatigue outweighs any benefit from previous attempts, as well as destroying any gains from the previous tasks. At best, it works better as a race mechanic to shuffle the running order than on television where you're seeing the same thing over and over again with little variation. But mostly it punishes good racing. And as a final challenge, it sucks for teams that don't have physical advantages. Running commentary from Phil didn't even help much.

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even though I understand why they added it, that doesn't mean I necessarily like it.  I'm an old-school TAR viewer (much love to the TARCons past), so I still believe in the 4-word TAR mantra: "Run.  Your.  Own.  Race."

I am similarly a purist: The Race as originally conceived is like a round of golf or a slalom ski run. There are different options that add or remove challenges, but ultimately you're competing against yourself and the course, which is the world and the tasks.

That said, I was generally okay with this leg, apart from the head-to-head: the other challenges were a good mix of physical and mental/skill/painstaking, and I loved the Detour. (And props to Shawn/Cedric for nailing the printing press task so quickly.) At least they made Phil's segments for the tasks a bit more flashy.

[aemom]

In TAR Canada, the Head to Head is called the Face Off and it's team against team.  The last team has to wait out a 15 minute penalty and then they can leave.  Being the last team never means instant elimination.  I can't recall the exact details but I think that sometimes it's been in the middle of a leg, but at any rate if it was at the end, you then had to get yourself to the mat which was usually quite a distance away which meant that anything could still happen .

I've noticed that in this season of TAR US, that there is no Express Pass.  Thankful to miss all the drama that usually comes with that.

Edited to add that I did not like how the Frites race almost became a "ran your dolly into the other person" several times.  There seemed to be no rules about that, and in several cases, I saw racers get out of the way and then lose because they didn't want to be hit.  If you did get hit, you would have been badly hurt.  They should have set up lanes - it would have made it more fair.

Edited January 12, 2018 by AEMom
Forgot something

[Corgi-ears]

It appears that Cedric's sexyass voice has caused me to be with child.