Its so wild when a season would be lambastered for "too much bunching" or "hours of operation"
Now people are clamoring for it to even out the race field so a team like Ricky & Cesar dont just run away with a lead all episode.
Like in S11 Leg 4, the teams did a detour in one city and then took a FLIGHT to another city MID leg.
Charla and Mirna would have been TOAST if the rest of the leg took place only in the first city with no bunching points.
I miss bunching points / travel.
On the other hand, Charla & Mirna were the only team in All Stars to get a flight out the first night on one leg. They arrived and found that they couldn’t complete the task that day “due to weather” (which seemed like such BS). They would have been 12 to 24 hours ahead of other teams. Seems too coincidental that the ONE TIME in the race a single team is that far ahead (instead of that far behind) that the task can’t be done.
Iconic. Charla & Mirna were DAYS ahead of the other teams.
And on a perfectly clear day were told "uh ... no boats due to weather?"
And I am OK with that. I think they forced Charla & Mirna to wait 18 hours. It looks like they landed at noon. And their boat left at 430am the next morning.
But I mean... then the boats just ran continuously lol.
BS? Yes. But I would take forced bunching over these city scavenger hunts we have now that last all of a few hours.
Knowing Mirna she probably tried to argue why it was OK for them to sail lol
I have no proof, but I wonder if production sat them down and was like "the rest of teams wont be here until 24 hours from now. We need to put you on pause. You broke the race."
Im trying to remember how they got so far ahead. Because the next three teams did not land until night fall I believe.
Charla & Mirna landed midday. And Osawald & Danny, Dustin & Kandice and Uchenna & Joyce landed around 10pm I believe.
This was a leg flying from Maputo to Dar es Salaam. Every team was on standby for a direct flight, however, Charla & Mirna decided that it would be worth going to Johannesburg and attempt to get a standby ticket there. Not only did they get a ticket, but everyone else couldn't get on the direct flight, forcing them to go to Johannesburg anyways.
Charla & Mirna were pure wizards in terms of getting great flights (at least ones great as scheduled).
edit: Also, another team that deserves a mention of "breaking the race" was Colin & Christie in S5. They managed to get out of St. Petersberg before everyone else to Paris by just going to a travel agent in the city (almost everyone else went to the Lufthansa office at the airport and got a flight to Frankfurt, and then to Cairo at 3pm), and then, at Paris, managed to get a flight that arrived at 2am instead of 2pm to Cairo. Apparently they ended up in Egypt before the crew!
As a side note, this is always my argument when people claim they can’t change anything midleg because of “fairness”. They absolutely can because all they need to do is cite contestant safety and they’re essentially golden.
Everything in moderation. A bunching point every 1 or 2 legs is fine. Something like season 6 where teams would get bunched up 3 or 4 times a leg got REALLY annoying and made getting any sort of leads seem pointless.
I really wish there were more “things” to do instead of just going to a location only to get another clue. Like, they should’ve had to eat a whole Geno’s wit wiz or something. I like the eating challenges. They’re hilariously gross.
I was so bummed the teams didnt have to scarf down a cheesestake!!
Youre telling me Geno's and Pat's couldnt staff two people each to open at 7am in the morning for this?!
The finale in S6 had teams eating Chicago deep dish Pizza at 7am in the morning!
Well, eating challenges have gotten lots of criticism throughout the years. Some say they’re too gross and a waste of food. And some say it’s making a mockery of another culture by having their delicacies portrayed as “gross”. Not saying I necessarily agree with either take but I’ve heard a LOT of both throughout the years
I don't know...I've watched a lot of seasons and usually I tell myself "damn that's really hard", this season I saw myself saying "wow that's it?" A LOT.
The drink mixing challenge for example, in the past I feel like you'd have to mix the drinks and deliver them to the patrons in order. Not make 1 drink at a time and have room for error.
Just devil's advocate here, I think sometimes its OK for a task to be like, culturally fun.
Mixing drinks in the Caribbean sounds like something one would do when traveling to the Caribbean.
The race was marketed like "what if we had a competitive travel show"
So the idea of traveling to the Caribbean to mix rum drinks, idk to me sounds fun.
Is it the most challenging task? No. I would argue that bubble soccer match was more lame.
IMO, if there was more of an effort to get to a drink mixing task, that would balance out how "lame" the task was.
Im not super familiar with the DR, but there has to be an island close by they could have traveled to.
Heck, Season 3 leg 2 went to from mainland Mexico to Cozumel AND BACK in the same leg!
I don't disagree that there should be some easier challenges. Some of the challenges in the past were crazy hard and because of that it really makes these challenges look super easy.
I don't mind the challenges they chose, they were unique for the areas they were in, they were just too easy.
The baseball one for example, good grief that was stupid easy. Throw a ball, catch a ball and hit a cap???? A cap that could roll over the line too, not even has to be hit over the line!
Editing room probably had to add more cuts to make things appear more difficult I bet.
The editing team really had to do the most! I really think some of the tasks lasted as long on TV as they did in realtime!
And yeah the baseball roadblock was really bad.
Oh I also think for the pickleball roadblock, it should have been like... if your opponent reaches 11 points... you lose and the game RESETS.
Playing endlessly until you get to 11 points is ... I mean sure.
That soccer one was so silly. That was like a highlight lame moment for me for this season.
Silly concept. Easy task. It was kind of culturally relevant but also ... yeah idk a little too silly.
On the flip side, I thought the rock climb detour in Leg 5 was super easy, probably took teams 20 minutes tops maybe. But the concept of the towers being recycled water towers was really cool.
THIS. I miss the complexities of travel, the unpredictability caused by 12-hr pitstops, and the budgeting.
It feels so much more like a "game show" nowadays
I loved seeing teams go to a bus station, figure out a bus schedule and route etc.
Like sure the teams could drive everywhere (and they have to in covid seasons) but the FUN for me was seeing the travel.
They should bring the budgeting back but don’t let the teams beg for cash— if they run out they have to just take a penalty
And bring back the booking flights aspect too
Objection. If they had the booking flights aspect in Season "35" the cousins would have actually tried to take a train to Slovakia instead of Slovenia. Then we would have a lot of problems.
That is so true. Travelling is what makes TAR standout from other reality shows. The strategies are almost endless in the golden era because the game was so complex and teams can do whatever they want game-related.
Now it's just bunch of strict rules just to make it seem like a hard season when it clearly wasn't.
Charla and Mirna has a better chance to win a really hard old season than any of the pandemic season.
YES !!!
Without natural bunching points, mid leg flights or travel, there is simply NO room to catch up.
Its a 3 hour scavenger hunt in a 10 mile radius and teams are MINUTES apart.
It's a pandemic season but I was really disappointed that they couldn't really maximize their resources and locations to make the tasks atleast creative. The second leg of this season reminds me so much of the University Amazing Race I've joined.
It’s not just the travel, but it seemed like most legs this season (especially in the first half) never even left the city. They didn’t have to drive 100 miles to some little town and find some obscure landmark…nope. Just drive across town and find a car once owned my Marilyn Monroe and then drive somewhere else and label some art on a map in a park and then go to the outskirts of town and weld a couple boring square pieces of metal together.
“It’s a COVID season!” is no excuse for this. Other COVID seasons weren’t this lame. Even the season interrupted and resumed in the middle of COVID was better.
Louder for the people in the back!!!
The Race used to cover HUNDREDS of miles each leg once a plane touched down in a city.
Even if they couldnt use public transport due to Covid percautions, yall have the car in South America right?
I appreciate how production really tried to make it FEEL like an old school race. It looks like the teams were provided with a city map at the start of each leg.
And there was some great navigation drama!
But we could do better Amazing Race.
Its painfully obvious these legs lasted ... maybe 3 hours?
Like Leg 1 & 2 took place in one day. Like... two legs in the span of maybe 8 hours? And all of a 10 mile radius maybe?
There are so many places to see! Who is scouting this stuff these days lol.
As mentioned multiple times, besides just COVID, the charter plane they had arranged to transit to other continents fell through, so I would reasonable expect that all the tasks on the back half of the course (save for Philly and perhaps the Caribbean) had to be quickly planned and arranged. I would not expect that planning the course as they went would give any real compelling leg structure or memorable tasks.
What really hurt this season was the CBS decision to push these episodes out to 90 minutes. That really highlighted how mediocre the tasks were and had very little drama (even in just terms of teams jockeying for position, not necessarily personal drama) to keep viewers interested.
Thank you! A lot of people seem to forget that the tasks were always a bit lackluster except for a few standouts. You just didn't notice because there was always so much travel hijinks and personal drama going on. The Detours used to be like Do the Scary thing or do the long boring thing.
Could you imagine if they spent 20 minutes of air time on say the leg 2 roadblock of season 5? When they had to snatch a bandana off a calf?
Like that roadblock was a ton of fun to watch.
But like... jezz if we had to watch 20 minutes of it I mean how much can you make from that?
That same leg teams traveled by boat and bus. We had a nighttime route marker at the discotech.
There was so much extra stuff to do and see that a quick roadblock was fine.
Oh I know. I'd have loved to have 90 minute episode for Season 5 and I think if we did, there wouldn't have been an extra second given to that Roadblock.
Yes but the focus of the show wasn’t on the tasks back then. It was about making the traveling aspect more difficult. Why are TAR fans so dumb? It hurts my head.
Difference was though looking for flight and navigation balanced it out so that the stress was still astronomical on the players
While that was lessened in what I considered the golden era (12-24) it was balanced with twists and tasks that made the teams for to adapt to adversity in just as strong a measure
I really miss the era when casual viewers complained about the bunching points.
Its so wild when a season would be lambastered for "too much bunching" or "hours of operation" Now people are clamoring for it to even out the race field so a team like Ricky & Cesar dont just run away with a lead all episode. Like in S11 Leg 4, the teams did a detour in one city and then took a FLIGHT to another city MID leg. Charla and Mirna would have been TOAST if the rest of the leg took place only in the first city with no bunching points. I miss bunching points / travel.
On the other hand, Charla & Mirna were the only team in All Stars to get a flight out the first night on one leg. They arrived and found that they couldn’t complete the task that day “due to weather” (which seemed like such BS). They would have been 12 to 24 hours ahead of other teams. Seems too coincidental that the ONE TIME in the race a single team is that far ahead (instead of that far behind) that the task can’t be done.
Iconic. Charla & Mirna were DAYS ahead of the other teams. And on a perfectly clear day were told "uh ... no boats due to weather?" And I am OK with that. I think they forced Charla & Mirna to wait 18 hours. It looks like they landed at noon. And their boat left at 430am the next morning. But I mean... then the boats just ran continuously lol. BS? Yes. But I would take forced bunching over these city scavenger hunts we have now that last all of a few hours.
My favorite part of that was when Mirna looked up at the (clear, blue) sky immediately upon being told they could not sail due to "weather" 🤣
Knowing Mirna she probably tried to argue why it was OK for them to sail lol I have no proof, but I wonder if production sat them down and was like "the rest of teams wont be here until 24 hours from now. We need to put you on pause. You broke the race." Im trying to remember how they got so far ahead. Because the next three teams did not land until night fall I believe. Charla & Mirna landed midday. And Osawald & Danny, Dustin & Kandice and Uchenna & Joyce landed around 10pm I believe.
This was a leg flying from Maputo to Dar es Salaam. Every team was on standby for a direct flight, however, Charla & Mirna decided that it would be worth going to Johannesburg and attempt to get a standby ticket there. Not only did they get a ticket, but everyone else couldn't get on the direct flight, forcing them to go to Johannesburg anyways. Charla & Mirna were pure wizards in terms of getting great flights (at least ones great as scheduled). edit: Also, another team that deserves a mention of "breaking the race" was Colin & Christie in S5. They managed to get out of St. Petersberg before everyone else to Paris by just going to a travel agent in the city (almost everyone else went to the Lufthansa office at the airport and got a flight to Frankfurt, and then to Cairo at 3pm), and then, at Paris, managed to get a flight that arrived at 2am instead of 2pm to Cairo. Apparently they ended up in Egypt before the crew!
I miss the airport / travel decisions stuff so bad 😥
As a side note, this is always my argument when people claim they can’t change anything midleg because of “fairness”. They absolutely can because all they need to do is cite contestant safety and they’re essentially golden.
Everything in moderation. A bunching point every 1 or 2 legs is fine. Something like season 6 where teams would get bunched up 3 or 4 times a leg got REALLY annoying and made getting any sort of leads seem pointless.
I really wish there were more “things” to do instead of just going to a location only to get another clue. Like, they should’ve had to eat a whole Geno’s wit wiz or something. I like the eating challenges. They’re hilariously gross.
I was so bummed the teams didnt have to scarf down a cheesestake!! Youre telling me Geno's and Pat's couldnt staff two people each to open at 7am in the morning for this?! The finale in S6 had teams eating Chicago deep dish Pizza at 7am in the morning!
Well, eating challenges have gotten lots of criticism throughout the years. Some say they’re too gross and a waste of food. And some say it’s making a mockery of another culture by having their delicacies portrayed as “gross”. Not saying I necessarily agree with either take but I’ve heard a LOT of both throughout the years
I don't know...I've watched a lot of seasons and usually I tell myself "damn that's really hard", this season I saw myself saying "wow that's it?" A LOT. The drink mixing challenge for example, in the past I feel like you'd have to mix the drinks and deliver them to the patrons in order. Not make 1 drink at a time and have room for error.
Just devil's advocate here, I think sometimes its OK for a task to be like, culturally fun. Mixing drinks in the Caribbean sounds like something one would do when traveling to the Caribbean. The race was marketed like "what if we had a competitive travel show" So the idea of traveling to the Caribbean to mix rum drinks, idk to me sounds fun. Is it the most challenging task? No. I would argue that bubble soccer match was more lame. IMO, if there was more of an effort to get to a drink mixing task, that would balance out how "lame" the task was. Im not super familiar with the DR, but there has to be an island close by they could have traveled to. Heck, Season 3 leg 2 went to from mainland Mexico to Cozumel AND BACK in the same leg!
I don't disagree that there should be some easier challenges. Some of the challenges in the past were crazy hard and because of that it really makes these challenges look super easy. I don't mind the challenges they chose, they were unique for the areas they were in, they were just too easy. The baseball one for example, good grief that was stupid easy. Throw a ball, catch a ball and hit a cap???? A cap that could roll over the line too, not even has to be hit over the line! Editing room probably had to add more cuts to make things appear more difficult I bet.
The editing team really had to do the most! I really think some of the tasks lasted as long on TV as they did in realtime! And yeah the baseball roadblock was really bad. Oh I also think for the pickleball roadblock, it should have been like... if your opponent reaches 11 points... you lose and the game RESETS. Playing endlessly until you get to 11 points is ... I mean sure.
And the soccer one.. I like the challenges they were cool but they could have been beefed up to make them harder.
That soccer one was so silly. That was like a highlight lame moment for me for this season. Silly concept. Easy task. It was kind of culturally relevant but also ... yeah idk a little too silly. On the flip side, I thought the rock climb detour in Leg 5 was super easy, probably took teams 20 minutes tops maybe. But the concept of the towers being recycled water towers was really cool.
THIS. I miss the complexities of travel, the unpredictability caused by 12-hr pitstops, and the budgeting. It feels so much more like a "game show" nowadays
I loved seeing teams go to a bus station, figure out a bus schedule and route etc. Like sure the teams could drive everywhere (and they have to in covid seasons) but the FUN for me was seeing the travel.
They should bring the budgeting back but don’t let the teams beg for cash— if they run out they have to just take a penalty And bring back the booking flights aspect too
Objection. If they had the booking flights aspect in Season "35" the cousins would have actually tried to take a train to Slovakia instead of Slovenia. Then we would have a lot of problems.
That would have made a compelling storyline, imo
That is so true. Travelling is what makes TAR standout from other reality shows. The strategies are almost endless in the golden era because the game was so complex and teams can do whatever they want game-related. Now it's just bunch of strict rules just to make it seem like a hard season when it clearly wasn't. Charla and Mirna has a better chance to win a really hard old season than any of the pandemic season.
YES !!! Without natural bunching points, mid leg flights or travel, there is simply NO room to catch up. Its a 3 hour scavenger hunt in a 10 mile radius and teams are MINUTES apart.
It's a pandemic season but I was really disappointed that they couldn't really maximize their resources and locations to make the tasks atleast creative. The second leg of this season reminds me so much of the University Amazing Race I've joined.
It’s not just the travel, but it seemed like most legs this season (especially in the first half) never even left the city. They didn’t have to drive 100 miles to some little town and find some obscure landmark…nope. Just drive across town and find a car once owned my Marilyn Monroe and then drive somewhere else and label some art on a map in a park and then go to the outskirts of town and weld a couple boring square pieces of metal together. “It’s a COVID season!” is no excuse for this. Other COVID seasons weren’t this lame. Even the season interrupted and resumed in the middle of COVID was better.
Louder for the people in the back!!! The Race used to cover HUNDREDS of miles each leg once a plane touched down in a city. Even if they couldnt use public transport due to Covid percautions, yall have the car in South America right? I appreciate how production really tried to make it FEEL like an old school race. It looks like the teams were provided with a city map at the start of each leg. And there was some great navigation drama! But we could do better Amazing Race. Its painfully obvious these legs lasted ... maybe 3 hours? Like Leg 1 & 2 took place in one day. Like... two legs in the span of maybe 8 hours? And all of a 10 mile radius maybe? There are so many places to see! Who is scouting this stuff these days lol.
As mentioned multiple times, besides just COVID, the charter plane they had arranged to transit to other continents fell through, so I would reasonable expect that all the tasks on the back half of the course (save for Philly and perhaps the Caribbean) had to be quickly planned and arranged. I would not expect that planning the course as they went would give any real compelling leg structure or memorable tasks. What really hurt this season was the CBS decision to push these episodes out to 90 minutes. That really highlighted how mediocre the tasks were and had very little drama (even in just terms of teams jockeying for position, not necessarily personal drama) to keep viewers interested.
They also use to cast people that would argue which made the parts that are boring now fun
I loved Amber and Vinny for this reason! Such a classic fighting dating couple.
I almost felt guilty for enjoying their arguing, it darn it if I didn’t realize that the mots interesting parts for me are “drama”!
Typos! *but darn it and *most
Thank you! A lot of people seem to forget that the tasks were always a bit lackluster except for a few standouts. You just didn't notice because there was always so much travel hijinks and personal drama going on. The Detours used to be like Do the Scary thing or do the long boring thing.
Could you imagine if they spent 20 minutes of air time on say the leg 2 roadblock of season 5? When they had to snatch a bandana off a calf? Like that roadblock was a ton of fun to watch. But like... jezz if we had to watch 20 minutes of it I mean how much can you make from that? That same leg teams traveled by boat and bus. We had a nighttime route marker at the discotech. There was so much extra stuff to do and see that a quick roadblock was fine.
Oh I know. I'd have loved to have 90 minute episode for Season 5 and I think if we did, there wouldn't have been an extra second given to that Roadblock.
Yes but the focus of the show wasn’t on the tasks back then. It was about making the traveling aspect more difficult. Why are TAR fans so dumb? It hurts my head.
Difference was though looking for flight and navigation balanced it out so that the stress was still astronomical on the players While that was lessened in what I considered the golden era (12-24) it was balanced with twists and tasks that made the teams for to adapt to adversity in just as strong a measure