13 replies to this topic

[Arlo Rowan]

Well, with nine seasons down, we're halfway to the end as we start on the double-digit seasons.

TAR10 definitely had some uniqueness to it. For one thing, it was the first season to have a westerly route after so many come-to-be-expected easterly routes. Yes, we went to the Asian countries first this time instead of waiting to hit them dead last.

This route gave us quite a few good new countries, like Mongolia, Kuwait, Mauritius, Madagascar, Finland, and Ukraine, as well as the first visit to Paris since TAR1, and I believe the first visit to Spain since TAR3.

With this route came some pretty good tasks, like the Labor vs. Leisure Detour in China, the flaming arrows Roadblock in Mongolia, the flower-selling Roadblock in Vietnam, the whole leg spent in dhows in that same country, the Wild Things vs. Wild Rice Detour in India, nearly every task in Kuwait, the Sea vs. Salt Detour in Mauritius, and, of course, the tomatoes in Spain.

Casting was actually decent, although the intentions of the casting -- to provide more diversity -- ended up falling by the wayside very quickly. We were finally introduced to the first Muslim and Indian teams, Bilal & Sa'eed and Vipul & Arti, only to see them both leave us on the first leg. Ditto Lauren, the first lesbian, who wound up leaving relatively early, as well. Erwin & Godwin were cast as the first full Asian team after Kathy from TAR3 had previously been the only Asian-American on the show up to that point.

Aside from those teams, we were introduced to a few teams who'd go on to still be relatively remembered up to me. We met Peter & Sarah, the first racer to run the race with an artificial leg, and watched their dynamic slowly disintegrate as the legs went on, reaching their climax in Kuwait. At least we were treated to their breakup on the Pit Stop mat upon their elimination. And this season gave us Kentucky, David & Mary, and the storyline of their wide-eyed wonder of the world around them. Charming people in their first go-round, but . . . not so much in their second. Though that's a story for another week. Next week, to be more precise. We had the Chos who started out nice enough, but bugged toward the end of their run for obvious reasons.

But I've gotta say, the top two in this season, from both an interest factor and pure entertainment standpoint, were, IMO, probably the worst top two in any season. Other than the tomatoes, I can't remember one thing that interested me about Rob & Kimberly (though I vaguely remember Rob being one of the few racers to actually start out mean but sort of mellow out with time, but that's about it). And I'll get stoned for this, but while they were good racers, eventual winners Tyler & James were just so damn boring and uninteresting that I just couldn't get behind them. It's really telling to me that the majority of the more casual fans of the show (not the die-hard ones) didn't care for either of the top two, either. Of the two, I had to root for Rob & Kimberly by default since, as boring as they were, at least there was something genuine I felt from them. Not one thing from Tyler & James felt genuine. Not a one. From saying their near-last-place finish in India was "humbling" to Tyler's way-too-open declaration that sharing the cow-lip-eating Fast Forward with Rob & Kimberly in Madagascar was "a bonding experience for all of [them]," almost everything about them felt so contrived, hence my disgust and disappointment with their victory.

To me, two particular teams more or less made this season: Dustin & Kandice and Lyn & Karlyn. Dustin & Kandice would end up being my favorite women's team ever, at least until the top two of seven seasons later came along, as well as the winners of the season after that. They ushered in an era where some actual strong, longer-lasting women's teams started showing up to race. They played the game so well and would've deserved to make it to the F3 if they'd made it there. And Lyn & Karlyn, who actually ended up being the first women's team to ever reach the F3, had a nice contrasting dynamic, with Lyn's sassiness and ability to call someone on their BS (like she did to Peter), and Karlyn's constant bitchfaces and negativity provided them with an interesting dynamic.

Were there flaws? Well, of course. Tom & Terry were whiners of the utmost degree (although they started out okay). And we had the first of only two seasons to use the marked-for-elimination NEL penalty. And there was the mid-leg elimination twist in China that actually could've had potential if it'd popped up on a leg that came in the middle of the race rather than a very early one. And, of course, the Intersection, would had the potential for making survival impossible for a team with the MFE penalty. (At least with fewer teams left. Thank God they'd implement that device with eight teams instead of six teams six seasons later.)

On the whole, though, there were good points, and there were bad points. I think there are enough good to overshadow the bad, but just barely. I'd say a solid 8/10. Had Dustin & Kandice made the F3 over Lyn & Karlyn, then whether or not they'd win, I'd give it a 9. But since they didn't . . . just an 8.

[Vyk]

I've gotta say, I've got mixed feelings about this season. The route was great, the tasks were great, for the most part, the teams were actually a decent mix . . . but the self-righteousness of the Backpack kinda wore me out by one point. I liked how the original five teams in their alliance (Lyn & Karlyn, Erwin & Godwin, David & Mary, Tom & Terry, and Kellie & Jamie) all came together and bonded, and I'm actually thankful the latter team fell out on the very leg they formed the alliance before they became truly insufferable. But as time passed, the drama of the remaining teams from that alliance vs. the constantly front-running teams of Tyler & James, Rob & Kimberly, Dustin & Kandice, and, while they were there, Peter & Sarah got hella annoying. All three teams had such victim complexes it almost turned me off to the whole season.

That said, there were enough lighthearted moments to make up for the pall the Backpack cast on the season that I was able to enjoy it. At least, like Arlo Rowan, until the BQs were gone. Then, I didn't really care anymore.

[enlightenedbum]

This one was weird. Utterly dominated by the professionally good looking almost the entire way. We got sketchy, not all that likable BQs. I have *never* done a 180 on a reality show contestant as quickly as I did with them. Except maybe Rupert. It's a pretty good route and I like the casting almost entirely. Or at least the idea behind it and most of the execution. Peter was the only really dick with a few other obnoxious people (Tom & Terry, the BQs (in this edition; I love them next week...), I think Karlyn? The one that did not sign the letter they sent to the BQs in TAR11). I liked this route for the most part, too. A couple too many needle/haystack tasks if I remember right, though the tomato one was awesome.

[Vyk]

enlightenedbum
We got sketchy, not all that likable BQs. I have *never* done a 180 on a reality show contestant as quickly as I did with them. Except maybe Rupert.

I always thought they were victims of a very bad edit. (At least Kandice was. Dustin did have her smug moments sometimes.) The fact they had as many fans as they did in spite of that edit is a testament to how many viewers were able to see through that edit.

[TheGrimRecapper]

I'm going to come back and do leg-by-leg analysis at some point, but this season basically started with two kickass legs (mid-leg elimination aside; it would have been better if they'd eliminated one team in that leg and one at the TBC point), then collapsed in a heap it never recovered from after the Backpack formed in the first Vietnam episode. I mean, the half an episode we spent in Barcelona was cool, but the rest of it? Not a fan.

[NotPatrick]

It's honestly one of my favourite seasons, and a large part of where I think I differ from most, and which makes all the difference, is the disintegration of the Chos. They start off as an obvious ringer team -book smart and muscled alphas - then they seem like they're going to be a Hippies-esque interminable "JOYFUL COMEDY!" team who dominate the race with their self-loving JOY when they pull out those water-guns in the airport, then they form the Backpack, clearly to show off their own benevolence, and from there they slowly crumble into uselessness until the people they rather patronisingly take on as allies to "help" through the race and surpass them. Their elimination episode is such Schadenfreude - watching them Repeatedly. Every. Five. Seconds. Ask. For. Directions until Bama get bored and make them eat their dust and beat them by hours - one of the best comeuppances and story-arcs ever. Perfect antivillains the pair of them.

I also like that it's one of the most stacked casts ever - Tyler & James, Rob & Kimberly, Dustin & Kandice, Peter & Sarah and Duke & Lauren are all very strong teams and tough as knives. Dustin & Kandice the first really dominant female/female team, Peter & Sarah blitzing through her disability (plus the fact that they're both kind of assholey), and Duke & Lauren the first really strong parent-child team (total shame they blow out in Vietnam) And STILL the Backpack manages to insinuate it into the upper order. The top two is fine with me. Neither are stand-out OTT teams or particularly novel, but I'd take them over any of the previous 4 top 2s or the next one.

The only problem I have is really the construction of the race, and even that only towards the end. There's real problems with the TBC leg that make it kind of ugly and clunky (although I think Northern and Eastern Europe is probably the area where TAR most often trips up) and the split Morocco-Spain leg feels too bunch heavy for something that's so important in settling the Final Three. Especially combined with Tyler/James Romberesque move of riding the BQs throughout to ensure their own survival. Madagascar's a bit of a dud as well, but on one level I appreciate the utter demolition of it as some sort of lush Dreamworks paradise by making teams haul used mattresses through dirty streets and run up and down stairs for hours.

Edited by NotPatrick, Jun 28, 2011 @ 2:38 PM.

[Zach808]

This season was kinda up and down for me. There were some episodes I really liked (the Kuwait one kicked so much ass), and some... not so much (for example, the last few episodes).

[graytex]

This race introduced the BQ's who became my all time favorite team. They were not a one dimensional all female team. Sometimes they were sneaky, sometimes they fought. But I loved the depth of their personalities and that they were one of the first all female teams that kinda looked alike but each had very distinct personalities. So many times I can't remember who is who (Megan & Heidi for example) but Dustin and Kandice were very distinct. And I will always love Kandice's beautiful dancer's run!

[The Australian]

After a run of seasons that just weren't near the quality of the first five, TAR10 made a very decent stab at trying to restore that. Unfortunately, a few things conspired against it.

On the positive side, the westerly route and a few far-flung corners of the world gave the course a freshness it hadn't really had in a long time. Having the Asian legs at the start was something very novel at the time and overall the race was pretty well constructed. The downside to this was that airport abilities didn't really play a part until much later on, which is never a good thing for me.

The casting was also fairly improved. Although the diversity was diluted rather more early that TPTB hoped, everyone got a reasonable slice of the action and we still got to know most of the racers as people and nobody was all hero or all villain.

Well, nobody apart from Peter, whose hideous behaviour towards the plucky Sarah bugged from the get go - culminating in that famous shot of him striding across the rice paddy in Vietnam while she half-walked, half-crawled behind him. Thankfully, he got a superb comeuppance in Kuwait (a leg which really is one of the very best episodes of the show ever).

But apart from that, these teams are likeable. David & Mary's abilities may be modest, but they're very sweet and genuine; Duke & Lauren get a bum steer on taxis that really puts them out too early; Tom & Terry's little drama with the boats in Vietnam is oddly endearing; and Dustin & Kandice are an excellent pair precisely because they have qualities of light and shade.

It's not a great top three, largely because I really like one half (James, Rob and Lyn) but dislike the other (self-important Tyler, clueless Kimberly and sourpuss Karlyn). Although Lyn & Karlyn's achievement in becoming the first all-female top three team is a great accomplishment, you can't really enjoy it because at no time does Karlyn ever really seem to be enjoying herself on the race, which surely is half the point.

Probably the thing which really lets this season down is the survival of the Cho brothers in that first elimination. How different things would have been had it been them rather than Bilal & Sa'eed - we would have been spared their utterly nonsensical approach to racing, which formed the Back Pack and made legs 7-10 a real chore to sit through. The big cleavage between their group and the top three thankfully resolves itself in a satisfying way, though.

Sadly, the finale to TAR10 has to go down as one of the worst ever, not just because of airport bungling in Paris, but particularly once we arrive back in the USA. The excitement that should have been generated by our first finish in New York since the very first season rapidly went out the window when we discovered the route was "go to this place / run two miles south / get in a taxi for an hour to the mat". No puzzle, or even any real task at all, it was terrible - so much so that the result was basically given away in the preview!

But overall, this season is one of only three since TAR5 that I would consider worthy of being mentioned in the same breath as the show's golden age. 8/10.

[TDI Ashley]

The Australian
But overall, this season is one of only three since TAR5 that I would consider worthy of being mentioned in the same breath as the show's golden age. 8/10.

Out of curiosity, what are the other two post-TAR5 seasons?

[danheaton]

Wow, I don't have much of a memory of this season. I do cringe when I think of the backpack and all the adoration for David and Mary, which was exposed as pretty silly in S11. I did like the beauty queens, and that enjoyment was even more in S11. The winners were okay, but didn't have much personality. The whole thing was just sort of average. Of course, it might seem better when viewed in the context of the nine seasons that would follow.

[The Australian]

Out of curiosity, what are the other two post-TAR5 seasons?

TAR12 and TAR17. This one would have placed higher than them had the annoying niggles not happened - but it's still very enjoyable for the most part, something I can't say about a few of the others.

[ZeroThree]

TAR10 was the first season I watched (aside from seeing the Flags Roadblock at the end of TAR9), and its premiere made one hell of an impression on me. Even now, it's still one of the best, partly because it's the only opening leg to have an aired Detour and a Roadblock as well as the amazing Great Wall climb. I also think the route rivals TAR5 as the grandest in the series. It's hard to argue with 13 countries and a heck of a lot of environmental variety between them from urban to rural, desert to sea (TAR3 also had 13 countries, but they were mostly in Europe).

Still, it was disappointing in a way, with a wonderfully diverse cast that ends up being reduced to the same old boring alpha male and bickering couple Final 2, not to mention the sheer stupidity of the Six-Pack Alliance which contributed to the predictable later legs. The tasks started out so strong (fire arrows were so awesome), but became steadily more uninspired. Seriously, TPTB put all that effort into acquiring Madagascar just for rubber stamps? And yes, the finale was an anticlimactic bore.

It was a mixed bag of a season, but no question it was ambitious, and it deserves credit for that alone.

[Branwen Zillah]

There were parts of this season that I really liked. Dustin and Kandice were an amazing team, and the fact that they got so close but didn't win - twice - is so disappointing. I didn't always like their personalities in TAR10 (though I loved them in TAR11), but I always appreciated what they were as a team. I also actually really liked Tyler and James, and I found their relationship with Dustin and Kandice to be so much fun in all the right ways. Between, "Well, we have a truce going on right now, because we're kind of stuck on this train together" and "The girls definitely went to go do the brute strength task, let's make sure we stay within half an hour of them and do it, too," it was just so entertaining, especially since there wasn't really the same flirting/sexual tension we've seen between similar teams in other TAR seasons.

However, the Back Pack makes several episodes of that season virtually unwatchable for me. I wanted to take all of them, especially Mary and Dave, outside and beat them with a guidebook of how to run a damned race, since they were so painfully incompetent at the whole thing. Ditto the Cho brothers, to a slightly lesser extent. I didn't like Karlyn, but at least she had a basic understanding of how to run the damned race. Alliances are nice, but they took it about a hundred steps too far. Tyler and James's alliance with Rob and Kimberly was a lot more realistic and reasonable. The waiting around for the other teams to finish so you can travel around in a herd was just annoying.

Overall, a good season... but less back pack would have improved it significantly, provided it didn't mean more Peter.