12 replies to this topic

[Arlo Rowan]

Title pretty much says it all, doesn't it?

Honestly, I abhorred this season so much that I'm gonna get right to what it was that made me loathe it.

For one thing, the route. Other than Chile and the Seychelles, none of the countries they went to this season were new ones. Lots of repeats, and another lame visit to China.

The cast was another problem. On first glance, I thought there was much potential in it. Unfortunately, the elimination order was absolutely a poor one, as many of the teams who'd actually be interesting started getting booted over the ones who wouldn't be. And the more likable ones left over the less likable ones. I'd have honestly liked to have seen Dana & Adrian go farther and see if they could be Chip & Kim or Uchenna & Joyce 2.0. But I still remember how upset I got at Dana for pawning off that Roadblock that was more than made for her to do on Adrian just because she was tired. (Seriously. If she could get that tired on the first leg, she had no place or business whatsoever in the race.) Kudos to Adrian for trying all the way up to Phil coming out to give them their mercy elimination. Jody & Shannon I wanted to see do well as the first grandmother/granddaughter team, but they weren't good with bus reservations or cow-milking at all. Easy cannon fodder, though they would've been interesting to watch, I think. And boy, did Jody have one of the most soothing voices of ANY racer to date. While the "Momsextraordinaire" angle would've worn thin eventually, I was sad for Monique & Shawne early and thought they never got a fair shake, especially after a good first two legs.

While I didn't like half of their team, I thought Joe & Heidi had potential to go far, and despite Joe's knee, I think they would've. But getting U-Turned out of the race for strictly personal reasons and being forced to do a near-impossible Detour is absolutely one of the roughest ways to go. Too bad for Heidi, because she seemed like a very nice person. About the only early-ousted team whose ouster I was totally fine with was Jordan & Jeff's. Jordan's always been a sweetheart to me, but she's such a dimb bulb, she wasn't gonna get far. And Jeff wasn't much smarter. (Plus, I've seen his BB stints. Particularly in his current return stint, he's shown the major douchebag streak I always knew he had.)

So that leaves us with the F6. And of them, I can really only say I liked two of those teams. And those two teams, sadly, were the ones that didn't make the F4, and were thus the next two to leave. I actually liked what little we were allowed to see of Steve & Allie. It seemed like they were a generic parent/child team, but they had their moments of hilarity, like painting the inside of the house in Chile rather than the outside, and then Steve's crack to Phil in France about him probably needing to get a new car after he ruined the front bumper, followed by his nervous expression. Were it not for their Detour mishap in Penang, Malaysia (caused by Allie, of course), I think they could've easily been the first parent/child team to win. And I admit, while they were polarizing, I had the least problem with Carol & Brandy of everyone on the board. Carol had a temper (as shown on leg three) and Brandy was kind of a snob toward the less intelligent, but they had a good approach to the race and actually did their tasks remarkably well, for the most part. They could've been the first women's team to win, probably, if not for Brent & Caite being idiots with the U-Turn in Singapore.

And then, the F4. Honestly, this was probably the worst F4 in terms of likability. You had the douchebag cops Louie & Michael, who blew a Blind U-Turn for completely personal reasons on Joe & Heidi and got all self-righteous about it, manipulated Brent & Caite to blow their own U-Turn for completely personal reasons, as well, and were just jerks, in general. Can't think of a single moment they made me laugh. I think they were cast to be the requisite funny guy team, but they were just . . . not. At least not IMO. You have Brent & Caite, one of whom was a near-invisible douche (Brent) and the other of whom was every bit the dimb bulb she tried to prove that she wasn't (Caite), who started out as cockroaches, but gradually got . . . surprisingly stronger, actually, as they did manage to score a win on the penultimate leg. You had winners Dan & Jordan, who were probably the first to take the "middle it out, then turn it on near the end" strategy and successfully carry it out, as well as utilize that smart move of moving to first class on the last leg.

Finally, the team who most will agree the season revolved around: cowboy brothers Jet & Cord. I'll be upfront and say I was no sycophantic, drooling fangirl where they were concerned. They were probably my least favorite team of the season, with Louie & Michael right behind them. One reason being the excessive airtime they got. They effectively ate the season. In fact, I was thankful for the few episodes they weren't featured heavily (Jordan & Jeff's NEL episode, Joe & Heidi's boot episode, Jordan & Jeff's boot episode). To be honest, given the reports of their constant isolation from other teams to their (mainly Jet's) shows of homophobia, it's amazing they're as loved as they are.

Honestly, the tasks were no good, either. Save for the first leg's Roadblock, the second leg's Detour, the third leg's Detour, the sixth leg's Roadblock, the ninth leg's Detour, and the season's sole Fast Forward, there wasn't a single task that blew me away. So many easy, dumbed-down tasks.

Honestly, one of the least likable seasons for me -- one of the worst, most unlikable casts, one of the worst routes, and the least set of interesting tasks to date. 3/10. And unlike most, it'd be solid 1/10 had Jet & Cord won. Dan & Jordan's win got it the three for me.

Try and get through this week, because we finally make the return to the awesome seasons next week.

[DoleWhip]

I only started watching TAR during season 11 (though I've since seen TAR 1-3 in their entirety and most of seasons 6 and 10), and this was easily my least favorite season. The route just felt odd to me - Europe felt like one super long leg, as did South America (which had a leg that felt too geared towards cowboys), and while Seychelles was a fun leg, I didn't care for much about the legs before and after.

I didn't really dislike the cowboys while the season was running - I fell for their positive edit. But after reading more about them and seeing them on TAR18, I can't watch them in retrospect. In fact, of the F3, I'd have to say I liked Brent and Caite best. Couldn't stand Dan and Jordan. They didn't seem like great racers, and I can't remember which one was two-faced enough to be obnoxious about Caite and then be friendly to her face. Overall the cast felt kind of petty and vile, and the more pleasant teams fell by the wayside rather quickly. If only Monique and Shawne, Steve and Allie, and Joe and Heidi were the F3, I would've been quite happy with the season.

I have to say, I thought Dana and Adrian's elimination was sort of tragically hilarious. Nothing compared to S14's cheese task or S17's watermelon fiasco, which I guess reflects on how I found this season overall.

[TheGrimRecapper]

I had the least problem with Carol & Brandy of everyone on the board. Carol had a temper (as shown on leg three) and Brandy was kind of a snob toward the less intelligent, but they had a good approach to the race and actually did their tasks remarkably well, for the most part. They could've been the first women's team to win, probably, if not for Brent & Caite being idiots with the U-Turn in Singapore.

I'd agree with you, were it not for the ascender Road Block in the finale -- I don't think either of them could have done that. Certainly not quickly enough to beat the Cowboys or JorDan. It almost felt like that task was there solely to rule out the possibility of another co-ed team winning, seeing as how co-ed teams had won the last five seasons, and nine of the last twelve.

Honestly, the tasks were no good, either. Save for the first leg's Roadblock, the second leg's Detour, the third leg's Detour, the sixth leg's Roadblock, the ninth leg's Detour, and the season's sole Fast Forward, there wasn't a single task that blew me away. So many easy, dumbed-down tasks.

I think the problem is that they really didn't get the balance right between easy tasks and hard tasks. Given it was the first of the "Hardest! Race! EVAH!" seasons, having the second leg amount to "put a blanket on a large animal in a small pen" or "jump ten feet from a bridge" and "carry a stick of butter from A to B" was an absolutely boneheaded idea. But then you've got a whole bunch of Detour tasks that were clearly designed to not be chosen voluntarily, like the compass task or the morse code or the pork dumplings or the champagne tower. And don't even get me started on the bad planning of the Emmy-losing leg. Seriously, when will they learn that the legs feel incomplete if they don't have a Detour and a Road Block? (I'm sorry, "buy a baguette" is not a good substitute. It's okay as a standard "go here, get clue, leave" thing, like the musical saw or the Allan Wu cameo, but not when it's intended as an actual task.)

I'm not even sure I'd agree with most of the tasks you've listed being that great. The only one of them that actually really entertained me was the Detour in Singapore (Drums/Icecream). Aside from that one task, it's a wide margin to the runners-up, which I'd argue are the Soccer/Sauerkraut Detour in Hamburg (still the best Detour of the post-TAR10 seasons IMO), the lasso task in Bariloche (small-scale, seems simple, actually a good pack-divider) or the Detour in Penang (local culture, tests different skills, awesome visuals with the flags). And from there, it's an even larger leap to the rest of the race, which was made up of either (1) horrible ideas like the cowboy Detour or the two-counting-RBs-with-near-identical-totals-in-three-legs thing, or (2) ideas that had promise but didn't live up to it, like the wine Detour or the turtle task in the Seychelles.

And what was up with the actual title of that Llama Detour, anyway? The graphics shorten it to "Llama", but Phil says "Adoration" when naming it, but-but he also makes a deliberate attempt to use the word "adorned" in the explanation. So confusing.

ETA: For one thing, the route. Other than Chile and the Seychelles, none of the countries they went to this season were new ones. Lots of repeats, and another lame visit to China.

It was the third visit to Chile, and the third time teams left Chile for Argentina. In fact, in every season and version to have gone there (six times in total now), Argentina has always been the leg after one in a neighbouring country (Uruguay in TAR5, Chile in TAR7, TAR11, and TAR16, and Brazil in both Latin American seasons).

Edited by TheGrimRecapper, Aug 7, 2011 @ 10:50 PM.

[Nalan]

DoleWhip
I have to say, I thought Dana and Adrian's elimination was sort of tragically hilarious.

I felt it was even more hilarious when, apparently, Phil allowed Dana to do that Roadblock after their mercy elimination . . . which she smoked. Made her feel even more deservedly like crap for pawning it off on Adrian.

I don't know. There were moments about this season I did like, like Carol & Brandy's joke about Martha Stewart that ended with "pre-jail." And I liked that, for once, the luck-based task actually turned out faster than the skill-based one (leg six). Leg four's Detour was actually a pretty tough Detour choice, as I couldn't figure out which would've been faster.

But yeah. The cast, without a doubt, killed it. When the more hateful teams outlast the more likable ones . . . that's a problem.

And I actually didn't like ANYONE in that F4. No, not a one. Like the starter of the topic, the last two teams I liked went out in fifth and sixth. Not exactly a good endorsement for the season.

Actually, I didn't think a lot of the early boots were that likable, either. Dana & Adrian, Jody & Shannon, Monique & Shawne, and Heidi, sure. Joe and Jordan & Jeff? Not so much.

So . . . I agree, overall. Bad season. Bad, bad season.

Edited by Nalan, Nov 13, 2011 @ 12:38 AM.

[Pooki]

I felt it was even more hilarious when, apparently, Phil allowed Dana to do that Roadblock after their mercy elimination . . . which she smoked. Made her feel even more deservedly like crap for pawning it off on Adrian.

They did kind of deserve to be eliminated after such a boneheaded decision. I mean, really, one look at those high wires should have been enough to make it clear that Adrian's weight would be a huge disadvantage.

I admit, while they were polarizing, I had the least problem with Carol & Brandy of everyone on the board. Carol had a temper (as shown on leg three) and Brandy was kind of a snob toward the less intelligent, but they had a good approach to the race and actually did their tasks remarkably well, for the most part. They could've been the first women's team to win, probably, if not for Brent & Caite being idiots with the U-Turn in Singapore.

I didn't mind Carol & Brandy all that much either. Pre-U-turn, their supposed "meanness" to Caite consisted of a lame joke about a tiara, and thinking she was an idiot (which she was). Plus, it seems to be often overlooked that it was Jordan who whipped up the "Like, such as..." stuff to begin with - Carol & Brandy didn't even realize who she was until then. I thought it was bizarre at the time too how Brandy & Carol were treated like the antichrist for daring to ask the Cowboys which bus they took in South America.

Caite I pretty much hated. I'd never seen her or been aware of her before the race, but I found her petty, spiteful, prejudiced (I'll never forget how she used to spit out "the lesbians") and just as stupid as she was made out by others to be. And Brent if anything was even dumber - has there ever been a bigger idiot on the race?

Looking back, it stands out how few of the teams I actually liked on this race. Steve & Allie were likeable, and Jody & Shannon were nice, but pretty much cannon fodder.

I didn't like Jeff much after seeing footage of him on Big Brother, but despite myself I did find him quite entertaining on the race as he did often come out with funny comments. Jordan seemed dumb but quite sweet.

I couldn't stand the Cowboys, especially after seeing Unfinished Business too. Before the threats in the line at the airport in the final Cord seemed a lot nicer than his sore loser brother Jet, but after that I couldn't stand them, particularly as the show seemed intent to shove them down our throats as much as possible. I was rooting for Dan & Jordan in the final if anything because I found the other two final teams so dislikeable.

[NotPatrick]

I quite liked the Cops until they started winning legs and trying to run the game via bullying and manipulation. Which I think was all of about two legs. But I do remember finding them pretty amusing in the beginning.

I didn't mind Carol/Brandy, for the most part, although I could never get a handle on their personalites, because it seemed to shift from one episode to the other which was being a passive-aggressive martyr sitting in the back seat rolling their eyes and grim-facing at the other. I did love their incredibly OTT U-Turn related meltdown but the rest of their feud with Brent & Caite was just unpleasant and boring, especially Brandy acting like a Bitter Betty on the mat. They came third, get over it. Brent & Caite were worse (stop saying "mean lesbians" just stopit stopitstopit) but neither team covered themselves in glory. Caite's insistence that going on the race would prove to everyone that she wasn't dumb just by her very existence, rather than by...trying not to be dumb was also pretty obnoxious, and her "relationship" was probably the most wet fishest of all the couples who broke up before the race started but pretended they hadn't.

I guess my big problem with the series is that what was shown on tv was pretty immature, and then everything that's come out afterwards suggested it was even more juvenile and back-biting in reality. Also the one team with significant air-time not to get involved (Steve & Allie) were pretty much the apex of the recent trend for boring parent-child teams.

Didn't mind the route or the tasks - defintiely the cast that stomps this one for me.

[kenlovejino]

My favorite moment in this season was when Steve and Allie (Annie 90210 look alike) started painting the inside of a wrong house. The expression of the people inside were just priceless. They didn't even bothered to correct them. They were just all in shock, rofl.

And probly the most annoying would be Caite being completely paranoid about the "Where's her tiara?" comment. She really dig it and u-turned the lesbians for that.

I like the cowboys but I do agree they got too much air time. And you can notice the change of background music once they did something good or redeemed from a mistake. And I just can't stand their bad pun curses. "Oh my gravy" oh lord stop please.

The route is okay. Just did not like the China leg the most.

The cast were okay too. The one that did wrong for me is the order of elimination (which is not the producer's mistake). I wish Jordan & Jeff, Joe and Heidi and Steve and Allie could have made farther or to final 4.

[graytex]

Dan = my least favorite racer to win out of the 18 seasons. And there are lots of crappy winners.

[TDI Ashley]

NotPatrick
I quite liked the Cops until they started winning legs and trying to run the game via bullying and manipulation. Which I think was all of about two legs. But I do remember finding them pretty amusing in the beginning.

That was actually three legs. Those first three legs, they'd been consistently near the bottom and were just struggling to survive. It was after they won their first leg on the fourth leg that their true colors came out. And they weren't pretty.

I was actually kind of amazed that a team that came in with the makings of being a greatly loved fourth-place-finishing team like Kevin & Drew, Oswald & Danny, Jon & Al, Flight Time & Big Easy, and Zev & Justin (either an older and mostly-out-of-shape men's team or a younger and in-shape men's team, but not too dominating in either case, and capable of decent one-liners) could end up going out as one of the most hated (or just disliked) fourth-place-finishers (a la Hayden & Aaron, Joseph & Monica, Nathan & Jennifer, and Nick & Vicki) instead. But the aforementioned bullying and manipulation they started using definitely helped them manage it.

[The Australian]

Interestingly, this season has many similar highlights, and suffers from many of the same problems, as TAR6 - as well as a few unique aspects of its own.

I have to disagree with those who dislike the course and tasks on offer here. While I accept that many of the challenges are much easier than some we have seen in the past, this season saw whoever was in charge of putting the race together take a step back and really think about what they were doing.

The result was the best course in ages. After a succession of ever more generic challenges, some bright spark realised that the show takes place in different places all over the world, each of which have their own flavour and history. Therefore, there is far greater thematic relevance and coherence to the legs in this season - everything feels much more tied together and consequently more satisfying, be it the gaucho traditions of Argentina, the World War I battlefield, the Champagne region, the laidback Seychelles or China with all its complexities.

Unfortunately, TPTB then appear to ruin all this hard work by putting together the most unlikeable and almost unwatchable group of teams the show has ever seen. As has been noted, the good teams all seem to go out first, leaving us with a collection that is incredibly difficult to like. Not to mention that these racers seem incredibly thick, with what must be a record number of errors, lack of basic general knowledge and overall examples of crummy racing, exceeding even the levels set by its immediate predecessor!

Let's see...we have Joe, the ultimately 40-something know it all blowhard; dimwits Jordan and Jeff, whose sweet relationship is no excuse for airheadedness; the pleasant but very very bland Steve and Allie; Mike and Louie, who get off to a bad start by calling each other "baby" about 100 times in the premiere and only get worse as they cackle and manipulate their way through the race; Dan, who seems to be trying to emulate Jaime in the foreign taxi relations stakes; and Jet and Cord, the inexplicable "stars" of the season whose every move is accorded the editing equivalent of a round of applause. While the McCoy brothers are for the most part likeable and competent, the hero treatment of only fairly steady racing becomes very irritating and one cannot help but cheer as Jet's true colours emerge when Dan outsmarts him in the finale and the masks slip.

Of course, there's also Brent and Caite and Carol and Brandy. While you do grow to admire Caite's guts in the middle section as she battles through illness, she and Brent ultimately demonstrate that beauty (and brains) are really only skin deep. The way "the lesbians!" becomes a thoroughly perjorative term is uncomfortable to watch. Trouble is, just when you want to root for Carol and Brandy, they show they ain't no prize either - they're only middling racers themselves, spend a bit too much time arguing with each other, and Brandy disgracefully interrupts the ending just so she can deliver a bitter and twisted rant. Ugh.

If there is a silver lining to be had, it's in the fact that all these nasty people get their comeuppance and we end up with quite a decent pair of winners. Stay with me here - if you look at this season as Jordan's story, you still manage to get a happy ending. Here is someone who always wanted to be on the show and whose delight in participating more than makes up for the occasional catty comment or moment of killer fatigue. And if you realise that Dan is someone who would never voluntarily do this show but loves his brother enough to try, and who senses that Jordan is hitting the wall about four legs from the end so grits his teeth to pull them through, it rationalises his behaviour even if it can't excuse all of it.

So really, TAR16 has one of the best courses but one of the worst (if not the worst) casts, but pulls out of the very bottom tier by virtue of a proper ending for once. 7/10.

[Branwen Zillah]

Late to the party, but...

Honestly, this was one of my favorite seasons. I may be the only person in the world that feels that way, but I do. I agree with The Australian in that course itself was one of the best. Yes, the cast was kind of dull and obnoxious... but for me, it didn't stick out as especially bad.

The thing that really made me like it was the winners. I usually don't like the winners. I may find them tolerable, but they're never the team I was rooting for. Dan and Jordan were. Did Dan lose his cool a few times? Yes. Oh well. Everyone loses their cool sometimes.

The two things I think people have found the most unforgivable were the taxi freakout and the comment that Jordan wasn't being supportive enough, and neither of those seemed so terrible to me. The taxi driver had been told in his own language where to go by a translation service they called, and he wasn't doing it - I'd have been pretty annoyed, too, especially after a long morning. I'm not sure that he was fair when he said Jordan wasn't being supportive enough, but even if it was really unfair... wow, he's a little uncharitable to his brother for a short period of time. What a monster.

What I really liked about them was their relationship. It felt like one of the more genuine and healthy sibling relationships I've seen on the race. They didn't get along perfectly - there was occasional sniping and nastiness - but for me, that was actually nice to see.

Some siblings never fight on TAR never fight, and that always feels weird to me. Some siblings fight all the time, which is annoying. Dan and Jordan occasionally snapped at each other and were not always 100% patient, but they also came across to me as being really supportive when it mattered. Jordan clearly went out of his way to make the traveling a little easier on Dan, and when Jordan was really freaking out - during the pasta making or the fast forward, for example - Dan clearly cared a lot more about his brother's well-being than the race.

It was "I feel bad for Jordan, he's really trying," or "I'm really proud of Jordan, he did a great job," not "Jordan needs to hurry up" or "I'm worried about us falling behind" or "This could get us eliminated." They came across as brothers who genuinely liked each other and were genuinely supportive. It was nice to see that without seeing the picture of Perfect Siblings Who Never Fight.

And I also just loved Jordan. He was so enthusiastic about everything, and unlike a lot of gay guys TAR cast, I never felt like they were hitting me over the head with "this man is gay." He just was. There were plenty of episodes where it didn't even come up. There was no long monologue about how their family didn't accept him or how he was trying to prove something for gay men everywhere or how Dan was such a great brother because he loved Jordan even though Jordan is gay or any of that.

It was just one of Jordan's many attributes and was probably mentioned less than "I love the Amazing Race and I'm glad my brother came on it with me." That was nice to see, for once, because often TAR's casting results in gay guys that are so stereotypically obnoxious that occasionally I start to feel homophobic just because I so desperately want them off my screen.

I also didn't find Brent and Caite to be as unsufferable as a lot of other people did, which helped - yeah, they weren't the smartest racers in the world, but they seemed like pretty nice people, all in all, just not necessarily smart people. Most of the other racers seemed to like them, and I'll actually admit that Caite did change my mind about her. Maybe not much as she would have liked, of course, but I thought that she came across as pretty tough and determined as the race went on, and compared to a lot of teams, she and Brent really didn't spend that much time arguing... especially considering that they'd broken up before they went on the race.

So, yeah. TAR 16 is in my top 5. It wouldn't be if the Cowboys had won, though - I didn't love them anyway, and I always picked up a slightly homophobic vibe from them (especially in the last episode - Jet, I understand personal space and all of that, but this is a race. Even if you come within a few inches of Jordan, I promise you won't catch teh gay), and the things I heard in interviews after about how standoffish they were and the allegations about what he called Jordan confirmed what I'd already picked up on.

Edited by Branwen Zillah, Oct 16, 2012 @ 3:17 AM.

[soapygirl]

like painting the inside of the house in Chile rather than the outside,

My favorite moment in this season was when Steve and Allie (Annie 90210 look alike) started painting the inside of a wrong house. The expression of the people inside were just priceless. They didn't even bothered to correct them. They were just all in shock, rofl.

Oh mah gravy I had forgotten how hilarious and completely awkward that was. Just imagine the poor Chilean painter trying to explain to the house owner "Oh yeah and then some gringos and a film crew came in and started painting the house! They did a terrible job"

Steve and Allie were my favorite team from that season. I wish they had gotten a slot in the Unfinished Business season.

Edited by soapygirl, Oct 14, 2012 @ 7:20 PM.

[soapygirl]

double post

Edited by soapygirl, Oct 14, 2012 @ 7:20 PM.