Author Topic: Best Finale EVER????  (Read 9240 times)

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Offline phant0m

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Best Finale EVER????
« on: May 08, 2011, 11:53:00 PM »
Just finished watching the finale, and i really think it is the best one ever, even beating out such giants as TAR 2 and 7. The suspense had me on the edge of my seat, the constant placement switches between FT/BE and K/J really had me guessing who would would win. The editing at the beginning really had me thinking that FT/BE will win, but as their edit turned more and more negative during the trailer building task, I really found myself rooting for J/K to win. I also loved how G/M weren't left out of the episode even though they are far behind and the optimism of Mallory thoughout the entire leg even though they were probably going to lose made me appreciate this team more than I ever did. The editing on the bridge scene was just amazing. K/J struggling, while it looked like FT/BE were catching up, I'm sure has made everyody nervous and anxious - will the athletes will be able to overtake the girls? But at the end we found out that K/J were far ahead of the globetrotters. The realization that K/J are going to win, along with FT/BE humbly accepting their defeat was just a magnificent finish. And as the two teams were standing at the pit stop mat, it brought a deserving ending to the storyline of a friendship between these two teams, and at the end - them being the final two and battling out a close race for a million dollar prize.

A wonderfull ending to one of the best seasons in my opinion. Thank you CBS, for making the season, and especially the finale so awesome to watch!
« Last Edit: May 09, 2011, 12:02:06 AM by phant0m »

Offline Mug Costanza

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Re: Best Finale EVER????
« Reply #1 on: May 09, 2011, 12:04:50 AM »
With regards to the constant back-and-forth between Kisha & Jen and Flight Time & Big Easy, yes, this probably was one of the best finales ever. (One of.) However, I was not a big fan of the tasks from this leg at all. The producers were trying to make this one of the hardest seasons ever; there's no question about that. And they're not even gonna put a memory challenge in it?! Very disappointing to me.

I do agree, phant0m, that it was a very exciting finale to watch. But the tasks weren't.
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Offline Coutzy

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Re: Best Finale EVER????
« Reply #2 on: May 09, 2011, 12:51:02 AM »
I too was disappointed with the tasks for the finale. I feel like they intentionally designed this leg to have simple and straightforward tasks to ensure a close finish at the end.

I'd much rather see one team prove themselves better at a decisive task and run away with a big lead than have everyone led by the nose in a few simple things and have the most physically fit team win it in a foot/tricycle race.

Offline Prophet

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Re: Best Finale EVER????
« Reply #3 on: May 09, 2011, 03:48:48 PM »
I missed the typical memory task, all I can figure is that they don't do those in all star seasons because the teams would be too good at them?
The addition of a double roadblock to the finale was interesting although the tasks were not that memorable. What really made the tasks overall boring was the trailer thing at the end. It did not make sense in the context of the finale and several people I was watching it with found it disappointing as well.

So, no I would not hold this up to other great finales like seasons seven, nine, twelve, or fourteen. Unfortunately this finale like the whole season was interesting because of drama and twists but not because of memorable tasks.
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Offline BayBay

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Re: Best Finale EVER????
« Reply #4 on: May 10, 2011, 06:22:16 AM »
Splitting the penultimate and final and making the finale and super-leg with two roadblocks and a detour airing over 90 minutes would have been cool - one of the roadblocks being a memory task!


Offline apskip

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Re: Best Finale EVER????
« Reply #5 on: May 11, 2011, 10:38:20 AM »
I found the Ep. 12 part of the finale exciting throughout. Ep. 11 in Rio was the lame episode. Here were its tasks and transportation:

1. take a taxi from airport to Carioca station
2. take the tram up to near Escalaria Seldaron
3. find one of 4 extra blue-and-white tiles on the walls of Escalaria Seldaron
4. get to Largo Sao San Francisco de Paula
5. do the Samba ROADBLOCK
6. take a taxi to the COP business in the Copacabana district
7. dewaxing hair for exactly 15 minutes for each team
8. making 100 cairpirinhas or selling $60 worth of bikinis on the beach at Copacabana
9. take a taxi to Museum of Contemporary Art
10. find the pit stop on the beach below that museum

So, which of those was capable of differentiating between teams? Only the ROADBLOCK and, for teams unfortunate to choose it, selling bikinis. The taxi problems of Big Easy and Flight Time were really minor as they arrived just as the tram was leaving.

Now, for Ep. 12 here is a comparable list of tasks:
1. taxi from airport to Miami Marine Stadium Harbor
2. ROADBLOCK - use forklift to move a boat
3. taxi to Jules Undersea Lodge, Key Largo
4. ROADBLOCK - find a clue in an underwater chest
5. taxi to Big Pine Key
6. wade across channel to Horseshoe Island, find clue and wade back
7. speedboat from Big Pine Key to Marathon Key
8. set up trailer identical to one in a picture at Galway Bay Mobile Home park
9. walk to tricycles and use trikes for 2.2 miles of Old Seven Mile Bridge

I found the first task highly variable because of bad taxi karma for Gary and Mallory. The ROADBLOCK at Jules Undersea Lodge was set up to be a random task penalizing all teams after the first to complete it; the first team had what I believe was 3 possible chests with clues, the second had two after the first one was found and the third team had only one possible chest with a clue. We don't know how many chests in total there were, so it is difficult to judge how serious this handicap was. The task with the highest possibility for variation was the very devious and tricky "match the picture" task at Galway Bay.

I have typically found Amazing Race finales to not allow a lot of opportunity for catch-up after some point quite early in the leg (for AR17 it was getting to Long Beach bungee jump first, for AR16 it happened coming off the airplane, for AR11 it was the taxi ride from Oakland International Airport, for AR10 it was the taxicab not having EZPASS for the expressway from JFK Airport). I was not surprised that there was nothing after Jules Undersea Lodge except for the Galway Bay task. I believe that the reason for this type of leg design is that World Race Productions wants the finale to be quite grueling, so it typically has several more tasks than a normal leg and those tasks tend to be simple.    

I was satisfied that the AR18 finale outcome was determined by who could pass the test of a perfect match for the exterior of the mobile home at Galway Bay. Since teams were given no specific feedback on what was wrong, improving their setup was trial-and-error.
« Last Edit: May 13, 2011, 02:53:33 PM by apskip »

Offline Tira Misu

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Re: Best Finale EVER????
« Reply #6 on: May 12, 2011, 02:22:00 AM »
first post in RFF,kind of nevous:P

i was disppointed that there was no memory challenge at last .Although some other seasons didn't have any memory challenge as well,i suppose the memory challenge is a typical task in this show,hope that next time ,i can see it in the finale.

BTW,No matter the bridge scene or the scenery under the water,it is incredible.

I found out that there were a lot of route infos' in the finale of this season,which offered a lot of chances for the team to catch up with ,because lots of dramas happened on the road.So wonderful.

Last but not least,I love all the teams in the finale of S18,because all of them were optimistic.Hope that S19 will come soon and enjoy TAR !

Offline AmazingRace

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Re: Best Finale EVER????
« Reply #7 on: May 12, 2011, 03:07:46 AM »
Welcome to RFF Tira Misu! Don't be nervous.  :tup:

Offline Tira Misu

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Re: Best Finale EVER????
« Reply #8 on: May 12, 2011, 10:51:26 PM »
Welcome to RFF Tira Misu! Don't be nervous.  :tup:

Thanks for your warm welcome.Glad to be here.I am getting used to it,won't be nervous  :hearts:

Offline mswood

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Re: Best Finale EVER????
« Reply #9 on: May 12, 2011, 11:10:57 PM »
Hated, hated the tasks for the final leg.  Seriously.  I honestly think (Task wise) thats one of the worst final legs in a long, long time.



Offline mswood

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Re: Best Finale EVER????
« Reply #10 on: May 12, 2011, 11:13:29 PM »
Edit.  I did like the trek across the bridge, that was the only actually planned aspect of the leg I enjoyed.  Which Yikes.  Now of course we had drama between teams, and that was cool (especially for the first 40 minutes of the episode).

But the design of the leg, yuck!!!

Offline Jobby

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Re: Best Finale EVER????
« Reply #11 on: May 13, 2011, 02:30:42 AM »
Edit.  I did like the trek across the bridge, that was the only actually planned aspect of the leg I enjoyed.  Which Yikes.  Now of course we had drama between teams, and that was cool (especially for the first 40 minutes of the episode).

But the design of the leg, yuck!!!

The trek was great, it WOULD have been better if there were two teams there cycling TO THE END. But too bad it didn't happen.

I didn't like the underwater Detour, but thought the Forklift RB was okay. What i think sucked the most was a nail-biting challenge memory task, if all 3 teams at the same location (or at least two) and we don't know who's going to leave first.

For example, this leg felt abit like TAR 15's finale leg, with no memory tasks.. but with many changes and variations in team's position. I remembered at one point of TAR 15 finale, all the F3 teams were FIRST at one point and in the end it came down to calming down and accurate counting, that was well the finale kept us off the edge of our seats. This time it just didn't work out too well. If there were to be variations between the teams, i think people will not have so much to complain about. Yup.

Offline Coutzy

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Re: Best Finale EVER????
« Reply #12 on: May 13, 2011, 03:32:09 AM »
Edit.  I did like the trek across the bridge, that was the only actually planned aspect of the leg I enjoyed.  Which Yikes.  Now of course we had drama between teams, and that was cool (especially for the first 40 minutes of the episode).

But the design of the leg, yuck!!!

The trek was great, it WOULD have been better if there were two teams there cycling TO THE END. But too bad it didn't happen.

I didn't like the underwater Detour, but thought the Forklift RB was okay. What i think sucked the most was a nail-biting challenge memory task, if all 3 teams at the same location (or at least two) and we don't know who's going to leave first.

For example, this leg felt abit like TAR 15's finale leg, with no memory tasks.. but with many changes and variations in team's position. I remembered at one point of TAR 15 finale, all the F3 teams were FIRST at one point and in the end it came down to calming down and accurate counting, that was well the finale kept us off the edge of our seats. This time it just didn't work out too well. If there were to be variations between the teams, i think people will not have so much to complain about. Yup.

The problem with that is that the tasks left so little room for variation between the teams because they were so straightforward. I didn't seem like there were too many chests in the water for teams to search, and the boat task was barely harder than some of the tasks we saw on Family Edition. There was not a single task in the finale that gave a team an opportunity to step up and prove they deserved the million (Say what you want about Eric & Danielle, but they were the only ones to complete the decisive task in the finale.)

In the boat task, even Gary, who had admitted that he had worked with forklifts for a long time made up no measurable ground and stayed well behind the entire way.

Wade and find the tallest tree- Ok, we need time wasters like that to help build tension and give teams a chance to prove completely incompetent.

Search treasure chests- A luck task in the final three. Ok then.

Build trailer home- This could have been SO much better. Make the things they have to arrange stuff from prior legs, at least? A small compass or kangaroo from Australia? A teacup from India? So many ways to make the task better, and even then all this task was turned out to be simple "See picture, copy picture." The wind was the only thing that lended this task any difficulty at all, and even then it didn't create any real skill element for a team to prove they were better.

Bike ride- A chance for a team to prove they had more endurance, but it came way too late in the leg to carry any real importance. If this had come first than it might have made a difference, given a team a lead going into the remainder, and created a sense of urgency in the trailing two for the other tasks.

Offline Jobby

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Re: Best Finale EVER????
« Reply #13 on: May 13, 2011, 03:51:27 AM »
Quote
Build trailer home- This could have been SO much better. Make the things they have to arrange stuff from prior legs, at least? A small compass or kangaroo from Australia? A teacup from India? So many ways to make the task better, and even then all this task was turned out to be simple "See picture, copy picture." The wind was the only thing that lended this task any difficulty at all, and even then it didn't create any real skill element for a team to prove they were better.

Please sign up to work at WRP and plan the legs for them, Coutzy! :lol:

Offline Coutzy

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Re: Best Finale EVER????
« Reply #14 on: May 13, 2011, 04:07:32 AM »
Quote
Build trailer home- This could have been SO much better. Make the things they have to arrange stuff from prior legs, at least? A small compass or kangaroo from Australia? A teacup from India? So many ways to make the task better, and even then all this task was turned out to be simple "See picture, copy picture." The wind was the only thing that lended this task any difficulty at all, and even then it didn't create any real skill element for a team to prove they were better.

Please sign up to work at WRP and plan the legs for them, Coutzy! :lol:

I can't, it'd disqualify me from applying for TAR if I worked there :lol3:

Offline georgiapeach

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Re: Best Finale EVER????
« Reply #15 on: May 13, 2011, 07:03:39 AM »
No memory task is a HUGE loss. Hate that too.

But there were unseen riddles...in order to figure out the task locations teams had to solve riddles. J/K give a broad outline in one interview....
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Offline apskip

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Re: Best Finale EVER????
« Reply #16 on: May 13, 2011, 03:02:46 PM »

Say what you want about Eric & Danielle, but they were the only ones to complete the decisive task in the finale.

The way I remember it, the decisive task in AR11 All-Stars was not even televised. It was the taxi ride from Oakland International Airport to the Grateful Dead House. By the time they arrived there, Eric and Danielle had an unbeatable 10 minute lead which they maintained through arrival at the Old Mint (although that was edited to make it look much closer). With the maximum time for the Old Mint task at 10 minutes (although Eric and Danielle did complete it in less time), it is apparent that that task was not a factor in the AR11 outcome. Dustin/Kandice and Charla/Mirna were done in by taxi karma.

Offline Prophet

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Re: Best Finale EVER????
« Reply #17 on: May 13, 2011, 03:15:11 PM »
What a coincidence, potential winners done in by taxis in the TAR finale.  (:;)

I've also heard that Dustin and Kandice actually finished the task first.


Otherwise, great points Coutzy all the tasks were procedural in nature and I love your idea for the trailer task.
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Offline Competitor

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Re: Best Finale EVER????
« Reply #18 on: May 13, 2011, 05:25:02 PM »
I've seen it suggested elsewhere, but why not give teams cars to drive in the final leg? It's seems like a team a season is undone on the finale by a horrible taxi driver. Have three cars at the airport and let the teams truly RACE it out. I saw an interview with Gary and Mallory in which they said they couldn't switch cabs after leaving the airport because by the time you realize the driver has no clue, you're out in the middle of nowhere and you're in the only cab around.

Don't let teams be wrongly undone by a horrible cabby! Let them drive the final leg!

Offline Prophet

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Re: Best Finale EVER????
« Reply #19 on: May 13, 2011, 06:17:02 PM »
I agree completely but WRP is probably not interested in them literally racing on American highways.  :lol: But they could just give penalties for speeding or something.
Why not try it once? Or have designated drivers like on that road to Oman in TAR17. For example when teams got out of the Miami airport they could have been driven straight to the Marina by a pre-approved chauffeur and then to Largo, and so on. It would make for better television and a fairer game.
Think of how exciting the finale would have been if all three teams arrived at the trailer task close together.
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Offline Competitor

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Re: Best Finale EVER????
« Reply #20 on: May 13, 2011, 07:21:14 PM »
I agree completely but WRP is probably not interested in them literally racing on American highways.  :lol: But they could just give penalties for speeding or something.
Why not try it once? Or have designated drivers like on that road to Oman in TAR17. For example when teams got out of the Miami airport they could have been driven straight to the Marina by a pre-approved chauffeur and then to Largo, and so on. It would make for better television and a fairer game.
Think of how exciting the finale would have been if all three teams arrived at the trailer task close together.

Yeah. Maybe not literally race, but let the teams drive themselves and don't let a team be undone and completely neutralized by a horrible cab driver. I can understand the luck factor with cabbies during the race when you're trying to not be the last team, but in the last leg when only first place matters, it just doesn't seem right that a non-racer can have such a huge influence on whether or not a team wins a million dollars.

Offline slayton

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Re: Best Finale EVER????
« Reply #21 on: May 13, 2011, 08:47:32 PM »
I don't have a problem with not having a memory task because the last two have been note-reviewing tasks more than memory tasks.  If it's not a memory roadblock that's done without notes, like TAR9, TAR12 and TAR14, then I don't think that it would make a huge difference in terms of drama and placement changes.

I'm not someone who bashes or blames taxi drivers much because teams should have a list of things that they check off mentally before they choose to get into any cab.  It's not like Gary & Mallory were given a shakedown like Andre & Damon.

Offline apskip

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Re: Best Finale EVER????
« Reply #22 on: May 14, 2011, 07:11:07 AM »
I've seen it suggested elsewhere, but why not give teams cars to drive in the final leg? It's seems like a team a season is undone on the finale by a horrible taxi driver. Have three cars at the airport and let the teams truly RACE it out. I saw an interview with Gary and Mallory in which they said they couldn't switch cabs after leaving the airport because by the time you realize the driver has no clue, you're out in the middle of nowhere and you're in the only cab around.

Don't let teams be wrongly undone by a horrible cabby! Let them drive the final leg!
Competitor,

I have said this elsewhere, perhaps on a different thread but here is the reason that World Race Productions never allow teams to self-drive in the finale:

LIABILITY

Teams are typically flying in from overseas on a 8 hour plus flight, so they are a bit disoriented when they arrive. To allow them to drive would be folly.

Also, a secondary reason is that the random nature of the taxis allows for some top teams to fall back when the random luck of the taxi draw gives them a bad driver. Thomas and Jill in AR17 and Gary and Mallory in AR18 are excellent recent examples of this, but without even giving it serious thought I can cite the infamous Little Havana problems of Rob and Amber in AR7 Rob and Kimberly in AR10, Dustin and Kandice (and Charla and Mirna too) in AR11, Jaime and Cara in AR14. All of those teams were screwed in their finale by taxi drivers. In bet World Race Productions looks at this as putting a huge uncertainty factor into the finale, which they like and you don't.

Offline Prophet

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Re: Best Finale EVER????
« Reply #23 on: May 14, 2011, 08:09:42 AM »
I still contend that the very fact that any loyal TAR viewer can easily call to mind such examples is good enough reason for WRP to try something else. Why are the random actions of non-race participants allowed to eradicate the efforts a team has made on a weeks long journey around the world?
There has to be some other options.
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Offline Coutzy

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Re: Best Finale EVER????
« Reply #24 on: May 14, 2011, 08:22:21 AM »
I still contend that the very fact that any loyal TAR viewer can easily call to mind such examples is good enough reason for WRP to try something else. Why are the random actions of non-race participants allowed to eradicate the efforts a team has made on a weeks long journey around the world?
There has to be some other options.

Because the very heart of the show is based on world travel, and taxi drivers being incompetent is a very large part of traveling the world.

Offline Carter

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Re: Best Finale EVER????
« Reply #25 on: May 25, 2011, 05:54:15 PM »
Speaking of tasks, what I miss are some high risk tasks, like bungee-jumping or repel from a tall building. Notice how they almost stopped doing that? It was exciting.

It's such a long time since last time, so it's way overdue imo. Hope I get my wish next season, but I'm not hopeful

Offline apskip

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Re: Best Finale EVER????
« Reply #26 on: May 25, 2011, 10:04:39 PM »
Nothing on any Amazing Race is actually high risk. World Race Productions cannot handle the liability if any tasks were to cause major injuries. All teams get safety briefings for any tasks where there is anything they need to know. There is also extensive safety gear associated with any tasks that have risks to assure that those risks are minor.