The Amazing Race > The Amazing Race Discussion
Finale Legs
Glamazon Racer:
Wanted to create a thread to talk about finale legs and how awful they have invariably been recently. Most of them since TAR15 have been extremely linear - whoever takes the early lead wins (with a couple of notable exceptions).
Worse than that is the amount of luck tasks they keep putting in. I can't stand luck tasks on finales, since the winner of a million dollars should earn it, not fluke it. Good examples of this are:
TAR22 - Max & Katie lost on a pure luck challenge which gave Bates & Anthony an insurmountable lead.
TAR23 - Two luck challenges in that finale. Amy hits the target in a fluke and they get a huge lead since nobody else gets lucky. The ice wall with the clues was also entirely luck but fortunately didn't seem to have a major effect.
Then there are other finales with just awful tasks that are really random for a finale. Examples:
TAR16 - None of the tasks allowed anyone to catch up even though the cowboys ran a good leg and almost did. It was over before it started.
TAR18 - Very happy with the outcome of this season, but assemble a caravan for a million bucks? -_-
TAR19 - Flight simulator and typing? Seriously? -____________--Amani & Marcus lost the race because they couldn't play a video game. :cmas11
TAR20 - A good finale because of the suspense and closeness, but in reality the tasks were just random.
TAR22 - Take a photo? Luck task at the Tidal Basin... Dress up as a giant ball and catch a ball? -___________-
TAR23 - Pointless luck tasks, no chance of order changing unless someone majorly screws up the currencies.
I just think they need to be a lot more creative with task design on finales (look at pretty much anything before TAR15) and remove the luck tasks from finales. They have no place there and should be consigned to the first 11 legs.
jetishidae:
that is why a lot of finale legs are anti-climatic
ovalorange:
Completely agree, something needs to be done to fix these finale legs. Ever since TAR15, they've been absolutely atrocious and sucked any excitement out of the episode.
The finales got a lot better since TAR12, once they decided to host it all in one final destination city. But recently, the actual tasks have dragged the whole finales down.. as there's always been one tasks which either kills one teams chances or gives one team a massive lead which they ride to the finish line. Like jetishidae said, it kills any of the suspense left in the episode.
I think the major problem is that the placement order is solely decided by one task and usually, it's cropped up right at the very start of the leg. There needs to be a chance for the teams behind to catch up and potentially overtake the other teams. And no, luck tasks dont fix this, they only spread the teams out further.
Get rid of the luck tasks, get rid of the tasks that have teams wait for the people ahead of them to finish and get rid of the linear tasks. And while you're at it, you might as well make things actually relevant to the finale city -- nobody wants to see the caravans of Florida or the nonexistent president in DC. I'm sure most people here could design a better finale leg than the ones been used recently, it's a joke.
This final leg needs to be HARD to really test the teams and make them earn that win. But how can you expect them to work for that million when they've been screwed over by linear, luck and take a number driven tasks? If the winners are going to be determined by the final leg, at least give multiple opportunities to change the teams placements, to ensure that the team who wins actually ran the best leg and not just finished one task first.
Glamazon Racer:
Very much agree with both. They're just carelessly designed these days... :cmas11
Air:
I agree with everything that has been said. You don't simply put luck tasks/tasks that enable people to get ridiculously ahead on the single most important leg of the race. -_-
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