Author Topic: TAR30: Joy and Disappointment  (Read 4284 times)

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Offline naejae91

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TAR30: Joy and Disappointment
« on: February 22, 2018, 07:47:11 AM »
I'm surprised no one quickly ask this after the finale.


Would give my thoughts later.
TAR25/TAR29: Modern classic season.

Offline RaceUntilWeDie

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Re: TAR30: Joy and Disappointment
« Reply #1 on: February 22, 2018, 08:38:10 PM »
This requires a lot of thought, but these things immediately come to mind:

Joys:

+ LOTS of self-navigation (not just by driving but also by foot)! I honestly can't recall any major taxi drama this season. *can someone count the number of self-driving legs this season? I believe Season 22 had at least 5 of them.

+ a non-boring team actually winning (this seems to be the trend lately)

+ the photo finish in Iceland

+ Morocco leg (hate that it was a NEL though)

+ 10 countries! Only 2 double legs.

+ Hong Kong being one of the best penultimate legs despite it being visited for the 999th time.

+ San Francisco delivering the best finale in my history of TAR (Seasons 17 onwards). Every single task allowed teams to catch up.

+ watching Jess and her plane "take off" ... one of my favorite moments ever in TAR for some reason.

+ I feel like every single leg had constant lead changes. Makes me wish I watched unspoiled--must have been exciting to watch.

Disappointments:

- the first visit to Bahrain being ruined by Ocean Rescue's lost passport. Would've been cool to see all 5 teams racing through a leg filled with ARIs.

- editing still sucks. Something I noticed that others didn't point out is that they cut the season recap (the one that airs at the beginning of every finale) a LOT. Didn't even go through each team individually. Some music choices are really odd as well. The music playing when Cody and Jessica were running to the Finish Line sounds like it was taken out of a cartoon. Literally. So unexciting...

- Alex & Conor being cranky in Hong Kong. What happened?

- Kristi & Jen losing steam in the last 2 or 3 legs. But hey, All Stars.

- the Head to Heads need to go. Or be placed in the middle of the leg and not at the end. I actually never watched the 2 legs with the Head to Heads because they negate everything that happens prior. Literally a waste of time.

- the Partner Swap was a snoozefest. It was cool to see different dynamics but for (basically) one Detour? Just bring back the Intersection.

- they shouldn't have tried to push the "champions" theme. Tbh this was almost like a normal season (with a bunch of Z-list recruits), which I appreciated. But if they wanted to push the gimmick so hard, Goat Yoga and (ironically) Big Brother did not belong here. Cast 11 teams of X Games, IndyCar, etc. And then you can push it.

- NBA, Goat Yoga, and Eaters being such weak performers made the first half of the Race really boring, slow, and predictable. Combine that with the darn Head to Heads... things really did start picking up in Zimbabwe (despite the Partner Swap failure)


Offline naejae91

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Re: TAR30: Joy and Disappointment
« Reply #2 on: February 24, 2018, 08:43:41 AM »
Update with my thought.


Joys


1) Lots of new or underused location being featured on this season.
2) H2H task bringing me the TAR Israel vibe for some reason.
3) Lots of self drive and navigation complete with many teams lost in some point of the race.
4) The second half of the season was more consistent than the first half.
5) This season was pretty competitive to watch.




Disappointments


1) H2H being placed at the end of the leg, basically made the last team finished automatically been eliminated.
2) Partner Swap didn't execute well.
3) What happened to editing this season, I was not a fan they completely ditched the airport scene and intro was on mid-episode instead.
4) I feel like TAR30 cast was generally weaker compare to TAR29 phenomenal cast. I'm really struggled to remember teams (like Eric & Daniel) and find my favorite team early on and by the end of the season while I like the F5 teams and NBA, none of them are memorable enough to leaving a footnote on TAR franchise.
TAR25/TAR29: Modern classic season.

Offline TheRabbi

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Re: TAR30: Joy and Disappointment
« Reply #3 on: February 24, 2018, 03:15:35 PM »
RaceUntilWeDie - there were 4 self-driving legs this season. 1 in Iceland, 2 in France, and 1 in Bahrain. I just rewatched s22 recently when the DVD came out, and there were a whopping 6 driving legs which is pretty great (2 Botswana, new Zealand, Germany, Scotland, Belfast).

It's great that they've gone back to making teams navigate themselves more, even after losing the Ford sponsorship. I was worried since 27 didn't have any, and 28 I think just had the one leg in Dubai.

My list:

Joys- GREAT cast, far better than season 29 which was very bland.  Loved that all teams mainly got along with a real lack of petty BS. The 4 self-driving legs. Photo finish leg 1. Public NYC start that I attended. Terrific route map with tons of variety and new locations visited (except Hong Kong yet again)

Disappointments

Wasn't rooting for Team BB. Hated the head to head twist. Too much of teams getting spoonfed flights by production instead of having to do their own work. Hate that U-turns are now before the tasks instead of after. Before, teams at least had to earn the right to use them by finishing their detour. It really screwed the violinists who ran a great leg in Prague. Didn't care for swapping partners, even if it ended up rather harmless.

Offline BourkieBoy

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Re: TAR30: Joy and Disappointment
« Reply #4 on: February 24, 2018, 05:11:15 PM »
JOYS
LOTS of self-driving!!!
Lots of new and underused places visited
A competitive season to watch

DISSAPOINTMENTS
Partner Swap didn't go well
Head to Head NOT being called the Face Off!
No Roadblock or Detour in Bahrain :angry:
Team Skiers not winning... come on

2.5/5 star rating
« Last Edit: February 24, 2018, 06:59:35 PM by BourkieBoy »


Gra1162

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Re: TAR30: Joy and Disappointment
« Reply #5 on: February 24, 2018, 06:38:03 PM »
Joys :jumpy:
1) Amazing race going to Hong Kong again  :cheer: :conf:
2) The Final task
3) Kristi and Jen being in the top 3 for the whole season except Zimbabwe 1
4) Photo finish in Iceland
5) Indy winning 3 legs
6) Visiting the middle east but I wish they went to Israel
Dissapointments  :furious:
1) Jody winning and not Skiers :dick
2) How is April and Sarah competitive I get April went to America's Ningia Warrior but Sarah just does goat yoga
3) Lucas losing his passport
4) Baharin without detours or roadblocks :nono2:
5) Jody's behaviour towards debates
6) Cody saying that henry copied jess's plane but henry was just trying to do it quick so maybe he and evan can win   

Offline elthemagnifico

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Re: TAR30: Joy and Disappointment
« Reply #6 on: February 24, 2018, 06:48:22 PM »
Joys:
- a lot of self navigating task, not only for Ri or ARI but also RB.
- closest finish on Iceland
-some of the outstanding tasks like RB in Iceland, Frites race in Belgium, RB in Tangier, concert task in Zimbabwe, Matching x needle in the haystack game in Bahrain, DT and Mini memory challenge in HK, and the final task on SF
-The final 2 leg of this season. A really splendid 2 hours season finale ive ever seen on Tv show history.
- improved leg designs
- H2H twist. I actually kinda like H2H being placed right before pitstop since it gave any team to recover/catch up
- one of the most competitive F4 on TAR history (it could have been F5 had Lucas hadnt lost his Passport)
- underused countries and places have been visited, also Bahrain first time visit.
- EP riddance. It gave us a solely pure competition for racers, without too much BB-esque drama and such
- an impressive competitive season
- the classic TAR vibe, such as music scoring, casts, tasks, and editing


Disappointment:
- Partner swap. It was a good twist, but it could have been better. But first time trial wasnt so bad at all
- H2H could have been more variant, like not only placed on pit stop, but also in the middle leg.
- some poorly editing eps.
-some poor leg designs. 1st Zimbabwe leg came to my mind
- more Airport drama, like we want to see some teams struggling to search earlier or better flight.
- the casts werent as strong as 29, even Kevin and Jen were really a good casts despite being the first team to be eliminated, since this season was promoted as "the most competitive season to date"

Verdict: in the end, this season was really solid season despite some flaws. I still prefer season 29, but this season is tv worthy. Definitely Top 3 seasons in TAR Hd version and top 5 seasons in All TAR US seasons

Grade: A-
what might have been

Offline Platrium

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Re: TAR30: Joy and Disappointment
« Reply #7 on: February 27, 2018, 11:33:09 AM »
I'll list 1 joy and 1 disappointment that I hope will make an impact in future TAR. Hopefully someone from the TAR team reads this.

Joy: Self-driving!

I know, everybody likes self-driving. Personally, I like it because it shuffles the teams' placements so much.

Let's start with Iceland. Kristi & Jen started off somewhere in the middle during this leg (around 5th?), and yet they finished 1st. Meanwhile, Dessie & Kayla were also in the middle (around 6th?), but self-driving put them behind, and they were eventually last. Self-driving makes a big impact in the leg. April & Sarah finished ahead of Shawn & Cedric at the roadblock, yet Shawn & Cedric were supposedly about half an hour ahead of April & Sarah. The list goes on.

Then we have the French legs. All the teams may have gone there on the same flight, but there's a natural divide eventually, with teams getting lost being slightly behind while teams who did well in navigation being ahead. Teams usually have control of their standings when it comes to self-driving, unlike delayed or missed flights as well as bad cabs. We see on the 2nd French leg how Trevor & Chris got lost, and this made an impact on the following leg in Czechia. Meanwhile, even though Alex & Conor didn't leave the roadblock as fast as any other team, self-driving pushed them forward to the middle of the pack. Placement shuffle happens a lot in self-driving legs, which is very fun to watch.

The Bahrain leg may have ended anti-climactically, but placement shuffle still exists. At one point, Cody & Jessica were 1st. On the next, they arrive in a task in last place and got to the pit stop last among 4 teams who were actually racing. Every team got lost at some point in the Bahrain leg, so even though it was purely ARI, the episode was still fun to watch.

I'll use TAR27 to prove this point better. TAR27 wasn't a very memorable season. It's not because Logan & Chris made it to the finale, or Justin & Diana were there. In fact, I can tolerate Justin's annoyance and I wouldn't mind having him back on an all-star season. :funny: :hides What made TAR27 weak was its lack of self-driving. It felt pretty bland at some point. Placements were less likely to shuffle from one task to another, although it still happened from some teams' mistakes or misfortunes. The thing with cabs is that it's usually not in the teams' controls, whereas self-driving is something they'll be responsible for by the end result.

Other times self-driving made a big impact to teams include JV & Jill in TAR11 running in 3rd or 4th but they got to the pit stop last; Kynt & Vyxsin missing the required flight to China in TAR18 which eventually got them a penalty; Jessica & Kristi this season being forced to switch detours in the Imire leg which was part of the reason they finished last that leg; etc.

Biggest disappointment on the next post.

Offline Platrium

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Re: TAR30: Joy and Disappointment
« Reply #8 on: February 27, 2018, 12:10:50 PM »
This season was amazing in so many ways. I can bring up the wonderful route involving 10 countries, the memory task which was really difficult, the photo finish on the 1st leg, the amazingly competitive cast, etc. However, the one thing I really dislike about this season is its U-turn in Leg 6. Generally speaking, the U-turns before the detour and not after any task is the worst. I'm okay with the head-to-head, the partner swap, the pure ARI leg, the EP missing this season. However, I'm not okay with the placement of the U-turns in some legs recently.

My target is Leg 6. The leg started with a U-turn, and teams were brought to that destination by cab, not through self-driving. I can go back to the point wherein teams are responsible for their own standings when it comes to self-driving, but since it's not, the race to the U-turn is only dependent on the cabs, and only on the cabs since the U-turn is the very first obstacle they encountered in the leg. With how it was placed and how it was used, just because Trevor & Chris's cab was the last to get to the U-turn, they were eliminated. It wasn't their fault at all, so it's my least favorite elimination this season. Their performance that leg was probably the best as well among the 6 legs they raced, and yet they were eliminated because a U-turn was placed at the start of the leg and their cab got them there last. Part of them being behind was the outcome of their self-driving from last leg, but most of the cause boiled down to U-turn placement and slowest cab.

You know what else is ugly and unfair? The Leg 3 U-turn in TAR29. Again, it was all a cab race, and it was at the start of the leg. Seth & Olive were a strong team and proved to be a threat during Leg 1, but just because their cab wasn't as fast as some others', they got U-turned, which eventually led to their elimination. It's really unfair when the U-turn is placed at the start of the leg and all it boiled down to was a cab race.

Some U-turns before the detour can work though. For this season, the U-turn in Zimbabwe was fine. Teams started the leg at different times, which was dependent on both swapped teams checking in at the end of the previous leg. This was based on the teams' efforts and not purely cab-based. They may have taken cabs going to the U-turn, but there was still a significant time gap when they left for the second half of Zimbabwe at different times, unlike leaving from the airport. I think it was fair that Lucas & Brittany and Alex & Conor got to the U-turn early, because their combined performances from the previous leg made them start the leg earlier than the other teams. Additionally, what I like about this U-turn is that it's a surprise U-turn. Teams don't discuss ahead of time to plot a specific team or 2 out, like how Vanck & Ashton were eliminated, or how Mona & Beth and Joey & Meghan were discriminated by the rest of the teams. I think TAR should bring back the surprise U-turn from time to time.

Another good example of a U-turn before the detour is the U-turn in Greece during TAR29. Yeah, it's at the start of the leg, but what set this apart from a bad U-turn at the start of the leg is the self-driving aspect. Teams have to drive from the airport to that U-turn. Therefore, they are responsible for their own standings upon reaching the U-turn. Becca & Floyd had navigation issues that put them behind, which was why they arrived at the U-turn later than other teams did. Same for Mike & Liz. The U-turn in Greece was fine mainly because there was self-driving before they can get there, not just a random cab race that will determine their U-turn arrival order.

To conclude, U-turns should never be placed before the detour at the start of the leg when teams travel from the airport to the U-turn location by cab. It's the ugliest game design in recent seasons.

I hope that was constructive and reasonable enough to be a disappointment. I also hope TAR improves the U-turn placements for future seasons.