The Amazing Race > The Amazing Race Discussion
Best Amazing Race Season to Date
ImANewUser:
--- Quote from: DavidJunior on November 18, 2009, 01:29:59 PM ---
--- Quote from: Dån (cdfe88) on November 18, 2009, 12:09:46 PM ---
--- Quote from: Raymond on November 18, 2009, 04:52:38 AM ---
--- Quote from: Joab on November 18, 2009, 04:40:18 AM ---I loved the fact that many people loved TAR 12 even if it was the shortest season (in terms of episodes) and that a boring team won. :funny:
But frankly speaking, TK and Rachel ain't that bad right?
--- End quote ---
Robbing 10 potentially more epic teams = bad, but having 10 potentially epic teams + early season-esque route pulled it up. BIG TIME. So TK/Rachel are either hated on for said reason, or forgotten because there were bad winners in bad seasons. :funny:
--- End quote ---
I think TAR12 had a really great cast mix, but it would've been better had Nick/Don or Ron/Chris won. TK & Rachel were just OK.
And is it just me or does anybody else thing TAR7 was a repeat of TAR5?
--- End quote ---
come to think of it, the final 3 were really too similar in comparison :
The married African-American couple who really needed the money ended up winning
The strongest team of the season coming up just short
and then the boring third place team not even being that much of a factor in the end after all...
--- End quote ---
Add to that:
a) a Los Angeles area start
b) two Argentina legs (both consisting of one in Buenos Aires and some nearby town & one near the Chilean border that featured a Yield [granted it appeared in every leg for Season 5, but still], an eating Roadblock [chocolate & meat] and a transportation choice Detour [Smooth Sailing/Rough Riding & Paddle/Pedal] I might add)
c) Legs 5, 6 & 7 in Africa (one country hosting two legs for both seasons)
d) a planned Istanbul leg (moved to Dubai [source is Wikipedia - could be true or not] for TAR5, Leg 9 for TAR7)
e) a head-shaving FF in India
f) a visit to one more North American country before going back to the USA (Canada for TAR5, Jamaica for TAR7)
g) stunt casting (Alison for TAR5, Rob/Amber/Brian for TAR7)
h) fourth place team that finished last on a Leg 5 NEL and managed a second place (both their highest placing in-race) before finishing in 4th
And we have a (badly-done) repeat of TAR5. :funny:
Hooky:
--- Quote from: Caelestor on November 18, 2009, 10:51:26 AM ---
--- Quote from: Raymond on November 18, 2009, 04:52:38 AM ---Robbing 10 potentially more epic teams = bad, but having 10 potentially epic teams + early season-esque route pulled it up. BIG TIME. So TK/Rachel are either hated on for said reason, or forgotten because there were bad winners in bad seasons. :funny:
--- End quote ---
TAR 12 was the last season that had the classic TAR style. The route is very much like TAR 3 and TAR 6. It was also the last season IIRC to have a designated "villain" team. Plus, all the boring teams were eliminated early, and I hated none of the Final 3 (Though the hippies shouldn't have won IMO).
--- End quote ---
I very much disagree. In my opinion all trace of "classic TAR" (if I, never having watched the first or second seasons, even know what that means) went out the door after All-Stars. The shortening of the route, the casting of too many people from LA (what was up with that?), and various other terrible new ideas (including the pretend elimination of non-eliminations, and U-turns with no priority numbers), and controls of teams (like making it impossible for teams to be apart from each other) made this season somewhat obnoxious and grating. It went to some great locations, though, but the legs were too short. The race has sadly still not recovered from this (but TAR 14 came close). The winning team was egh. Sadly, now I go back and watch it feeling like it is classic, just because things are so much worse now. Who knew the editing would be so good at spoiling and that some teams would be totally ignored? :groan:
mswood:
--- Quote from: theschnauzers on November 18, 2009, 01:33:35 PM ---I still hold TAR Classic (season one, of course) in the highest regard. I've said (elsewhere) that that first season was a perfect combination of teams, locations, tasks and story that no subsequent season has ever been able to match. One could not have done any better if it had been scripted.
The confrontation at the Tunis airport. The first leg. Immortal lines such as "It's Namibia, jackass!" Teams getting lost in the Sahara. "For two years, we lived in Paris." The final fast forward between Team Guido and Momily. The confusion that is India. Momily's decision to quit the detour in Bangkok. The final confrontation between Team Guido and the original Frats. The race to the finish between Rob/Brennan and Frank/Margarita. "I did it with my best friend." And the Guido edit.
No other season has quite managed to have so many memorable moments and personalities in so many different ways. :hearts:
--- End quote ---
The main problem I have with season one is the greeter at each mat. I hated that idea, and am so glad that Phil replaced them for every other season. Just can't state how much I hated that.
But the points about the episodes, there is just something about that season (and its not my favorite cast, nor my favorite route, nor my favorite tasks) that just is so fresh.
mswood:
Hooky
I do agree (and I still blame budgeting for 2 of these huge factors) the casting being so much more limited then what was previously done. And the with the shortening of the season the production really kept a much stronger hold of the cast, both in driving (when they did do it) to flights.
Now I can understand some of that as All Stars suffered the worse flight scheduling problems of any season (and I am quite sure production made sure that would never happen again).
But you lose something with that. You lose the increased stress that provides on teams and thats drama. Drama doesn't have to be team rivals, or fighting couples. It can be teams having to deal with situations completely out of there control. I know they weren't popular, But I loved seeing Eric & Danielle struggle for so many legs when they didn't make any mistakes, where they did what they were supposed to (and three of those legs where they finished so far behind they were actually 1st and 2nd fastest in performing that actual tasks of the legs). That was certainly more enjoyable then them bickering with each other (or for that matter most teams that argue with each other). Now it seems the closest we get to drama like that is when teams make serious errors, things they were in control over, or had some say it. And frankly, that isn't as dramatic to me.
Now I am not saying that I loved All Stars (I didn't, as about half of the cast didn't seem "All Star" to me and I wasn't the biggest fan of the route or tasks. But after that TAR did change, and I don't think its a change they wanted to make.
Caelestor:
After watching a few of the early seasons, I'm going to say the problems began after TAR 5.
TAR 6: Weak casting (Decline)
TAR 7: Weird Route + Stunt-casting Decline)
TAR 8: The Entire Concept (The bottom of all TARs)
TAR 9: Alpha-Male domination (Still a slight improvement)
TAR 10: Improvement -- Nice route and exciting teams
TAR 11: Weak route + questionable "All-Star" teams (Decline)
Then CBS reduced the episode order per season from 13 to 11! (How dare they!) Even worse, the 2007-2008 season only had one season of TAR!
TAR 12: Good route, but weak casting (Wasn't a terrible season)
TAR 13: Weak casting (Decline)
TAR 14: Weak Route + Downgrading of tasks (The cast and some nostalgia made this season memorable)
TAR 15: Weak Cast + Bunching + Downgrading of tasks (Just like TAR 13)
My opinion is that TAR should not visit the same place twice unless they can make an even better leg (Example: TAR 9 Tokyo vs. TAR 15 Tokyo). If you're going to stay in the same city for two legs, just make it a TBC and spare us the NEL penalty debate.
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