Yes! I've actually had a rather strange craving to do this lately. And I've written an essay so I hope y'all enjoy it.
Here goes nothing (with some commentary). From best to worst.
Ranking the Seasons:11. TAR 12: This season, as one blogger claimed, had a little bit of everything you could love about TAR. I agree with that sentiment. I also think that the cast, while largely being from California, was a very entertaining one. The route and tasks were equally stellar. It's so interesting, because at the beginning of the season, I had very low hopes for this season (with the budget cuts and all), but things turned out amazingly well in terms of entertainment value.
2. TAR 11: This race has also grown on me over time. The cast was (mostly) well-chosen, and while the tasks were not always amazing, the random, completely unexpected things that happened (Rob & Amber getting booted after three straight wins, the flight snafu from Leg 6, etc.) made the season uniquely entertaining. One of my personal favorites.
3. TAR 7: This race was just a classic. It has the villains (Rob & Amber), the unexpected heroes (Uchenna & Joyce), the dark horse team (Meredith & Gretchen), and lots of memorable moments. I really liked this race's unique route as well. If I were to introduce someone to TAR, this is probably the first season I would go to.
4. TAR 5: A lot like Season 7, for most of the same reasons. In fact, I don't think there's much I need to add.
5. TAR 17: The rare newer season that manages to distinguish itself from the fray. And it wasn't because it had the first all-female team to win, either. In reality, it was the awesome locations, the awesome cast (there were maybe one or two poorly-chosen teams, but most of them were very memorable, even the first team out), and the sheer entertainment value. It helped that we had Brook & Claire to narrate the entire journey.
6. TAR 6: While many people don't particularly like this season, I find it amazing for a few reasons: It had some of the most photogenic locations ever featured on the race. The places they visited in Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Ethiopia, Sri Lanka, China, and Hawaii were all beautiful destinations. The cast, while not necessarily always nice to one another, was filled with memorable characters (I honestly feel like every team on this season has become a sort of archetype for all TAR teams in many ways), and, if you exclude Jonathan & Victoria, was actually quite an amazing cast. Didn't love the outcome (who really wanted the winners to win?), but I loved most everything else.
7. TAR 9: Honestly, this race course was also an amazing one. The destinations (Brazil, Italy, Greece, Oman, and Japan) were very memorable. The teams were also quite entertaining, and even thought the outcome was fairly predictable, it was always hilarious and fun to watch. I loved the antics of BJ & Tyler, in all their ensuing hilarity.
8. TAR 10: This season had amazing potential. The race course was the most eclectic one I've ever seen, and the teams were teeming with diversity and potential for entertainment. And in the beginning, they delivered. Unfortunately a lot of the more interesting teams fell out early, but we did get to see some unexpectedly strong teams (like Dustin & Kandice) emerge. I think this race would have been drastically better if the boot order had just been dramatically altered.
9. TAR 13: After a recent re-watch, this season has moved up for me. On the surface, this season doesn't seem to have great prospects: It's cast seems stereotypical, its route is unique but seems bland. But entertainment value is at a ten the entire time. I really liked the inter-team dynamics of the season - there was a good balance of rivalry and chivalry. The cast unexpectedly turned out to be very entertaining to watch. Finally, many of the tasks were also memorable and entertaining.
10. TAR 22: This is the best of the post-18 seasons I've seen. (I've only seen this one and 23 so that may not be saying much.) I really like this cast as well. I feel like this season's tasks were (mostly) not memorable - I can only remember a few of them, in fact.
11. TAR 18: I remember very little of this season, but I know that it was middling for me - not amazing, but not horrible either. I despised the fact that any team had to be "automatically U-turned" on Leg 1, and it's even worse that it had to be Amanda & Kris.
12. TAR 14: This season is often more popular in people's rankings. I'll admit that I enjoyed the first four legs. But after that, it wasn't very fun to watch. The editing in this season seemed horribly biased in favor of some teams, despite all the claims of it being improved. The route was kind of a fun one though.
13. TAR 16: This season has several problems for me. One is that the whole race seemed to be focused on the drama between two rival teams - and it was not normal drama. It was unhealthy and mean-spirited. Too many of the tasks seemed manufactured (like the Detour on Leg 5) and there was a really odd editing obsession with Jet & Cord (that continued in TAR 18 as well). Finally, the route was mostly non-memorable (although the South America and Seychelles legs were nice.)
14. TAR 23: Maybe this one wasn't so bad for one of the newer seasons, but like most of the newer seasons I've seen, nothing really sticks out to me one way or another. I know I didn't particularly like two of the Final 3 teams (and even the third one was kind of meh for me), but I also seem to remember many of the early boot teams being very likable. The route was unmemorable too (at least for me).
15. TAR 15: Kicking a team out before giving them a real chance to race (leading to them completely quitting instead of going to Elimination Station like normal), throwing together the most sloppily-edited, last-minute-looking intro sequence ever
2, and leaving a predictable (and mostly irritating - think Sam & Dan and Brian & Ericka) Final 3, led to this season being one of the worst for me. In fact, I don't think I've ever re-watched any of its episodes since it aired. And I don't really want to. Though it is ironic that that was the season where I won the Pick'em Game. I guess the awful seasons are more predictable than the good ones.
16. TAR 24: I really liked Dave & Connor (unlike most people), but I agree that this race was likely the absolute worst, due to a combination of atrocious casting and an unmemorable race course. I couldn't be happier with the final outcome though, so at least there's that.
Overall, I am heavily biased toward the more "classic" seasons. However, let's face it: The newer seasons (at least as of TAR 24) are just not the same. If they were, I would actually feel some desire to watch them right now.
Notes:1. I have also seen seasons 1, 3, and 4, but don't feel I remember them well enough to appropriately rank them. For some reason, I still haven't seen Season 2.
2. Seriously though. Go re-watch it if you haven't recently. Garrett & Jessica and Brian & Ericka are shown racing while everyone else is shown in their pre-race clips. Ew.