Archive > The Amazing Race 30

TAR30: Joy and Disappointment

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naejae91:
I'm surprised no one quickly ask this after the finale.


Would give my thoughts later.

RaceUntilWeDie:
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)

naejae91:
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.

TheRabbi:
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.

BourkieBoy:
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

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