Topic: Why is Family Edition so hated?

[Traveldude1]

Fans asked for something new and that is what they got. I personally love it now. Most of the teams are enjoyable with obvious exceptions. The tasks may be dumbed down a bit, but seeing the little kids competing was cool to see. I'll admit, the season does slow down by the Gaghans elimination in Costa Rica, but those first couple legs are amazing to watch. I don't understand the hate for this season. I'd take this season over some other seasons that are worse such as seasons 2, 13, 6, and 20

[Maanca]

It was fine as an idea to try once. but they should have covered more of the country. The season's weakness IMO, is in those midwestern legs where about every task is pioneer-themed for 3 straight legs. What about Los Angeles, the Rocky Mountains, Florida, etc?

At least according to Wally Bransen, a leg in Belize got cancelled due to hurricane (p.s. TAR's still not been to that country ) Which makes me wonder if they planned for another non-US leg.

[theschnauzers]

That season, filmed in the summer of 2005, was plagued with hurricanes through much of its filming. The 2005 Atlantic Basin hurricane season is the busiest on record, with 25 named tropical cyclones. At this moment, the current hurricane season in the Atlantic is on track to exceed that number of named cyclones. They had the “R” named cyclone form yesterday, 11 days ahead of the pace in 2005, and forecasters are expecting a tropical wave to move off of Africa into the Atlantic basin and also develop into a tropical cyclone by the end of this coming weekend.

It’s my recollection that one of the Arizona legs was a last minute substitution.

[claude_24hrs]

For me, The Family Edition is considered the least season in the entire series of the Race. The route was mostly in the states included some parts of North America (Panama, Costa Rica and Canada). It should've had legs within Texas and Maine.

[cbacbacba1]

Having too few teams for the latter half of the season (2 legs F6, 2 legs F5 and 3 episodes of F4) made the course become repetitive and dull in my opinion.

[Declive]

I agree with everything that has been said already.
It's definitely the worst season for me. I also thought it was very unfair to have children racing while other families had 4 adult members.

[LandonM170]

You would think that having a season based in the US would be amazing considering what Canada, China Rush, etc. have done however I didn't sign up for a 10 episode US History lesson. Also, was very surprised to see no Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Miami or Orlando, Houston or Austin, Atlanta, Seattle, or Chicago legs when they went to damn Montana and Wyoming! 

[dryedmangoez]

Well, I don't hate it. It has a top tier cast. Definitely one of the best casts in all 31 seasons that have aired so far.

I think the biggest criticism back then was the idea of a US-only Race. And how that was so unthinkable. Obviously, other TARs have done fine with home country routes. But like TARC has become in the last few seasons, TAR8's route and tasks may have felt repetitive.

It seems they tried to avoid big cities to avoid spoilers. But also visited American cities that probably would never get a Final Leg visit ever.  And getting to see different parts of America is perfectly fine.  Panama, Costa Rica and Canada Legs were good. They probably could've done another Leg in Canada. And the possible canceled Belize Leg is a bummer.

You look at the Legs though, you can see what they were going for in each. They went to national landmarks, historic and famous locations and known cities.
Leg 1: New York/Amish Country Theme
Leg 2: Washington DC/Patriotic and Civil War Theme
Leg 3: South Carolina/Hunstville, Alabama/Space & Rocket Center
Leg 4: Talladega/New Orleans
Leg 5-6: Panama/Costa Rica
Leg 7: Costa Rica/possible Belize
Leg 8: Grand Canyon
Leg 9: Salt Lake City/Olympics
Leg 10A: Yellowstone/Western Theme
Leg 10B: Native American tasks - Could've easily done the tasks with the First Nations in Alberta or Saskatchewan
Leg 11: Canada/Finale

[georgiapeach]

I didn't hate it. Family Edition was ruined for me only by the Weaver Family's behavior. AND by WRP's poor taste in doing a racetrack task since a racetrack accident is how they lost their father.

The Paolo's remain one of the funniest teams ever.

For the rest it was an interesting experiment. Not my fave, but DEFINITELY not hated.

[cerealking]

It was something that seemed like a good idea on paper but didn’t work out in practice. I don’t like it because they didn’t leave North America and the decision to use literal children is awkward and unfair competition-wise.

[ZBC Company]

Really like family edition

[dryedmangoez]

I didn't hate it. Family Edition was ruined for me only by the Weaver Family's behavior. AND by WRP's poor taste in doing a racetrack task since a racetrack accident is how they lost their father.

The Paolo's remain one of the funniest teams ever.

For the rest it was an interesting experiment. Not my fave, but DEFINITELY not hated.

The Weavers are such characters. At times they were villains, at times they were the most sympathetic people. The Race was definitely twisted in having them do TWO racetrack tasks (Talladega and then go-karts in Arizona). Not to mention the insane moment in the premiere when Mama Weaver was almost run over by the Amish buggy. Well, it did run over her, she was just very lucky.

[G.B.]

It's a much more appealing season to Non-American viewers such as myself, I think

[dryedmangoez]

Yes, the same for me watching TARPH, TAR Vietnam and (the earlier seasons of ) TAR Canada.

[theschnauzers]

The Family Edition primary use was as a template for most of the various editions of TAR outside of the US, and fortunately none of those followed the use of casting children under 18 or teams of four.

[Air]

tar8 more like tar great it's better than both its predecessor and successor despite eliminating one team over the course of five legs right at the end which was, in fact, awful

[Jobby]

”Phoenix (Arizona)? I want to go to New Zealand!” - Mama Paolo <3

Gaghans <3
Mama Paolo <3
Weavers VS everyone else <3
Godlewsikis trainwreck <3
Bransens winning all the expensive prizes (free gas for life - 1200 for 50 years = 240k) and two cars plus the prize for second place <3

Still beats TAR 9 hands down.

[HavaDrPepper]

I liked it mainly because the winning family is from Ohio.

But there were things that were not good about it.  For one, each family grouping should have had the same number of contestants in an age group.  Honestly, it wasn't fair that the winning family were all basically adults when other teams had little kids.  Casting should have been more consistent.  Either all teams with younger kids or all teams with adults.

I also didn't mind the route since it did highlight places in this amazing country that will probably never make it into a regular season.

And, honestly, I wouldn't mind seeing another family edition of teams of 4 but only if they were all adults and they did get to travel the world. Don't see it happening though!

[RachelLeVega]

tar8 more like tar great it's better than both its predecessor and successor despite eliminating one team over the course of five legs right at the end which was, in fact, awful

I'm gonna steal this.

[Blazhinho]

In my opinion, this season wasn't bad. There were some things that I didn't like, but it was interesting.

As I can remember, the Weaver family was weird with their behavior. There was also funny, not family friendly "mooning" between Bransen and Linz family, or whatever it is called. The car scene, you know what I am talking about . Also, Paolo family was funny to watch. Then, I remember Godlewski family, because everybody, and they as well butchered their last name when pronounced it. I know it is normal to be pronounced "Gadluski" in English, but it is probably a Polish surname, so it should be pronounced exactly like it is written. It just sounds nasty the way they pronounced .

Additionally, it wasn't the best solution to gather the families of 4 adult members and the ones with younger children. It was just an unfair competition. So, it is logical they finished in the second half of the pack, as well as the winning team had 3 adult and young men. It was everyone's game in the final, tough. Also, I think the tasks were much easier than in the regular seasons and I would like if they visited more countries. Anyway, we have seen something more of the USA, which we can't see in a regular season.