While I do think that the tasks could have been better (especially the Roadblock and truck challenge) and that S28's visit to Colombia was better, I still don't think the design was that bad.
I like that the producers have been putting more tasks in one leg. We had four! (I think this is similar to Leg 1)
1. Active Route Info - Search for an hourglass in the mine
2. Active Route Info - Emerald vs. golden artifact challenge
3. Roadblock - Tightrope challenge
4. Active Route Info - Decorate the truck
So many legs in the earlier HD seasons used to be strictly Route Info, Roadblock, and Detour.
When you list it this way, it doesn't look that bad.
The problem lies in each task being pretty straightforward. The only complicated part in any of this leg's tasks was discovering that the horn needs fixing. Everything else was very simple.
Search for an hourglass? Cool, you finished 5 minutes faster than the rest. Oh well, we're bunching you all up again. Oh, you finished 10 seconds slower than the 5th team? Oh well, you're now half an hour behind. The task does not justify such a separation. The dilemma of "search for 20 min HG vs. just grab the 10 min HG" was fun, but it's not like the better HG was harder to find, or had an extra little task to it. It was moreso luck, and some teams just found the 20 min HG without ever seeing a 10 min one.
Emerald vs. Gold was cool, but it was just a cool concept that was actually a very simple task no one struggled with. Why not extend this into a detour, have the broker/professor give them another item or some sort of certificate to deliver to a clue giver located in the vicinity? Have the teams search on foot, asking locals for directions. Make it an obscure location, allow them to get lost. No one seemed to have trouble finding the broker/professor, it just extended the leg by a few minutes.
I won't even comment on the tightrope because it was just fun, but extremely linear. The plate spinning detour ("Circus Clown") in Russia, leg 7 of TAR17, was so much better and more complicated.
Truck task was great, in fact it was the only task this leg that was good as is.
Did anyone else find the editing really weird on this episode? Felt like a lot of times where a team just got there and a minute later it jumped to them finishing. (I thought more time would be spent on Alana's fear of heights. You know TAR editing loves to milk a racer's fear. A minute later they're at the truck and it's like, she got it? When?)
The tasks weren't all that exciting to begin with. Next week looks great.
I'd say they already milked Alana's fear for all it was worth. It was even a transition into commercial break IIRC. There's so much to show and so little time, I don't mind the more sudden cuts if it gave us a bit more time to focus on the last 3 teams finishing the leg.
Man, major kudos to the casting team this season. There's not one I dislike.
Agreed. The only ones I disliked left leg 1.
