Topic: TAR 32 EP 12 FINALE!! LIVE SHOW UPDATES AND COMMENTARY 12/16/20 8-9PM

[Leafsfan.]

Congrats to the winners!

However, what a badly designed finale leg. Completely linear. Also a lost opportunity to use the Mardi Gras World as a memory task.

[wvrnsson]

Does anyone know if Will and James have had their wedding?  They at least had about a year until the virus shut everything down.  I wish them the best

They were supposed to get married last October but due to the pandemic, they rescheduled their wedding to March 2021.

   Thanks for the answer.  I hope most of the teams do go to it if they want to.

[ianthebalance]

Leg design wise, I can't help but seriously admire the amount of tasks sandwiched in- the production team really made use of the locations and I'm sure they're proud of that! Between traveling by washboard, adding a second rappel task, and adding in a little clue that fit the Jazz aesthetic, there were little task-ettes that made the leg shine.

However, it wasn't super challenging, and besides the King Cake RB, which was luck-based (maybe a little skill?) there unfortunately wasn't much room for teams to advance themselves.

Perhaps Will & James would have passed the others if they were last to the first RB, but instead they only expanded their lead. Like Peach said, a memory task would have been fantastic. I didn't think the Crescent City Connection added much to the leg and the French Quarter could easily have served as the adrenaline-heavy venue of the leg, replacing the typical means of adding craziness to final legs.

All in all, I respected the production teams' willingness to become more flexible with ARIs replacing Detours/Roadblocks, a la HaMerotz LaMillion; hopefully the next step can be making these ARI more challenging and permitting of placement shifts.

That leads to an interesting discussion: is it better to have a lot of tasks in a finale that aren't too difficult or time consuming or to have not as many tasks but the tasks are all difficult and time consuming?

2 countries finale - the former
1 country finale - the latter

Eh, this leg is clear proof that it's not a set result

[Xoruz]

New Orleans has always been high on finale places for me, and this leg brought the Mardi Gras spirit but did fall into the trap I dislike of one team getting a lead and keeping it.
This finale was reminiscent of 29's where teams got separated after the second task and never really saw each other.
The beads task brought back one final instance of read your clue.
King cake is obvious New Orleans, but it lead to a portion of the finale decided by luck.
The bridge swing was very similar to 28's first Roadblock.
Interesting that both seasons that visited New Orleans had a map puzzle as the final task rather than memory.
Despite the lack of place changes, I did find the ending emotional. Finally getting onto TAR after years, winning TAR, and then getting engaged.

Congrats to Will & James. 

[alecbaldwin]

Leg design wise, I can't help but seriously admire the amount of tasks sandwiched in- the production team really made use of the locations and I'm sure they're proud of that! Between traveling by washboard, adding a second rappel task, and adding in a little clue that fit the Jazz aesthetic, there were little task-ettes that made the leg shine.

However, it wasn't super challenging, and besides the King Cake RB, which was luck-based (maybe a little skill?) there unfortunately wasn't much room for teams to advance themselves.

Perhaps Will & James would have passed the others if they were last to the first RB, but instead they only expanded their lead. Like Peach said, a memory task would have been fantastic. I didn't think the Crescent City Connection added much to the leg and the French Quarter could easily have served as the adrenaline-heavy venue of the leg, replacing the typical means of adding craziness to final legs.

All in all, I respected the production teams' willingness to become more flexible with ARIs replacing Detours/Roadblocks, a la HaMerotz LaMillion; hopefully the next step can be making these ARI more challenging and permitting of placement shifts.

That leads to an interesting discussion: is it better to have a lot of tasks in a finale that aren't too difficult or time consuming or to have not as many tasks but the tasks are all difficult and time consuming?

2 countries finale - the former
1 country finale - the latter

Eh, this leg is clear proof that it's not a set result

It's airport scramble vs task struggling.

More tasks but less time consuming allows the editors to focus on airport dramas.

Less tasks but more time consuming allows the producers to set the teams up for blatant blunders.

[ZBC Company]

I know only get beat up for saying this but I think  32 was again a good season

[RachelLeVega]

Leg design wise, I can't help but seriously admire the amount of tasks sandwiched in- the production team really made use of the locations and I'm sure they're proud of that! Between traveling by washboard, adding a second rappel task, and adding in a little clue that fit the Jazz aesthetic, there were little task-ettes that made the leg shine.

However, it wasn't super challenging, and besides the King Cake RB, which was luck-based (maybe a little skill?) there unfortunately wasn't much room for teams to advance themselves.

Perhaps Will & James would have passed the others if they were last to the first RB, but instead they only expanded their lead. Like Peach said, a memory task would have been fantastic. I didn't think the Crescent City Connection added much to the leg and the French Quarter could easily have served as the adrenaline-heavy venue of the leg, replacing the typical means of adding craziness to final legs.

All in all, I respected the production teams' willingness to become more flexible with ARIs replacing Detours/Roadblocks, a la HaMerotz LaMillion; hopefully the next step can be making these ARI more challenging and permitting of placement shifts.

That leads to an interesting discussion: is it better to have a lot of tasks in a finale that aren't too difficult or time consuming or to have not as many tasks but the tasks are all difficult and time consuming?

2 countries finale - the former
1 country finale - the latter

Eh, this leg is clear proof that it's not a set result

It's airport scramble vs task struggling.

I guess it depends. As long as teams are up and moving throughout the whole episode, that's where I think a finale is most successful. TAR12 is a great example of a modern finale leg. You have tasks relevant to the region and collectively, but don't have teams just stalled somewhere after completing a task. It doesn't dig up the winner directly off of basic knowledge and basic premises. This is where legs like TAR15 and last season's falls flat.

[cbacbacba1]

James begins talking about being a superfan of the race and applying various times until getting on the 32nd season.

Kaylynn & Haley - "we're proud of you. We're so happy for you."

Does they having a time of speech mean they actually get a chance of returning? 
Like CaroJen did in Season 22 

Meanwhile, the editing of this finale is strange.. They don't even attempt to make any suspense on the winning of Will & James 

This season starts out strong, keeps deteriorating since India, and the finale is one of the worst in recent seasons 

I feel like the gap between Will & James and Hung & Chee were a blowout. After they left Cafe Beignet, who knows how long Chee took to locate the missing baby. It became pretty obvious who was going to win when Hung & Chee were two task-ettes behind them when they were en route to the convention center.

Tara & Joey were also more than 1 hour behind Brooke & Scott at the placement memory challenge. But editing wise, it is still much better than this season 

They played the suspense on the race between 2nd & 3th, which is not interesting to viewers 

[alecbaldwin]

Leg design wise, I can't help but seriously admire the amount of tasks sandwiched in- the production team really made use of the locations and I'm sure they're proud of that! Between traveling by washboard, adding a second rappel task, and adding in a little clue that fit the Jazz aesthetic, there were little task-ettes that made the leg shine.

However, it wasn't super challenging, and besides the King Cake RB, which was luck-based (maybe a little skill?) there unfortunately wasn't much room for teams to advance themselves.

Perhaps Will & James would have passed the others if they were last to the first RB, but instead they only expanded their lead. Like Peach said, a memory task would have been fantastic. I didn't think the Crescent City Connection added much to the leg and the French Quarter could easily have served as the adrenaline-heavy venue of the leg, replacing the typical means of adding craziness to final legs.

All in all, I respected the production teams' willingness to become more flexible with ARIs replacing Detours/Roadblocks, a la HaMerotz LaMillion; hopefully the next step can be making these ARI more challenging and permitting of placement shifts.

That leads to an interesting discussion: is it better to have a lot of tasks in a finale that aren't too difficult or time consuming or to have not as many tasks but the tasks are all difficult and time consuming?

2 countries finale - the former
1 country finale - the latter

Eh, this leg is clear proof that it's not a set result

It's airport scramble vs task struggling.

I guess it depends. As long as teams are up and moving throughout the whole episode, that's where I think a finale is most successful. TAR12 is a great example of a modern finale leg. You have tasks relevant to the region and collectively, but don't have teams just stalled somewhere after completing a task. It doesn't dig up the winner directly off of basic knowledge and basic premises. This is where legs like TAR15 and last season's falls flat.

TAR 21 finale was also a success. I guess you really need to have have a successful final memory challenge. As long as you can have a real battle for the win in the last challenge, you would have a memorable finish. That's why I really think the music task should have been in the finale. Imagine what could have been if none of the teams held each other's hand to get through that challenge.

[Declive]

Don't know how, but i knew Riley/Maddison would end up third.

Anyways, Will & James were the ones that deserved this win the most.
Can't remember a team being such a protagonist of a season before.

[georgiapeach]

Even if there isn't a memory task, i'd prefer something more mentally straining than this

The (sorta-kinda) "memory" Challenge was on Ep 11 this time.

But I totally agree . It needs to be challenging, real, and on the FINALE leg.

[alecbaldwin]

Here’s my suggestion: NO first class flight for the teams on the final leg.

It's so frustrating to have teams so well-rested that they have enough strength to run everywhere, finish the tasks and planning their winning speech before hand. It's tough feel emotional when the winner's reaction is highly compromised. It took the fun out of it.

[cbacbacba1]

Don't know how, but i knew Riley/Maddison would end up third.

Anyways, Will & James were the ones that deserved this win the most.
Can't remember a team being such a protagonist of a season before.

Justin & Diana  Dave & Connor too

[ianthebalance]

I agree with the first class thing. It also doesn't even make sense how they budget other stuff but give them first class seats

Edit: Like they will buy flights in advance to save money then buy teams first class seats in the final leg???

[Marionete]

What a bad leg...
It's honestly really sad because this is one of, if not the worst leg/episode this season.
We really did start on a high and start plummeting faster and faster with this season. If I ever decide to rewatch this season, I'll stop after Leg 7 Kazakhstan, Leo & Alana's elimination. I liked the Indian megaleg design-wise, too, but it's just not worth rewatching due to the predictability it had even on 1st watch.

I don't have a great memory on finale legs, and am obviously biased right now, but this feels to me like of the worst-designed finale legs ever. At least in recent memory it's by far the most linear, least suspenseful, least challenging, etc. The lack of a memory task, of course, plays a big part.
We had wonderful finales for 30 & 31, imo. I didn't have high hopes going in for this one, but I didn't expect it to be this bad...

Was really rooting for Hung & Chee, but I guess Will & James most deserved to win after completely masterminding this season. It just felt like this season of TAR was way too much like Survivor/BB with strategy talk, compared to previous seasons. And weirdly, it's not even S31's impact - that season only filmed months ago and hadn't been announced yet.

I don't know what happened to TAR, but I understand Phil & co.'s frustration to the point Phil hosts a new show instead of filming S33.
Maybe cool recruits are better for this show than your average superfans. Cast fewer superfans please.

[stunami]

I don't agree with people saying Will & James would have been out before this if not for the alliance.
Yes they got help and will be remembered for this, but being objective 100%, the 3 times they really got help, it wouldn't really make a difference..

Leg 4: Roadblock in Paraguay, James got help with the construction of the musical instrument, but they still finished first because of the roadblock, so worst case they would be 2 or 3.

Leg 6: Berlin, unless they have a meltdown, the blondes bandits are wayyyy behind them

Leg 8/9: James again getting help for the roadblock, but again the blondes are sooo far behind.

And of course, who knows for the roadblock in Philippines... I feel like they read their clue at the right time, so they would still survive.

Was really disappointed with this task, the first task and the first roadblock were great, but after it was really boring. And they didn't really even try to hide it...

[cbacbacba1]

What a bad leg...
It's honestly really sad because this is one of, if not the worst leg/episode this season.
We really did start on a high and start plummeting faster and faster with this season. If I ever decide to rewatch this season, I'll stop after Leg 7 Kazakhstan, Leo & Alana's elimination. I liked the Indian megaleg design-wise, too, but it's just not worth rewatching due to the predictability it had even on 1st watch.

I don't have a great memory on finale legs, and am obviously biased right now, but this feels to me like of the worst-designed finale legs ever. At least in recent memory it's by far the most linear, least suspenseful, least challenging, etc. The lack of a memory task, of course, plays a big part.
We had wonderful finales for 30 & 31, imo. I didn't have high hopes going in for this one, but I didn't expect it to be this bad...

Was really rooting for Hung & Chee, but I guess Will & James most deserved to win after completely masterminding this season. It just felt like this season of TAR was way too much like Survivor/BB with strategy talk, compared to previous seasons. And weirdly, it's not even S31's impact - that season only filmed months ago and hadn't been announced yet.

I don't know what happened to TAR, but I understand Phil & co.'s frustration to the point Phil hosts a new show instead of filming S33.
Maybe cool recruits are better for this show than your average superfans. Cast fewer superfans please.

it is not the problem of casting Superfans. Brooke & Scott were superfans and they played a mind game, and doing an alliance too for S29. What is different is that they are aligning with the weaker teams (LoLo) instead of like Will & James who are aligning with the stronger teams and getting rid of the much weaker teams. Furthermore, Brooke & Scott themselves created enough drama whereas Will & James do not 

To me, Will & James are more like more evil and worse version of Justin  Justin lost TAR27 after being cocky throughout the entire season is accomplishing, whereas the winning of the boyfriends just further made TAR32 a worse season to me.

[mswood]

I liked, didn't love this season.  It really helped that for the most part no team just completely pissed me off.  As for the leg itself, it really felt back to the basics of TAR.  What was it season 9 that was first that had a real memory challenge at the end?  This type of leg seems designed to keep teams close.  No huge amount of traveling, no activities in one state (or country) before getting to final destination state.  No booking your own travel arrangements.  But one team got hurt heavy by cab / their own navigation.  By the 2nd tasks thanks to Will being thorough and knowing what to look for, he just slaughtered the two other teams (Riley & Maddison could have passed Hung and Chee if they also didn't have to basically complete the task twice).  Once you see that no team catches them at either of the next two locations (and one would have set up time, the other time to complete task), you know unless cab gets lost(or team unable to figure out Saints refer to the NFL team) then they have it in the bag. 

[Marionete]

I was just extremely bored throughout this leg.
The race wasn't exciting, the locations/tasks weren't, and it just felt drawn out for no reason when it was obvious what was happening.

Also, definitely my least favorite winners since S26, at least.

[dryedmangoez]

Well about the upgrade on the flight, the show probably didn't have a choice. It looks like they flew Philippine Airlines from Manila to Los Angeles. (No, there are no direct Manila-New Orleans flights like the show made it seem lol)

And Manila-USA flights are usually fully booked in Economy for months. Especially in December for Christmas. So the only seats left could conceivably be the ones in Business Class (which is the most premium class on PAL).

[Pi]

Cool to see a night leg for the second time in three seasons; the NOLA downtown/Mardi Gras was perfect for a night leg too.

Business class seats are a nice touch for the racers- they may be more well-rested, but they're going to be jet lagged anyway. MNL-LAX-MSY is 9,000 miles.

Loved the French/Cajun tie-ins, like the king cake/beignet task all the way down to Phil saying "let the good times roll" (laissez les bons temps rouler- of course, that was also a pun with the sphere).

I was worried for Hung at the Roadblock. Not only is her wingspan shorter, it seemed like the wind was blowing her clue around a lot. Thankfully she got it on the first try though.

I was predicting that the teams would have to do something to their globe after it was done, like place pins on the places they visited or something. I was a bit surprised when they just had to assemble it to get their clue- this contributed to the linearity of the leg.

Happy for Will and James- although the edit probably made it seem like they were in first just due to getting the initial task done in first place, but they certainly ran the best leg of the three and deserved the win. The proposal was unexpected but welcome!

I'm hoping for more surprises next season. While this one was fairly well-designed, there were a lot of predictable eliminations and finishes. No matter what, I'll be glad to get TAR33 when it's time. 

[ianthebalance]

I really really despise the first class thing that has happened on final legs since 28. I want the racers to be as tired as possible in the final leg 

[fossil-racer]

The best part of the finale was seeing the trailer for Season 2 of Tough as Nails.

[dryedmangoez]

Better tasks at the locations they did use:

-the Manila music task on Bourbon Street. Have different bands scattered throughout the French Quarter. Teams must identify the country and put them in order. Can possibly incorporate the beads still. Maybe teams have to collect necklaces with country flags and use those to identify the music/countries.

-A TAR12 or TAR30-style Final Task at Mardi Gras World where teams have to assemble a float featuring items, locations, etc from the Race.

[Kamineko]

Better tasks at the locations they did use:

-the Manila music task on Bourbon Street. Have different bands scattered throughout the French Quarter. Teams must identify the country and put them in order. Can possibly incorporate the beads still. Maybe teams have to collect necklaces with country flags and use those to identify the music/countries.

-A TAR12 or TAR30-style Final Task at Mardi Gras World where teams have to assemble a float featuring items, locations, etc from the Race.

That's exactly what I thought.

- The Manila music task seemed out of place tbh. I think they originally wanted/planned to do the music memory challenge on the French Quarter but having some issues that they have to move the idea to the penultimate leg.
- Having them to go to the Mardi Gras World with all those floats really scream an excellent final memory challenge site. Combining with TAR12/TAR30 task would actually be one of the best final memory challenge. What a waste of opportunity.

I wonder when was the last time we saw a final leg without any position change like this..