Topic: The Amazing Race Finland 2023

[G.B.]

Easiest Roadblock ever that every team struggled with? :/

So there was no penalty at all for the Non-Elimination Leg?

[finamazing]

So there was no penalty at all for the Non-Elimination Leg?

Yeap, no penalty.

Episode 6 was good. The frog task was made too easy and even the teams described it as "Easiest task in The Amazing Race history". On the other hand, one team quit it and switched, so I guess it wasn't too easy ...

Marcus & Timo are still the most entertaining. Peter is starting to be annoying and kinda embarassing. Tuukka is kind of straight-forward and seems even a bit rude at times, but then again he is kinda authentic.

Bakari&Samuel & Blonde girls are great and cute.

[Maanca]

Episode 6 caused a nice shuffle in the placements. Much like in TAR35's Episode 6, the top teams of previous weeks are now near the bottom. I feel like I jinxed Bakari & Samuel by reading too much into their four 1st places out of the gate 

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Ilmari & Aapo were barely surviving every week. It was their time to go.

[Xoruz]

One reason why some of the earlier legs felt stale was due to a lack of equalizers. We finally get one after 6 legs, and it was for the ultralight task from TAR Philippines 1. The frog task was also pretty easy, and the only reason we had a team switch was due to overthinking.

[Maanca]

I was just thinking after watching the episode, it's unfortunate we lost Jukka & Mirva the leg before this.

Jukka's been the Finnish voice actor of Donald Duck for 30 years. Imagine him breaking out that voice during the "quack, quack, quack" part of the karaoke challenge 

[G.B.]

finamazing, I need the Roadblock prompt for this week again, if you could get it.

Frog task way too easy, and pointless route marker clue at the entrance to the eco-park, but the teams themselves have pulled out of that low-energy slump that hit them from legs 2 through 4 at least.

Turns out I had Marcus and Timo's identities swapped the whole time, lol...

[Maanca]

Turns out I had Marcus and Timo's identities swapped the whole time, lol...

They're basically a Finnish Joe & Bill

Marcus = Joe, taller, darker-haired
Timo = Bill, shorter, lighter-haired

[dryedmangoez]

Like the judges were very lenient with the banga dance last week, so they were again with the karaoke task. The pronunciations were horrible and they were completely off beat lol

The Detours also could've been harder.

Still, great to see TAR in the Philippines.

[finamazing]

finamazing, I need the Roadblock prompt for this week again, if you could get it.

Episode 6, Roadblock:

Rough translation: "Which one of you is a hero themselves?". This is a reference to a Finnish song called "Pilot's son", and the lyrics go something like: "I was a son of a pilot. Almost a hero myself".

Finnish: Tiesulku: Kumpi teistä on lähes sankari siis itsekin?

Episode 7

Decent episode. Marcus&Timo were great and entertaining again, Marcus was fun, making the locals and home audiences laugh with his dancing and singing. It was cute when Timo got emotional. I get it now, Marcus is a kind person, but just lives in the moment and doesn't realize that his straight-forward approach might seem a bit rude, even when he is trying to be somewhat helpful. Timo has been the navigator in their rally races, but I guess in everything else also. Marcus's job was to drive and just drive, Timo was the navigator and the brains, keeping Marcus on track on and off the race, keeping him focused.

Peter is so annoying and delivers second hand embarrasment every episode, and not in a good way. I also hate his know-it-all attitude, however he fails in everything and Anna succeeds. It seems that Anna is also quite fed up with Peter's fake-cheering and unnecessary tips and tactics. Peter is not even the type of "love to hate" character that are made for tv, he is just "annoying to watch".

Tuukka's blunt dead-pan humour is lame. I usually love it, like when Aubrey Plaza does it, but Tuukka doesn't have the comedic skills, which makes him seem either rude, annoyed or bored, depending on the situation.

Special forces men or Athlete women for the win, they are sweet, spontaneous, complex and competitive while still being supportive of other teams. Mari is funny and witty, but she also seems to be quick learner and talented in various ways. Bakari & Samuel are also good, but they seem a bit tired.

[Maanca]

Peter Vesterbacka is the one person on the cast I'd actually heard of beforehand. I could tell from past articles talking about Angry Birds or Rovio Entertainment (his former game company that created it), he's a pretty straightforward guy.

[finamazing]

Episode 8

First (and last?) speed-bump. It was weird, that they didn't use it after the first non-elimination leg. While the speed bump was easy, the last team didn't have a chance, since once again the task were once again fairly easily.

Well, next episode seems promising. This one wasn't so good, though Marcus&Timo had some fun moments.

Oh, and it was hard to look at Kaisa's injuries after archery. I really love the attitude blonde athletes have, and Mari is really quirky and sweet.

[G.B.]

What I'm assuming happened is that Leg 4 was not meant to be a non-elimination leg, but was changed into one when Noora & Lotta withdrew. As such, they did not have a Speed Bump planned for the following leg. I'm guessing none of this was addressed or explained in the episodes though, smh...

I'm getting bored of this really fast. This is almost worse than Australia 7 in terms of destinations...At least that one had India.

[Maanca]

I'm getting bored of this really fast. This is almost worse than Australia 7 in terms of destinations...At least that one had India.

Same, honestly. It's a combination of a few factors:

-The route's basically Asia 5 except they started from Europe. Several tasks from said season have been re-used, even.
-Little movement in the standings week after week. The top are staying at the top, the bottom are staying at the bottom.
-4 of the Final 5 are MM. The alpha dominance isn't helping enthrall me to a show I can't understand. HaMerotz was better at having interesting and diverse teams to make up for this.

If this gets a second season (apparently the ratings have been decent enough), they really need to go back to the drawing board.

[Xoruz]

The route isn't the biggest factor for me, but the lack of placement changes in multiple legs has been really annoying. Part of that is due to them keeping the Pit Stop time differences after flights. Same problem as TARLA.


Side note G.B. for the RFW, Yogyakarta has a new airport that handles flights from Bali (Yogyakarta International Airport) instead of Adisutjipto.

[finamazing]

Episode 9

Hmm. Okay episode. Nothing much to say about this one. I'm kinda tired of these dance/sing/play instruments tasks. Especially when they let everyone through eventually, which Marcus&Timo didn't realize.

The human-bull task was once again these tasks, where the difficulty of the task varies a lot, depending on the other people. In this case, which human-bulls the teams got. I know it doesn't matter that much, because this was once again one of these 5 minute tasks but still. At least it was measurable, even though the bulls behaved differently to some.

It was nice that they had one extremISH task.

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Sad to see the rally guys, Marcus&Timo ending up last

[G.B.]

finamazing I wasn't able to get the prompt for either Roadblock in leg 9.

[finamazing]

finamazing I wasn't able to get the prompt for either Roadblock in leg 9.

Wire:

- Kumman tasapaino ei järky? -> Which one has better balance?

(This is why Timo&Marcus chose Timo, because they didn't realize that the task involved heights. Timo is afraid of heights).

Instrument:
- Kummalla on rytmi veressä? -> Who's got rhythm?

[Maanca]

Episode 10
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Finally, some movement in the placements! I'm happy to see BakSam back on top

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With 3 episodes and 4 teams left, this was obviously going to be a non-elimination. Funny coincidence that both TAR US and Finland are now on the cusp of all-male final 3, but I'm rooting for Kaisa & Mari to bounce back next leg and prevent that!

[finamazing]

Episode 10

Great episode. Nice pacing, challenging tasks, changing placements through the episode. And also nice views, it actually felt like they are in Kuala Lumpur and not some random place.

[Xoruz]

Did find it fun to see two locations from the TAR Australia 7 finale (what publicist does that bookstore have) as well as a TAR Asia 4 task (the show's diverging from TAR Asia 5). The season has been regaining some steam after a dire stretch.

[finamazing]

Episode 11

Good episode. Picture task was interesting and not too straightforward. The battle performance and fruit tasks were a bit boring, since we have already seen similar tasks this season. Also shoot+aim task had been done previously.

Highlight for me was the judge at the fruit display task, quirky and funny. It was about time that the arrogant kid got some "feedback" from his always supportive, long-tempered and calm dad.

If I think about tourism promotion perspective, Malaysia has been very attractive regarding picturesque landscapes, architect, friendly people etc.

All the final teams are great, I wish that the women would win.

[finamazing]

Episode 12, Season finale

Good episode. I wish they had spent a bit more time in Singapore, but oh well. It was annoying to have yet another dance/test-task. Boring.

Loved the winners.

Improvements for possible future seasons, similar opinions have been seen in Finnish Social Media:
- More diverse tasks (1 dance/season etc)
- Tougher judges, same rules for everyone (It seems, that they sometimes let teams through, if they try x times and so on)

I liked the casting choices, especially: Marcus&Timo, Firemen/Special Forces, Mari&Kaisa, Jukka&Mirva
Pacing and atmosphere was great in many episodes, it had Amazing Race US feeling at times. I hope they let the teams drive themselves at some points during the future seasons.

To be honest, Amazing Race Finland was much better than I expected. The budget is obviously smaller than the one in the USA, so it was pleasant surprise that the editing, locations, music, sound recording and fixing, cast etc. was well done. Improvements that the viewers have complained can be fixed without increasing the budget too much.

Oh yeah, and it would be great to see them going to three continents or for example Finland + other places in Europe + Africa/Asia/Americas.

[Maanca]

Congratulations

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Kaisa & Mari!

finamazing, have you heard any word on a season 2 yet? The ratings did well, 1st or 2nd most weeks. So renewal seems inevitable. Hopefully they'll give some regular Finns a chance next time.

[Xoruz]

Really happy for the show's winners. Well done to them.

[finamazing]

finamazing, have you heard any word on a season 2 yet? The ratings did well, 1st or 2nd most weeks. So renewal seems inevitable. Hopefully they'll give some regular Finns a chance next time.

Not yet, but they had a press release, where while congratulating the winners, they highlighted huge total views of the series. So I think it is very likely that they make second season.

I think possibe second season will be with celebs, IF they manage to get interesting personas again, who have NOT been in reality tv before.

Non-celebs are a bit risky, but the corporation (Sanoma) that shows Amazing Race Finland has a habit of recycling c-list celebs and "influencers" in all of their other reality shows. Tuukka is a radio host at Sanoma corp., but that was okay, because he hasn't been in other reality shows. Tuukka was also heavily promoting the show in his morning radio show, which made minor headlines, since he shared some behind the scenes information.

There are so many possibilities with celebrity casting. There are many former/current sportsmen, who also have their adult kids in the industry, so they would make up competitive teams. Also many actors/singers have nepo babies grown into industry, and  some are very interesting and it would be nice  to see their chemistries. Some celeb couples are funny and straightforward, which would make good tv.

If they want to continue casting gay politicians, there are two different gay politicians living with their multi-cultural partners, and they are more fascinating and made for tv, than Ilmari&Aapo.

Finland has such a small population, so I think there are many big names, who woud be willing to do Amazing race. In general Amazing Race also has the best reputation, because you don't have to "damage" your public image with backstabbing and plotting, like in Survivor or Traitors.