TAR6, eps 4-8
Jan. 18th, 2005 05:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hnpccQuick warning: this really did turn into a rant. So appropriate classifications:
[V][A][L][L][L] I may have gotten carried away with the [L]. Oh and I mention TAR3 at least twice in passing,
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shnetti. Nothing specific about it though IIRC.Rant begins... now:
OK, if Jonathan and Victoria win this I'm officially never watching TAR again.
(You may have to remind me I said that due to a somewhat high level of TAR addiction).
I'm currently praying that *[1] develops laryngitis. And she[2] does. And Hayden. I don't think I've wished laryngitis on quite so many people in a series before. But a quick overview:
Teams
I'm down to barracking for Kris and Jon and Bolo and Lori. Why oh bloody why couldn't it have been a non-elimination for Gus and Hera? Our of the remaining teams, I like Aaron (but not Hayden, who is shaping up to be the most useless
Seriously, I really could have loved this race if Wifebeater and Enabler had been ousted in the first leg, closely followed by Freddy and Kendra (clue? We don't need no freakin' clue!) and Hayden. I'll keep Aaron for the shallow end of the pool factor. :-) At least the last three I'll give the benefit of the fatigue doubt. Wifebeater/Enabler are just... scary.
Incidentally, and not that I'm counting or anything, but he's now hit her in full view of the cameras three times, right? Twice with car boots (at least once while facing in her direction) and one major shove en route to the mat. No apologies of course. If I ever meet the Casting Associate responsible for putting them on this show then that CA will be in a world of pain. That shove also had me on my feet ready to jump through the TV and beat the shit out of him incidentally. Yes, it made me that angry. I could accept that the car doors could be accidental, even if the lack of concern or apology made me doubt it, but that? Should have gotten him eliminated right there. I'm guessing there's a "no hitting other teams" rule a la Survivor or else at least three of the guys would have probably taken a swing at him by now.
Seriously, this is supposed to be entertaining? How? If I wanted to watch women being made victims of, I could watch fucking CSI. Or Law and Order. Or basically any crime show going actually.
I'm also surprised that no one's really told * to shut the fuck up, my first reaction had I been Gus and been being hassled over the flights to Budapest would almost certainly have been along those lines. Incidentally Dean's response would have been: "I rang my mates in the CIA and they got me on. What do you think?"
(My response had I been Lena or Kristy at the Viking Village would probably have been:
"Round of applause for Jonathan everybody - he got himself here! All by himself! Isn't he SPECIAL?"
Cos I'm more of a bitch than either of those two I think. Wonder if there's a rule against sarcasm.)
Locations
Cool... but too much Europe. This is shaping up a lot like The Endless Race Through Summer that was TAR3. Having said that, I like Scandinavia, I like Berlin and I like Hungary. But the only destination that's really challenged the teams to date is Senegal, and they were there for one freakin' leg. Do you get the feeling that Kendra, in particular, hasn't travelled outside of the Western world much? Neither have I, but I hope I'd remember that I'm miked and keep a lid on some of my more "Oh My God!" reactions. (And heh, they won a vacation to Mexico. Hope someone points out that they have areas with poverty and lots of breeding in Mexico too...)
Overall
Really aren't liking the bunching. I realise that a certain level of bunching is desirable and inevitable, but this is fucking ridiculous. There is no way that Lori and Bolo should have been able to catch up to those teams: having a 12 HOUR FUCKING DELAY between two consecutive PRODUCER CONTROLLED tasks is just FUCKING STUPID. And I'm saying this as someone who was seriously hoping for a non-elimination so they could stay in.
At this point, it doesn't matter how you race up until the last task because there is just so much redundant bunching built in. It's stupid. And annoying, not least because teams that are doing quite well get absolutely no advantage and can be eliminated on the basis of one task. I would have had less of a problem with it if the AOL (oh nice product placement there, not) clue had just said "go to the railway thingy" and they could have taken numbers, but as it was? Gus and Hera were essentially screwed pretty much from the outset having hit the railway last. (I also thought the water polo detour turned out to be pretty bloody hopeless - was it just me or did all teams get that first shot? They should at least have had some opposition or had to get five goals or something).
Also, two detours and a roadblock? I understand shaking the game up a bit to screw with contestant's minds[3], but together with the totally unnecessary bunching it was all just a bit too much for me. And seriously? Enough of the eating shit. I didn't mind the octopus in Korea as much, mostly because it was a Detour, not a Roadblock. I do have a real problem with the making people sick for the hell of it, which is what having a gross food Roadblock ends up being. It's annoying the crap out of me.
And I wish they'd either scrap the Fast Forward completely or take it back to there being one per leg. Because at the moment "most advantageous to use it" is meaningless: a better use would be "if you happen to get to this first grab it". It's not a considered choice any more, it's a first in best dressed. Colin and Christie would never have taken the FF in Egypt if there had been one per leg, why would they need to? They were miles ahead. On the other hand, the twins or Moms quite possibly would have, given that both teams were flustered about falling behind. I liked the original FF concept because it really did make lagging teams think, but it also gave teams who mostly were OK racers but had one really shitful leg (Lena and Kristy, Jim and Marsha, you know who I mean) a chance to catch up.
On the other hand I'm liking the Roadblock rule change - it's often annoying watching one person doing all the roadblocks (you know who I'm thinking of!) and this at least evens it up a bit. It doesn't necessarily stop the two strong guys team winning everything (which is probably why the last two TARs haven't had two strong guys teams if you've noticed) but it does mean that the Huge Man/Small Woman teams have to divvy up tasks and the all female or weak guy teams have a bit of a shot.
The Yield sucks even more, which I hadn't realised was possible - I hated the concept, who knew that limiting it would increase my levels of hate? The only thing that would currently redeem it would be if every single team left ganged up on You Know Who. Cos that? I'd laugh about. Again though: enough of the producer generated conflict. You don't need it. I liked Hayden at the start, currently I'm hating her. Ditto Kendra. Ditto Freddy. I don't need an egotistical arsewipe like * to "play a character" (you have read his IMDB bio yeah?) in order to have conflict. Hell, even Colin started the game reasonably sane. Conflict does usually arise from the situations (although if it's as inane as some of the conflict from TAR4, thanks, I'd rather watch the actual racing, y'know.)
Oh I dunno. Foxtel are apparently replaying TAR1. I think I'll go and watch the innocent days, when Phil was young and Evil went *clink* (TM Miss Alli from TWOP, I know). It's interesting that Phil said in an interview that TAR 5 was the most like TAR1 in terms of casting and how it went. I'd agree, it certainly was the one that I've enjoyed the most since TAR1. Again, partly luck in terms of casting and what people turned into under stress. No one's quite brought the funny like the Frat Boys did. But then again, no one's brought the Losing It Under Pressure quite like Colin did either. ;-) And that's still one of my favourite moments of TAR ever.
*sigh* I really love this show. And I'm so worried it's jumping the shark just as it's getting successful. Based on past experience though I'm sort of expecting that K&J will depart as team number four (*sigh*) and *^2 will win. And then I will have to mailbomb the casting agents and CBS.
Oh and kidnap Phil. ;-)
For, y'know, personal reasons[4].
But I'm still hoping against hope that *^2 gets eliminated and his head explodes. It won't of course, but I'd settle for him actually decking Victoria and being carted off to jail somewhere nice.
And I really wish they'd let Australians go on it[5]. *sigh*
[1]* - Arsehole. One of my greatest wishes at the moment is that someone gaffer tapes him shut.
[2] - Victoria. That she. Or Rebecca. Or Kendra. But mostly Victoria.
[3] - I'm all for screwing with contestants minds a bit. But not stupidly.
[4] - Although I wouldn't be putting on lip gloss just to run up to the mat. I mean really, who takes lip gloss on this race anyway? Honestly! And I'm sorry, but he really doesn't have an accent.
[5] - Yeah I Know. All you'd see of me in later legs (assuming I made it that far) would be blue air with a constant beeping sound.
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no subject
Date: 2005-01-18 05:05 am (UTC)I knew you'd hate him even more.
You too? SJ also said he doesn't have an accent. Me, I spent the first episode of TAR I ever saw wondering where he was from originally, because I knew it wasn't America, but I was buggered if I could pick the country of inflection. I eventually had to go online to discover the answer (just glad I wasn't spoiled on TAR4 before I realised how much I would get into it).
I guess he's got what I'd call an asparagus accent. Like the odour in urine that comes from eating asparagus, it's there, it's just that not everyone can detect it. ;-)
no subject
Date: 2005-01-18 02:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-19 04:29 am (UTC)Of course, most often when people say, "X has an accent" they mean that X's speech has an inflection that indicates that the language they're speaking is not their native language [1], or that it indicates a regional origin or influence not the same as the region we would associate with the majority quality of the speech (as opposed to for example, "Y has an American accent", which could describe any number of speech mannerisms all associated with the USA).
I'm not saying that Phil speaks with a NZ accent, or even any NZ inflection that I could/can identify. The quality of his speech is however just enough to tell me that that's not his original way of talking.
What do you call a "neutral" accent, then? I would have defined an accent as neutral only if there were no variant accents in existence (in which case the concept of "accent" itself might not even exist), because surely person A's accent that is different to person B's accent means that person A thinks person B has an accent and vice versa. As we have different regional speech mannerisms in the world, everyone has an accent of some sort! Except mute people, I guess.
I definitely think Phil has an American accent (which BTW is the last accent I personally would call "neutral" -- not with all those emphasised R's), it's just that it's not one of the accents I can identify as belonging to one "born in the USA". The American Len Wiseman, who directed his English wife Kate Beckinsale in Underworld, said on that film's commentary that he had a neutral accent, and that if Kate didn't have an English accent, she would "naturally" talk like him! This flabbergasted Kate (and Ant, and me!).
In short, I can tell that Phil's origins are not the USA, and so can a lot of Americans (who would naturally be more sensitive to detecting such a thing). That of itself tells you that he *does* have an accent, where I/they use "accent" to mean the second definition I give above. If multiple people all identify it, then objectively it's there. You can't hear it, so he has no accent *to you*, but that doesn't mean he doesn't have one. Whether it's cute or not though is completely subjective...
Incidentally, some Kiwis on a message board said that when he is being interviewed in NZ, NZ-associated pronunciations tend to crop up (that he almost completely avoids on TAR).
BTW, SJ needs that 7/8 ep tape back ASAP!
[1] By which I mean the language they grew up speaking, not any other debatable definition of "native language" that Tobes might mention.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-19 02:38 pm (UTC)Everyone has an accent. It's just that Phil's to me is not immediately identifiable, so therefore it's neutral. He doesn't sound at all American to me, even when saying "boo-eee" (God that's a stupid word!), but he doesn't sound distinguishably anything else either.
I'm dropping the 7/8 tape off to Trace tonight, tell SJ to calm already! ;-)
no subject
Date: 2005-01-20 03:19 am (UTC)Now, if only that applied to countries on an unlabelled map, there'd be fewer wars!
Hehe, there you go. He obviously doesn't sound at all American to those Americans in the race/on the messageboards/expostulating on TWP either, only they call the non-Americanness they hear "cute" rather than "neutral". ;-)
no subject
Date: 2005-01-18 12:16 pm (UTC)I'm also left with Kris and John to go for. They're the nicest, least arguey team remaining. As for J&V, well I think this post (http://www.livejournal.com/users/fahran/36468.html) I wrote after watching Ep 5 says it all.
I can't help feeling that the producers don't know what to do with the Fast Forward and Yield. They've tried them on every leg, and also tried limiting them, and it seems that they need the "extra twist" thing that they provide but can't find a way to make it particularly interesting. The FF in particular did much better when there was one on every leg and teams really did have to choose when to take it. Now it's just the first team who grab it while everyone else decides its pointless because the first team took it. It was more challenging for teams trying to second guess whether other teams took it and then race each other to the FF.
And the bunch 'em up thing is annoying me somewhat as well. So many "opening hours" hold ups isn't good. I wonder if they try and time these things so that they do bunch up like that. They must have some sort of production schedule so they think "well, the first team should arrive here at this time, then here at this time" and they then work out that they all arrive at pit stops in the middle of the day so they have to leave in the middle of the night when nothing is open.
Yeah, I love the show too.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-18 02:35 pm (UTC)Totally. And that was another problem with the FF that Adam & Rebecca took: it should have been possible to race for the FF (oh and they should have had two clues down there so both team members had to grab one). Remember Team Guido and Emily/Emily's Mom racing for the FF in Bangkok?
The Yield could have uses, but if they're going to have it I'd rather they had that and the FF on every leg, and I'd rather you could Yield a team ahead of you from (e.g.) checking in for x period of time. Because that would also be fun. It's kind of pointless stopping them only if they're behind you, it's the teams ahead that people want to slow down usually.
The opening hours thing seems to have been better managed in previous series. There was only one really long bunch that I can think of prior to TAR6, and that was one team waiting 7 hours for the first bus. That came across as completely accidental, the producers just hadn't realised that one team would be so far ahead at that point.
The 12 hour bunch though.. came across as giving everyone a chance to catch up because of the crappy cars. Which is nice, but really? Just don't give them the crappy cars in the first place. And seriously, one task opens at 10pm, the next doesn't open till 10am? And you can't take numbers? Sucks. It's hard to say how much planning goes into the opening hours or not: they must, as you say, have a guesstimate schedule worked out but obviously things can go wrong with that. It sort of seems that this race has ended up with more bunching due to opening hours than pretty much every other race, and at least some of that has to be bad planning. Although some of it must just be due to luck: you can't know exactly how many teams are going to make each available flight. There does seem to be a lot of leaving at 2.37am this series though. Now that would suck. I guess what really sums things up for me is that pretty much every leg except the post-IKEA one everyone's left within an hour and a half of each other. Too much bloody bunching!
Wow. You do take your Amazing Race VERY seriously!
Um, yeah. Dean could tell you more about that. ;-)