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jakebullet ...
OK, saw the final episode of TAR4 last night.
Hm. Hm, hm, hm, hm, hm.
Bugger.
I really didn't want Chip and Reichen to win. I didn't mind them too much to begin with, but by the end they were bugging the hell out of me, mostly with the continual "people weren't expecting us to do well because we're gay" schtick. I checked the CBS website, and from day 1 they were the team that most people expected to win. And they stayed in the top 1 or 2 positions for that the whole way through. Somehow I don't see having a team made up of two young, fit males as being a disadvantage in this race. The US military, yes, but TAR? No.
And the final "logic puzzle" thing in the stadium really annoyed me - they had no idea what the hell the answer was, and they shouldn't have been able to find the clue without it dammit. As it was they kind of stumbled into first place, when they should have been held up more at the Stadium. Bah, humbug.
Up to that point I was quite enjoying the final episode, but it would have been better (for me at least) if Kelly and Jon had come from behind and won. Or if David and Jeff had managed to find a flight and catch up.
It didn't quite have the drama and tension of last season even, and definitely not of TAR2. Sort of back to TAR1, only this time the Guidos won and Rob and Brennan were 24 hours behind. *sigh*
Bits that I liked out of this series - I thought they did brilliantly with the bunching, keeping the pressure on and everyone on their toes. I loved some of the challenges - the Venetian masked ball, the woolshed and the clothes washing in India were pretty good - although I wish they'd get a bit off the "fall out of planes/down the sides of tall buildings/into space!" challenges. (Having said that, I did like the face forward rappel. Cool.) The eating the live octopus - oh my God. It moved. While they ate. It tried to get off the plate. While they ate. It stuck to their teeth. Oh My God.
(Again, just incidentally, do you sit there and decide which detours you'd do and who'd do the roadblocks? Cos when we got to "Strong Hands or Strong Stomach" I just went "Hands. No way am I eating anything, especially when I don't know what it is". Dean was a bit iffy, but decided that punching blocks would be fun. :-))
Teams: there weren't any that really came across as standout this time it seemed. It's hard I suppose to tell how people will come across once they're actually racing. The "strongest" personalities seemed to go out early. I was sad when Jon and Al went out, and with Tian and Jaree - and these were teams I actively disliked early. I was also sad when Millie and Chuck went out - I appear to be the only person who liked Millie, at least out of my little TAR watching posse. The only team this time I was glad went out were Russell and Cyndi, mostly cos he came across as a complete arsehole.
The places were OK, I see what you mean about revisiting, but I guess there's a limited number of destinations that don't have prohibitive restrictions on filming and/or interesting political stances. I would still like them to go to Scandinavia, Belgium (come on guys, you've flown over it twice now!), Mozambique and somewhere in Polynesia. (No, for the purposes of this argument, Hawaii doesn't count). And Canada, I fail to see why they consistently completely miss it. I think it'd also be interesting to go back to China and/or South Korea. Japan. Hm. I also wish they'd do something with lots of land based options, rather than flying a lot of the time. (OK, I admit that that's my pet UK-Belgium leg. Four ferrys and Eurostar to choose from. It'd be cool.)
I really, really wish they'd go back to having "clues" rather than "directions" though. I liked the "find the westernmost point of Europe", "there are 30 million people in Mexico City, you only need to find one. His name is Pedro"[1], "Head for the Petronas Towers in the country represented by the flag that's included", rather than the "Go to x, which is at this address and do y".
[1]OK, that remains my favourite clue of all time. I still giggle about it.
And yes, I really hope the Emmy means that CBS does a TAR5.
And that I can go on it. :-)
Yeah ok, pigs will fly first. But I can dream... ;-)
jakebullet ...OK, saw the final episode of TAR4 last night.
Hm. Hm, hm, hm, hm, hm.
Bugger.
I really didn't want Chip and Reichen to win. I didn't mind them too much to begin with, but by the end they were bugging the hell out of me, mostly with the continual "people weren't expecting us to do well because we're gay" schtick. I checked the CBS website, and from day 1 they were the team that most people expected to win. And they stayed in the top 1 or 2 positions for that the whole way through. Somehow I don't see having a team made up of two young, fit males as being a disadvantage in this race. The US military, yes, but TAR? No.
And the final "logic puzzle" thing in the stadium really annoyed me - they had no idea what the hell the answer was, and they shouldn't have been able to find the clue without it dammit. As it was they kind of stumbled into first place, when they should have been held up more at the Stadium. Bah, humbug.
Up to that point I was quite enjoying the final episode, but it would have been better (for me at least) if Kelly and Jon had come from behind and won. Or if David and Jeff had managed to find a flight and catch up.
It didn't quite have the drama and tension of last season even, and definitely not of TAR2. Sort of back to TAR1, only this time the Guidos won and Rob and Brennan were 24 hours behind. *sigh*
Bits that I liked out of this series - I thought they did brilliantly with the bunching, keeping the pressure on and everyone on their toes. I loved some of the challenges - the Venetian masked ball, the woolshed and the clothes washing in India were pretty good - although I wish they'd get a bit off the "fall out of planes/down the sides of tall buildings/into space!" challenges. (Having said that, I did like the face forward rappel. Cool.) The eating the live octopus - oh my God. It moved. While they ate. It tried to get off the plate. While they ate. It stuck to their teeth. Oh My God.
(Again, just incidentally, do you sit there and decide which detours you'd do and who'd do the roadblocks? Cos when we got to "Strong Hands or Strong Stomach" I just went "Hands. No way am I eating anything, especially when I don't know what it is". Dean was a bit iffy, but decided that punching blocks would be fun. :-))
Teams: there weren't any that really came across as standout this time it seemed. It's hard I suppose to tell how people will come across once they're actually racing. The "strongest" personalities seemed to go out early. I was sad when Jon and Al went out, and with Tian and Jaree - and these were teams I actively disliked early. I was also sad when Millie and Chuck went out - I appear to be the only person who liked Millie, at least out of my little TAR watching posse. The only team this time I was glad went out were Russell and Cyndi, mostly cos he came across as a complete arsehole.
The places were OK, I see what you mean about revisiting, but I guess there's a limited number of destinations that don't have prohibitive restrictions on filming and/or interesting political stances. I would still like them to go to Scandinavia, Belgium (come on guys, you've flown over it twice now!), Mozambique and somewhere in Polynesia. (No, for the purposes of this argument, Hawaii doesn't count). And Canada, I fail to see why they consistently completely miss it. I think it'd also be interesting to go back to China and/or South Korea. Japan. Hm. I also wish they'd do something with lots of land based options, rather than flying a lot of the time. (OK, I admit that that's my pet UK-Belgium leg. Four ferrys and Eurostar to choose from. It'd be cool.)
I really, really wish they'd go back to having "clues" rather than "directions" though. I liked the "find the westernmost point of Europe", "there are 30 million people in Mexico City, you only need to find one. His name is Pedro"[1], "Head for the Petronas Towers in the country represented by the flag that's included", rather than the "Go to x, which is at this address and do y".
[1]OK, that remains my favourite clue of all time. I still giggle about it.
And yes, I really hope the Emmy means that CBS does a TAR5.
And that I can go on it. :-)
Yeah ok, pigs will fly first. But I can dream... ;-)
