TAR S30 ep3: "It's Gonna Be a Fragrant Day" (spoilers)

[Questor]

Warning: contains spoilers

Another minimalist summary.

I note there seems to be a new, slightly different show structure. After the
recap, we now get a couple of minutes of race footage before the title sequence.

Teams leave Belgium and head to Tangier, Morocco. As in the previous leg,
everyone is on the same plane; the check-in time advantages are erased.

At the fish port, teams must complete a fish-packing task to get their next
clue, which directs them to a nearby souk. There they are given an advertising
totem and the roadblock clue.

For the roadblock, one team member watches the totem descend a zip line from
the roof of one building to another. They must then find their way through the
confusing streets and alleyways to find the second building and retrieve the
totem. After doing this with two different ziplines, they are directed to a
'tele boutique' to get their clue from the shopkeeper.

Next is the detour, a choice between "Drop it off" and "Shake it off." In the
former, teams haul produce on sleds to make deliveries and get receipts with the
words that spell their next clue. In the latter, teams get into costume and
"dance" around in the middle of a bellydance performance while looking for those
clue words written in different places. The "Shake it off" choice seemed
notably quicker and easier.


finish order:

1. Yalies
2. Indy Racers
3. Pro skiers
4. Musicians
5. Big Brother
6. Eaters
7. Twin EMTs
8. Lifeguards

9 NBA stars -- are spared; this is a non-elimination leg.

Next week: a two-hour episode hops back across the Mediterranean to the South
of France, a sailing task, and... the return of the head-to-head challenge!
(Looks like the H2H will be bocce.)

Okay, discuss.

[Brian Smith]

Post by Questor
Warning: contains spoilers
Another minimalist summary.
I note there seems to be a new, slightly different show structure. After the
recap, we now get a couple of minutes of race footage before the title sequence.
Teams leave Belgium and head to Tangier, Morocco. As in the previous leg,
everyone is on the same plane; the check-in time advantages are erased.
At the fish port, teams must complete a fish-packing task to get their next
clue, which directs them to a nearby souk. There they are given an advertising
totem and the roadblock clue.
For the roadblock, one team member watches the totem descend a zip line from
the roof of one building to another. They must then find their way through the
confusing streets and alleyways to find the second building and retrieve the
totem. After doing this with two different ziplines, they are directed to a
'tele boutique' to get their clue from the shopkeeper.
Next is the detour, a choice between "Drop it off" and "Shake it off." In the
former, teams haul produce on sleds to make deliveries and get receipts with the
words that spell their next clue. In the latter, teams get into costume and
"dance" around in the middle of a bellydance performance while looking for those
clue words written in different places. The "Shake it off" choice seemed
notably quicker and easier.
1. Yalies
2. Indy Racers
3. Pro skiers
4. Musicians
5. Big Brother
6. Eaters
7. Twin EMTs
8. Lifeguards
9 NBA stars -- are spared; this is a non-elimination leg.
Next week: a two-hour episode hops back across the Mediterranean to the South
of France, a sailing task, and... the return of the head-to-head challenge!
(Looks like the H2H will be bocce.)
Okay, discuss.

Lots of two hour episodes this season to make up for being aired over just eight weeks. IIRC, the last three episodes are all two hours long and will air one hour later. Celebrity Big Brother (officially Big Brother: Celebrity Edition according to Julie and important if you want to record it) will take over the usual Survivor/BB timeslot and TAR will get the rest of the night.

As for tonight's episode I thought they were blatantly trying to give winner edits to Kristi and Jen and to Jody. Near the beginning of the episode I believe Kristi made some comment about winning or being winners and then Jess a bit later on made the "that's a million dollar gnome" comment. Unlike this past season of Survivor where no one got an obvious winners edit I feel that the TAR producers are basically telling us that these two teams are going to make it to the end. The suspense will be which team wins or they'll blindside us and one of the other teams to make the finale will win. And no I don't have any spoilers other than I'm pretty sure Jody survives the next leg thanks to their video from last week. I noticed this past Monday there was no recap video and they didn't mention anything about doing one which seems to confirm that CBS gave them shit and told them to stop. They are discussing live what happens during the episode if you download the TVParty app.

I liked the tasks on this challenge. It seemed like a very hard leg physically but if you paid attention you could limit how much you had to exert yourself. I also liked that task selection was important in the Detour. I'd have to check to verify but it seemed like the teams that picked the market task finished near the end of the pack.

Two racers knowing some Arabic was unexpected. The audience was probably shocked that Cody was one of them. He said he used to know a lot more. What other languages do Henry and Evan know? I was happy and surprised that they won the leg. Maybe they'll do better than I thought they would.

I'm not looking forward to a bunch of head-to-head challenges this race for reasons already stated. But next week I am looking forward to see if Brittany accuses Jess of trying to screw her over concerning the gnome. To me it looked like Jess was just being helpful and it's not like she tried to hide the gnome on her.

--
Brian

[Larry]

Post by Brian Smith
I noticed this past Monday there was no recap video and they didn't mention anything about doing one which seems to confirm that CBS gave them shit and told them to stop. They are discussing live what happens during the episode if you download the TVParty app.

I'm not sure that holding them to the terms of their contract with CBS and/or the production company qualifies as "gave them shit."

Post by Brian Smith
The audience was probably shocked that Cody was one of them. He said he used to know a lot more.

"Shocked," why?? He is just another contestant so I have no reason to be surprised by his linguistic skills, limited or not. I'm sure every cast member has skills that haven't been shared with us.

[Questor]

Post by Brian Smith

Post by Questor
Warning: contains spoilers
Another minimalist summary.
Okay, discuss.

As for tonight's episode I thought they were blatantly trying to give winner
edits to Kristi and Jen and to Jody. Near the beginning of the episode I
believe Kristi made some comment about winning or being winners and then Jess
a bit later on made the "that's a million dollar gnome" comment. Unlike
this past season of Survivor where no one got an obvious winners edit I feel
that the TAR producers are basically telling us that these two teams are
going to make it to the end.

Those kind of comments are made ALL the time on these programs by ALL the
players. Everything is a "million-dollar" everything. The idea of a "winner's
edit" is a little silly to begin with, and it isn't supported by those comments.

Post by Brian Smith
I liked the tasks on this challenge. It seemed like a very hard leg physically
but if you paid attention you could limit how much you had to exert
yourself. I also liked that task selection was important in the Detour. I'd have
to check to verify but it seemed like the teams that picked the market task
finished near the end of the pack.

The fish-stacking task was a bit more involved than usual to obtain an
early-race route marker, and I wonder if all the tasks are going to get
noticably more challenging as the race continues. I also thought there was a
discernable detour difficulty disparity, and yes, the teams that chose "Drop it
off" all finished at the bottom.

Post by Brian Smith
Two racers knowing some Arabic was unexpected. The audience was probably
shocked that Cody was one of them. He said he used to know a lot more. What
other languages do Henry and Evan know? I was happy and surprised that they
won the leg. Maybe they'll do better than I thought they would.

I don't know anything about Cody's background, but it's not surprising that
military personnel who have served overseas would learn some conversational
Arabic. We also saw teams using some French and Spanish to communicate with
people. The racers get some warning about where they're going in that they must
apply for visas in advance, although not all those countries will be visited.
They could use that opportunity to learn some basic vocabulary related to travel
(time, directions, transportation) for the relevant major languages.

Post by Brian Smith
I'm not looking forward to a bunch of head-to-head challenges this race for
reasons already stated.

With better placement within the race leg, a H2H challenge could serve as a
'psuedo-bunching point.'

[Brian Smith]

Post by Questor

Post by Brian Smith

Post by Questor
Warning: contains spoilers
Another minimalist summary.
Okay, discuss.

As for tonight's episode I thought they were blatantly trying to give winner
edits to Kristi and Jen and to Jody. Near the beginning of the episode I
believe Kristi made some comment about winning or being winners and then Jess
a bit later on made the "that's a million dollar gnome" comment. Unlike
this past season of Survivor where no one got an obvious winners edit I feel
that the TAR producers are basically telling us that these two teams are
going to make it to the end.

Those kind of comments are made ALL the time on these programs by ALL the
players. Everything is a "million-dollar" everything. The idea of a "winner's
edit" is a little silly to begin with, and it isn't supported by those comments.

No, winners edits are real and they don't show every team/player making such comments.

Post by Questor

Post by Brian Smith
I liked the tasks on this challenge. It seemed like a very hard leg physically
but if you paid attention you could limit how much you had to exert
yourself. I also liked that task selection was important in the Detour. I'd have
to check to verify but it seemed like the teams that picked the market task
finished near the end of the pack.

The fish-stacking task was a bit more involved than usual to obtain an
early-race route marker, and I wonder if all the tasks are going to get
noticably more challenging as the race continues. I also thought there was a
discernable detour difficulty disparity, and yes, the teams that chose "Drop it
off" all finished at the bottom.

Post by Brian Smith
Two racers knowing some Arabic was unexpected. The audience was probably
shocked that Cody was one of them. He said he used to know a lot more. What
other languages do Henry and Evan know? I was happy and surprised that they
won the leg. Maybe they'll do better than I thought they would.

I don't know anything about Cody's background, but it's not surprising that
military personnel who have served overseas would learn some conversational
Arabic. We also saw teams using some French and Spanish to communicate with
people. The racers get some warning about where they're going in that they must
apply for visas in advance, although not all those countries will be visited.
They could use that opportunity to learn some basic vocabulary related to travel
(time, directions, transportation) for the relevant major languages.

The racers don't apply for visas, production does it for them. They also apply for extra countries to throw them off. So they really don't get any warning to prepare in that way.

Post by Questor

Post by Brian Smith
I'm not looking forward to a bunch of head-to-head challenges this race for
reasons already stated.

With better placement within the race leg, a H2H challenge could serve as a
'psuedo-bunching point.'

I have a bad feeling that the first one set the format for the ones to follow. At least the sailing task looks very hard. Too hard actually unless they're going to "pros" on deck to help them out.

--
Brian

[Questor]

Post by Brian Smith

Post by Questor
Those kind of comments are made ALL the time on these programs by ALL the
players. Everything is a "million-dollar" everything. The idea of a "winner's
edit" is a little silly to begin with, and it isn't supported by those comments.

No, winners edits are real and they don't show every team/player making such comments.

The simple explanation why they don't show every player making those comments is
that not every player makes those comments; alternatively, the producers had
plenty of more interesting material to put into the show. Sometimes a cigar is
just a cigar.

Post by Brian Smith

Post by Questor

Post by Brian Smith
Two racers knowing some Arabic was unexpected. The audience was probably
shocked that Cody was one of them. He said he used to know a lot more. What
other languages do Henry and Evan know? I was happy and surprised that they
won the leg. Maybe they'll do better than I thought they would.

I don't know anything about Cody's background, but it's not surprising that
military personnel who have served overseas would learn some conversational
Arabic. We also saw teams using some French and Spanish to communicate with
people. The racers get some warning about where they're going in that they must
apply for visas in advance, although not all those countries will be visited.
They could use that opportunity to learn some basic vocabulary related to travel
(time, directions, transportation) for the relevant major languages.

The racers don't apply for visas, production does it for them. They also apply for extra countries to throw them off.
So they really don't get any warning to prepare in that way.

That's plenty of warning. With a country like Iceland, it might not be worth
the effort to learn a little Icelandic. But if there are several Mideastern
countries on the visa list, it might be a good idea to learn some Arabic.
If there are a couple of former French colonies on the list, picking up some
French would probably prove useful. Given a list of countries, a simple
analysis of their major spoken languages would probably suggest the
one or two that the racers are most likely to encounter that they don't already
know. Learning just a few dozen words about travel and directions, along with
the usual social graces. could make a huge difference.

Post by Brian Smith
I have a bad feeling that the first one set the format for the ones to follow.
At least the sailing task looks very hard. Too hard actually unless they're going to "pros" on deck to help them out.

Those are single-person boats of some variety.

[Brian Smith]

Post by Questor

Post by Brian Smith

Post by Questor
Those kind of comments are made ALL the time on these programs by ALL the
players. Everything is a "million-dollar" everything. The idea of a "winner's
edit" is a little silly to begin with, and it isn't supported by those comments.

No, winners edits are real and they don't show every team/player making such comments.

The simple explanation why they don't show every player making those comments is
that not every player makes those comments; alternatively, the producers had
plenty of more interesting material to put into the show. Sometimes a cigar is
just a cigar.

How would you know what players say or don't say? Anyway, I believe you are the first person to claim that shows such as TAR and Survivor don't do story arcs. Fact is that they do and if pay close enough attention you can usually determine who is going to win. The reason most people don't see who is going to win or at least make it to the end is because it's hard to remember the little clues when you watch a season over several months. Binge watch a season and you'll see it much more clearly.

Post by Questor

Post by Brian Smith

Post by Questor

Post by Brian Smith
Two racers knowing some Arabic was unexpected. The audience was probably
shocked that Cody was one of them. He said he used to know a lot more. What
other languages do Henry and Evan know? I was happy and surprised that they
won the leg. Maybe they'll do better than I thought they would.

I don't know anything about Cody's background, but it's not surprising that
military personnel who have served overseas would learn some conversational
Arabic. We also saw teams using some French and Spanish to communicate with
people. The racers get some warning about where they're going in that they must
apply for visas in advance, although not all those countries will be visited.
They could use that opportunity to learn some basic vocabulary related to travel
(time, directions, transportation) for the relevant major languages.

The racers don't apply for visas, production does it for them. They also apply for extra countries to throw them off.
So they really don't get any warning to prepare in that way.

That's plenty of warning. With a country like Iceland, it might not be worth
the effort to learn a little Icelandic. But if there are several Mideastern
countries on the visa list, it might be a good idea to learn some Arabic.
If there are a couple of former French colonies on the list, picking up some
French would probably prove useful. Given a list of countries, a simple
analysis of their major spoken languages would probably suggest the
one or two that the racers are most likely to encounter that they don't already
know. Learning just a few dozen words about travel and directions, along with
the usual social graces. could make a huge difference.

There's no warning. The racers do not apply for the visas--production does it for them. This has been stated by numerous racers over the years. They get all of their travel documents at the last second. If the racers are smart they would learn some basic phrases in the most commonly used languages.

Post by Questor

Post by Brian Smith
I have a bad feeling that the first one set the format for the ones to follow.
At least the sailing task looks very hard. Too hard actually unless they're going to "pros" on deck to help them out.

Those are single-person boats of some variety.

After watching the preview again that seems to be the case but it still looks dangerous.

--
Brian

[Questor]

Post by Brian Smith

Post by Questor

Post by Brian Smith

Post by Questor
Those kind of comments are made ALL the time on these programs by ALL the
players. Everything is a "million-dollar" everything. The idea of a " winner's
edit" is a little silly to begin with, and it isn't supported by those comments.

No, winners edits are real and they don't show every team/player making such comments.

The simple explanation why they don't show every player making those comments is
that not every player makes those comments; alternatively, the producers had
plenty of more interesting material to put into the show. Sometimes a cigar is
just a cigar.

How would you know what players say or don't say? Anyway, I believe you are
the first person to claim that shows such as TAR and Survivor don't do story
arcs. Fact is that they do and if pay close enough attention you can usually
determine who is going to win. The reason most people don't see who is
going to win or at least make it to the end is because it's hard to remember
the little clues when you watch a season over several months. Binge watch
a season and you'll see it much more clearly.

I just binge watched the last season to free up some space on the DVR and I saw
no such little clues.

It's not that I know what the players did or didn't say. It's that more than
one team has been shown saying "this is a million-dollar X." It's very common,
but every team doesn't necessarily make such comments. If these clues are so
obvious, then you should be able to tell us now who wins, or at least makes the
final three. If the clues are only obvious in hindsight, then they really
aren't clues.

And I never claimed that TAR doesn't have story arcs, although it hardly needs
them. The structure of a race provides all the urgency needed to move the
narrative.

Post by Brian Smith
After watching the preview again that seems to be the case but it still looks dangerous.

Dangerous? You might be in a bit of trouble when/if you get dumped in the water
if you can't swim, but I'd hardly call it dangerous. They're close to shore and
being filmed for a television program; not doing a solo sail across miles of
open sea.

[Brian Smith]

Post by Questor

Post by Brian Smith

Post by Questor

Post by Brian Smith

Post by Questor
Those kind of comments are made ALL the time on these programs by ALL the
players. Everything is a "million-dollar" everything. The idea of a " winner's
edit" is a little silly to begin with, and it isn't supported by those comments.

No, winners edits are real and they don't show every team/player making such comments.

The simple explanation why they don't show every player making those comments is
that not every player makes those comments; alternatively, the producers had
plenty of more interesting material to put into the show. Sometimes a cigar is
just a cigar.

How would you know what players say or don't say? Anyway, I believe you are
the first person to claim that shows such as TAR and Survivor don't do story
arcs. Fact is that they do and if pay close enough attention you can usually
determine who is going to win. The reason most people don't see who is
going to win or at least make it to the end is because it's hard to remember
the little clues when you watch a season over several months. Binge watch
a season and you'll see it much more clearly.

I just binge watched the last season to free up some space on the DVR and I saw
no such little clues.
It's not that I know what the players did or didn't say. It's that more than
one team has been shown saying "this is a million-dollar X." It's very common,
but every team doesn't necessarily make such comments. If these clues are so
obvious, then you should be able to tell us now who wins, or at least makes the
final three. If the clues are only obvious in hindsight, then they really
aren't clues.
And I never claimed that TAR doesn't have story arcs, although it hardly needs
them. The structure of a race provides all the urgency needed to move the
narrative.

TAR's not as obvious as Survivor is because success in the race isn't as dependent on past performance. It's too early to say who will win this race but the last episode basically screamed out that the skiers and Jody are going to go far. I believe the finale will have four teams and I will predict now that they will be two of the teams. After next week we should have a much better idea of who one or both of the other teams might be. IIRC tonight is supposed to be two episodes so that will help a lot in narrowing down edits.

Post by Questor

Post by Brian Smith
After watching the preview again that seems to be the case but it still looks dangerous.

Dangerous? You might be in a bit of trouble when/if you get dumped in the water
if you can't swim, but I'd hardly call it dangerous. They're close to shore and
being filmed for a television program; not doing a solo sail across miles of
open sea.

Anything can happen even though we know nothing did in this case.

--
Brian

[Karen M]

Post by Questor

Post by Brian Smith
The racers don't apply for visas, production does it for them. They also apply for extra countries to throw them off.
So they really don't get any warning to prepare in that way.

That's plenty of warning.

Not really. I suspect that production doesn't give them their passports back more than about 10 days (some visas can't be issued more than a couple weeks before travel) of the departure date so no, there wouldn't be "plenty of warning" to learn and UNDERSTAND foreign phrases in multiple languages. Comprending what native speakers are saying is never quite as easy as the phrase books make it seem. Yeah, they should know some French--it's one of the most common second languages learned--but listening to someone in Azerbaijan speak French isn't going to be the same as listening to the Rosetta Stone lessons.

Karen

[Loren Pechtel]

On Sat, 20 Jan 2018 22:32:38 -0800 (PST), Karen M

Post by Karen M
Not really. I suspect that production doesn't give them their passports back more than about 10 days (some visas can't be issued more than a couple weeks before travel) of the departure date so no, there wouldn't be "plenty of warning" to learn and UNDERSTAND foreign phrases in multiple languages. Comprending what native speakers are saying is never quite as easy as the phrase books make it seem. Yeah, they should know some French--it's one of the most common second languages learned--but listening to someone in Azerbaijan speak French isn't going to be the same as listening to the Rosetta Stone lessons.

And being understood can be even worse.

I speak a few words of Chinese--but my accent is so bad that it's
about 50:50 whether I will be understood. My teacher is my wife--a
native speaker so that's not the problem. I just can't do the tones.

It's crazy, I say something, nobody understands. She repeats it, as
far as I can tell exactly what I said, they understand.

[Brian Smith]

Post by Karen M

Post by Questor

Post by Brian Smith
The racers don't apply for visas, production does it for them. They also apply for extra countries to throw them off.
So they really don't get any warning to prepare in that way.

That's plenty of warning.

Not really. I suspect that production doesn't give them their passports back more than about 10 days (some visas can't be issued more than a couple weeks before travel) of the departure date so no, there wouldn't be "plenty of warning" to learn and UNDERSTAND foreign phrases in multiple languages. Comprending what native speakers are saying is never quite as easy as the phrase books make it seem. Yeah, they should know some French--it's one of the most common second languages learned--but listening to someone in Azerbaijan speak French isn't going to be the same as listening to the Rosetta Stone lessons.
Karen

Even if they had a lot of advanced warning of where they might be going I doubt they would take the time to learn phrases, etc. anyway. Phil's been advising people to make sure they know how to drive a stick for years but we still see people going on the race not knowing how to do so.

--
Brian

[Karen M]

Post by Brian Smith
Even if they had a lot of advanced warning of where they might be going I doubt they would take the time to learn phrases, etc. anyway. Phil's been advising people to make sure they know how to drive a stick for years but we still see people going on the race not knowing how to do so.

Exactly, and it's probably easier to learn to drive a stick, provided you can find one--which may be the big part of the problem. I haven't driven a stick in nearly 20 years, can't think of any of my friends who still have one.

Karen

[Questor]

Post by Brian Smith

Post by Brian Smith
Even if they had a lot of advanced warning of where they might be going I

doubt they would take the time to learn phrases, etc. anyway. Phil's been
advising people to make sure they know how to drive a stick for years but we
still see people going on the race not knowing how to do so.
Exactly, and it's probably easier to learn to drive a stick, provided you can
find one--which may be the big part of the problem. I haven't driven a stick
in nearly 20 years, can't think of any of my friends who still have one.

I drive a stick, and every car I've owned save one has had a manual trannie.

Other things racers should know how to do:
- paddle a canoe
- row a boat
- build a fire (whoops, that's Survivor)
- ride a bicycle

[Karen M]

Post by Questor
I drive a stick, and every car I've owned save one has had a manual trannie.
- paddle a canoe
- row a boat
- build a fire (whoops, that's Survivor)
- ride a bicycle

Basically, if you went to summer camp as a kid/teen, you should be okay. Except the car. I guess sporty cars are still available with manual transmissions, but minivans...not so much. I'm starting the quest for the next car--something smaller, but it has to fit dog crates--I'll have to research the transmission situation.

Karen

[Loren Pechtel]

On Mon, 22 Jan 2018 22:41:58 -0800 (PST), Karen M

Post by Karen M

Post by Questor
I drive a stick, and every car I've owned save one has had a manual trannie.
- paddle a canoe
- row a boat
- build a fire (whoops, that's Survivor)
- ride a bicycle

Basically, if you went to summer camp as a kid/teen, you should be okay. Except the car. I guess sporty cars are still available with manual transmissions, but minivans...not so much. I'm starting the quest for the next car--something smaller, but it has to fit dog crates--I'll have to research the transmission situation.

No water anywhere near the summer camp I went to. Nor anything to do
with fire (summer in forest fire country, fires would have been a bad
idea!)

Since then I have paddled one canoe, never rowed a boat, built a few
fires.

[Larry]

Post by Questor
With better placement within the race leg, a H2H challenge could serve as a
'psuedo-bunching point.'

Or best be placed immediately after a bunching point and with fewer teams in the game. I found devoting almost half the show to the races made for boring TV.

[Brian Smith]

Post by Larry

Post by Questor
With better placement within the race leg, a H2H challenge could serve as a
'psuedo-bunching point.'

Or best be placed immediately after a bunching point and with fewer teams in the game. I found devoting almost half the show to the races made for boring TV.

So did I. The race course was too short and too small. Without running someone of the course it seemed like you were doomed if you didn't take an early lead. Course was way too narrow as well. Hopefully whatever it is they're doing in the preview is a lot more exciting and fair.

--
Brian