TAR 31 finale

[t***@gmail.com]

Kind of amazing that the finale was last night, and there are no posts. My thoughts:
Well, I guess a leopard can change his spots and become a puddy tat. Throughout the season, I kept waiting for the “old” Colin to show up. He almost did in the last task, but Colin managed to pull himself together. Perhaps seeing what a hated douchebag he was last time really helped him become a better person. Now we can only hope that the Afghanimals get the same clarity. Nicole managed to control her dislike of them and acted like a good sport when they showed up on the mat. Eliza, however, didn’t even try and gave them the old “evil eye” that she is so good at. I particularly enjoyed the tasks in England, especially the commanding officer who took his job seriously, even being rather dismissive to Christie. “Winston Churchill “ was pretty good, too, and managed to stretch out his screen time a little. The music fest was fun, but I’ll bet it was very distracting. In all, I enjoyed the whole season more than I expected to when I heard the premise.

madamS

[shawn]

Post by t***@gmail.com
Well, I guess a leopard can change his spots and become a puddy tat. Throughout the season,
I kept waiting for the “old” Colin to show up. He almost did in the
last task, but Colin managed to pull himself together. Perhaps seeing
what a hated douchebag he was last time really helped him become a
better person.

Yes, we didn't get another 'my ox is broken' scene this time around.
Glad to see people showing real growth over time.

Post by t***@gmail.com
Now we can only hope that the Afghanimals get the same
clarity. Nicole managed to control her dislike of them and acted like
a good sport when they showed up on the mat. Eliza, however, didn’t
even try and gave them the old “evil eye” that she is so good at.
particularly enjoyed the tasks in England, especially the commanding
officer who took his job seriously, even being rather dismissive to
Christie. “Winston Churchill “ was pretty good, too, and managed to
stretch out his screen time a little. The music fest was fun, but
I’ll bet it was very distracting. In all, I enjoyed the whole season
more than I expected to when I heard the premise.

The music fest was interesting as I had already heard about that when
youtube kept recommending a video of the fest. While I like the song I
didn't care to see a video of what I thought would be a number of
people messing up while playing it. Glad to see that's not what it
was. It also added an entirely new level of distraction to the teams
which I like. I want to see the final challenges be hard so the
winning team really earns that win.

Though there will always be a team like the Afghanimals that kill
their chances entirely by their own decisions. If they hadn't gotten
stuck on the bank vault challenge they might very well have won.

[t***@gmail.com]

I know! And I’m glad they didn’t. The whole u-turn thing left a bad taste in my mouth. Using the u-turn should be strategic, not revenge. Plus the cackling of “happy birthday!” Was just mean and childish.
madamS

[edonline]

Post by t***@gmail.com
Well, I guess a leopard can change his spots and become a puddy tat. Throughout the season, I kept waiting for the “old” Colin to show up. He almost did in the last task, but Colin managed to pull himself together. Perhaps seeing what a hated douchebag he was last time really helped him become a better person. Now we can only hope that the Afghanimals get the same clarity. Nicole managed to control her dislike of them and acted like a good sport when they showed up on the mat. Eliza, however, didn’t even try and gave them the old “evil eye” that she is so good at. I particularly enjoyed the tasks in England, especially the commanding officer who took his job seriously, even being rather dismissive to Christie. “Winston Churchill “ was pretty good, too, and managed to stretch out his screen time a little. The music fest was fun, but I’ll bet it was very distracting. In all, I enjoyed the whole season more than I expected to when I heard the premise.
madamS

Colin pickup up Phil and slapping him on the ass at the final Pit Stop
will *definitely* make a best of/highlights reel! :)

[Questor]

Post by t***@gmail.com
In all, I enjoyed the whole season more than I expected to when I heard the
premise.

I thought the premise was particularly weak. Teams with previous experience
on TAR (especially more than once) did much better than teams that had never
been on the show. Gee, what a surprise. Put all those people on a season of
Survivor and see how well they do there!

The segments in Switzerland stood out noticably above the rest -- the scenery
was spectacularly beautiful. The one canyoneering task was interesting too.
And they had great weather as well. I wonder how they manage that. Lots of the
locations they visit have days when it just pours rain, but in all the seasons I
can't remember the racers ever having to deal with those conditions. (Perhaps
someone will jog our memories; much of the show's run is just a blur to me now.)

Oh, and doesn't anyone one go to summer camp on a lake any more? You know,
where kids learn how to paddle a canoe and ROW A BOAT! I'm sure that balancing
those narrow two-person shells we saw in the finale is tricky, but there was an
earlier episode this season where teams had to use a regular rowboat and none of
the teams they showed were doing it correctly. A single rower faces the stern
and the power stroke comes from pulling the oars towards oneself. On the return
stroke the hands go low to lift the oars out of the water. The rower's hands
are essentially making simultaneous parallel circles. It's not that hard;
children can learn to do it.

Anyone going on the Amazing Race should know how to:

- drive a manual transmission
- ride a bicycle
- paddle a canoe (including the J-stroke)
- row a boat

[Karen MX]

Post by Questor
Lots of the
locations they visit have days when it just pours rain, but in all the seasons I
can't remember the racers ever having to deal with those conditions. (Perhaps
someone will jog our memories; much of the show's run is just a blur to me now.)

I've wondered that--my theory is that if the weather is really bad, they delay production until it passes. I know they've done things in light(ish) rain, but I don't recall anything bordering on torrential.

Post by Questor
Oh, and doesn't anyone one go to summer camp on a lake any more?

Goodness, no! It's all about computers or music or tennis or a sport with college scholarships and professional prospects (I know, but 'crew' is elitist, apparently). Rowing a boat? No, and too much liability insurance involved.

Post by Questor
You know,
where kids learn how to paddle a canoe and ROW A BOAT!
A single rower faces the stern
and the power stroke comes from pulling the oars towards oneself.

Yes, and one needs to use both oars simultaneously so the boat doesn't spin in circles. This should be a 'duh' moment, but isn't.

Post by Questor
- drive a manual transmission
- ride a bicycle
- paddle a canoe (including the J-stroke)
- row a boat

--Read a paper map
--Swim, if only confident dog-paddling.


Summer camp and family vacations just aren't what they used to be.

Karen

[Questor]

Post by Karen MX

Post by Questor
Oh, and doesn't anyone one go to summer camp on a lake any more?

Goodness, no! It's all about computers or music or tennis or a sport with
college scholarships and professional prospects (I know, but 'crew' is elitist,
apparently). Rowing a boat? No, and too much liability insurance involved.

Isn't there any everyday "recreation" in between computer/music/tennis sessions?
Jack's a dull boy these days...

Post by Karen MX

Post by Questor
- drive a manual transmission
- ride a bicycle
- paddle a canoe (including the J-stroke)
- row a boat

--Read a paper map

I would have thought this to be an obvious no-brainer, but I'm so old-school
it's easy to forget most people aren't as conversant with paper maps these days.
Most of the computer-based maps I've seen (please excuse technical term) suck.
A good paper map lets one see the big picture and the immediate details in the
same glance, without having to zoom between one and the other. And paper
(road) maps usually have a *lot* more useful details that can help the savvy
map-reader in determining exactly what to expect on the ground. When you see an
isolated, light gray road passing through an expanse of green national forest
land with 10,000+ foot mountain peaks indicated on either side, that may not be
a good shortcut to take in the middle of winter...

Post by Karen MX
--Swim, if only confident dog-paddling.

Really? Certainly for Survivor, but I can't recall racers on TAR ever having to
swim as part of a task. Oh wait, there are some boating tasks where they
sometimes fall overboard, so I guess being confident in the water is a good
thing there.

Post by Karen MX
Summer camp and family vacations just aren't what they used to be.

Apparently not. I learned how to row a boat on a family vacation when I was
ten, and I attended a canoe camp while in middle school. Many of my peers had
similar experiences at Boy/Girl Scout camps.

[t***@gmail.com]

I remember the girl who would not go down the water slide because she was afraid she would drown at the end. Is that the same girl who couldn’t or wouldn’t dive? Might have been two different girls, or perhaps the same one, but it was two different tasks. Swimming well was not required for either, but would certainly have helped with the fear.
madamS

[Questor]

Post by t***@gmail.com
I remember the girl who would not go down the water slide because she was
afraid she would drown at the end. Is that the same girl who couldn't
or wouldn't dive? Might have been two different girls, or perhaps
the same one, but it was two different tasks. Swimming well was not
required for either, but would certainly have helped with the fear.

Ah... thanks. Vague memories are returning... Yes, there was the water slide.
And at least one leap off a tall cliff into water. And there have been times
when racers have to jump off watercraft to get their clue off a buoy. There was
a detour where they had to assemble a frame (for coral reef restoration?) and
then install it in the water. I have another vague memory about a task that had
something to do with fish traps? And in one of the Scandinavian countries there
was roadblock where racers rappelled from a bridge (or was it a helicopter?)
into water.

So in retrospect, yes, being comfortable in the water and swimming ability
should be on the list.

[Karen MX]

Post by Questor
Ah... thanks. Vague memories are returning... Yes, there was the water slide.

There was a springboard diving challenge in China, and a swim laps in a pool challenge the same season--might even have been a choice of one or the other in the same episode.


Karen

[Questor]

Post by Karen MX

Post by Questor
Ah... thanks. Vague memories are returning... Yes, there was the water slide.

There was a springboard diving challenge in China, and a swim laps in a pool
challenge the same season--might even have been a choice of one or the other in
the same episode.

Yes, and now I vaguely recall another swimming task (sychronized swimming?)
in Russia.

[Karen MX]

Post by Questor
Isn't there any everyday "recreation" in between computer/music/tennis sessions?
Jack's a dull boy these days...

I have no clue. I know there are 4-H camps that do the classic recreation stuff, but I suspect it's not the first exposure to such things for those kids.

Post by Questor

Post by Karen MX
--Read a paper map

I would have thought this to be an obvious no-brainer, but I'm so old-school
it's easy to forget most people aren't as conversant with paper maps these days.

It's all smartphones and in-car computer voices telling them to "Turn right in 500 feet" and all that. Even AAA sends talking downloads these days, though I take it paper TripTiks are still available.

Post by Questor
And paper
(road) maps usually have a *lot* more useful details that can help the savvy
map-reader in determining exactly what to expect on the ground. When you see an
isolated, light gray road passing through an expanse of green national forest
land with 10,000+ foot mountain peaks indicated on either side, that may not be
a good shortcut to take in the middle of winter...

Or in the summer, depending on your sense of adventure and your vehicle's suspension.

Post by Questor

Post by Karen MX
--Swim, if only confident dog-paddling.

Really? Certainly for Survivor, but I can't recall racers on TAR ever having to
swim as part of a task. Oh wait, there are some boating tasks where they
sometimes fall overboard, so I guess being confident in the water is a good
thing there.

There've been a few swimming tasks, but many more that just have the risk of ending up in the water. Even when there's a rescue crew standing by, it still helps to know how not to drown.

Post by Questor

Post by Karen MX
Summer camp and family vacations just aren't what they used to be.

Apparently not. I learned how to row a boat on a family vacation when I was
ten, and I attended a canoe camp while in middle school. Many of my peers had
similar experiences at Boy/Girl Scout camps.

Yep. Even at horse camp we went did other things so the horses could rest.

Karen

[Questor]

Post by Questor
- drive a manual transmission
- ride a bicycle
- paddle a canoe (including the J-stroke)
- row a boat

Anybody know if there is a season of TAR already in the can that will be airing
in the near future?


In an effort to clear some space on the DVR, I recently re-watched TAR31 over a
couple of days. As far as skills that racers should have, I've identified what
may be the most important of all: memory! There are so many times in the race
when memorizing something quickly and accurately is a big advantage:

- remembering complicated directions obtained from local residents

- remembering numbers or names for a task as racers pass by them in some sort of
conveyance

- remembering the arrangement or configuration of a model that racers must
re-create

- remembering where racers have searched in a complicated field of objects

- memorizing a song or poem, especially phonetically for one in a foreign
language


So in addition to the other specific skills, aspiring racers should practice
techniques for memorization.

[Questor]

Post by Questor
Anybody know if there is a season of TAR already in the can that will be airing
in the near future?

Whoops! Looks like I should have read ahead.

[f***@outlook.com]

Long time no chat everyone!

I had recorded TAR in the spring/early summer but never got around to watching it till this week. Enjoyed the season. Was happy with who won. Considering at one time I hated them almost as much as Colin hated that ox it was quite a turnaround not just for C&C but for me as well.

Any news on TAR32?

[p***@gmail.com]

Post by f***@outlook.com
Long time no chat everyone!
I had recorded TAR in the spring/early summer but never got around to watching it till this week. Enjoyed the season. Was happy with who won. Considering at one time I hated them almost as much as Colin hated that ox it was quite a turnaround not just for C&C but for me as well.
Any news on TAR32?

Sorry for the late reply. I'm not checking in here often. TAR 32 was filmed over a year ago (Nov/Dec 2018 - before TAR 31 aired) and is waiting for CBS to decide to show it. I expect it'll be aired this spring as usual. TAR 33 should be filming in the next month or so.