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| The Amazing Race 21 Wrap-Up *sigh* So The Amazing Race 21 was an alright season. Nothing too memorable, save for the final Road Block. But also not horrible. I think the biggest thing to take away from TAR21 is that the show is definitely due for a sprucing up. I hope a freshly remixed theme, new graphics, and some better challenges are in store for us at least in the next two seasons. The Route I guess after 21 seasons, TAR will be returning to a lot more locations they’ve visited previously. There’s only so many countries left and with the world continuing to be unstable and unsafe for Americans to run through, I’m sure the options are limited. The Tasks The tasks in Indonesia and Bangladesh like the carrying of ice, fish and bamboo or assembling that big scale were good to challenge the teams especially in those countries that were congested and stereotypically “third world.” The Turkish bath was gratuitous team skin and the Russian time zone Road Block was a great mental challenge The Twists It’s also about time someone figured out to use the U-Turn to their advantage like how the “Dream Team” did here. I wonder if that will necessitate a tweak to the rules in reaction kind of like Big Brother instituting that “6 houseguests only” rule after the Five Finger/Backdoor Plan, I think in season 5. But the U-Turn strategy they came up with here was very smart. And second, the Double Your Money prize. Spoiler alert, Phil says it will not return for TAR22. And I don’t really think it made a difference in terms of competition. If anything, the threat of another million dollars TAR needed to shell out limited possible locations or tasks. TAR could use that million for something else like better challenges or to pay for those plane tickets to fresh and different locations. The Teams You also had strong personalities in Natalie & Nadiya and Jaymes & James who were pretty much locks for any All-Star season. You had real underdogs in James & Abba and a likeable, yet strong couple in Trey & Lexi. There weren’t any villains (despite what some casual fans might believe) or big fueds so there were no angry outbursts like we had in TAR20. That said, a season like this where teams all helped each other out and even made pacts to get eliminated together kind of made me miss all that fighting and drama TAR20 delivered. The Ending They were actually very linear Legs. But the tasks were balanced enough and teams good enough to keep everyone within striking distance which made it all the more exciting. The Final Road Block was definitely an inspired task. While it may not come close to TAR12’s tragic, but genius final Road Block, this one was right up there with the TAR17 Pit Stop Greeter Hats, the field of clueboxes from TAR13 and the epic surfboards of TAR14. And let’s not forget the very first memory Final Task, the totem pole Road Block of TAR3. So ahead of its time. But it was definitely a downer, almost like TAR12, when a horrible team ends up winning. More on that below. |
ALL-TIME RANKINGS OVERALL SEASONS 1. TAR3 2. TAR5 3. TAR8 4. TAR1 5. TAR11:AS 6. TAR12 7. TAR2 7. TAR6 7. TAR4 10. TAR20 10. TAR19 10. TAR17 13. TAR10 14. TAR9 15. TAR21 15. TAR717. TAR18: UB 18. TAR16 19. TAR14 20. TAR15 21. TAR13 — |
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My Final Subjective Team Rankings
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<font Relive The Amazing Race 20!
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I thought this was the worst season yet, and I just finished watching it today (12/19) while my other family members who used to be big fans gave up on it much earlier in the season. I don’t even know where to begin, but those speed bumps this season were incredibly easy. And, while I was no fan of starting a leg without money in the past, maybe that’s what’s needed to make coming in last place something not to take lightly–then the Beekmans wouldn’t have won while the Rockers showed what they could do without money. That brings me to the point where I really lost interest this season. Once the twins stole the money and made Lexi complicit in their underhanded tactics. I would have been okay with them at least turning the money into the travel agency’s lost and found or the police, but what they did was truly unsportsmanlike as they pocketed the stolen money. Before that, I was just annoyed at their loud abrasiveness, but then, towards the end, they even had to go and belittle the Beekman Boys by constantly referring to them as “the gays” this and “the gays” instead of by their team name or their names. To say that was off-putting is an understatement, and I’m a heterosexual. Tell me, how can one explain to parents of young children watching the show together as a family that it is alright to take someone else’s money and to speak so disparagingly of others with absolutely no consequences/penalties? Then, the idea of having the finale in New York City was really poorly thought out as two of the last four teams are from there. Talk about home court advantage. Where is “The Amazing Race’s” neutrality? Bringing back those 12-hour rest periods and having a neutral finishing line would help make the race a lot fairer for all the contestants and not reek of the type of manipulation that we have seen in the past when airplanes pull back into the gate after they’ve already pulled away. It looks like I am far from the only one disappointed in this season of rather simple tasks and duds for contestants. The ratings indicate that this was the worst season so far, and judging by the fans’ reactions to the finale, the twins truly were villains as indicated in the comments in this link by Matt Mitovich: http://tvline.com/2012/12/10/ratings-amazing-race-finale-series-low/If somehow, the twins were invited back for a best of race, I know I’d definitely find something else to occupy my time instead of the more and more lackluster “Not-so Amazing Race.”
I just finished viewing the finale of TAR 21. I personally don’t like bickering couples or mean people on the Amazing Race. So, I SHOULD have liked TAR 21 because it seemed like so many teams were working together. But it was BORING with the most unsatisfying winners in all seasons of TAR that I have watched thus far. This season was the antithesis of the whole premise of the show. I wanted to see teams race against each other. I didn’t necessarily want the drama but I wanted earnest and desperate racing. It’s called the Amazing RACE, for goodness sakes. I’ve read comments of viewers on other websites that were happy that the Beekmans won and I just can’t wrap my head around that. How can they watch a show about contestants RACING around the world and yet be happy that the winners were the only team that seemed to not be racing and, in fact, seemed like they wanted to be eliminated for several legs? So, I’m commenting to completely agree with your assessment of the Beekmans and concur that they were NOT underdogs. They were just a bad team. I can’t even call them bad racers. Maybe I’ll call them bad hanger-on’ers. I thought the Beekmans were sweet guys that I would have liked had they not won the race, BUT their defeatist attitudes and them actually winning the race just cemented them in my mind as one of the worst TAR teams ever.
Thanks for the comment. Yeah, it was definitely a very unsatisfying end to a pretty blah season. I like some of the teams a lot, but the season was just not good. Especially including the winners in that judgment