I’m still loving the season, and while I don’t quite understand alliances, I don’t mind them. I understand the purpose is to align with weaker teams than yourself in order to oust the stronger teams, which then leaves you (a strong team) to down the weaker team(s). I mean I get that. I don’t know, I’ve always seen TAR as a competition against myself VS others. What I mean by that is “I” need to up my own game, and that of my partner, to stay in the race. I’m an incredibly competitive person when it comes to games, but I also do it with a lot of fun and laughs. I don’t take my competitive side too seriously. But for a million bucks I think I’d take this game very seriously, and would knock teams out whenever and wherever I could.
It’s really hard to fathom how people can quit their job or go six weeks without pay for only $1500 in prize money. I guess it’s for the once in a lifetime adventure or 15 minutes of fame. Or they are going for the 1 in 10 chance to make a million
I actually had a conversation with my boss once about going on TAR - he said if he had an employee who was chosen he’d grant them the time off, without pay, but would allow them to use all their vacation/personal hours they had. He said he’d welcome them back since 6 weeks isn’t a huge amount of time. Then he laughed and said “their coworkers might not be happy about it though!” Several of us have talked about this, and one young woman in my office applied for The Bachelor, and the boss said he wished her well. She wasn’t chosen. For many of these contestants it’s about exposure for furthering career goals.
I totally agree and after the stunt those 3 groups pulled today I turned to my husband and said I can’t believe this is the crap we’ve been watching for 10 mins to see them now basically colluding together. The more I see this season the more I’m sure they never had any intention of airing it. It makes the show the most uninteresting thing out there and imo there should be a penalty for collusion.
I thought Deangelo was also a bad sport at the end and Gary was a good sport but realized it was probably his competitive nature and not liking to lose but still should’ve just sucked it up and been a better loser in knowing that those 3 teams weren’t strategic about getting to the final 3 they just were sneaky about it.
I hope hung and chee win. They seem like the need it the most and I just can’t stand the other two teams and the boys just drive me insane.
I hate that the football players read the clue correctly and were so close on the first try. The married couple are bereft of personality to me, and the boys are too much by half. I like the vball guys.
Agree that the alliance really ruined the season in large measure because they refused to acknowledge that G&D did help them to some extent. Gary helped James with the turban task. The helping each other was not so bad, it was the nasty way they talked about the football players that bothered me. It also makes little sense to take the strongest teams to the final with you. Not sure why G&D didn’t attempt to break in on the other three and force them to not collude or at least to listen and look at their strategy.
While he was being a poor sport, it was kind of funny to hear DeAngelo be so honest with Phil. Obviously he was mad but still could have been a bit more gracious. Gary was great.
If the judge had been allowed to tell the teams how many of the 4 were correct, that might have made the task more manageable.
The boyfriends really seemed to hate G & D.
Playing shrink here, but maybe deep down they resent all that football represents (stereotypical “manliness” for lack of a better word, etc)
We felt that G & D broke many of the stereotypes connected with jock culture. Seeing Gary marveling at all the art during the task at the French chateau was cool.
Ugh. Hated the alliance thingy - that just ruined the episode for me. Someone above commented that perhaps they were not going to air this season - they might have been on the right track. I really don’t like the boyfriends - they come off as being very mean and manipulative. Hope they don’t win.
Teaming does add an interesting dynamic. Do you pair with teams that you can beat later on to get rid of strong teams or do you pair up with strong teams to ensure you do not get eliminated early. Reminds me of the Hunger Games. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Survivor has had such a long run because social dynamics have become such a big part of that game. On the other hand, I enjoyed the AR because it was dependent on the ability to solve physical and mental challenges in foreign environments (and also the ability to read clues and not get lost) vs a heavy dose of social drama and gamesmenship.
Absolutely HATE the “alliance”. So many of the skills/luck in the tasks were manipulated by the “players” just automatically short-circuiting the tasks by giving the answer/trick.
No fun. I much preferred the teams that relied on themselves or a little kindness here and there.
The final three teams were not fun to follow at all. There were some really unearned ugliness at work.
As much as I’ve always enjoyed The Amazing Race in toto (often with teams I really enjoyed and teams that grated on my nerves), I may just skip this finale.
I hope something changes so that this “alliance-pass-the-answer-down-without-doing-the-task” stuff doesn’t continue as the rule and ruin the combination of luck and skill the Race as always (until this season) combined.
I agree with the people commenting that they dislike the alliance and hope those in charge make some kind of ‘rule’ to discourage/prevent this in the future.
I’ll watch the finale and will hope Hung and Chee or Riley and Maddison will win.
Not sure how the producers could stop the alliance. In the past, teams have sometimes helped each other out occasionally to win good will and have a favor bank. Not sure that should be against the rules. Based on the comments here and elsewhere, most viewers really did not like the alliance so they may have to figure out a way to discourage this in the future.
@skieurope Ikr? Just like how their editing sometimes makes the race to the mat each episode look like teams are closer than they are for last place when they’re really hours apart!
Also to everyone else re this last task, I too was so bummed when Gary and Deaneglo right away were so close other than the last case thinking it was Germany but I was also so surprised that no team thought to do process of elimination and take some random 3 cases from countries they knew were definitely not the music with 1 that they thought and systematically find what was the right case for each suitcase. Sort of what the 3 teams later did but if any team had done something similar like that from the beginning they would have all solved it so much quicker.
Some wonder if the alliance thing will “break” TAR. Similarly, many thought James Holhauzer “broke” Jeopardy with his style of play. Since his appearance, some have used his approach somewhat, i.e., starting at the bottom of the board to accumulate money prior to hitting Daily Doubles. What has NOT been adopted by subsequent players are James’s all-out betting style. Many play by starting at the top of the board, and make modest wagers.
We will have to wait and see what happens to TAR because of the alliances.
Come on guys, do you really thing they would go to the expense of producing an entire season to toss it and not air it?
The ability to have an alliance has always been there. No one acted on that opportunity. This season some teams did and here we are. Gary and De Angelo benefitted by help on a couple of legs and likely wouldn’t have been in the final 4 without that help. So IMO, they need to count the blessings they had.
Regardless of sharing info, looking at the overall season I believe these were the three best teams. Both the brothers and the boyfriends had a couple wins each. The married couple were pretty darn consistent.
I admit that I’m always doing something else while watching so not paying 100% attention, but have the Boyfriends helps the other teams in the alliance? The Beard bros have given little helps along the way, and Chee gave them all the Sauerkraut answer that saved them ALL a ton of time, but I just don’t remember the Boyfriends helping anyone.
