Navigation: can you read a map?
Iceland is an extremely easy country to navigate if you have to drive yourself around like the contestants did - the roads are clearly marked, of very high quality and the locals virtually all speak English fluently (well, with the exception of the elderly) if you have to ask for directions. Nonetheless, quite a few teams got extremely lost on the way to the first location at Geitárgljúfur - having looked at the map, I was pretty astounded as to why team could possibly get lost. The directions are as follows: when you leave the airport, follow the signs to Reykjavik city center, then as you approach the city, take route 1 and follow it till you get there. It's not like they were trying to direct the racers to some remote country location on a road that couldn't be found easily on the map - route 1 (or highway 1) is the main highway around the island of Iceland and is sometimes known as a ring road as it circumnavigates the whole of Iceland. The name of the highway 'route 1' tells you that this is one of the most (if not the most) important roads in Iceland, so it shouldn't be that hard to find it and follow it. Yet for some teams, they fell so far behind it was unreal - I do wonder how they managed to take that long?
The second location Esjumelar is located at Mosfellsbær which is just to the north of Reykjavik - the more observant contestants would have noticed that they passed right by it on the way to Geitárgljúfur. Any racer who has done their homework would realize the importance of being able to navigate your way on the race - if you can't read a map, then the sensible thing to do is to cut your losses and ask a local. That may not always be possible if there is a major language barrier or if you're really in the middle of nowhere far from civilization - but what team Goat Yoga did was simply turn on each other and took their frustrations out on each other, like how was that going to help with their race? This was the bit that I found curious: April went on and on about how Sarah was sleeping on the plane whilst April talked to the air stewardess to get directions to Geitárgljúfur - how on earth was the air stewardess going to give them a better route than the most obvious one on route 1? Iceland is a sparsely populated country, you are not going to find that many alternative routes to a part of the country with very few people - the safest way is always to stick to the main highways. Was she even sending them to the right place? Perhaps it wasn't even April's fault, if the air stewardess did give her bad directions - I'm just saying it could happen. Even if you get directions, always double check on the map, just to be sure. The following teams did seem to struggle with navigation on this leg: team Big Brother, the Firefighters, team Slam Dunk, team Goat Yoga and of course the Ring Girls who were already so far behind as a result of their poor navigation skills.
We have seen similar challenges before on TAR where contestants have to unscramble a word in order to get the next clue - there was TAR S14 E4 in Sverdlovsk, Russia when teams had to ride a bobsled and remember the letters to spell CHEKHOV, that was just seven letters but teams had no idea what they were spelling (though anyone with a bit of knowledge of Russian culture could have probably figured that one out). Then in TAR S15 E11, teams had to spell the word FRANZ from the letters they found at the Ekotechnické Museum in Prague - given that was just 5 letters long, I'm sure many of you fans will remember how Flight Time and Big Easy gave up trying to spell a 5 letter word. Perhaps it was no surprise that another NBA team really struggled at a very similar word challenge in Iceland. I was wondering if it was way too easy to actually give the racers the letter order for the word - would they have been able to figure out I-N-G-Ó-L-F-S-T-O-R-G with no help? Or at least give them the positions for like 5 of the letters but let them guess the rest. Because once you realize what you needed to do, it became a really straight forward task that wasn't that challenging at all - but it was clear that whilst some teams breezed through this task, a few others really struggled, in particular team Slam Dunk. Oh goodness me. And I was so disappointed that Henry from team Yale didn't get this on the first attempt!
Remember Vanck and Ashton?
Hands up those of you who took one look at team Yale and thought, Vanck & Ashton! I know I know, like both Vanck and Henry do live up to certain Chinese stereotypes about being your typical nerdy geek who is actually scarily smart and has nothing but straight As at school - well, they don't admit anyone less than the very best at a university like Yale you know. But yes, TAR has a proud tradition that they do make sure they cast a range of racers to cover most minority groups and Chinese Americans are very well represented by Henry in this season whom I am sure will go very far, given how strong their performance has been. Vanck and Ashton did put a target on themselves which saw their premature exit in TAR S29 - so I am wondering if Henry and Evan would be able to reach across the class divide and form useful alliances with other teams whom they may not have that much in common with socially? They are both management consultants - that's a world away from say team Chomp, the Firefighters or team Slam Dunk. In fact, I am struggling to find a team they may have a natural affinity for and the most obvious would be team Well Strung - come on, they are handsome, gay violinists. What's there not to like about them? But don't forget, we have seen plenty of white collar winners in the last few seasons like Brooke & Scott (TAR S29), Kelsey & Joey (TAR S27), Laura & Tyler (TAR S26) and of course, one of my favourite teams of all time, the sweet scientists Amy & Maya of TAR S25. It's just that in S30, there seems to be quite a dearth of white collar types - such is the nature of the casting process once they pick the "theme".
Let's talk about the Ring Girls Dessie & Kayla who were eliminated in Iceland - like how much time did they waste trying to park their car in Ingólfstorg? Good grief, it was practically a photo finish to the pit stop - all they needed were another few seconds and they would have been saved, but no, they seemed to have no urgency whatsoever in trying to park that car. I'm sure we have all screamed in disbelief at racers who have struggled driving cars with gears, that weren't automatic - there are certain things that you can expect to have to do when on TAR and driving is one of them. Driving is such a big part of American daily life that you could always take it for granted that the racers could park a car - perhaps that bit was strung out by the editors for comic effect, but it was crazy just how long they took to park that car. At least we didn't get any crybabies this season who threw a tantrum over having to do something with heights (Scott from TAR S29 drove me nuts with his non-stop moaning) - this is TAR, you can almost certainly expect them to make you do stuff like Bungy jumping or sky diving or dangling on a wire across a huge waterfall, if you are so afraid that you don't want to do something like that, then don't sign up for TAR. Let someone who actually enjoys such activities take your place on TAR.
Let's talk about team Slam Dunk's punishment
Team Slam Dunk were given a 30 minute penalty at the pit stop mat by Phil because Cedric yelled out the words "pay attention to the Os and Ps" to Shawn who was doing the roadblock. What then ensued was an argument about whether that contravened the rules of the roadblock - the rules state that whilst the non-participating member may be encouraging and cheering from the side, s/he is not allowed to offer any kind of help at all. Cedric's argument was that he didn't even see the letters that Shawn had been working with (well there is no P in Ingólfstorg - so that supports his statement); what he had probably noticed was the interesting Icelandic letter "Þþ"- that is known as the runic thorn. It is a letter that had gone out of use in all northern European languages except Icelandic, where it has survived and it represents the digraph 'th'. The Þþ looks kinda like a Pp in English - so that could have been something that Cedric had observed along the way. I actually believe that Shawn didn't hear him, for it seems like he had only arrived at his answer after working with Sarah of team Goat Yoga. But rules are rules and there's really no point in arguing with Phil. Given that the Ring Girls probably needed another 30 seconds or so to survive this leg, imagine if Cedric and Shawn stubbornly argued with Phil for another 30 seconds before giving in and allowing the clock to start for their 30-minute penalty. The moral of story? Don't argue with Phil. I thought they were so lucky to have survived this leg - but for how much longer will they be around?
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| That's me walking on Tjörnin, the small lake where the pit stop was! |
Which team is next to go?
Now there a few main reasons why teams get eliminated on TAR: most often teams make blunders navigating and waste precious time, so I would say that team Goat Yoga and team Slam Dunk (they argued so much on their way back into Reykjavik over the navigation) fall into that category - but let's not forget team Big Brother who threw away first place over a silly mistake on the way to the pit stop. Let me put things in perspective for you - from Ingólfstorg to Reykjavíkurtjörn, it is a 4 minute walk to cover a short distance of just 350 meters. Once you get to the shores of the lake, you simply look out for Phil and it wouldn't be hard to spot him - the lake isn't big and you could easily spot the camera crew. When you are told to go to the pit stop on foot, it is usually just a few minutes away. So for team Big Brother to end up at the Maritime Museum at the harbour, good grief. They ran at least 1.2 km in the wrong direction (who knows, they could have ran much further than that if they were running around aimlessly), before getting directions at the museum, then they had to run 1.55 km back to the pit stop. Ouch. That's a run of at least 2.75 km when they were meant to run no more than 0.35 km. That was a mistake on par with what happened in Chicago during the final leg of TAR S29 when two teams got just as hopelessly lost (in Chicago, not some exotic country) running a few extra miles in the wrong direction: thus effectively handing victory to the one team who could read a map, duh. Now you realize how important it is to read a map on TAR? So yeah, team Big Brother clearly has navigational issues too - that could put them in peril and it did cost them a vacation to Greece. Ouch. Why didn't they simply ask for directions like team Extreme did?
The only team that really struggled in Reykjavik were team Slam Dunk, given how long Shawn took at the roadblock and how Cedric incurred them a time penalty - all signs do point to team Slam Dunk being the next team to go. They can't navigate well, they struggle at tasks when it comes to attention to detail and they don't seem familiar with the basic rules of the game - they are by far the weakest team. Another team that will be on the chopping block soon is probably team Goat Yoga, the results don't lie - they struggled all the way through this leg and barely survived Iceland. But perhaps this is the kind of wake up call they need to realize that this isn't a fun reality travel programme but a race - given the way Phil has said very complimentary thing about them in this season's preview, I guess that they may stick around for a few more episodes yet in spite of a very poorly run first leg. I would also keep my eye out on team Ocean Rescue - they ran a decent leg coming in 7th (out of 11) but I can see that Brittany has a fiery personality and I just don't see her coping well under the stress that TAR can throw at you. She has already received a lot of hate on social media so far - look, it's not a popularity contest, you don't do TAR to win fans, you do it to win a million dollars, but I do agree that having a volatile personality doesn't help you win the race. Another team I am struggling to get my head around in team Chomp - okay, so they are competitive eaters, unless there is an eating challenge on this race, I don't see how they are going to have any advantage over the others? Besides eating, what will they be good at? I don't know - let's see them prove themselves.
Ooh. There are in fact many likable teams this season! I adore team Well Strung because they are gorgeous gay violinists - perhaps we could have yet another gay winner of TAR, after Scott of S29, Josh & Brent (S22), Reichen & Chip (S4), Steph & Kristen (TAR Canada S4) and Sam & Paul (TAR Canada S6). I think they have a right combination of brains and brawn, in fact I was a bit disappointed that they didn't do any better in this leg. Some people on social media have commented that they may not be the only gay racers on this season - I don't want to 'out' anyone yet. I also adore team Yale only because I share so much in common with Henry, like him, I'm also the nerdy Asian geek who is super intelligent as well. And of course, if team Extreme go on to win this season, I'd be very happy too - they do remind me of Natalie & Meaghan of TARC S2 who were ice hockey champions and they clearly have a good mix of brain and brawn too. I suppose the two teams I haven't mentioned yet at team IndyCar and the Firefighters - they're sitting in the middle of the pack, they've not done anything drastically wrong yet but they've yet to overtake some of the stronger teams - I don't have any reason to dislike them, but they both come across as a bit bland and I hope to see more of their personalities in the next few episodes. I've not seen Cody & Jessica on Big Brother - but clearly they are out of their element, the kind of mind games you need to play in Big Brother and Survivor are not that relevant to TAR. Is Cody as smart as he thinks?
How do I feel about the casting?
I am somewhat disappointed if I may be honest! They seem to have gone down the celebrity route by picking some champions who will have their own followings in their respective niche communities - I can understand why a lot of reality TV programmes would do that because let's face it, it is a ratings war out there and we all want to see TAR go on and on indefinitely. However, surely the programme is best served when you have true fans of the race like Justin Scheman (team Green, TAR S27) given a once in a lifetime opportunity to make their dreams come true - just for that, I supported Justin & Diana on S27 every step of the way simply because as a big fan of TAR, we can relate to his passion for TAR. However, I get the impression that some of these minor celebrities barely know about TAR but were invited on the show because they could potentially attract new fans to the show. Team Slam Dunk may be great NBA players - but really, they came across as knowing hardly anything about TAR. What you don't want is to put a team out there who are set up to fail, a team who are totally useless at doing any of the tasks before them and are scared of everything - I just wanna scream at them, "what are you doing on TAR when you hate everything you have to do on it? You're clearly in the wrong TV show!" Well, fortunately, we don't seem to have anyone that useless on this season but we've had so many awful teams in the past who should have never ever been cast. Give these opportunities to the true fans like Justin Scheman.
I am very excited about the next stop! I have lived in Belgium back in 2013 when I did stint on a Belgian children's TV programme. I lived in Liege then and spent time in Brussels as well, so this is a country I know extremely well and am very fond of. Antwerp is a stunningly beautiful city but I must warn you that I am going skiing next week in Spain and will only be reunited with my laptop late on Saturday night - so you'll have to be patient with next week's review as it would take me a while to get it out. I am just as curious as to see what this whole 'swapping partners' twist awaits them later in this season - are they going to have to swap partners for just one task? One episode? Or are they forced to switch partners for the rest of the race? I don't think it is going to go down well with the fans if it is for more than just one or a few tasks because it does compromise the original concept of the show when it is so much about the dynamics within the team. Let's see. Let me know what you guys think of this new season, leave a comment below. Many thanks for reading.
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