Merhaba, kayfa haluk? The teams visited Petra on this leg of the race, the first time TAR has ever visited Jordan and we were all looking forward to the moment the teams visited the famous temple at Petra as immortalized in the Indiana Jones movie. But with only one roadblock and one detour, I felt a bit short changed as there were quite a few things in this episode that were rather badly planned! We shall get into all of that, but let's start with the average ranking statistics.
Average statistics after leg 5 in Petra, Jordan
Marcus & Michael: 3
Derek & Claire: 3.5
Emily & Molly: 4.5
Glenda & Lumumba: 4.75
Luis & Michelle: 5
Abby & Will: 5.25
Quinton & Mattie: 6
Linton & Sharik: 6.25 (eliminated in Petra)
Aubrey & David: 8.25
This has been a very interesting leg as Luis & Michelle came out of nowhere to win this leg, narrowly beating Derek & Claire into second place in a foot race that was incredibly close, so congratulations to them! As a fan, this is exactly the kind of result that we want - they started out in the second group but managed to overtake the two teams which had a 15 minute head start, making their victory even more empathic, but then again, the team that came in second Derek & Claire started in the last team, a whole 30 minutes behind the leaders and that really shows you how strong Derek & Claire are to come from last place to nearly winning this leg. Marcus & Michael are still statistically the strongest team, having finished a very credible third place in this leg - they are still the team to beat though there are clearly some very strong teams left now that the weaker teams have been eliminated. Although it is clear that the two strongest teams are the ones to watch this season, it is awesome to see other teams like Emily & Molly as well as Luis & Michelle win a leg so far making this season far less predictable. It can get boring when one super strong team is the clear favourite to win.
What was the whole point of that 'welcome'?
Okay, the racers got a nice ride on the desert train and were greeted by locals riding horses and camels to receive their first clue. I'm sure many of you were like, are they going to do something on the train? Are they going to interact with this amazing cast of locals wielding swords? No, it's just for show, like what's the point? That was visually stunning of course but in sharp contrast, the roadblock after that was very boring - walking through a patch of sand with a metal detector. This is when I refuse to put the production team on a pedestal, I do question their poor decisions and this is one thoroughly bizarre decision: to have such an extravagant welcome at great expense only to do a low-key roadblock after that. That was bad planning on the part of production. Those actors looked awesome, get them involved in the roadblock!
Are there other countries in the Middle East that TAR US hasn't visited yet?
Well, yes but you have to consider whether or not these countries are politically controversial to visit and if it would be safe enough to have the racers run a leg in those countries. So the TAR has visited the UAE, Oman, Egypt, Turkey, Bahrain and Kuwait. The countries in the region which are too unsafe to visit because of war and political turmoil Afghanistan, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, Yemen and Syria. So this leaves Saudi Arabia, Israel, Palestine and Qatar - the Amazing Race Australia S1 did go to Israel and don't forget, Israel does have it's own version of TAR which has run for eight seasons. Thus it would be very easy for TAR to run a leg in Israel and Qatar; even Saudi Arabia is now beginning to open up for tourism and hence running a leg in Saudi Arabia would be such a great advertisement for them. Of course, it would be too controversial to run a leg in the Palestinian territories, hence I do not expect that to happen any time soon.
I didn't like that roadblock with the metal detector.
Let's analyse how roadblock was structured: there were nine big sheets of metal with the word Petra buried in the sand and the teams had to use a metal detector to locate them before receiving their next clue. The first two teams have the best odds as they are trying to find one our of nine clues, once the first team succeeds, then the next team is trying to find one out of eight clues. This gets progressively harder and harder as the teams get out of there one by one until the last team is searching that area for that one last clue. The teams who arrive later in roadblock have little chance of performing the task so well that they get to overtake the teams ahead of them, not unless they are very lucky. Given the way the tasks were structured, the teams practically left in the order they arrived in with the sole exception of Derek who was super efficient in this task. Roadblocks are so very boring when teams simply depart in the order they arrive in - ideally they should be so very difficult (like at the Ducati roadblock in Bologna) that some teams will get stuck, allowing others to overtake and the teams would therefore leave the roadblock in a totally different order. Roadblocks involving a lot of physical strength or brain power (or a combination of both) would usually produce the most interesting outcomes - this one however, wasn't well thought through and thus it really unfairly disadvantaged the teams at the back of the pack.
What happened on the drive to Petra?
Ironically, the drive from the roadblock to Petra turned out to be the one important factor that mixed the order of the teams up. Marcus & Michael left way ahead of Emily & Molly, but Emily & Molly's driver was able to catch up with Marcus & Michael's car on the way to Petra? Was Emily & Molly's driver acutally speeding or did Marcus & Michael's driver go especially slowly? And then somehow four teams arrive at Petra at almost the same time, with Derek & Claire and Luis & Michelle catching up as well? Woah, you have got to feel bad for Marcus & Michael at this stage - like did their car never get out of second gear? What the heck was their driver doing which led all the other teams to catch up like that? It is not uncommon for racers to be dependent on drivers and for cars to break down or develop some kind of technical fault - whilst problems like that are not the fault of the racers, the production team chalks it up to pure bad luck and the racers are not compensated for time lost through such circumstances. Hence it does look like there was definitely something wrong with either the car or the driver that Marcus & Michael picked but that was not shown in the episode. It is quite perplexing that the 'random' factor in leg of the race turned out to be this drive to Petra and that's just down to pure luck.
Choosing the right detour
Only two teams picked the camel caravan side of the detour and it was clearly the detour that took longer, Marcus & Michael lost their lead as a result and Linton & Sharik had absolutely no chance of trying to catch up after they picked that side of the detour. It was a classic brains vs brawn detour and I would have picked the puzzle given how hot it would have been in Petra, bearing in mind that they were filming there in early June this year. Clearly, the puzzle wasn't that easy and a lot of that would boil down to whether or not the racers had the experience doing logic puzzles like this to know how to approach a puzzle like that under pressure; clearly, some teams found that slide puzzle easier than others.
Sharik didn't crack under pressure or was she edited to look more likable?
I wonder if the production crew did take her aside and had a quiet word with her about how she came across on the last leg - she did receive a lot of hate on social media and whilst I don't condone any form of cyber-bullying, it seemed inevitable after the way she behaved in Florence. In hindsight, I wondered if it was cruel of production to hang her out to dry the way they did - okay so Sharik did what she did in Florence, it wasn't pretty, it wasn't dignified, it was uncomfortable to watch but the production team did choose to include a lot of her tantrum in the final edit, knowing full well it was definitely create a lot of hate towards her on social media once that episode was aired. Did she actually change her behaviour or did she simply receive a kinder edit? Well regardless, I'm still glad they were eliminated as somebody had to go this episode and I'd rather it was Linton & Sharik then any of the other teams. Some people may think I was very harsh on her in my last blog post, so to balance things out, I'm including this interview that Lindon & Sharik did after that leg in Florence so she can give you her side of the story. I'm not saying I believe her, but I do think it is important to let her have her say in the interest of fairness so the video has been embedded below if you're interested.
Who will win the next leg?
We remain in Jordan for one more leg and it looks like they are headed to the capital city Amman for this next leg. Statistically, the strongest team is still Marcus & Michael but we see them struggle with a detour which looks like they were taking a lesson in basic Arabic. Otherwise the three next strongest teams have an equally good chance and my money is still on Derek & Claire to win this next leg, given how well they performed in the last leg. But then again, I was very surprised and proven wrong on this leg! We have not had a single team who has won two legs yet on this season.
Who will be next to go?
Okay let's talk about the elephant in the room. One of the teams did test positive for Covid and we don't know which team it is. We don't even know if the test was done before they ran this leg or after (which is a possibility, given that they might need negative test results before traveling onto the next country). What will they do with that unfortunate team then? Would that team be automatically eliminated or simply put into quarantine? In the 2002 TAR Australia and Canada versions, teams that caught Covid on the race were put in quarantine and allowed to rejoin the race afterwards but we're in unchartered waters here and I think it would be very unfair to eliminate a team over Covid. Statistically, the weakest team is now Aubrey & David at 8.25 followed by Quinton & Mattie at 6, so I think Aubrey & David would be in danger but in light of the Covid situation, your guess is as good as mine as to what would actually happen on this next leg. Let's just hope they handle the Covid situation fairly; it has wrecked havoc on the Australian and Canadian TAR seasons this year.
Okay, that's it from me on this leg, what do you guys think? Please leave a comment below, many thanks for reading.
Agree that the raiders were epic and under-utilized. Though I can understand they might not be keen to ride or even hang around for a few more hours to film something like a memory or ID task.
ReplyDeleteIn general, I dislike needle-in-a-haystack roadblocks because of the luck over skill factor, but I felt this roadblock was both thematic and fair. The metal sheet was large, and the search area was manageable relative to the metal detector's sweep. Yes it amplified the arrival order, which isn't bad considering the new 15min departure by groups, and allows smart players like Derek who hustle to get ahead. The ones who struggled here seem to have inflicted it upon themselves - eg. self-doubt, not using the detector well, spending time at the perimeters, and/or looking for nondescript trash. This includes Linton, who for all his patience and positive attitude, probably doesn't bring enough skills to be able to seriously compete in TAR either. As for Sharik, perhaps if fans are heard about their displeasure about players with anxiety issues suffering a breakdown and potentially quitting, it may hopefully also influence future casting decisions.
Another element of TAR I dislike are external drivers, again due to the uncertainty, luck involved and being a factor beyond the players' control. Teams obviously couldn't self-drive in this case (as well as in some other locations), so perhaps in the interest of fairness and safety they should obtain queue numbers when they depart the last task in such cases.
The slide puzzle detour was definitely too simple if ALL the teams breezed through it. The brain detour should ideally allow only skillful teams to finish ahead of the brawn detour. In this case even more so, given that teams would predictably avoid the brawn detour due to the heat, so the brawn detour should ideally be even easier than normal. It is always frustrating that the blind choice of detours based on the given names has such a large bearing. Even if the detours are relatively close together, there is still some sunk time cost in the decision.
Agree it is nice to see different teams finish first - it also doesn't suggest to teams there is a clear favorite that they should all team up against. Indeed we have seen in the past, there is just a fine line with one bad judgement call or mistake potentially ending any team's run. My bet is still on the brothers due to their competitiveness and navigation/driving skills. I can only assume like good past teams, they have already been taking notes of the tasks along the way during their AAR to prepare for the usual memory challenge on the final leg.
There have been some speculations on the team that tested positive based on who was absent in the preview, but it's not conclusive. Channeling COVID-positive teams into a "loser's bracket" or "redemption island" for potentially one team to rejoin the race is dicey, since they did not go through the same rigors and risk of the actual race. We shall have to see next week how they get addressed in TAR USA.
Hi there EBAZ and thanks for leaving a comment here - spoken like a true TAR fan and it is always nice to meet someone who is as enthusiastic about TAR as I am. Allow me to respond to your comments: firstly on the issue of the raiders - yeah I thought if you were going to get such a massive cast to do a 'welcome' then they could have hung around the roadblock to at least add some atmosphere because it did seem like a bit of an anti-climax with the metal detector after such a cinematic and dramatic introduction to Jordan. Like you, I was clearly frustrated when it amplified the arrival order though I was pleased to see Derek jump to the front of the pack with his skill - but that drive to Petra, good grief. I felt bad for Marcus & Michael; what went wrong for them there? Obviously it was not their fault, it was either the car or the drive (or both). Totally out of control, it does come across as unfair and as viewers, we want to see racers get a fair shot at winning rather than have too much of the outcome determined by dumb luck.
DeleteIf the slide puzzle wasn't that hard (all but one team Aubrey & David breezed through it), then they could have reduced the requirements of the brawn side of the detour (fewer jugs of water) to make sure the two sides of the detour were balanced up. Doing a brawn detour in that intense heat would have been brutal and even Michael & Marcus found it punishing. I remember TAR Australia S4 when Tom & Tyler dominated the first ten legs winning 8 of the first 10 legs (the other two finishes were 2nd and 4th) and then it almost felt like the producers produced a bizarre U-turn in leg 11 to get rid of them to get them eliminated to produce a more fair final without the finale being a foregone conclusion - that was one frustrating season to first see one team emerge as so super strong their victory was the forgone conclusion then to see them eliminated under the most unfair circumstances when the producers rigged one leg against them. At least in this season, we have had 4 winners over 4 legs and whilst Michael & Marcus are statistically the strongest now, there isn't a clear frontrunner even now.
As for Covid, woah, let's just see. I did wonder if I could try to spot which teams were featured in the preview like I could see Marcus & Michael learning Arabic, so they clearly ran the next leg in Jordan but would they be thaaaat obvious? That's why I flagged up the possibility of the Covid thing only coming up after the next leg was completed but your guess is as good as mine. Having seen how it was dealt with on TAR Canada and Australia this year (both of which had its pros & cons, but ultimately the Covid teams were put at a massive disadvantage through no fault of their own - you can't blame them for picking up Covid), I only hope that it would be fair to all involved.
DeleteReality shows (including TAR) have always had instances of contestant accusation of producer influence in order to make the show more "interesting". At the conceptual level, introducing more variable elements (and even contestants with a history of breakdowns) could result in more drama and arguably better tv. But true fans also want to see a fair competition. And from the contestants' perspective, in a race for a million dollars, it sucks to have your fate determined by a random cab driver. In a race, there is already enough individual luck/uncertainty from potential car issues, third-party accidents etc, to not require more.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes COVID too. Ideally production could pause for a week, but that's not practical. The only potential solution I can think of is for the other team member to continue racing alone until the afflicted one recovers. But it means Detours would need to be fair for either 1 or 2-person teams.
Yes you've definitely hit the nail on the head there - in a previous life, many years ago, I did a reality TV pilot which was a Chinese adaptation of a British show that had been running for ages in the UK. Even though it was just for a very limited audience of executives at the TV station in China, I had set in on the production meeting and had a chance to see just how important the concept of 'fairness' is in all formats of reality TV, it doesn't matter what game you're playing, what language the programme is in, whether you have celebs or ordinary people taking part, it has got to come across as fair. I spent a few days filming in various lovely London locations with a bunch of celebrities from China (whom I had never heard of but hey, apparently they are big stars in China) and at the end of all that, production spent ages talking about whether or not the right team had won or not as there was an element of chance involved in one of the tasks and the production manager was adamant, "even if she got lucky on that task, we have to make it look like it was skill, insight, intelligence - like she got the outcome she wanted because she was charming or clever, rather than because she got lucky in Notting Hill." If they would go to such lengths for a pilot, then I would hope that TAR's production team would make as much if not more effort to make sure it does come across as fair. Especially when dealing with Covid, but let's see. Fingers crossed. I'm glad we agree that fairness is super important in this format.
DeleteNice insights on the Chinese reality show production. Glad to know they place an emphasis on fairness, or minimally the perception of fairness. Not sure if this is somewhat in consideration of the horde influence of Chinese netizens if they critique or even cancel a show. The culture seems different for US reality shows though. While rules are generally made fair, there appears to be less concern about luck playing a significant role. With the element of luck, there is less certainty in the outcome, and that seems to be a general production preference.
ReplyDeleteAfter watching the second preview video, it seems to telegraph the fate of the Covid team, as well as the penalty for the team coming in last in the next episode.
Well, whilst we both know that there's no democracy in China, I think the basic principles of viewers enjoying a reality TV contest is the same no matter what country or language the programme is in. After all, that production company from China came to London to do a Chinese-language version pilot of a long running UK prorgamme and I got roped in as I speak Mandarin fluently (and I love reality TV so much). I remember having to drive in that pilot and like so many contestants on TAR, I stalled the car which wasn't automatic and the production team were laughing so hard at me as I was such a terrible driver. Perhaps in this case, as it was a pilot, they were able to manipulate it to the point where the outcome had to be determined by skill and not luck, as they wanted the show commissioned. But actually, whilst the pilot looked fine, they never went ahead with it - sigh. There are so many different kinds of reality TV shows anyway for the Chinese market, this was but one idea they explored.
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