TAR S37 E11 + 12 : Finally, we have the results we wanted.

Bom dia, hola, hello and finally we have the results of S37. We have so much to go through, though I must start off by saying that I am so totally delighted that Jonathan & Ana didn't win. I was at the stage where I wanted anyone but Jonathan to win and I got what I wanted. Carson & Jack winning was a bonus for me as I really like them too, but most of all, I think I can join so many fans of TAR in saying, "phew, that was the right outcome. Thankfully the nasty villain of S37 didn't win." Firstly, let's deal with the first of two legs. We are back in Portugal, this is TAR US's fourth visit to Lisbon and actually their second visit to Porto - we were last there in TAR S33 E4 when the teams raced through Porto. I actually visited Porto in 2021 during the pandemic, yeah I actually still managed to travel within Europe during the pandemic. Miami is also a city I have visited before back in 2016 when I was in Florida for the launch of OSIRIS-REx from Cape Canaveral. You see guys, this is why I feel I have the right to blog about TAR as in most cases, I have visited all of these places before. But as always guys, let's deal with the rankings as always. as I am such a geek obsessed with statistics. 

Average ranking after leg 11 in Porto

• Carson & Jack 2.54
• Jonathan & Ana 3
• Alyssa & Josiah 3.09 (eliminated in Porto)
• Han & Holden 5.27 

Average ranking after leg 12 in Miami

• Carson & Jack 2.41 (winners of S37)
• Jonathan & Ana 3
• Han & Holden 5

Why didn't they fly direct from Strasbourg? 

There is in fact a direct flight from Strasbourg to Porto with Ryanair (a cheap and popular budget airline), so the teams really didn't have to go back to Frankfurt to fly with Lufthansa, but perhaps this had something to do with the flight times as the teams arrived in Porto early enough to run a full leg there before sunset. But heck, you could still fly the teams out to Porto on a late flight and hit them with a "hours of operation" leveller, if they had to pick up their first clue at a bakery that only opened first thing in the morning - then you could let the teams have a good night's sleep in Porto rather than insist on making them travel through the night via Frankfurt, which just seemed unnecessarily cruel. Note that Carson & Jack set out from Strasbourg at 1:52 am and hence that means they won this leg despite having virtually no sleep the night before. Now that's just mean, I wouldn't want to drive when I'm that tried and sleep deprived - it just isn't safe at all. 

The valet roulette didn't really impact this leg of the race. 

There was this valet roulette which meant that teams could either get a manual or automatic car at random, this aim of this was to create the kind of drama we have seen in past seasons when a team really struggled with the manual transmission system that they were not used to - but we didn't see any of that drama. The only team that may have struggled was Carson & Jack and they got an automatic. If you know that you have been cast on TAR, you would be foolish not to take some lessons to make sure you would be comfortable enough driving a car with manual transmission. 

I didn't like the task at Vila Marim. Let me explain why. 

The teams had to drive to Vila Marim, where they had to paddle a raft across the Douro river and then roll two heavy wine barrels up a steep path before return back the way they came to continue racing. I didn't like that task because it didn't change the order of the teams - the teams basically left in the order they had arrived in. Whilst aspects of the task were physically demanding, there wasn't any aspect of the task there which were so difficult that any of the teams risked slipping behind. So the only challenging aspect of this leg was the self-drive, as two teams lost precious time when they got lost - first Jonathan & Ana got lost on the way to Vila Marim, then Alyssa & Josiah got lost trying to find the designated parking spaces at the Porto Campanhã train station. I like drama on TAR, but this should really come from the task rather than the navigation aspect of the self-drive. Sure we got to see the beautiful rural wine growing landscape in this part of Portugal but I really felt that the task was just way too straightforward within the context of the TAR format. 

Carson lives out his dungeons & dragons fantasy at the castle. 

This was a visually spectacular roadblock at Santa Maria de Feira castle with racers donning a full set of medieval armor for an archery challenge. Now I actually liked this challenge as it seemed to require a high level of skill to get it right, as the target boards were constantly moving. This is the kind of skill-based challenge that could potentially make a team get stuck there for quite a long time if they simply don't have the right kind of hand-eye coordination that archery demands. 

Why did the teams park at Porto Campanhã only to take the train for one stop into Porto São Bento?

I found this rather frustrating as they took the train for only one stop - this very short journey takes as little as 4 minutes and it felt fairly pointless to make them take the train for such a short distance. Porto São Bento station is located in the heart of the city, so parking is tricky around that station whilst Porto Campanhã is in the outskirts of the city, so there is a fairly large parking lot in front of the station that Alyssa & Josiah somehow struggled to locate. However, given that I stayed in that area when I visited Porto and my hotel was just a few minutes' walk from São Bento station, I can tell you that it would have been entirely possible to park there - was there a really big car park there? No. Do people drive into the centre of the city in Porto? Yes, all the time. Are there parking spaces in and around São Bento station and ODE Porto Wine House? Yes, there are indeed carparks in central Porto you know. The trains from Campanhã to São Bento run every 5 to 15 minutes, so Alyssa & Josiah were particularly unlucky to have ended up on the same train as Jonathan & Ana. This is how I would have done it instead: I would have directed the teams to drive to a big Saba Riberia car park near ODE Porto Wine House (which is actually just two minutes' walk away), you could still have that local man hand the teams that tile with the name of ODE Porto Wine House just outside the car park. The only issue is that you risk hitting heavy traffic trying to drive to a destination in central Porto, but then that is something that all teams would have to face. 

There was an unaired task that took place in Sabrosa. 

We don't know anything about this task which hit the cutting room floor during the edit, all we know is that this town is 117 km (72.7 miles) from Porto by car and whatever happened there didn't change the placement of the teams significantly so it was left out - it sounds like they probably didn't do anything all that exciting there which begs the question, why bother planning to do something like that only to look back and say, "nah that would bore the viewers, let's just delete it."

So Jonathan smashed the tile when he dropped it, what ought to have happened next? 

This episode ended when we saw Jonathan accidentally drop a tile as they were close to finish their mosaic. He lost grip of two tiles, managed to grab one but the other fell to the floor and smashed into about six pieces. Yup, those tiles are brittle. Cue close ups of Jonathan and Ana staring at the floor in total disbelief at what had just happened. This unlikely turn of events needs to be dealt with by the producers to decide what needs to happen next. So allow me to suggest a few scenarios that could the the outcome in this case and then let's see which option you think should be the best choice.

1. Jonathan & Ana are given a replacement tile to complete the mosaic, no time penalty is given and effectively, they get away with the mistake at that crucial moment.
2. Very similar to option 1 above, they are allowed to complete the mosaic with the broken tile as long as they can find all the broken pieces and are not penalized for it.
3. Jonathan & Ana are given a replacement tile to complete the mosaic, but because of that mistake, they are given a small time penalty (of about 10 - 15 minutes) and that drops them to last. 
4. Jonathan & Ana are told that they have to start the entire task all over again - they have to move to another station where they face a pile of tiles to be sorted, effectively dropping them to last. 
5. Jonathan & Ana are told that they have to start the tiling section all over again, they are given a replacement tile but have to start the second part of this task all over again on a new wall - that is enough to drop them to last. 

If you can think of an alternative outcome that I haven't covered above, please let me know. So in the end, it was option 2 that they went for, the judge simply ignored that one of the tiles was damaged after Jonathan dropped it but they still completed the mosaic. Am I happy with this outcome? No, I think there should have been a small punishment (option 3 above). This kind of "cliffhanger" edit is not totally new to TAR, but then it has been used more commonly in programmes like The Traitors, where they choose not to reveal the final results of the round table vote before the end of the episode.

Do we have any precedent when it comes to how strictly they judge whether a task is completed well enough?

This is a tough one, for example, in some of the dancing and singing challenges such as the ones way back in S37 E1 in Hong Kong with the lion dance and Cantonese opera performance, some teams were clearly better than others but as long as they met a predetermined minimum standard, they were allowed to receive their next clue. Hence it is a decision that is made by the production team as to just how high those standards are and so there would be a judgement call for example if a racer managed to remember  all the lyrics but sang slightly off-key, would that still a a minor enough mistake to meet the minimum standard? Just how off-key would the racer need to be before they are failed for that mistake? Clearly that is a decision made by production and as long as it is applied fairly across all the teams, I don't really mind. So in the case of this task, could Jonathan & Ana complete this task with a broken tile, given that they had already done the hard part which was to figure out the jigsaw puzzle aspect of this challenge? Would this be a case of "yeah you made a small mistake but still, it is good enough" or was this such a glaring error that there must be some kind of penalty for breaking that tile? Given that no other team made that error, this might come down to one producer's decision on the spot whether to penalize them or not for that broken tile (and if so, how harsh the penalty should be). So where does one draw the line on the matter the outcome of that decision can have a massive impact in determining which one of those last two teams get to race in the final leg to win that grand prize of a cool million dollars, whilst the other team is eliminated just before the finals? Well I can shed some light on this based on my own experience working in the industry. 

The concept of fairness is very important for viewer satisfaction. 

This was a production meeting I had years ago when I worked on another reality TV programme with an episode shot in London, I can't tell you the name of the programme as I am under NDA but I can share with you what was discussed at that meeting. There was a long debate about how the outcome of that task in London should be determined as there were only two teams left racing to complete a task and originally the outcome seemed to hinge way too much on luck rather than skill. The producer made the decision, no we can't have that as the viewers will not like it, so the producer explained it like this, "the viewers expect the winning team to have earned that victory through skill and effort, rather than simply through sheer luck, like if it came down to picking one out of two mystery boxes." As a result, we had to come up with a totally different task for the teams to perform after we removed that element of luck on that task. There will always be some element of luck when it comes to this format and we saw it in this episode with the valet roulette but we don't want the final result to be entirely or mostly determined by luck as that will really upset some viewers who have faith in the process being impartial and fair. Yes, luck may play a role in the process, but that role should be limited and the final result should always come down to effort and not luck, as that appeals to the concept of fairness for the viewers. Hence in this case, the question is this: what would be the fairest way to deal with the situation of Jonathan breaking that tile? What would be the most satisfactory outcome for a viewer who expects the production team to treat all racers fairly in this kind of situation? So my take on this, as someone who has been on the production side, would be to impose a small penalty so the broken tile isn't simply ignored or swept under the carpet, but it shouldn't be such a big penalty that it would tantamount to an instant elimination on the spot. So if we were to compare it to the Cantonese opera challenge in leg 1 in Hong Kong, it should be the equivalent of the judge saying, "you're nearly there, you made some small mistakes though, you will have to go back and practice a bit more before you can try again." In this case, I didn't think the outcome was fair. There should have been a penalty for breaking that tile, but like I said, it was probably one producer's decision. 

Do people speak English in Portugal? 

Actually you'll be amazed how high the standard of English is in Portugal. It is a rich country with a great education system. English is a compulsory subject in all schools in Portugal and kids start at a very young age, but some older people may not have had the chance to learn English like that. So if you need to ask for help in Portugal, look around for the youngest person around and avoid anyone over 40. I actually speak some Portuguese as I am fluent in Spanish, so I can kinda figure out a lot of Portuguese and I find it easy to read most things in Portuguese. But when I am in Portugal and I try to speak Portuguese with the locals, I indivertibly end up using some Spanish words and the moment they hear those Spanish words, they would be like, do you prefer to speak English? And I'd be like, but I used Spanish words, not English words so you should be offering to switch to Spanish for me, not English but never mind, yes I do speak English. 

So we move onto Miami but why did they fly Turkish Airlines? 

The teams in the finale got an upgrade to business class and I have flown business on Turkish Airlines before, it is so amazing: the service and food were awesome and the seats were so comfortable. But that meant flying from Porto to Istanbul in the wrong direction and then flying an awfully long way back across Europe, crossing the Atlantic to get to Miami. They could've taken the train down to Lisbon airport and flown directly from Lisbon to Miami on TAP Air Portugal. 

Would the racers be allowed to collect Air Miles on that business class flight? 

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Yes actually. The racers are not allowed their phones on the race but they can register with a whole bunch of airlines they think they will fly on in order to collect air miles. Even if they happen to get a flight on an airline they hadn't already registered with, the staff at the airport can always help them sign up on the spot to make sure they get those air miles. 

They had a lot of rain in Miami during the final leg. 

In fact the weather was so awful in Miami with strong wind and rain that production was delayed by two days in Miami. Now we only have bits and pieces of information about this delay because the narrative was that the teams were continually racing in this process but when they do encounter really terrible weather and they had planned all of these tasks that are conducted in the sea, then postponing it is the only sensible option left and waiting for the weather to clear up. We don't know if the teams waited it out in Porto, Miami or even Istanbul for the weather clear up in Miami, but we do know they had two days of rest. Each team would have at least one designated chaperone in this process, so the teams would be with their chaperones, they would have to be guided by their chaperones the moment they leave their hotel rooms and that is mostly to make sure that the teams do not randomly meet each other and start talking to each other when there are no cameras filming - there is usually a lot of production crew involved of course, but we don't see them. 

Wait, how do you know all these little details Alex?

Duh, I told you I've worked in the industry before! That's why I know more than most people who have only experienced TAR as a viewer but have never worked a day before in the competitive reality TV industry. So even if I wasn't involved in this production, I do know a lot about the process and the industry in general and so I'm expressing an informed opinion. 

What was the point of that speed boat ride from Crandon Park marina? 

I'm sure all that was super fun, but again, it simply didn't add anything to the race as the teams had simply enjoyed the ride as passengers, they didn't have to do anything and thus I felt that was quite pointless as they could have all just taken the taxi to the start of the scramble on Miami Beach. Again, it felt like a regular travel programme rather than TAR. 

Did we like the tasks on the scramble? 

I only liked one out of the three - I loved the flyboard challenge as it was insanely difficult and it was a very steep learning curve for anyone to try to master that. The instructors were awesome and it was nice to see Ana conquer her fears. It was the kind of challenge where you didn't know which team was going to come out on top, given that I thought Han's surfing experience would really help her but that was not the case. As for rescuing the mannequin, I'm afraid that seemed so straightforward and whilst it required some effort to pull in the heavy mannequin, there was so little that could have gone wrong with it and so that meant it was boring and predictable - teams simply departed in the order they had arrived in. I also didn't like the sailing challenge because none of the teams actually bothered to figure out how to say those optimist dinghies properly and instead just used their arms to row the boat. There should have been some kind of rule against that, so as to force the teams to learn how to sail those dinghies properly and thus it might have been a good idea to have given the teams some instruction on how to sail those dinghies. Again, they simply departed in the order they had arrived in and that theme of departing in the order they arrived in continued through Calle Ocho and all the way to the last memory challenge. Thus the outcome of this finale was really determined by the flyboard challenge - just imagine if Han had actually managed to complete it first, it would have caused one of the biggest upsets in TAR history. 

Do they speak English in Miami? 

I know it's a silly question but Holden's Spanish skills were super useful in Miami when they had the care accident. I remember when I first arrived in Miami, I had travelled to my AirBNB and I spotted a big supermarket just across the street, so I decided to pop in to find out what time they closed because it was hot and I wanted to get ice cream, but I also wanted to drop my bags off first if they weren't going to close soon. So I walked up to the lady behind the deli counter and asked her, "excuse me ma'am, can you tell me what time this supermarket will close tonight?" And she replied, "lo siento, no hablo inglés." I then continued that conversation with her in Spanish and when I told my AirBNB host what had happened, I commented, "a lot of people in Miami speak Spanish, right?" And she corrected me, "no, not a lot of people but practically everyone here speaks Spanish. You're better off asking for anything in Spanish first in most cases." I found Miami fascinating given that it is a trilingual city, on top of English and Spanish, there was also Haitian Creole spoken - I'm such a total geek when it comes to multilingual cities and when I heard to ladies speaking to each other in Haitian Creole on the bus, I started chatting to them in French to ask them about where I could see some Haitian culture in Miami - the weather in Miami was way too hot and sticky for my liking but I did enjoy the local culture there very much. I then travelled further north to Orlando and Jacksonville on that trip, but I found those cities a lot less interesting.

My favourite team won and the underdogs came in second! 

I'm very pleased with the outcome - my favourite team Carson & Jack won and the underdogs Han & Holden came in second. Initially, I wouldn't have picked these two teams for the top two. My pick for the top two initially was Brett & Mark and Alyssa & Josiah. I look back at my first post after the first episode, obviously Carson & Jack did well in that leg and finished in first place at the fork in the road, but I mentioned a couple of other teams that left me with a good impression and sure enough, Han & Holden were in that list - I did pick five teams for victory after that first leg and the top two were indeed in that list. Carson & Jack were extremely likable all the way and I loved the way they always supported each other. But what about Han & Holden who peaked right at the end? They had a shaky start, they were 11th on the 2nd leg and 9th on the third leg so their best results were three 2nd place finishes: on the 6th, 11th and 12th leg. Well done guys!

And of course, Jonathan didn't win! Phew. 

I believe in karma, I don't believe that someone who treats his wife so badly should deserve to win. Phil tried to carve some kind of narrative about Jonathan learning a lot about himself through this process and I don't like the way that was done. I'm speaking as an insider from the industry and I am only too aware of how they are always trying to create some kind of happy ending about "hey you didn't win, but you have learnt such an important lesson that's worth more than the prize money and now you're a much better person for the experience." Yeah right, as if. Spare me that crap, I'm not just talking about Jonathan here, okay? These racers are adults, they're not young kids or teenagers, their characters have been formed over a very long time and whilst taking part in TAR may be the adventure of a lifetime, I am cynical when they claim that it is such a momentous experience that it will change their character. Nope, get real. Someone like Jonathan is just going to go back to the way he is the moment the cameras stop rolling. The only thing that this process can force him to do is to censor himself when he is being filmed and maybe bite his tongue until they are off camera, but he couldn't even do that. He continued being abusive and nasty to Ana even whilst he was on camera, so how do you think he is going to behave one they go back home after the filming is complete? As a viewer and fan, I don't expect some kind of miracle to happen during the short filming process and to suggest that an intense experience like that can change someone in any kind of significant way is just bullcrap. They had absolutely no chance of winning this leg the moment they picked Ana to do that flyboard challenge and whilst I felt both delighted and relieved that Jonathan had no chance of winning this season, there was a part of me that was worried about how he will blame Ana for losing the race.

My final thoughts on Jonathan & Ana? 

Personally, if I took part in TAR (which I can't, since I am British - you need to be American to take part in TAR US and we don't have the franchise here in the UK), I wouldn't want to go into the finals with the vast majority of the viewers hoping that I don't win. I am just baffled as to how someone can just be so totally oblivious as to how he comes across to others. He reminds me of someone I know from my high school days - there was this guy whom we shall call Mr CF, he was a socially awkward guy who was clearly autistic but extremely intelligent. Mr CF had no friends at school, but he was perfectly content to be left on his own. Some of the mean kids did bully him from time to time but most of the others just ignored him. I heard that he then went onto a top university and got a job in tech, became very successful at what he did. His parents helped him with an arranged marriage, this woman from a poor family was desperate to find a rich husband, Mr CF was never going to be able to navigate the complex dating game, so his parents arranged a meeting with this lady who agreed to marry him, given that Mr CF had become very rich by then and she was after his money, there was no romance or love involved in that arrangement. So they got married, had two kids and it wasn't a happy, loving marriage - Mr CF didn't treat his wife well, but then Mrs CF never complained as long as she didn't have to work, she could live in a nice big house, go shopping for expensive luxuries and for her, it was simply her job, a financial arrangement. She would have never been able to have access to this kind of lifestyle without Mr CF and so she puts up with being treated like the junior partner in that marriage by a husband who views her as his inferior as she isn't as educated, intelligent or capable as he is. Mrs CF is a housewife whilst he is the sole breadwinner of the family, she is financially dependent on him. So in this case study, who are we to judge? Who are we to tell Mrs CF that she ought to leave her husband because their marriage does not conform to our concept of how a modern, loving marriage ought to be? I actually see a lot of similarities between Jonathan & Ana and Mr & Mrs CF in that Ana is also a stay at home mother (without an income) and Jonathan is the sole breadwinner for the family, she needs him to provide for her two daughters. So does she deserve to be treated like that all the time? No of course not, S37 was painful to watch because of Jonathan's behaviour but she is a grown woman, she is not a child, she chose to be in this marriage and like Mrs CF, if it isn't for love as we know it, then I hope whatever benefits she gets out of this arrangement will make up for Jonathan's abusive behaviour in the long run.

Autism doesn't turn you into an abusive husband, Ana enables his abuse. 

Oh we're not done yet. I can't believe I'm talking more about the team that finished 3rd than the top two teams but there's one more point that I need to address. Jonathan has been diagnosed as autistic after the race - that diagnosis has taken place after the shoot on S37 had wrapped. I am hugely skeptical about this whole autistic diagnosis thing because I understand what it means to be autistic, not only am I autistic but my entire family's autism is totally off the scale, autism runs in my blood. Being autistic doesn't turn you into an abusive person nor does it give you an excuse to behave like that towards anyone. Autistic people tend to lack social skills to develop relationships, that means that they are often the quiet ones who prefer to read a book or retreat into their phones, instead of being social with friends. In primary school, I was the quiet introverted kid who didn't say that much, I found the classroom overwhelming and in my breaks, I would take long walks around the garden studying the plants instead of playing with the other children. It was really only in my adult life, in my mid to late 20s, that I began to develop the kind of social skills that I needed for my career. I could talk for a long time about how I learnt to develop a lot of copping strategies as an autistic adult but my point is that Jonathan can't claim that being autistic somehow justifies the way he treats his wife - there simply isn't any correlation. It is as ridiculous as him claiming that he was born on a Thursday and that's why he is an abusive husband, so that somehow makes it okay. No, it doesn't - the only reason he gets away with it is because Ana allows him to do so. I think too many of you out there on social media are ignoring the fact that Ana enables his behaviour, her response to his abuse is usually to apologize even though she knows it isn't her fault or even if she isn't sure what she is apologizing for. She constantly allows him to get away with treating her like that, she hasn't done much to stop that abuse, she doesn't fight back and by that token, Ana reminds me of Mrs CF who also reacts that same way to Mr CF when he treats her like that. 

Let's try to understand Ana's behaviour in this context. 

I have an explanation for this: it is called the Region Beta Paradox; basically it explains the kind of situation whereby things aren't good but they are not so bad that you are forced to fix it, so let me give you an example. Imagine Olivia (this is a real person in my life) isn't happy in her job because she doesn't get along with her colleagues, but she is worried that she might not find anything else that is better if she leave this job. So she starts convincing herself that things aren't too bad - the colleagues might be difficult, but at least her commute to the office is very short and she is familiar with the tasks at work, so she is perfectly competent in that role. Besides, changing jobs is jumping into the unknown and she might also encounter difficult people if she found another job. Thus she convinces herself that it is not worth trying to find another job and that she would be better off trying to make the best of a bad situation, even if her colleagues are nasty to her everyday at work. So in Olivia's case, things have to get a lot worse before she hits her tipping point and she would finally say, "that's it, I've had enough and I'm out of here". When she reaches that crucial tipping point, she can then find a better job with a more conducive work environment where she would be so much happier. Thus Olivia is currently stuck in Region Beta, where things are bad but not bad enough to motivate her to find a better alternative to her current situation. Likewise for Ana, I wonder how bad things have to get before she decides, "that's it, I've had enough and I'm out of here" - clearly, she has reached that tipping point once in the past when she left Jonathan and thus I can only imagine just how much nastier he was to her back then in order to force her past that tipping point, because he was already really abusive on TAR S37. In both the cases of Olivia and Ana, things have to get a lot worse before they are forced to fix the situation. It's not like victim blaming here, Olivia only behaves the way she does because she lacks self confidence and suffers from low self esteem, that is why she neither stands up to the bullies at work nor does she have the confidence to find a better job. This is why good people like Olivia and Ana end up in bad situations this way. Given the way Olivia is still at that job today after so many years, it makes me think that Ana is never going to leave Jonathan. 

What about those who say "you can't judge Ana like that, you don't know her." 

Well, I disagree. When you decide to take part in a programme like TAR, you are putting yourself out there to be judged. Otherwise, if you value your privacy, then you shouldn't take part in TAR. Either you take part and accept that millions of viewers are going to judge you, or don't take part if you value your privacy - you can only have one or the other. People who choose to take part in programmes like TAR do so for two reasons: the price money and the attention from being on one of the world's most popular reality TV competition programmes. Giving up your privacy and receiving all this judgment is just part of the process of taking part in reality TV, I'm sure even Ana accepts that. The moment you sign that contract, you give up your privacy and you're putting yourself out there for others to judge whether you like it or not - it is a very harsh process and if you don't like this aspect of it, then don't take part in TAR or any other reality TV programme.

The public debate about Jonathan has become quite ugly. 

Oh where do I even begin when it comes to the online public lynching of Jonathan? The vast majority of comments on social media about the way he behaves towards Ana has been very negative, but there are also some people who are trying to defend him and claim that he doesn't deserve the kind of hate that is directed at him. I don't want to name individuals here as my intention here is just to analyze the situation rather than pick a fight, but this one woman was so robust in defending him that she went on the offensive, posting in ALL CAPS, attacking anyone who criticized Jonathan and it was ugly. Her opinion was, I am right, y'all are all wrong, if you don't agree with me, then I really hate you and y'all can go to hell (and I'm already choosing my words very carefully - she used much stronger vulgar language). This is a very sad reflection on the state of social media and the total lack of social skills displayed by some people online - you can pick any public figure from Donald Trump to Katy Perry - some people will like them, others will hate them and of course, you are entitled to your own opinion about this person and if they put themselves out there in the public domain, then you are welcome to pass judgment on their actions. There will be a range of opinions on any one individual and that is completely normal. But it is this "everyone in the entire world must agree with me because only my opinion is valid, every single person in the rest of the world has to listen to me on this matter" attitude that makes me roll my eyes - really? Could anyone really be that naive when it comes to using social media? There's a huge difference between using social media to express your opinion (which is exactly what I am doing here) and trying to pick a fight with anyone who dares to disagree with you. I may have an opinion on Taylor Swift or Donald Trump and sure, I am entitled to voice that opinion online, but I certainly do not expect everyone to automatically agree with my opinions and if you have a different opinion, I respectfully invite you to share those with me so as I may learn more from those who have a different opinion than myself. But it is this "you must agree with me or go to hell" attitude displayed by some of these people on social media that makes me want to take a step back and not engage with them, that's one of the main reasons why I prefer to blog here about TAR and voice my opinion - these are just my opinions (and I have made it very clear I don't like the way Jonathan has behaved), but if you disagree with me, I respectfully offer you a chance to change my mind. But if you are one of those who do not understand that others in the world may disagree with you and you respond with threats and insults when you encounter someone with a different opinion, then please, I have no time or energy for that stupid crap.

What about a duty of care towards the contestants by the production company? 

Allow me to speak as someone with professional experience in this industry (I can't discuss what I have done here as I have signed so many NDAs), I am not someone judging these people from my armchair at home but I can offer a different perspective as someone who has actually worked in this industry. Once you agree to take part in a show like that, you have to sign loads of legal contracts -  basically, you have signed away your rights in exchange for the chance to take part, you don't get to say, "can you edit out that scene when I totally lost my temper then as it would make me look so bad". No, the contestants are adults who have understood what they have signed up for and if they behave badly (the way Jonathan has) then they have no control over what happens next - if the production company decides to make you look like a real nasty villain in the edit and keep those scenes in the final product, then tough. Jonathan has no real excuse or defence for it and claiming that he has ADHD or autism doesn't give you a get out of jail free card for the way he has behaved - having ADHD or autism doesn't turn you into an abusive husband for treats his wife badly like that, anyone with the most basic understanding of ADHD and autism will look at his claims in this case and simply say, "what he claims doesn't add up at all, none of this makes any sense and it's all a big pile of bullcrap. Either he is a big liar or he has absolutely no idea what he is talking about, either way, it looks really bad for him." Oh and as for those people on social media who write stupid things like, "you don't know what it is like to be placed in this kind of situation as you have never done anything like TAR." I have two things to say to that: firstly, some of us have, actually, you may not have done it but instead of making that assumption, why not just ask some of the former racers like Justin Scheman from TAR S27 and see how he would have handled that situation - on social media, Justin has been very vocal about his opinions on Jonathan's awful behaviour. Secondly, some of us have taken part in other very similar reality TV shows before, some of us have also work on production in such shows before (in my case, I can actually claim both to be true) so when I speak about this issue, my opinion actually is far more informed than someone who is only watching TAR as a viewer whilst having absolutely zero experience in this genre. If you have a medical issue, you would seek the medical attention of a doctor because you accept that the medical professionals will know a lot more than you, so why is it so difficult to apply the same basic principle when it comes to reality TV and simply accept that there are some of us out there (like myself) who actually have a far more informed opinion when it comes to this issue then? Not all opinions carry the same weight. 

It is mid-May and I have an announcement to make at the end of the month. 

I appreciate all the readers who have come to my blog to hear me talk about TAR S37, I actually have an announcement to make but I can only do it at the very end of May 2025. I can't tell you more now but I promise you that if you like TAR, then this would definitely interest you. So I'll be back real soon folks. Thank you so much, the journey will continue soon.