Dobar dan, zdravo! I'm afraid this latest leg was a bit of an anti-climax because the teams basically kept the order they had finished in the previous leg - Tucker & Eric left at 8:58 am whilst the team that came in 2nd in the previous leg Kyland & Taylor departer at 9:24 am, a good 26 minutes later. That big lead made it quite easy for Tucker & Eric to win this leg even with a few small mistakes along the way. Likewise, Izzy & Paige left at 11:47 am whilst Kristine & Rubina left at 12:55 pm, they were 1 hour 8 minutes behind the nearest team and realistically, short of one team having a total meltdown or getting so lost, they never really stood a chance. If you were to look at those start times, the last team set off a good 3 hours 57 minutes after the first team. If there was ever a justification for a way to level the playing field by using something like an "hours of operation" leveller by making the teams ahead wait for an hour or two, this would be it. What this meant was that this was a rather boring and predictable leg and that is reflected in the average rankings statistics.
Average ranking after leg 6 in Ston
- Tucker & Eric 2
- Jas & Jag 2.16
- Natalie & Stephanie 3.33
- Joseph & Adam 5
- Izzy & Paige 5.33
- Kyland & Taylor 6
- Jack & Chelsie 7
- Kristine & Rubina 7.16 (eliminated in Pratpratno)
For the first time in S38, Jas & Jag are not at the top of the average ranking table - we have Tucker & Eric ahead of them. But there was very little movement in the rankings - Jas & Jag swapped places with Kyland & Taylor, Natalie & Stephanie swapped places with Joseph & Adam but there was no major drama given how spaced out their departure times were. I was right that Tucker & Eric were going to win this leg but I was wrong about the team that was eliminated.
Aren't you being a bit ageist and mean towards Jack?
Actually it is not just his age but I get the feeling he is a fish out of water in this process. Let me explain: a lot of the younger racers would have had the opportunity to travel around the world, maybe they have had backpacking holidays in Europe before and thus are used to turning up in a new country, dealing with the different cultures, languages and challenges that traveling like that would throw at you. Jack is not a celebrity, it is in fact his daughter Chelsie who found fame on BB and so Jack is more like your average, older, working class American who has never had the chance to travel and that does put him at a massive disadvantage in TAR. Physically, Jack is actually pretty strong physically - when he was in a foot race with Izzy & Paige running towards the farmhouse with the salt, he overtook them (but also missed the wheelbarrows in the process as well). So please forgive me if I think that he is lucky to be still in the race at this point - it is nothing personal at all, I am just being analytical about the factors that will help you do well this process.
How long was the drive from Dubrovnik to Trsteno?
It was 18.9 km (11.7 miles) and would take about 24 minutes.
How long was the drive from Trsteno to Ston?
How long was the drive from Ston to the pit stop at Prapratno Cove?
It was just 4.3 km and would've taken about 7 minutes. I am amazed Izzie & Paige got lost on part.
How easy is it to drive around Croatia?
Actually really easy! To begin with, Croatia is a relatively rich European country, the roads are of often of very good quality and everything is clearly sign posted. Yes it is in Croatian but all speakers of English can read Croatian - like you don't need to be fluent in Croatian to spot the sign for Dubrovnik that will read "Dubrovnik". I have even driven across the border in Serbia where everything is in Serbian and that's a language that uses the Cyrillic alphabet. This is why I say Jack is so far out of his comfort zone he is still lucky to be still in the race given how little he has traveled outside the USA. I have even driven in far more challenging conditions in Asia and Africa, let's just say Croatia is a breeze compared to some of those other countries and the only real issue for the racers on this leg would have been the very heavy rain.
Given how heavy the rain was, should they have postponed the filming?
I am in two minds about this one. It must have been frightfully unpleasant to be racing through the heavy rain, many teams would have undoubtedly ended up with wet shoes and socks when they were completing their detours. There would be a question of safety as well, if you would allow teams to row out to the oyster beds in the bay if there was a lot of wind and rain. There's also of course a question of the audience experience - if the programme was meant to take the audience on a holiday to the lovely Croatian countryside, then no this episode didn't quite achieve that as it looked wet and miserable out there. When I was filming 007 RTAM S2 in Bangkok, we had to postponed the filming by one day as the skies just opened and it rained so hard it was impossible to shoot any of the outdoor scenes safely, especially when there was a lot of lightning. But on the other hand, bad weather is all a part of traveling as you can't predict the weather when you get to your destination. You book your flights, you book the accommodation and you hope for the best. If you encounter a rainy day, you have to just deal with it. I remember when I was in Dubrovnik some years ago, on one of those days it just rained non-stop and we just had to get our raincoats and umbrellas out and just brave the elements.
Oysters or Salt: which detour would've been easier?
They are quite different: there is no real skill involved in filling bags of salt, you can't really mess up the weight as you can always double check the weight of each bag before presenting them for the inspection but otherwise the only issue that seemed to cause problems for teams was sealing the bags properly. The sealing mechanism is quite straightforward, it uses heat to melt the plastic to create a seal. Press it too long and the plastic melts too much to create an effective seal, if you don't press it long enough then the seal wouldn't hold. You need to figure out what the sweet spot is to create the perfect seal. Likewise for the oysters, the only technical part was to figure out the most effective way to row the boat. Some teams struggled more than others but neither of these were so complex - it was not that complicated. Though I feel like if it was pouring with rain, I would have rather stayed dry (well, relatively drier) with the salt detour indoors rather than row out to the bay in the heavy rain. Either way, neither of those two detours looked that interesting for us as viewers.
Do we like the twist in the roadblock?
Well, yes and no. Okay so the racers are forced to remember all the facts because they cannot count on being asked the same question twice but at the end of the day, there are only nine facts to memorize. I like the concept of asking three random questions out of all of those facts but I would have given the racer 12 or even 15 facts to memorize just to create more uncertainty and drama. We had a very difficult roadblock in the last leg, in contrast this one was way too easy.
Was it wrong of Natalie & Stephanie not to wait for Joseph & Adam?
I don't think it is wrong, teams will get competitive at some point as it is a race after all. But it's a moot point whether the teams came in 4th or 5th at this stage, there was just no way they could win the nice prize for coming in first but at the same time, there was no danger at all of either team getting eliminated. I can understand how a racer can get very competitive during the race but if it wasn't going to make any real difference to the overall result as both teams were obviously going to go onto the next leg, then yeah I would have gladly helped another team out to win some goodwill.
Are we sad to see Kristine & Rubina go?
Well, statistically, they were the weakest team so it was hardly surprising given how the odds were stacked against them from the beginning. Even if they ran a very average leg without any major mistakes, they had to make up a deficit of 1 hour 8 minutes and that was too much to ask for at this stage I'm afraid - it was impossible to make up that massive deficit. They started out strong with a 4th place finish in the first leg but had been close to the back of the pack since E2, so I'm afraid that this outcome was entirely predictable based on the statistics and that's why I use these statistics to help my readers make sense of each season. They are perfectly nice and likable but this is a race, not a popularity contest and they were not a strong team; hence their elimination didn't surprise me or sadden me, as I knew that was coming.
Did this episode do rural Croatia any favours?
As someone who has been to Croatia six times, I totally love Croatia. I have explored the big cities as well as the countryside in Croatia but this episode was a let down. The producers should pick tasks that would make the viewer go, "wow that looks so totally amazing, when I visit Croatia, I wanna track this down and do this activity!" Who would want to track down a salt factory in Ston and fill bags of salt? Even the oyster side of the detour wasn't that interesting. They did send the racers to what I imagine would otherwise be a really pretty garden, the Trsteno arboretum and that place actually has really good reviews online but it just looked utterly miserable in the pouring rain. As for wandering around Ston looking for the shields with the facts, I'm sure it is a really charming little town - I've been to loads of cute little towns like that in Croatia but in the rain, it just looked miserable, sorry. There was also such a contrast between the library pictures of those perfect golden beaches that Croatia is famous for and Phil getting soaked on the beach at the pit stop. No, this episode did not make me want to book another trip to Croatia. nor did it do it justice. So many people go to Croatia on holiday and never make it out of the big cities like Dubrovnik, Split and Zagreb but I think there's a lot more that rural Croatia can offer anyone on holiday looking for a taste of life in the countryside. Unfortunately, we didn't quite get that in this episode. Yeah, you can blame the weather, but seriously, what were they thinking with those detours?
Who will win next? Who will be eliminated next?
We are set for a major reset in the next leg as teams travel onto Bucharest, the capital of Romania. The teams will have to fly. Ston is a really tiny town in the middle of nowhere so they'll have to return to Dubrovnik. There isn't a train station in Dubrovnik so going there by train would mean a long bus journey to a Croatian city with a train station like Ploče or Split and even from there, it would involve a few changes and a very long journey. There was a train station in Dubrovnik many years ago but it shut down in 1976 due to a lack of investment by the Yugoslavian government and somehow, the Croatian government have yet to get their act together to reopen that train line. Even from Dubrovnik airport, there are no direct flights to Bucharest, so they'll probably have to go via somewhere like Zagreb, Athens or even Vienna - yup, it's not going to be a simple journey. Far from it. So I imagine the teams would all be bunched up waiting for their connecting flight somewhere like Zagreb airport eventually and they will all arrive at Bucharest at the same time. Furthermore, for the sky dive, they will probably take the teams up in two planes, with four teams in one plane and three teams in the other. So that order will depend on something as arbitrary as how fast they can run to the sign up board at the airport though it may also come down to a taxi ride as well, as the plane for the sky dive will not take off from the main Bucharest airport but probably a little airfield in the countryside outside the capital city. We also see the teams doing a task on a farm involving sheep and a lot of mud. I kinda like that as this leg was so predictable and I want to see the order mixed up in the next leg. I think it will be Jas & Jag back in front, winning this next leg whilst it will be Jack & Chelsie eliminated next. The next weakest team is Kyland & Tylor and they have performed well in Croatia - don't forget, they are still holding onto their express pass so it is inevitable that Jack & Chelsie will be at most risk of elimination. Sorry, it is nothing personal, it is just the statistics. One by one the weaker teams would be eliminated and thus I predict it will be Jack & Chelsie next.
Why is there so hate out there on social media directed at the racers?
I am appalled at the amount of hate that some of the racers have been getting on social media and I am not here to defend anyone, but some of this hate is quite over the top and I wonder why people think it is okay to hate someone like that just because they have done a programme like TAR or BB. If you don't like what this person has done on TAR, then by all means, apply for the next season and show the world what you're capable of. I want to remind you all that you're watching a heavily edited product, there would have been hours of footage filmed during each leg and all that needs to be condensed down into a one hour episode. There is so much that you don't get to see and there may be times when a racer does something brilliant but that hits the cutting room floor or there may also be instances when a racer says something quite offensive and that hits the cutting room floor too. Please bear in mind what you actually get to see is someone's editorial decision and even if you do get to see something happen, it may be taken out of context and whilst I don't have any strong feelings about the teams in this season, I did feel some of those reactions online are uncalled for.
Okay people and so that's it from me on this episode, I hope you all enjoyed it. Many thanks for reading everyone.
No comments:
Post a Comment