Average rankings after leg 4 in Marrakech
- Michelle & Matthew 3
- Anuar & Andrea 4.5
- Ann-Marie & Riley =4.75
- Erin & Javi =4.75
- Conner & Garrett 5
- Ali & Joanna 5.5
- Cody & Jaime 7.25 (eliminated after leg 4 in Marrakech)
- Daisha & Dalton 7.75
- Jody & Jenn 8 (eliminated after leg 3 in Marrakech)
- Doug & Dylan =8.25
- Dafina & Saran =8.25
Now we have done 4 legs of the season, I think it is time for me to reflect on the statistics as I think we have enough data to analyze. Firstly, it does look like Michelle & Matthew are the strongest team by quite a margin, especially after having won this latest leg. They are clearly the favourite to win. None of the teams I picked as my favourites are anywhere near the top - Ali & Jonna and Conner & Garrett are in the middle of the pack and Cody & Jaime managed to get themselves eliminated in Marrakech. Well, I guess I am not that good at picking winners here. I would have never predicted the top four teams to be doing so well at the starting line, butt then again, I'm going to stick to my guns and bet on a final with Conner & Garrett and Ali & Joanna there. They just strike me as classic TAR winners but hey that is just my gut feeling.
How did Doug & Dylan beat Jody & Jenn to the pit stop mat?
From what we could see from the little bit of footage at the end of episode 3, it did appear that Jody & Jenn and Doug & Dylan took different paths. According to the discussions on Reddit and Google maps, Jody & Jenn had picked a shorter route than Doug & Dylan, however, it is not that straightforward as that park has many trees that can obscure your view of Phil and the film crew. So one can only logically conclude that Jody & Jenn wasted a few moments looking around for Phil in the wrong places, despite having picked a slightly shorter route. That was the lucky break that allowed Doug & Dylan to clinch this victory as Jody & Jenn would have beat them in a foot race to the pit stop - but no, they were literally playing hide and seek amongst the trees. Hence when you factor that in, then the outcome was much harder to predict.
I bet Jody & Jenn are gonna regret using that express pass in Madrid huh?
Well I said it before and I'll say it again. I know they gave in to blind panic when they used it on a detour they could have easily completed. A lot of people on social media were like, oh don't be so harsh judging them and I'm like dude, when you sign up to do reality TV, you have agreed to be judged by the viewers and some are gonna like you, some are gonna support you whilst others are going to judge you very harshly for the dumb mistakes you have made. It's all part of the package. Why am I judging them so harshly for that stupid mistake? It is to help other future racers doing research on this topic. I am so incredibly lucky to have had the chance to go on one of these types of programmes (note I'm British, so I can't take part in TAR US but we have similar programmes in the UK too). You don't get to make a stupid mistake and recover from it, no matter how kind and forgiving the viewers may be. I've been there, done that myself and I too have made dumb mistakes when I was on 007: RTAM S2. One can only hope that incidents are not taken out of context.
The scramble returns in Marrakech
The scramble has been done before four times (S29, 34, 35, 37) and this is the fifth time we have seen it. To be honest, I think the order to do these tasks can be determined quite logically by looking at a map and working out what the most direct, logical route to take would be. That would involve finding a local willing to help you work that out, but it is well worth spending a few minutes to do that and have a good plan in hand. All teams started with the slipper and then some did the dyeing task next and others did the rug delivery task next. I had a good study of Google maps and quite frankly, either of the options are fine. The key difference boiled down to whether teams took the most efficient routes from point A to B or did they spend ages taking a much longer route. We saw Ali & Joanna, Ann-Marie & Riley, Cody & Jaime and Doug & Dylan get so lost but as I studied the map, I realized Daisha & Dalton got lost too. They had chosen to deliver the rug as their second task on the scramble but somehow walked into the courtyard where the dyeing challenging was being carried out. If they had taken a much more direct route, they would not only have missed the dyeing challenge but saved themselves a lot of time as that was a big detour they took. I do feel rather bad for the winners of the previous leg Ann-Marie & Riley though - they won the previous leg with a huge margin and that advantage was slashed as teams departed from the fountains in intervals of just 2 minutes; as a result, Ann-Marie & Riley finished down in 7th in this leg.
How I would improve the scramble.
I would add a new twist to it - limited stations. Take the dyeing task for example, I would have limited stations, like if only four teams at a time can complete the task. That would force the team that arrives too late to make an agonizing choice: do you wait a while for a team to complete the task and free up a station for you or do you go do something else first?
Is the medina of Marrakech really that hard to navigate?
Having been to the medina of Marrakech and other such souks/bazaars in North Africa and the Middle East, I can honestly say no, they're not hard to navigate. In Marrakech, everything is clearly signposted in Arabic and French. Since I can't read Arabic, naturally my eyes would focus on the street names in French. You don't need to be able to speak French to read a road name in French. I am going to use the example of Doug & Dylan: we see them stop and ask some foreign tourists for help with directions - the tourists take out their phones, show them the exact route they have to take and they write down all the instructions carefully before going on their way - yet somehow, a few minutes later, they are completely lost again. This is when I slap my forehead and shake my head in disbelief. You had all the information, you even wrote it down so how could you fail to follow such clear instructions? Well, I can actually relate to that feeling - on one leg in the Bahamas, I had been given several pieces of information and when I was under pressure and panicking, I conveniently forgot one of the most important pieces of information I had been given earlier. And honestly, I still can't tell you why I forgot that vital piece of information. In hindsight, of course it seems evident what I ought to have done but it is a very high price to pay for cracking under pressure. So the teams who were able to keep their cool and follow instructions were the ones who completed this leg a lot more efficiently. Oh and just a friendly reminder that this is just one part of the old town of Marrakech, there are other parts of Marrakech which are very modern and would resemble any city in southern Europe. So please don't imagine that all of Morocco is just like the medina you see in this episode.
The slippers task - luck or skill?
There is a bit of both. Yes you need great attention to detail to be able to find the matching slippers in all those shops but there has got to be a huge element of luck with tasks like that especially. when some of the designs are so similar but still subtly different. So the element of luck did change the order somewhat as some teams took a lot longer than others.
What were the locals speaking to the racers?
The old man at the slipper task spoke mostly Darija - Moroccan Arabic. The man who accepted the rug deliveries spoke mostly French. Whilst the people giving the instructions at the dyeing task spoke English actually. Moroccan Arabic is the local language, French is the former colonial language that is still widely spoken and used in Morocco whilst English is what they use with the tourists. Mind you, this is the kind of place where you get charged a different price depending on the language you speak. The local shopkeepers always speak to me in English since I look East Asian and that's when they would hit me with a ridiculous price, I would then switch to French to force the price down and if I am still not happy, I'll switch to modern standard Arabic and drop in some local Moroccan Arabic to get the price I want. I speak some Arabic and know enough Moroccan dialect convince them that I am a regular visitor to Morocco. One just accepts that this kind of aggressive multilingual bargaining is all part of the journey in Morocco, even if you want to just buy a bottle of water.
Do the locals speak English in Marrakech?
Actually you'll be amazed. Yes actually, you're not going to encounter the same standard of English as you might in a country like Iceland, Denmark or the Netherlands, but this is one of the most touristy places in all of Morocco and most of the people working there will know enough English to make money from the hoards of tourists who visit the medina. Their English won't be good enough to have a discussion with you about politics but they can most certainly help you with directions. Having said that though, this is an extremely touristy venue. Outside the medina, in the real Morocco, the standard of English falls rapidly and you really need to speak at least some French to get around. I remember being on a bus on one of my trips to Morocco - the driver spoke only a little English but was perfectly happy conversing with me in French. This was because the French language had been a part of his formal education in Morocco whilst English was something he had tried to teach himself as an adult to help with his work. I did notice that Andrea was the only one who tried to use some French with the locals - I like her but I can't help but feel that her dad Anuar is really slowing her down.
I am sad that Cody & Jaime are eliminated.
Oh man, Cody & Jaime. What a shame. I really liked them and thought they could have done so much better, but they succumbed to the pressure in the end when they got so incredibly lost delivering the rug. Even after Doug & Dylan fell so far back, I am sure you must have been as surprised as me when Doug & Dylan finished ahead of Cody & Jaime. I'm sorry but I think Doug & Dylan are living on borrowed time in this season. They really struggled to navigate - like even after they get clear instructions off Google maps, they still somehow manage to get lost. Doug is 72, he is from the generation before we had smartphones so surely he can read a map and navigate without technology? Apparently not. They started quite strong on the first leg because they had used their express pass then but have really struggled in the last few legs. Dafina & Saran on the other hand have shown improvements in their performance over the last three legs.
Michelle & Matthew claim their first win.
Statistically, they are the strongest team and they had performed very well until now and they still have their express pass on them which they must use on leg 5 or 6. I don't like them as much as some of the other teams as they don't have a particularly compelling backstory but hey, we are not judging them on that. TAR is not a popularity contest and their results speak for themselves - they are a strong team. All teams are probably going to be on the same flight from Marrakech to Tirana via a major European city like Rome or Paris but from the previews, we can see that they get to the driver's seat board first, so maybe they are released from the airport in the order they finished in leg 4 in Marrakech.
The race goes to Albania next.
Ooh a new country for TAR! This will be TAR's first ever visit to Albania - it is a country I have been to twice before. The first time was when I crossed over from Greece into Southern Albania in the region around Sarande. The second time was when I based myself in the capital Tirana and took some day trips out of Tirana. This will bring TAR's country count up to 99 - so close to 100, but that number is not going to be reached this season as we know the rest of the countries in Asia and Oceania planned have already been visited in past seasons already. Once again, just like Morocco, I think they may try to present Albania as this exotic country that few people have visited but please - that might have been the case 20 years ago but tourism is big business in Albania now with plenty of budget airlines flying into Albania from every corner of Europe with loads of tourists looking for a cheap holiday, just like in Morocco. Albania is a very budget friendly destination, a nice dinner in Tirana will cost about half of what you can expect to pay in Vienna or Amsterdam. What you pay for a very basic hotel room in Geneva or Barcelona will get you 5-star luxury in Tirana. The food is delicious, the capital city is vibrant, the beaches are stunning and there's so much culture and history there, so yes, many Europeans have been to Albania on holiday already so it really isn't that exotic. At least not to the majority of the viewers in Europe!
Where can TAR go to hit that magic 100th country?
You have to consider that this is a reality TV competition so the safety of the cast and crew are most important, so you have to be able to film in a relatively safe country where you know you won't run into any kind of trouble. So they must avoid war zones along with other generally unsafe countries but there are plenty of safe options like that including European countries Andorra, Luxembourg, North Macedonia, Serbia, Latvia, Bosnia, Montenegro, San Marino, Cyprus and Moldova and these are all in Europe. I have not even gotten started with the low hanging fruit in places like Asia, Central America or Oceania. Mind you, TAR is not trying to visit as many countries as possible on this series, they often go back to the same country many times. They have been to France 16 times, China 15 times, India 13 times, Germany 12 times and Italy 11 times. So they could have easily visited a lot more countries but have actually chosen not to do so.
Who will win the next leg in Albania? Who will be eliminated next?
Oh I am sure Michelle & Matthew will win again in Albania, since we have seen them at the driver's seat board so they would be quite foolish not to use that power to their advantage by slowing down their strongest opponents and help the weaker teams out. As for who will go home next, I am wondering how much of a factor the driver's seat would play. Would Doug & Dylan simply get lost and waste precious time driving around in circles in Tirana or would one of the stronger teams get hit with a much heavier workload by the driver's seat and be sent home as a result? Here's my prediction: even if a team does get hit with a heavier workload, it may take them an extra 15 to 30 minutes to complete that - it will slow you down for sure, but it is by no means a death sentence. But if a team does get hopelessly lost by driving a long way in the wrong direction, that can create a far bigger problem. Don't forget, apart from Michelle & Matthew, two other teams still have their express passes so if you hit Ali & Joanna or Connor & Garrett with a massive workload at the driver's seat, they can always just use their express passes to bypass the challenge altogether. I am just going to go with the statistics and predict that Doug & Dylan would be the next to go especially since they have shown they really struggle with navigation and the teams will have to drive themselves in this next leg. We do see Anuar & Andrea struggle with directions as well in the previews, but I hardly think they are going to give away a spoiler like that.
Next week's post will be late, sorry!
I will be away in Prague and Kutna Hora next week and yes, I know they visited those places in S38 quite recently. I normally watch each episode on a Thursday, write my review over the Friday and Saturday and post it by Saturday. But I will be only get back from Prague on Sunday night so I'll probably only get to watch the episode sometime on Monday and then rush out a review by late Monday or early Tuesday. So you see, I do travel quite a lot anyway and it is no coincidence that I have been to all of these places in this season already, this does put me in a unique position to judge these racers fairly. So for example, it is not like the streets of the medina in Marrakech are so confusing it is impossible to navigate them even with Google maps, but rather I understand what it is like for the racers to crack under pressure and fail to follow simply instructions when they are panicking. This is the kind of perspective I can bring you and why I think my reviews do offer rather useful insights. I hope you have enjoyed my review this week and many thanks for reading.
No comments:
Post a Comment