TAR S32 E4: The best episode yet this season!

Hola, como estas? Mba'éichapa reiko? (That second greeting is in Guarani, one of the two official languages of Paraguay - more on that later.) Whilst many of us are eagerly anticipation the results of the US presidential elections, this latest episode of TAR proved to be a welcome distraction as awaiting the results! Yes I know we have the results already but I'm not going to talk about the US elections here. In fact we were expecting a double episode this week, but the news coverage of the election has cut this to just one episode. Oh and think about poor me stuck in lockdown 2.0 in London, working from home - I really needed this episode! Okay, so let's see where the teams stack up after this leg in Asuncion. 

Average rankings after leg 4 in Asuncion

• Hung & Chee 2.5
• Will & James 3
• Riley & Maddison 3.5
• Michelle & Victoria 4
• Eswar & Arpana 5.5
• Leo & Alana 6
• DeAngelo & Gary 6
• Kaylynn & Haley 6.75 (spared elimination due to NEL in Asuncion)

So how has this leg altered the average rankings then? Will & James are now secondly only to Hung & Chee at 2.5 whilst frustratingly enough, Riley & Maddison are still ranked 3rd with 3.5 despite the fact that I think they are actually a pretty strong team. Michelle & Victoria have redeemed themselves with a strong finish here despite some mistakes on this leg. DeAngelo & Gary threw away an early lead and really struggled with the watermelon detour. To be honest, not that much has changed apart from Will & James making their mark as a serious contender after four legs of this race so far, I would have assumed after three legs that the race was Hung & Chee's to lose, but now I wouldn't be that sure. Certainly, the top four teams right now are a lot closer than before - both Hung & Chee as well as Will & James have proven that they can make mistakes, this does make it a lot more exciting for the fans when the winners are not a foregone conclusion. That's what you want when casting for TAR, you want a group of teams who are equally well-matched so that you have a very close race, rather than have one team dominate the entire process like in TAR Australia S5 where you had one team Tom & Tyler win 8 out of the first 11 legs, only to be eliminated on leg 11. So far we have had four victories shared equally between the two strongest teams and now that the weaker teams have been eliminated, it is only going to get more exciting from this point on. Also don't forget: Leo & Alana's average ranking reflects them surviving a U-turn in the previous leg so they are a much stronger team than DeAngelo & Gary at this point.

Michelle & Victoria think that Paraguay is in Africa.

Good grief. In the taxi ride to Manaus airport, Michelle & Victoria commented that they thought that both Uruguay and Paraguay were in Africa. Seriously? Did you see the look on their taxi driver's face when he heard them? The fact is even if I wasn't completely sure where it was, I would be careful and watch what I say if I was being filmed so as to avoid being made to look like an ignorant idiot on national TV. And these are the two who keep saying 'merci' even though they are in South America - save that for the next leg in France! They're from Louisiana, so that French-Cajun influence is there in their culture, but you don't through in a random French word just because you can't speak the local language - it doesn't help. That's almost as bad as during TAR Asia S2 E10 when the teams were in Budapest, Hungary - they encountered some Hungarians who didn't speak English on Margaret Island so what did Ann & Diane do? They threw in random Spanish words as if the Hungarians who don't speak English would somehow understand Spanish? The fact is English tends to be the default lingua franca that most countries use to communicate with each other - I remember being on a train in Croatia where a group of Brazilian tourists got chatting with the locals, what language did they use to understand each other? English, of course. You can't always speak the local language in every single language you visit (even though I do think everyone should make a genuine effort) but failing which, at least stick to English which is probably your best bet. Furthermore Spanish isn't the only official language in Paraguay - the Guarani language is also an official language there. However, not a single racer even tried to speak a word of Guarani on this leg - which was disappointing. 

So much for the printer incident at Manaus airport 

Okay, so a few of the racers including Will & James, DeAngelo & Gary, Hung & Chee printed a city map of Asuncion at Manaus airport and were keen not to let Kaylynn & Haley see the map. Will & James actually said, "a map of Paraguay" but I assumed they meant Asuncion because Paraguay is a really big country - if it was a state in America, it would be the second largest state (because Alaska is just massive) and it is comparable to Zimbabwe and Iraq in area. So you would have to print many, many pages of maps to cover a country that massive but just imagine if you printed a map of Texas on an A4 side of paper, how's that going to help you navigate your way around Houston? And even if you did print a map of Houston on an A4 side of paper, is it going to show you enough detail to help you find a particular address? So whilst it is nice to see the teams trying to plan ahead, I thought that printer incident was blown out of proportion as none of those maps were used in this leg when the teams finally got there, that whole thing could have easily been edited out. 

Can we blame the taxi driver?

Yet somehow, despite their poor knowledge of South American geography and inability to communicate with the locals, Michelle & Victoria bounced back from a terrible taxi ride from the airport and actually finished in second place in Asuncion, mostly thanks to their great balance abilities with the bottle dance detour. They suffered the same fate as Kaylynn & Haley who also had a taxi driver who got hopelessly lost trying to find the first location in the neighbourhood of Cateura. According to Google maps, this is a 20 to 21 km (approx 12.5 miles) journey from the airport which should take about 45 minutes or so depending on traffic. I can actually forgive the taxi drivers for not knowing that area well - Cateura is a poor neighbourhood where there is a massive landfill site, it is essentially where the waste from Asuncion ends up and thus the materials used for making those instruments are salvaged from the landfill. I would like to think that most taxi drivers would simply look an address up on the internet or use whatever local navigation app that is popular there - but Kaylynn & Haley were just plain unlucky. However, two teams were smart about this: Will & James and Michelle & Victoria did jump out of their taxis when it was clear that their taxi drivers didn't know where to go. It does seem like a rather logical thing to do - you're not obliged to stick to the same taxi driver, you can change taxi drivers as many times as you like. This was an interesting choice for TAR because I'm sure the local tourism promotion authority would have rather they filmed a more attractive neighbourhood in central Asuncion but nonetheless, I like how this showcased one aspect of the local culture in what is a really poor country and TAR didn't try to hide any of the poverty from the viewers.

Was I surprised with the result in this leg? 

Not really, Will & James had already proven that they have what it takes to win a leg and are a very strong team. I felt really bad for Kaylynn & Haley though because they were off to a terrible start but they did make a fundamental mistake in not switching taxis when they got lost - but their taxi driver did tell them that she knew where she was going rather, by the time they got hopelessly lost, they were out in the middle of nowhere and it was probably a lot harder to switch taxis at that stage. It was sheer bad luck and not the mishap you need before an incredibly difficult roadblock! I really couldn't see them recovering from that terrible start but like I predicted last week we were long overdue for a non-elimination leg.  

What a pointless yield! 

Oh good grief. We knew the yield was coming up but the only team that said they would use it were Leo & Alana but they would only use it on Will & James and since they were behind Will & James, they chose not to yield anyone. And if Will & James were that determined to get rid of Leo & Alana, well why didn't they choose to use the yield on them then? I thought perhaps Eswar & Arpana might get ruthless and yield Kaylynn & Haley in order to extend their lead (and avoid elimination), but even they decided to be nice and give Kaylynn & Haley a break. If it is clear that the racers are reluctant to use the yield, then I do wonder why the heck the producers brought it back this season, only for it to be effectively ignored by the racers? How utterly pointless. Like I said, I think the producers should give the racers an incentive to use the yield by offering a prize for the team that does use the yield - it could be a trip, a cash prize or even some kind of advantage in the next leg. Otherwise the viewers are just going to shake their heads and think that the producers made a massive error of judgement in bringing the yield back this season. Nobody likes the yield: not the racers, nor the viewers!

Was this a well constructed leg? 

Yes and no. I did like some elements of it, it has the potential to be one of the best episodes of this season - let's start with what I didn't like: why were all the teams let out of Asuncion airport at the same time, effectively removing any advantage for the teams that did well in the last leg? Again, this doesn't come across as fair. Furthermore, we didn't actually get to see much of the beautiful city of Asuncion! However, both the roadblock and the detour had a high level of skill attached to all the tasks, that really mixed the order of the teams up. It wasn't linear at all and we like that kind of unpredictability in the race. Secondly, we like it when the episode showcases elements of local culture that are unusual and interesting - we certainly got that in this episode. Furthermore the winner happened to be a pair who benefited from the fact that they did do their homework, Will & James did watch that episode from TAR S20 E3 and even filmed themselves practicing the wine bottle dance in their living room. It is great to see a team who are fanatic about the race, who understand the importance of doing your research and understanding the process - this is why casting is so important. It is so incredibly wrong and stupid for the casting directors to put a team like Jerry & Frank on the race just because they think, "oh there's an interesting father & son dynamic going on there" but as it turned out, they got eliminated because they were absolutely clueless about how the race works and were terrible racers. They made such stupid rookie mistakes that made me think, "you haven't watched previous seasons and done your homework, have you?" I wanna make it clear - this is not a personal attack on Jerry & Frank but an attack on the casting directors who denied another applicant who were true fans of TAR and chose to cast a pair who were not that interested in the programme. I'm sure they could have found an African-American father-son team who actually were more interested in TAR to run on the race, it is pointless to cast such a weak team like that who are just going to flounder and self-destruct.

Are you still going on about Jerry & Frank? They have already been eliminated.

Well yes, in my post last week I talked about how they came across as poorer, working class Americans who don't have the money to travel, hence they struggled the moment they were in South America, in a non-English speaking country. A reader than pointed out to me that Jerry was a professional basketball player, thus he did earn a lot of money and he had traveled a lot in the past. And I thought, really? Well if you have traveled a lot, then act like it. He most certainly didn't - he acted like an ignorant American who was abroad for the first time. A major reason why they fell to last place in Manaus was because they took no initiative, they blindly followed other teams when they didn't know what to do instead of figuring it out for themselves or asking the locals - which is something any experienced traveler who is a big fan of TAR would do. And yes of course, I do speak Portuguese and yes I am a big fan of TAR, that's why I get so frustrated when I see a team like that get cast - like I said, nothing personal against Jerry & Frank but this was a massive error of judgement on the part of the casting directors. The fact is there are thousands of applicants to choose from because this is a massive popular show yet of all the applicants, this was their casting decision? I'm going to call and spade a spade: this was a hideously stupid mistake on the part of the casting directors. Okay, I've said my piece about this - moving on. 

Physical challenges vs skill challenges with an aspect of physicality

DeAngelo said "hopefully there'll be physical challenges coming up" when in the taxi on the way to Manaus airport. There will be some physical challenges in TAR of course, but the producers do try to stay away from challenges that depend entirely on brute strength. So for example back in TAR S29 E7, one of the detours was a seemingly 'physical' task: it involved transporting a big stacks of suitcases through the narrow streets of Venice, Italy - that turned out to be far more technical in the way there was a lot of skill involved in maneuvering the dolly used to transport the suitcases and it was as much a navigation task as well. So in this leg, DeAngelo & Gary thought that stacking the watermelons was a strength challenge, but it was far more about attention to detail about exactly how the watermelons are stacked on top of each other in order to form a stable pyramid. The irony of course was that it was DeAngelo that blitzed through the roadblock at Cateura to build the cello from the scraps scavenged from the landfill - it was undoubtedly the most difficult challenges that the teams faced in this season so far and DeAngelo made it look really easy whilst so many other racers struggled with that roadblock. This is why this team confuses me - they have their moments of brilliance when they can absolutely get it right the first time and blow away all the competition, then they get to the next challenge to stack the watermelons and just totally fall apart. They are brilliant but inconsistent - to use a sports analogy: they're like the young gymnast who is extremely talented but nervous. You know that he is capable of so much at the competition but you also wonder if he is going to allow his nerves to get the better of him when it is time to perform. When DeAngelo finished that cello building roadblock way ahead of all the other teams, I actually thought at that point, "this is their moment to shine, they are going to win this leg." The other teams that attempted the watermelon stacking detour (Hung & Chee, Riley & Maddison) didn't actually struggle as much with that detour at all. But the moment I saw the watermelons on this leg, I was instantly reminded of another TAR classic moment from S17 E1 in England (video below), involving another watermelon incident! 

Broken bottles and broken watermelons!

Well, some of you may be concerned about the amount of broken glass during the bottle dance detour - allow me to reassure you that the bottles were made of sugar (or a resin like Piccotex). This means that it is brittle enough to smash if you drop it on the ground but you're unlikely to cut yourself even if you broke it in your hands. I have once worked with this kind of glass on a music video where I had a bottle smashed over my head and I wouldn't say it was painless - I definitely felt the impact on the top of my head but the bottle did just shatter on impact and I wasn't injured in the slightest. On the other hand, I did think that DeAngelo & Gary should have been penalized for smashing so many watermelons - what a waste of good fruit! I would have penalized the racers for each watermelon and bottle smashed - even though it would be a far harsher penalty for the watermelon (like 10 minutes per damaged watermelon) as opposed to 1 minute per broken bottle as it was far harder to learn the bottle dance. Or alternatively, allow the racers to break as many bottles as they like during practice, but they will be penalized for each bottle broken during a judged performance. 

Who will win next and who will be eliminated in Paris, France? 

I think Riley & Maddison are so overdue for a win and I certainly think that their average ranking doesn't reflect how strong a team they are. Nonetheless, the obvious choice would be Hung & Chee or Will & James, given how strong both teams are in having chalked up two wins so far - Hung & Chee would have done even better in Asuncion if not for the fact that they were the only team that switched detours. If they had stuck with the bottle dance or had gone directly to the watermelon stacking detour, then they would have had a stronger finish in this leg. The preview for the next episode showed Will & James struggling in a car park trying to drive a car with gears (I would have thought they would have come a lot better prepared) and Riley & Maddison struggling with this ball game so that might indicate that these two teams will not win in Paris. Nonetheless, there are two other teams who have proven that they are capable of great things and have had their moments of brilliance: DeAngelo & Gary and Michelle & Victoria. In short, the field is wide open given that all the weaker teams are already eliminated at this stage. As for which team would be eliminated, Kaylynn & Haley would be the obvious choice because they were spared elimination in Asuncion but that means they are facing a speed bump in the next leg - depending on how difficult and time consuming it is, it could be enough to eliminate them. Some speed bumps have been more unforgiving than others, they are a good team and I'd really like to see them have a fighting chance to stay in the race rather than for their elimination to be a foregone conclusion if it is obvious that their speed bump would take a really long time to complete. Otherwise, it could be another team like Eswar & Arpana who get eliminated since they have been muddling along in the middle of the pack but it is hard to say as there are no more weak teams left. It is quite unlikely for them to have two non-elimination legs back to back, someone will eliminated next week. 

Oh and I am going to be such a bitch next week, you were warned!

I am going to put this disclaimer out there in advance: I have lived in Paris, I speak French totally fluently as a result - I have not only studied at a French university in Paris (Paris-IV Sorbonne - one of the top universities in France) but I have also worked in Paris. I know central Paris extremely well so if the racers are going to do anything stupid in Paris or be ignorant about French culture, then I'm going to be extremely critical. I know some of the racers have probably never even set foot in France before but if you're on TAR, you're expected to literally hit the ground running. Having said that, I am looking forward to this episode as we're currently in lockdown here in England - so even though Paris is just a two hour train ride away from me, I am not allowed to go there for a holiday because of the lockdown restrictions. Paris is indeed as beautiful, romantic and amazing as they say, so I think we're all in for a treat next week and hopefully we shall have that double episode as well! Let me know what you think, leave a comment below please. Many thanks for reading.