Bonjour mes amis! Ça va? Ah but this episode was in Corsica so perhaps I should use the Corsican language instead: bonghjornu, cumu site? Whilst Corsica is a part of France but the local language there is a lot more like Italian actually. I only heard Kim & Penn make a genuine effort to speak any French, good for them and I'm always rolling my eyes at how painfully monolingual the vast majority of racers are on TAR. There so much to talk about in this episode, but as always, we shall begin with the average ranking statistics to show you where the remaining teams stand after this leg in Corsica.
TAR S33 average statistics after E6
- Ryan & Dusty 1.66
- Kim & Penn 2.5
- Raquel & Cayla 3.66
- Lulu & Lala 6.33
- Arun & Natalia 6.33
- Akbar & Sheri 6.5 (eliminated in Corte, Corsica)
Q: Can we talk about the casting of Ryan for this season?
A: I have seen some people on social media saying that Ryan shouldn't have been cast on this season because he won a US$11 million settlement for his wrongful conviction and subsequent incarceration. The argument was that with his pot of 11 million dollars, he can afford to travel anywhere in the world he wants to and the chance to win a million dollars should be reserved for a very poor person who desperately needs that money. Another half a million would not make much difference to a rich man already sitting on a pot of 11 million dollars, but for someone who is very poor - that amount of money can be life-changing. So let's talk about that here as I didn't want to get dragged into an argument on social media about whether or not Ryan should have been cast in this season. To begin with, Ryan meets all the criteria set out by CBS for applicants for the show and actually, the criteria is really quite vague - you have to be over the age of 21, an American citizen resident in America. There is absolutely no reference to how rich or poor the applicant is: the casting director(s) may choose to consider such factors but it doesn't stop a very rich person from applying to be on the show. In fact, we have seen rich racers appear on TAR before: there's a list here which does have one glaring mistake in it (mistaking a Dutch celebrity with a different name for a racer who won TAR) but otherwise, the main premise of the article is that rich people are no strangers to TAR over the years and there have been racers who have participated in TAR who are much richer than Ryan. Indeed, we've seen racers who are models, lawyers, doctors and successful business owners on TAR: none of them were poor - they were all in fact rather rich indeed when they participated in TAR.
So let's take former winners Colin & Christie for example - they participated in S5 when they were much younger than came back in to win S31. Colin is rich and successful, he is in fact the senior VP of a robotics company but at no stage in the process did the producers mention, hey this man is already very rich. No, the fact that he is rich has nothing to do with the race as Colin can't just whip out his credit card and spend his own money on the race to get an advantage over the other racers: in fact, the playing field is leveled by that token. I also would like to refer you to Jonathan Knight who used to be in New Kids On The Block - he participated in TAR S26 and like so many celebrities he has done many reality TV programmes. Jonathan Knight is a lot richer than Ryan and certainly, he was probably the closest TAR USA ever got to a huge celebrity taking part. But did TAR ever set out to be a charity programme with the aim of letting poor people travel and see the world (something they couldn't otherwise afford) and to give poor people the chance to win a life-changing amount of money? No, TAR has never ever claimed to have that aim and if some viewers think that this should be the case, then I have to break it to you - the viewers don't get a say in the matter, the casting team have different priorities. I'd compare this to the show Tough As Nails where working class contestants compete in a range of tasks all to do with blue collar professions to win a grand prize of $200,000 and they can also win money as a team. Now that's a show where you definitely won't find doctors, lawyers and models participating in Tough As Nails. So if you really want watch a show where very poor people can win a lot of money then please go watch Tough As Nails instead and not TAR.
Q: What kind of advantage would a rich person have over a poor person on TAR?
A: A rich person is far more likely to have had the chance to travel to different countries and thus would not be fazed by the language and/or cultural barriers when they arrive in a country halfway around the world. A person with rich parents would have had a better education where they could have learnt a foreign language or three - even if you do speak some foreign languages, you're dependent on the race taking you to a country where they do speak one of your languages for it to be a real advantage. Your fluent French and German isn't going to be of any help in Japan and South Korea. But that's kinda it really, often your wealth isn't going to help you much on the race especially when the tasks are very physical. Someone who works on a construction site all day is far more likely to be fitter and stronger than someone who spends all day in the office. I remember in the early seasons how many teams had mental breakdowns when they arrived in a country like India where they encountered abject poverty, extremely congested cities and locals who didn't speak a word of English. Very rich racers accustomed to a life of luxury are likely to be hit harder by such situations because they are so far out of their comfort zones - even if they did visit India on a holiday, they would be staying at an exclusive 5-star resort rather than running through the markets amongst the ordinary folk. One could also argue that the richer racers have far less to lose when on the race as they are already wealthy (and are treating TAR like a fun holiday) whilst the poorer racers face so much more stress on TAR as it's really a once in a life time chance to win that kind of prize money.
Q: What about the casting of older/fatter teams when you have such a physically demanding leg?
A: I see some people on social media saying, Akbar & Sheri should have been better prepared for the race if they wanted to stand a realistic chance of winning - they were clearly older and not as fit. I note that Akbar is 45 and Sheri is 44. Well, Kim is 45 and Penn is 47 yet the physical challenges have not held them back at all. In fact, this was an extremely physically demanding leg - teams had to run up to the Belvedere in Cotre, there was the canyoning roadblock and then teams had to inflate a raft and paddle upstream to the pit stop - yer Kim & Penn overcame the fact that they were the second group to depart 15 minutes later and won this leg despite being older than Akbar & Sheri (and a lot older than Ryan & Dusty). Let's not forget Arun is much older than Akbar - Arun is 56 yet he overtook Akbar with ease on the canyoning roadblock! Sorry to be blunt but Akbar is very fat, Arun and Penn are not. So you can't say, "the older groups don't stand a chance against the younger ones" - rather, it's a question of how prepared you are. I can use the word 'unfit' but the fact is both Akhbar & Sheri are overweight whilst Kim, Penn and Arun are not - that's the key difference. So is it fair to cast overweight teams in a race format like that knowing that there are physical challenges? Or do you put the onus on them and say, "you want a chance to win a million bucks? You need to go jogging everyday, go on a diet and lose some weight as you're racing against super strong people like Ryan & Dusty." Gosh, it almost seems cruel at times to see Akbar & Sheri struggle so much in some of these physical challenges but they should have known what they were signing up for when they applied to be on TAR and turned up better prepared - I'm so sorry if this came across as harsh.
Q: Has TAR visited Corsica before?
A: Yes indeed they have, just once and that was way back in TAR S6 E7.
Q: What went so wrong for Ryan & Dusty with the cheese making task?
A: I am no cheese making expert (I work in investment banking) but I have done my research on your behalf! It isn't rocket science really - all the other teams who went for that detour option successfully completed it without much fuss or drama, they were given instructions and they followed it those instructions. Things went wrong for Ryan & Dusty because Dusty started panicking when the curds were not forming and so they started messing around with the flame, trying to control the temperature when really all they had to do was not to panic when the temperature of the milk rose above 85 degrees Celsius. The curds won't form unless the milk is hot enough and it is impossible to keep the temperature of the milk constant - you simply have to let it rise a few degrees above 85 and then the curds will form. Ryan & Dusty thought they had to keep it at a constant 85 degrees which was not a requirement - after all, people have been making cheese since at least 5500 BC, that's 7,520 years ago. Did you think the ancient cheese makers back in the day had thermometers to keep the milk at a constant temperature? Of course not, it wasn't a process that required such precision.
Q: So did this episode make you doubt that Ryan & Dusty's ability to win this season?
A: Well yes actually, they did self-destruct over what was a relatively straightforward detour in this leg, much to my surprise. I was surprised it took them that long to decide to switch - if they clearly were struggling with the cheese making task and they saw the other teams who worked with the mules breeze through that task, common sense would have dictated that they should have switched a lot sooner. It was a complete mental breakdown. But the two very physical challenges after that detour gave them the chance to make up so much ground, so you can never count these two out. Any other team would have sunk to the bottom and had been eliminated after a disaster like that - but not Ryan & Dusty!
Q: What did you think about the tasks in this leg then?
A: I didn't like it too much because the teams were provided with taxis and so they were chauffeur driven from one location to another. The first part of the race was a total waste of time - the teams started at Altiani bridge and simply got into a car before being driven to Corte to climb up to the top of the Belvedere. So really, until they got to the base of the Belvedere, they did absolutely nothing - they could have effectively started this leg at the base of the Belvedere. Furthermore, I was concerned that there weren't that many chances for racers to overtake on the canyoning roadblock but fortunately, that wasn't the case. Sure there were points in the canyon which were so narrow that overtaking would have been impossible but at least there were other parts of the course where overtaking could be safely done. Furthermore, neither canyoning and rafting are that unique to Corsica - it can be done in any country where you find such landscapes so I would have liked to have seen a task that took advantage of the unique culture found on the island that makes it very different from mainland France. Without Ryan & Dusty's meltdown, this would have been a boring episode.
Q: What's with the use of chauffeurs/drivers in this leg?
A: I am really surprised but there wasn't the drama of trying to find a taxi in a crowded city and then getting the taxi driver from hell who keeps getting lost. The drivers in this leg knew exactly where to take the racers. But why didn't they let the racers drive themselves in Corsica like they did in the previous leg in Switzerland? Well, at least you can see how well Arun & Natalia raced in this leg without having to navigate - I bet they were pleased when they realized they had drivers.
Q: Are you surprised that Akbar & Sheri were eliminated?
A: No, not at all - despite having made a good start with the cheese making detour, the moment I saw that they had to do a physically demanding roadblock, I knew it was game over for them. There was just no way for them to catch up especially since there was immediately another physically demanding task right after that roadblock. The only way they could have survived was if Ryan & Dusty never left that cheese making detour. They were actually lucky to make it this far in the season; I thought they would have been one of the first teams to have been eliminated and I'm very surprised Sheri didn't give Akbar any grief for being very slow on the roadblock, as he had been so cruel to her the entire season.
Q: This is Kim & Penn's second win - could they win the whole season?
A: Well, if you had asked me last week I would have said no but now they are really looking very strong. They were in the middle of the pack in the first two legs in London but have really improved a lot since. I am so pleased to see them do well because I really want to see another strong team give Ryan & Dusty a run for their money in this season - Kim & Penn are a very likable team and I would love to see them make the finals and even win; I'd be delighted if they will win!
Q: What about Raquel & Cayla - are they the most underestimated team this season?
A: Well they have always been in the middle of the pack and this was the first time they were in a position to challenge for the top spot. However, I just don't see them beating the two stronger teams in this season; they're going to have to team up with another team, form an alliance to create a scheme to get rid of a team like Ryan & Dusty. We've seen a lot of friendly cooperation this season but no real alliances have been formed yet; surely it is time for the weaker teams to plot against the much stronger teams. Mind you such alliances had featured a lot more prominently in previous seasons.
Q: Who will win the next leg?
A: Ryan & Dusty again, of course. Who else? Yeah we saw them struggle with the kayak in the previews but I'm not buying it this time and they always somehow manage to bounce back when it comes to a physical challenge without fail.
Q: Who will be eliminated next?
A: Tough one: Lulu & Lala tie Arun & Natalia as the two weakest teams at the moment. Both teams have been very lucky to have been spared elimination despite having come in last before but they have different weaknesses. It will depend on what kind of challenges the teams will have to do in the next leg and apart from the kayaking, we see the teams eating casu martzu, aka "maggot cheese". At least for Arun & Natalia, eating maggot cheese must still be easier than navigating their way across Corsica but we don't know what kind of arrangements the teams will have for the next leg when it comes to transportation. If they have to drive, then Arun & Natalia will be eliminated. I can count that there will be two more non-elimination legs in this season and given that one team has just gone home, so it doesn't matter who finishes last, it will be a non-elimination leg. So currently, we still have four episodes before the final and only two more teams to eliminate.
Q: Wait the next leg is in Corsica again?
A: Yes, we barely got to see much of it in this episode as this entire leg was run in the rural, mountainous region of central Corsica which I suppose was chosen deliberately to be Covid-friendly; when you're out in the mountains, there's plenty of open air and the tasks on these episode were all done outdoors apart from the brief moments they were in the first taxi - even the second taxi was more like a golf cart to keep it more Covid-safe. Whilst the scenery of the mountains was undoubtedly beautiful, Corsica is an island and so we're definitely getting a taste of the beach and the sea in the next episode. Don't forget, this episode was filmed just as the world was reopening so they had to err on the side of caution, hence the choice of more rural locations. Hopefully in the next season, they will return to more crowded cities if and when it would be safe to do so. I'm just grateful that they managed to finish filming under the current circumstances.
So that's it from me on this episode, just a heads up that I may have to do some traveling for work this month so that may affect my availability to review the episodes later in February but I will keep you guys posted once I have more details about where I will be going and when that trip will take place. Please leave a comment below, many thanks for reading.
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