Bonjour mes amis, comment allez-vous? This was certainly a very interesting leg in Toulouse - it is a city I have visited twice before and it is so charming. Toulouse airport is one of the major airports that you can use to access the Pyrenees mountains and it is an incredibly beautiful part of France that I adore. Once again however, much to my frustration the outcome of the race was heavily influenced by the navigation aspect involved rather than the tasks - there's so much to get into, let's begin as always with the average ranking statistics to see where the teams stand after this leg in Toulouse.
Average statistics after leg 8 in Toulouse, France
I'd like to address something that has been discussed on the Facebook groups - one person was quite upset at the way I had been critical of the teams' map reading skills and their poor ability to navigate, in her words, "they're already trying their best! Give them a break!" Let's analyze this in a bit more detail - what is the nature of the Amazing Race? Allow me to compare two very different entertainment programmes I have watched recently and whilst I obviously enjoyed the both of them, I would like you to think which one is closer to the way TAR is intended to be. Now the first programme that I watched was "I tried Japan's hardest mountain race". This was a video by a British Youtube Chris Broad who lives in Japan, he's not exactly in peak physical condition but he is a brilliant Youtuber - I enjoy his videos for his wry sense of humour as he explores various aspects of life in Japan. So in this video, he wanted to show us how an ordinary guy like him can try a pretty extreme physical challenge in Japan aimed at the fittest young people - he did train for the challenge but still failed to complete some of the more difficult challenges on the course as he injured his arm in the process. That course was insanely difficult, first you had to run/jog/walk up a steep ski slope (this was in the summer, so there was grass not snow) and when you finally get there, you face the mother of all obstacles courses. I don't think Chris Broad was trying to show off how physically fit he was, if anything, he was blatantly honest about how he struggled with the challenge and how unfit he felt throughout the difficult process. Thus as a viewer, my natural reaction was not to judge or even mock Chris Broad for not performing well on this challenge, rather I thought, "well done Chris, good for you for even trying such a crazy hard race as that looked so difficult. You tried your best and you got to the end!" So yes, of course there's a certain entertainment value in watching ordinary people being taken out of their comfort zones and trying very hard challenges that they would struggle with, as epitomized by Chris Broad struggling on that obstacle course in Japan.
The other event that I watched last week was the world gymnastics championships in Liverpool - now we were treated to a display of the very best of human agility by the gold medalists who made these insanely difficult routines look easy. Jade Carey of the USA won the gold medal on vault and she did it so casually as if it was a walk in the park on a Sunday afternoon. It was a sharp contrast to the qualification rounds, when we saw less experienced gymnasts struggle through their routines, falling on their faces and some of those falls looked so brutal I winced in shock; like, "that was a bad fall, I hope she didn't get hurt." We really don't want to see the gymnasts struggle like that and fear for their safety, there wasn't a sense of "you tried your best, that's all that matters." It was more like, "what was your coach thinking, allowing you to compete that skill when you were not ready at all with it?." I'm afraid we are a lot more harsh when we watch a sports competition like that expecting to see the competitors at the top of their game, having trained hard for many years to win the gold medal - it is not the kind of event where ordinary people are taken out of their comfort zones to try something they have never done before (and probably will never again). Hence on one extreme, we have Chris Broad our lovable, friendly Youtuber 'trying his best' taking on challenges which he would inevitably fail at, then on the other extreme, we have the world gymnastics champions where we see the best of the best compete to be the world champion. Of course, this is a sliding scale with shades of grey in the middle. So where do we want TAR to fit in on this scale? Do we really want to see completely inexperienced people being taken out of their comfort zone and thrown into situations where they will inevitably fail (cue plenty of drama, tears, angry confrontations and tantrums)? Or do we actually want to see our TAR contestants rise to the occasion and perform well on the race, acing these difficult challenges? Which end of that scale would produce the best viewing experience for the hardcore TAR fans? Do you want to risk 'dumbing down' the show?
So where on this scale would you place TAR then?
This is why I am skeptical about the "these are ordinary folks already doing their best, give them a break for crying out aloud" argument. Even if you were an ordinary person, if you were given the chance to win a million dollars, wouldn't you at least make an extra effort to prepare yourself for the race in order to increase your chances of making it to the finals, rather than be eliminated in the first few legs when you totally crash and burn? This then raises the issue of 'fairness' - if you cast an elderly couple who have never ever left their state (never mind traveled internationally before) and you expect them to compete with other racers who are far more able to cope with the challenges of TAR, then how is that a fair race? Unless of course, you create a season where nobody on the race has ever left the USA before and thus are equally inept at coping at all these challenges thrown at them, but even if we were to create a season like that, would us fans actually enjoy watching teams fail miserably at everything from communicating with the locals to navigating? How would you feel if the producers were forced to dumb down the challenges if the racers were that useless and hopeless when taken out of their comfort zone? "You will be chauffeur driven to this lovely hotel, say hello to the nice lady at reception who speaks English perfectly and she will give you your next clue!" There are already travel programmes out there, TAR is not one of them. Or is reality TV meant to be downright cruel - where the racers are deliberately made to struggle so we can milk those situations for plenty of drama: tears, tantrums, anger, arguments, fights and quarrels? This would be page right out of the classic Jerry Springer show when the guests inevitably end up shouting at each other and are provoked till they totally lose their temper on TV. You remember how the chairs would be thrown, the bouncers would intervene and the crowd would go wild when that kind of mayhem happened. That may seem crass today, but we still enjoy watching videos of grandmothers trying skateboarding or rollerblading and falling on their faces. There's a cruel streak to us humans, we like watching people fail miserably. Is that really what we want TAR to be like, or do we want to remember TAR for some of the most brilliant and deserving winners who have excelled in their race to emerge winners?
Did I like the tasks on this leg?
Well yes, I definitely did so well done to the production team - you know I am notoriously hard to please. Rugby is actually a big part of French culture and whilst it may be far more associated with the British, the French certainly love it as much. I like the fact that the task was hard enough to make some teams struggle with it - then you had the complete contrast to have a detour which was all about brain power. The poetry recitation task would be more suitable to the teams who already spoke some French and were generally good at memory challenges whilst the bricks assembly task was far more suitable for those who were good with logic puzzles. I think Luis & Michelle had a good chance of winning this leg if they had gone straight to the bricks puzzle instead of wasting time trying the French poetry challenge. I would have definitely picked the poetry challenge since I speak French fluently as my second language having lived, studied and worked in France, but I was actually shocked at how poor Derek's pronunciation was despite having done French for six year at school - I think the judge was being very lenient with most of the teams there. It's always important be fair to the racers on challenges like this; I believe that if the judge was going to be lenient with him, then she should be equally lenient with everyone and that way it would be fair as they were all measured against the same benchmark for the task.
Okay I get it, that canal to give boats a shortcut from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean sea is a marvel of French engineering and something that may get geeks like me really excited, but I can promise you that there are some really stunning old, quaint French buildings in central Toulouse which would have made a far more stunning location for the pit stop. Instead that barge on the canal did come across as a little low key compared to some of the more impressive locations we have already seen in this season. At least they could have chosen a more attractive vessel for the pit stop.
Who would win the next leg in Spain?
The teams are off to Malaga and Ronda in Spain for the next leg of the race. Given how unpredictable the last few legs have been, I note that three teams have each won two legs each and unsurprisingly, they are the top three teams at this stage. Heck, even with Emily's bad knee, they aren't that far behind either. But I don't want to say, "it's anyone's game" - judging by their performance on the last few legs, I'm going to say that it will be Luis & Michelle's turn to shine again. After all, they did ace two legs in a row in Jordan and had done really well too in Toulouse finishing second. Hence being Spanish speaking might just be that extra advantage to help them win the next leg in Spain but this is just my gut feeling.
Who will be eliminated next?
Oh dear. They seem to have made a quite big deal of Emily's injured knee in the previews for the next episode - I feel for her. I have had major injury on my left knee back in 1996 (well technically speaking, it was the fibula bone they operated on, the bone just below the knee) and my right knee can flare up on a bad day as well. So I'm an older guy who has bad knees, I do feel her pain. I hope it won't lead to them being eliminated but it will mean that they are at an disadvantage going into this next leg. Ironically, the weakest team didn't get eliminated in Toulouse - that's Aubrey & David who are still clinging on, surviving once again but they keep flirting with elimination and their luck is going to run out sooner or later when they are up against stronger teams. If the tasks in the next leg are physically demanding, then it will be Emily & Molly. Otherwise, it will be Aubrey & David who will be eliminated. So that's it from me on this episode. This time next week, I would already be at the airport waiting to board my flight to Dubai so I will definitely have to get next week's blog post out quicker. I have had a look at my schedule for Dubai and I'm going to have to miss blogging about one episode so I can have more time sightseeing and going to all the locations in Dubai that have been visited by TAR, starting with that famous water theme park as immortalized by Mika & Canaan from TAR S15. (See the video below, I'm so gonna do that water slide.) It's actually a work trip to Dubai, but I'm staying a few extra days to take advantage of the fact that my company has flown me out to Dubai for work. Please feel free to leave a comment below and many thanks for reading.
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