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TAR is my favorite program. I look forward to a possible Season 31 and hope it lasts forever. However, I have a major gripe about Season 30 as well as other recent seasons.
A major part of the race for me is the journey, getting from one place to another. This includes not only scrounging for airline tickets, but also travel by air, ferry, bus, train, or otherwise within legs. In earlier seasons, it was not uncommon for racers to have a roadblock at the beginning of a leg, followed by travel to a new city where they had the detour or other task. Racers' success often depended on getting the right flight or bus or whatever. Sometimes they missed an early bus and fell behind. Sometimes they made the first bus, but it broke down. In the meantime, they got to see the countryside and interact with the locals. It was all a part of the race.
However, this season, we saw little travel within legs. Most distance travel occurred at the beginning before any tasks occurred. Most legs were self contained within a city or other small area and only involved travel by foot, self-driven car, taxi, water taxi, or other local conveyance. And most activities seemed to happen near an airport city. There was less travel from the airport city to remote locations, the travel to the Bush Camp in Zimbabwe being a major exception.
Additionally, from what we saw, the teams always traveled together on the same flight or otherwise, like the train to Antwerp. The exception was that they took two flights to Prague, which ultimately contributed to the elimination of Well Strung. (We know there were two flights to Iceland, but we wouldn't have known that from what we saw on the show.) I'm disappointed that they've eliminated a lot of the distance travel within legs, and all the travel seems to be pre-arranged by production.
Bunching is appropriate from time to time, but not on every leg! Except for the Prague leg (and two legs with Speed Bumps), the finish on the previous leg had no impact on the next leg. They were bunched over and over. It was as if the race was a series of 11 mini-races rather than one continuous race. Teams that finished near to back on one leg were evened up with the others starting the next leg. That is a major change in the design of the race.
I would like to know more about the change in air travel. Is the change because production just wants to keep the racers together so that the teams and production staff aren't strung out? Do they want to avoid security issues that might result from crazy people running around airports shouting and demanding that they need to get on a flight right now?
In the past, some racers got on flights with limited seating, causing others to have to wait for later flights with available seats. Certainly not all early flights have room for all the teams. Do they force teams to wait until there's a flight available with room for everybody, even of earlier seats are available for some?
So that's my complaint. They all travel together from city to city, apparently by prearranged flights or other transportation, they get bunched up at the beginning of each leg, and travel by local conveyance in a limited area within each leg. I'd like to see them bring back to having more travel within legs.
I agree completely NCDave - couldn't rep you. I miss the searching for flights and all the travel bits. It made the race more real as we all know what a nightmare that can be with time much less on the spot. I still enjoy the show as it's very well done and interesting. But I also wish they'd reintroduce the booking stuff.
I also wonder how long they spend at pit stops. It used to be 12 hours always. That's obviously not the case anymore. They also used to be able to mingle with other teams during their 12 hour pit stop. I don't know that that happens anymore either given that in the final leg, nobody knew who the third team was until they showed up at the airport.
Just another post to say I feel really bad for Henry. He confirmed in exit interviews that he didn't know he had the right combination on that final task at one point until he watched the episode last Wednesday night. That had to be so heartbreaking. Poor guy.
Just like last season the annoying girl who complains all the time & gets her partner to do most things for her wins. Why can't the strong girls who get things done without moaning and complaining win. Ok Jessica wasn't as bad as the girl from last season, she was horrible. But both of the winners had similar personality and strategic thinking instead of just getting things done. Maybe that is the lesson of life: working hard and getting things done doesn't get you anywhere, its about who you know and how you plan things.
NCDave, I think the reason behind the changes in transportation, particularly air travel, has to do with heightened security.
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I miss the searching for flights and all the travel bits. It made the race more real as we all know what a nightmare that can be with time much less on the spot. I still enjoy the show as it's very well done and interesting. But I also wish they'd reintroduce the booking stuff.
