Believe this season was filmed with heavier COVID restrictions (and weirdly, before the previous season), so things like more centralized activities within just a couple of continents will likely continue.
Well, that’s weird. But it does explain the smaller scale. Just last season they even mentioned the return of racers catching flights. Did they hold back this season for some reason and run them out of order?
Based on the below story, apparently, Season 36 was filmed during end of 2022 with COVID restrictions (chartered flights, fewer locales, etc.), and CBS asked to do 90-minute episodes of TAR, so they quickly filmed Season 35 during the first half of 2023.
So schedule/new format delayed airing this season that was filmed under restrictions while they knocked out a more open/less restricted season last year.
Wow, thanks for the link. Now I can at least enjoy this season for what it is without constantly wondering why it feels slightly off.
Man these ladies trying to figure out the quote are fucking dumb.
I gave up on the season. Can someone tell me what the quote was (spoilered, of course)? Gracias
They were trying to solve one of those “What word does this picture represent?” type puzzles. I’m sure you can find pictures online, but the quote was “The world is smaller than you think.” I had it basically right away. They weren’t even close, spent WAY too much time on it, and eventually switched to the other roadblock. EVENTUALLY they got to “The world is smaller than I think” but it never dawned on them to switch person. But their first like 10 guesses weren’t even remotely in the ballpark.
It was fairly comical, but it was also INCREDIBLY frustrating, because it wasn’t overly difficult. I literally would’ve had it first try, as several other teams did (most teams had it in no more than 4.) It’s hard to tell with editing and such how long they were there and how many guesses they took, but it was really ridiculous.
That may have been one of the worst designed choices in AR ever. The dancing looked to be much slower even before you got there and saw what you were supposed to do. And the picture puzzle was super easy. All the pics were obvious and all were close together, so there was very little running around even. Those ladies were so wrong in their guesses. Just random stuff they kept throwing out and more than once in random order. A puzzle from 1976 Highlights is tougher.
Finding Phil was surprisingly tough, lol.
I think that’s what really killed me about it. Not just that they were wrong (but I mean…come on!) but that none of their guesses even made sense! Like you said, they weren’t paying any attention to the order of the pictures and were so far off that even their interpretation of the pictures (which was wrong) didn’t really equate to the word they wound up using in the “that doesn’t even make sense” sentence.
Like, you’d have to try very hard to write that into a work of fiction that people could SO BADLY misinterpret the pictures. And it would be completely unbelievably.
Now I’m REALLY glad I dropped out.
I mean there are still teams I like. And I don’t even DISLIKE this team really, but good Lord they were dumb at that challenge.
It is kind of a weird season though.
Ya. The teams are mostly fine. And even the dumb firefighter gals aren’t too annoying other than being really dumb and mentioning that they are indeed women who are firefighters at least a couple of times an episode.
My only real issue is that a lot of these teams don’t seem to have prepared for a race in any way. Too many are dragging after minimal exertion.
How do you not spend some time getting ready for something like this by running/biking/anything to keep yourself from being gassed constantly?
I’m still enjoying this season, but I can totally see why you’d bail sonoftgb. Like in the first Columbian episode where the guy refused to go down a relatively gentle hill? Ouch. Also, the twins constantly switching detours, I don’t think I’ve seen something like that since some of the very early seasons of TAR.
I’m loving the locations so far though. That Mexican town, and now this Columbian Eco town, both places I really want to visit. Neither place that I’d heard of before.
Oh man that was ridiculous. Just can’t fathom what they were thinking. I mean it seemed like the two challenges were pretty close together, but still…
I was sad to see the team go this week. They were definitely the funniest team to watch, even though they got into the worst navigational challenges. One just knew they couldn’t last, but man, I really wanted them to keep lucking out for as long as possible.
Also, if the instructions really were that vague about a plaza they had to find “near” something else, I have to marvel at the few teams that had no issues finding it. I know most of them “cheated” by finding someone with a phone so they could use Google Maps, but man, in the spirit of actually finding something on a map based on those instructions, it would be a nightmare. Which sort of leads me to believe that the race designers now EXPECT racers to borrow people’s phones and use the internet to find places. Or to find locals who recognize those directions.
I must admit that the mother/son team has surprised me. I had them pegged for an early exit, but they have done a great job of keeping themselves in the race through smarts including out-navigating other teams.
Still mostly enjoying this because, duh, TAR! But it’s such a small race comparatively. I’m glad someone up thread confirmed it was due to this being filmed prior to last seasons so still had more restraints. Otherwise, I’d just be annoyed that they had taken a step back in terms of scope.
I do think it’s kinda a problem for team with Spanish speakers. Usually that works itself out as the season goes since they race around the world and be idiots of language only last a single stop or two. But since they’re just going down the Americas (and no Portuguese speaking places the recall) knowing Spanish makes more of a difference than normal. Not a huge thing but still a thing.
I’m also surprised the mom/son team is doing so well. The mom is due to hit a stage she can’t handle though. The firefighters were nice enough and good in most roadblocks/detours. But my god were they some of the worst navigators I remember. Wow.
Well that’s a shitty way to go out. And that street tennis thing may have been the lamest roadblock ever, lol.
Yeah, and according to later interviews, their crew never did actually get there…production just finally snagged another crew and told them to take them. Talk about COMPLETELY not their fault.
Yup. I did a bit of a dive into it and I’m not sure how the original crew got so lost. They were locals so should have been able to at least turn around go back thru the roundabout and then head to the next stop. Kind of insane it happened the way it did. That team wasn’t my favorite, but they were much better than expected and totally got screwed. Bad taxi luck is bad, bad crew luck is pretty inexcusable.