Saskatoon - This leg started pretty great with all the team drama at the airport. I know a lot of people don't like Dave and Irina, but that's what you're supposed to think. They're edited that way. But they do have all the facets of what makes a decent Amazing Race format villain; cockiness, attitude (good and bad) willingness to win at all costs, and great team dynamic. It's about time TARC fully embraced a team like this and I appreciate them. I would love to see them win just to see heads explode.
But as the Saskatoon leg continued, it started to lose its lustre. It's kind of hard to keep up when you've just had two of the best episodes in TARC history. There were some decent tasks, especially the potash one but then the episode fell back into a typical TAR fashion. First there was the visit to the Canadian Light Source at the U of S. Sounds like a cool place but teams do nothing there except get a clue to go somewhere else. I really don't like these touristic sections in which nothing occurs to move the story forward. Please, don't waste my time. And though both sides of the Detour were interesting tasks, again one side was much more difficult than the others. Which is why all teams, save one, picked the maze. Though I did like the play on words of maize and maze. But after awhile, it got a bit tiresome of watching teams get frustrated with the maze. The shots started to look familiar after awhile. And the less one can say about the lacrosse challenge, the better. We did see a very similar task like this on Season 1 and how many times did they have to edit in that quick pan of the cheerleaders and the mascot? I think I counted at least six of the same kind of shot before I got annoyed and said, 'stop doing that; show something else.' Bit of surprise for a non-elim but the Moms are started to grow on me as a team so good to have them stay in.
Waterloo- This leg had its moments but again it was just a barely average leg to watch. The blacked out buses was a bit interesting, but again, did nothing to progress the story. The main highlights of this leg was James's hetero-normative comment during the robot challenge, which I know some people didn't get at first, but I was laughing my head off. That this wasn't the episode title was a terrible shame because it was one of the best lines in TAR history; and I'm including all the English versions in my assessment. Also, I loved the fact that Irina nailed the math challenge, allowing them to win. and Dave's reaction of calling her queen in the cab for the trip to the mat. These guys may be 'villains' but I love their relationship. It seems very strong and loving, which makes them even more compelling. Thinesh and Aarthy also seem strong but in a different way. I was really not a fan of the Speedbump. I hate tasks that teams have no control over. Having the Moms just sit in an autonomous vehicle as it went to its own paces was an insult to them. They should have done something that they were active participants, one that a result was based on what they did, not something they just had to sit through. Terrible shame. And again, it seemed one side of the Detour was harder, which, again, is why everyone picked the robot task and ignored the beer one. Of course, everyone knows any task involving beer is a Gord and Wayne task so that's what we would have picked. I liked the math task, forcing teams to use just brains rather than brawn. I'd like to see more of these mental tasks. I will barely mention the Faceoff because, well, whatever, lame sponsorship task. Notice I said little of people going to the Shell station. Sadly, the Moms are out, but that was just to be expected.
Quebec. Overall, this leg was down to one task; the language one. The language task as great and it showed that if teams travel to a place where the language isn't English, they struggle. So it was a great argument of why there should be some more international legs. I won't go on about it, but having teams struggle with another language makes for good TV. Also good TV, was Thinesh, looking like a PM in his suit. Adding Aarthy's lustful reaction to it was just priceless. Maybe he doesn't dress up enough. After the news conference task, everything else was just fodder because pretty much how teams came out of it, was how they hit the mat. I like that weird stick game but again one side of the Detour was harder than the others. So instead of having all teams pick that one side, which they probably would have if they had known the particulars, they had a blind Detour. I wonder if this was a last minute thing to prevent everyone going one way or whether it was planned. And that looked to be some great poutine. Unfortunately for me, I got the feeling it was time for an extended leg, so I pretty much fast forwarded through the last 20 minutes to see which teams came in which. Future PM and his turned on Partner, Thinesh and Aarthy came in first. Honestly, at the start of the race, did anyone pick these two as the top team? Four first leg finishes is pretty
good. And it was good to see this extended leg because Anthony and James were last to the mat. Luckily, they get to keep on racing.
Overall, it's been an okay season so far but only because there are three teams brimming with personality. You know who they are, I don't need to explain. If they had similar teams like they've had in the past two seasons, we would be banging our heads against the bar table, knocking our beers over in the process.Sam and Sarah have potential but their edit has been flat. Too bad for them. That means they are out soon or will be the team in the final leg that gets lost or stuck on a task and ends up so far behind they will have not impact.
Next, off to Thunder Bay. We'll see if I have time to write something directly after or will I have to skip some weeks.