Though I wasn't entirely surprised they won. I knew from the get-go that they would be in the Final 3 because only the only teams that throw a viewing party in their hometown are teams that are in the Final 3. Also, pretty much about a third of the way into the race, you could see there was only three teams that had potential in their edit to win the race: Aarthy and Thinesh, Dave and Irina, and our eventual winners, Anthony and James. And once those two teams were eliminated, then it was obvious by how the remaining teams were edited that Anthony and James were the winners. Not to take away from the other two teams but for much of the first few legs, I forgot that Sarah and Sam were actually racing. Once and awhile they would be edited in and I would say "Oh yeah, those guys, what are their names again?" And then once they were edited more into the show, they ended up with the typical athlete edit with buzz-phrases about strength and endurance and never giving up, but we never really got a sense of their personality and their relationship. As for the Saskatchewan sisters, if I have to check the screen on the last leg of the season to remind myself of their first names, than their edit has been tepid. Again, there were some minor bits of insight into them, the loss of their parents but again, like Sarah and Sam, we really didn't get a true sense of their relationship until pretty much the last leg.
And this has probably nothing to do with the people themselves but how they were edited. They got the hangers-on edit, the TARC making-it-to-the-final-but-that's-it-edit. It would have been extremely surprising that these teams would have won the season based on how lackluster the producers edited them through the entire show. But this being the seventh season of TARC, a lot of a nuts and bolts are starting to show. You can almost see the wheels running in the background and there needs to be a need to fix this side of the show before it gets way too predictable.
That said, it was a pretty good season. I really enjoyed the Final leg. It had a lot of tasks, a lot of stuff going one. There were a few other legs that were better, but this one was also decent with everything they put on there. I pretty sure that's why they took a bus to Thunder Bay in third last leg so they could save money to pay for all the stuff going on in the final one. The tasks reflected the area, and for the most part had solid degrees of difficulty. The schoolboy judging the chairs was odd but whatever. And the trivia game looked like one of those great ideas at the time. I liked the concept of the game but it was obvious that it took a lot of time (and Telefilm grant money) to build and set it all up. I'm pretty production got a big kick from doing all that. But the execution probably didn't go as well when compared to the effort put in. Trivia games are fun, and so are memory tasks in the final leg of a race. But watching people play a trivia board game doesn't really make great TV, no matter how big the dice are. Thankfully, the producers realized that, cut their losses and edited out much of that trivia final memory game. Which made the episode a lot better.
As I said, overall, a decent season, much better than Season 5 and 6 but then it wouldn't take much to do better than those seasons. I know there are a number of folks on social media saying this season was so excited but I'll stick by my contention that because the quality suffered in Season 5 and 6, anything better can be seen as incredible. Though I'm glad a team and the producers allowed a "villian" team to step up. Dave and Irina were perfect for it and without such a team, it would have been a much less interesting season. However, when compared to the US season that we just saw prior to this one, it's only average. I'm keen to see how the Australian one does when it comes back after some hiatus. I've always been a big fan of the Australian version; they seem to find such a great balance between tasks, casting and international travel that a couple of the Australian seasons are the best Amazing Race season in the format.
Still, TARC has the best host of any edition of the format. Season after season, Jon Montgomery gets better and better and he is the heart and soul of TARC. That should be said more and more.
So things are looking up for TARC, they are on the right track of having difficult tasks that relate to the area of Canada they are in, the casting is getting better and things are looking to get back on track. But there are still some bumps they need to smooth out. I hope they do so because I want the show to be successful, and not just in the ratings. FYI, Season 8 has been announced but no word on casting. There has been a lot of rumour, some of it coming from really solid sources, that this will be an All-Star one. If I have time, I might write something on which teams are the possibilities.
And a final note, I send my condolences to the family and friends (including those involved in TARC) for the death of Season 5 racer Kenneth McAlpine.