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Original Message
"TAR losing it's edge?"

Posted by Diviant on 12-10-06 at 09:24 PM
I started watching TAR three seasons ago, and since then, to me the show has been going downhill. Lately, it seems as if they're going for quantity of locales over quality. They devote almost no time to each region, resulting in no buildup/intensity/attatchment.

In TAR 8, I was facinated with the different regions and the peoples and culture there, and was saddened whenever they left (India was always my favorite, followed by Africa). Recently, though, just as you begin to take in the locale, they're already on a plane somewhere else. You never feel the excitement of visiting some location (on your TV) that you will most likely never see again.

I think the biggest letdown was the finale of TAR 10. There was absolutely no buildup to the finale. They flew to New York, found a globe, a box, then finish line, no awesome flag-recap like season 9.

This feeling might also stem from the lack of interesting people. The best season that I have watched was season 8. The old couple, the African-American couple, the gay couple, and mother-daughter team, they all just worked so well, and you felt the emotion and became attatched. There were absolutely no entertaining characters (well, that's arguable, however nothing comparable to previous seasons).

All in all, it really just feels too short. They're trying to cram a billion events and locations into each season, rather than making each one interesting and emotion-provoking. /rant

Hopefully All-Stars will bring together the interesting teams and not be another TAR where they just run through the motions.


Table of contents

Messages in this discussion
"O RLY?"
Posted by udg on 12-10-06 at 11:43 PM
I totally agree. It felt like CBS was so embarrassed by this season that they were just trying to get it over with as soon as possible. "Challenges? Nah, let's just put in 3 bunching points and a couple of long taxi rides and call it all good. We can do the entire F3 leg in one hour, and then we shall never speak of this season again."


Slice n' Dice's Sigpic Chop Shop 2004


"RE: O RLY?"
Posted by J Slice on 12-11-06 at 08:29 AM


Yeah- this finale sucked. Seriously- Garrison? in effing Putnam? The entirety of the state of New York is more interesting than Putnam county!


Tribe is far-out.


"RE: O RLY?"
Posted by Cygnus X1 on 12-11-06 at 09:08 AM
Aw, c'mon Slicey! It's not every day a Race comes down to the use of an EZPass. That wasn't thrilling?


Tribe strikes again!
It wasn't.


"RE: O RLY?"
Posted by Prof_ Wagstaff on 12-11-06 at 10:08 AM
I couldn't agree more. The 1 hour finale said it all. It was as if they knew that the the F3 teams were completely boring and they just wanted to end the season a quickly as possible.


More Tribephylanthropy!
However, I really did enjoy all the time spent in Vietnam. What a beautiful country.


"Yawnfest"
Posted by Breezy on 12-11-06 at 09:19 AM
That had to be the worst.finale.ever. Yeesh! Where were the challenges? Heck they didn't even have to run far to the finish line!

I think we need to just forget this season ever happened. Shouldn't be hard.

*closes eyes* It's gone.


Ho Ho Ho


"RE: Yawnfest"
Posted by brvnkrz on 12-11-06 at 10:00 AM
I fell asleep during the finale and wasn't even worried about whether or not GF taped it. I figured reading about it would be a better use of my time and probably more entertaining than watching it. Apparently I was correct.

Lookie what Tribe made me.


"Even-season curse?"
Posted by Max Headroom on 12-11-06 at 09:53 AM
Let's recap:

TAR 6, 8, 10: lousy seasons
TAR 5, 7, 9: good seasons

Let's hope odd-season All-Stars is good.



"RE: Even-season curse?"
Posted by Starshine on 12-12-06 at 06:35 AM
May I just add that IMHO

TAR 1, 2, 3,: Good Seasons

TAR 4: Lousy Season


"RE: TAR losing it's edge?"
Posted by maryellennaco on 12-11-06 at 10:03 AM
Welcome to the Boards!! Good Luck with that TAR:RETREADS thought! It ain't gonna be any different AT ALL except with RETREAD players that we're all tired of!
I think the show HAS gotten a bit long in the tooth, so to speak, not sure why. Too Bad, though; cause when it was good, it was VERY,VERY good. Now? Meh....

"this sucks"
Posted by cqvenus on 12-11-06 at 12:35 PM

for a while i was able to say with honesty that TAR was, by far, the most interesting/entertaining/educational reality show on television.

now i'm back to having to say survivor is.

because with the whirlwind stops, there is no education. with the bunching, there's no entertainment. and with the drab characters (i'd rather hate a weaver than be indifferent to an entire cast), there isn't anything interesting, either.

i learned nothing this season. and that's a shame.

and i cannot stand romber, but at least they were interesting. they used strategy, and such. maybe they'll help fix it. but i'm feeling like it's jump shark time for TAR. and i'm sad about it.

~ cqc


"RE: this sucks"
Posted by mysticwolf on 12-11-06 at 11:12 PM
Agree entirely. But, I think the thing that worked against this season of TAR more than any other single thing was the time slot.

If they don't fix the time slot so that the show starts on time (or, at least we don't have to guess when it might start), even Romber and other interesting teams won't save this boat from sinking.

It's a shame, really.


A Tribal Christmas blogging's scary


"RE: TAR losing it's edge?"
Posted by maryellennaco on 12-12-06 at 06:03 PM
Fi CBS is expecting ROMBER to save TAR, they've already LOST IT!! All over but the cryin

"RE: TAR losing it's edge?"
Posted by cipher5150 on 12-13-06 at 05:54 PM
Agreed. That sound you hear is me snoring…

I may be in the minority but I still think the first season was the best season ever for two reasons: a lot less planned bunching and there was a fast forward every episode. The end result being that the episode finish order was constantly being shaken up and teams never knew where they stood in the order. It was more interesting and fun this way. The ridiculous bunching is ruining this show. Bunching at the airport is understandable to a point but if I have to watch one more episode where teams get to a “destination” only to find out it just closed and won’t be open for 12 hours I will lose it.

In the first season it was possible for good teams to build up a (usually temporary) substantial lead. The producers now seem intent on never allowing the teams to be more than a few hours apart. Boring… Even in the first season when teams built up a large lead the limits of international flights usually equalized them again, although sometimes it wasn’t until the next episode. Now instead of one amazing race we have 12(?) short boring ones.

I would like to see them go back to the first season format with one change – have the final three teams start the final leg at the same time. This would produce an exciting season but still give the producers what they want which is a race to the final mat. Of course, a show like this would probably cost more to produce and be a lot more work for the production staff so I don’t expect it to ever happen…


"Agreed"
Posted by Jims02 on 12-13-06 at 11:45 PM
That finale was terrible. I would know, because I took notes on it for the official summary for this site. The whole episode, I felt, they didn't really do anything. They just seemed to wander around from one train station to another.

The one-hour format really hurt the finale the most. The leg was simply too long to do it in an hour, so the whole thing felt rushed. I think we missed out on a lot of those little moments of frustration that makes TAR watchable. It's pretty sad when my favorite moment of the episode, by far, was seeing Kimberly crash into the clue box at the airport.

This was the first summary I'd ever written where I consciously felt like the episode was utter crap.


What's worse is that a crappy episode makes a summary twice as difficult to write. Curse you, TAR producers.