TAR5 Complete. Lots to unpack here. Some season 31 spoilers in this writeup too in case anyone is avoiding.
TAR5 - Colin & Christie
TAR2 - Oswald & Danny
TAR1 - Kevin & Drew
TAR3 - Teri & Ian
TAR4 - Jon & Al
Not a terribly unpopular opinion, but this season is incredibly good - mostly due to the strength of the cast. Even the lesser teams that dropped early felt worthwhile. My recollection of this season was also pretty off on a number of things. For one - Charla and Mirna are actually kind of great. This was not my initial opinion some 15-odd years ago, but they won me over this time. Mirna's eternal victim complex still gets a little annoying at times, but they added a ton to the season. I also like Chip a lot more than I remembered too. He's more fun that I recall, even though it's really weird they let him run the race by himself this season. Linda and Karen are awesome too (this hasn't changed) and they're #2 on my list. Brandon and Nikki were less of the "dumb model" stereotype that I was expecting too, even though the Jesus shit was grating.
Colin and Christie are the last big ones. I was shocked to find out that Colin is actually not as much of a psychopath as my old memories believed. Like, yes, he's intense, but aside from the cab incident, and the Ox being broken, he's surprisingly even-keel through most of the season. To the point where they're actually a little boring through the first few episodes. This was wild to revist, and realize that he's actually not that much different from his Season 31 self, aside from slightly better frustration management skills. It's also a bit of a bummer that the end of the season came down to weird flight stuff that basically locked Chip & Kim into winning. The ending could have been so much more exciting without that 10 minute lead. The Colin & Christie loss is a bit easier to take knowing they get redemption 26 seasons later, though.
Long story short - best season, and probably stays that way through the entire run, but I suppose we'll see. Moving on, Season 6 falls in the same bucket as Season 4 in that I don't remember much, save for the existence of Jonathan & Victoria. Not particularly looking forward to this one, but maybe I'll be surprised.
