1. TAR5 - Colin & Christie 2. TAR2 - Oswald & Danny 3. TAR1 - Kevin & Drew 4. TAR3 - Teri & Ian 5. TAR9 - BJ & Tyler 6. TAR7 - Rob & Amber 7. TAR11 - Oswald & Danny 8. TAR6 - Gus & Hera 9. TAR10 - Dustin & Kandice 10. TAR8 - Paolo Family 11. TAR4 - Jon & Al
Before I talk about the rest of the season, I want to touch on the fact that Jeremy has aged absolutely terribly in the span of like...one year. When Phil does the phone gag at the finish line again and gives the phone to Eric, I barely even recognized him. It was probably closer to 2 years, given that was likely filmed closer to the air-date and spliced in, but still.
Anyway, I actually found myself enjoying this season way more than I expected. Maybe it was the fact that I went in with rock-bottom expectations, or the fact that I knew what was coming so I could brace myself, but it really wasn't that bad. I'll discuss the things that WERE bad first, though. Obviously, Kevin & Drew were a huge disappointment. It's tough to see Drew like that, not even caring about being on the race, but the fact that they were put out of their misery early was probably a good thing. Honestly, given that Drew really wasn't in shape for this one, I would have rather they cast Ken & Gerard in this spot. Rob & Amber going out early definitely took the wind out of the sails of the season a lot, but truthfully? I kinda think it was a good thing, because it let the remainder of the season feel a little more relaxed once they were gone. The biggest issue with this season is obviously the route planning. The first few legs were fine, but those Africa legs were a disaster. I don't know why they didn't schedule charters for the teams instead of letting them going blind into a airport with almost no flights to the following destinations. Having to delay the busses in Poland to let the back teams kind of catch up was a sloppy solution, even if it did work. But then you have an intersection when there was a 3/3 split on busses 4 hours apart? What? The post-NEL legs were almost always bad too, they were extremely linear and Joe & Bill and Oswald & Danny basically had zero shot to catch up +30 minutes to avoid elimination, so why even bother? And then the leg Eric & Danielle survived there was another NEL? What would have happened if they came in last again? Nothing? What's the point? And the final task was kind of a joke. Hey, try this thing but if you don't get it in 10 minutes you can leave anyway.
THAT ALL BEING SAID...I still had fun watching most of these teams bumble their way through this busted race. The only two teams I didn't want to see went out early, and I don't think the rest of the crew was as bad as other seem to. Ian was a little more subdued, but he and Teri were still enjoyable to watch. Joe & Bill were similar, less cutthroat than season 1, but it was a nice change of pace. Uchenna & Joyce were basically unchanged (although their elimination leg was unceremonious as all hell). Oswald & Danny and Charla & Mirna were still wonderful, and Dustin & Kandice were still very rootable. Eric & Danielle were weird. It's clear neither of them really wanted to be there with each other, and I read afterwards that they had already actually broken up prior to filming the season, so that makes sense. Eric was less fun when he isn't goofing around with Jeremy, and Danielle just...kinda exists. It is a minor miracle that they managed to win though, given how much rotten luck they had over the course of the season.
I think the main thing that makes me enjoy this season more than the ones below it is that there were a lot of fun little moments that made me chuckle throughout the race. While the overall story is a mess, the scene to scene bits are pretty fun. Charla tumbling over in a suit of armor trying to lead a horse, Kandice and Mirna awkwardly riding bamboo poles trying to flatten out dough for noodles, Oswald & Danny randomly stopping to get fruit on the way to a detour. There were a lot of little moments like that to make me smile, which is more than I can say for the season I have below this, and for me, that's enough to override the obvious issues with the rest of the season.
I hear people like Season 12 a lot, so I'm interested to move on to that one. I know the winners and know the teams that ended up on Season 18, but that's about it.
