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UKK, the differences between 7, 14, and 3 other editions is fairly small, so the fact that TAR 9 isn't in the bottom 2 isn't a big issue.

In hindsight, I'm surprised by how AS isn't in the bottom 2 (especially considering two teams I HATED made F3, two of my favorite teams were eliminated first, one team completely got neutered and it had two of the most bullshittiest bullshit legs EVER). Such is life.

Innyway, onto game design/mechanics/whatev:

So you're World Race Productions, and you've got a pretty awesome show on your hands. It's been on for thirteen seasons, and even though it's not nearly as awesome as it was in its first years, it's still good. Even with the reduction of budget, leading to fewer legs, fewer Fast Forwards and less travel overall, it's still better than most of the shit on TV. In your most recent race, you offer two Fast Forwards and two U-Turns. Both Fast Forwards were used while neither U-Turn was used. Knowing this, and realizing that in the past, we've had Fast Forwards as easy as "drop coins in vases", "swim in a pool" and "solve a puzzle", how do you accomodate the fandom's demand for better quality?

If you're WRP, then you add the Blind U-Turn. All of the animosity of the U-Turn, with none of the awesome hate-filled revenge that comes from it (I assume because they though the racers were too chickenshit to use it before). And of course it gets rid of the hottest non-deity of the cast To compound this, they manage to have a ridiculously easy RB and an easy taxi ride to the Pit Stop, meaning that there's little way for the delayed team to catch up. (Oh, and of course, they have a single ridiculously retarded FF).

I know I had mentioned forced airport connections, but I'll extend that to include forced transportation in general. Let's look at leg 2.
- Depart the pit stop at 2 AM and find a taxi that will take you to Zurich.
- Travel by plane from Zurich to MUNICH?
- Drive Benzes around to get to Salzberg.
- pit stop
- Drive Benzes back to the Salzberg train station.
- Travel by train from Salzberg BACK TO MUNICH?
- Fly Lufthansa from Munich to Bucharest.

Now answer yourself this. In a series that as recently as two seasons prior had teams drive 300+ miles in the middle of the night, would it be a stretch to have teams drive 450 miles in midday (and then an additional under 100 miles back to Munich)? Especially when you're in a budget crunch? (The correct answer is no, btw). Either give teams cars in Stechelberg, or have teams take a train to Zurich and give them cars there AND fly out from Salzberg or drive to Munich.

Then we got to leg 6 (fly from Novosibirsk to Jaipur BUT WAIT! Connect through Moscow and Dehli. Given that they were leaving near midnight, they could've gotten a good flight through one of the Gulf Countries) and leg 9 (fly from Bangkok to Guilin BUT WAIT! Connect through Guangzhou). Working the airport used to be a staple of the show, and now it's just an afterthought.

Phuket was just dumb. Idk what's worse: the fact that the episode didn't have an RB or that the zoo shit was probably supposed to be the RB.

Additionally, idk if it was the stress of the race or the fact that the racers were tired and cranky (word on the street is that starting in Phuket, all the teams were sequestered separately in the Pit Stop and given little in the way of rations in order to incite drama), but man these bitches broke rules like no joke. Intentionally hiding pumps? Srsly? (and I hasten to think if someone I didn't hate got heat exhaustion from the excess work) Leading with a taxi when the clue CLEARLY says otherwise? Rly? Paying with personal effects when the clue SPECIFICALLY says not to? Leaving your passports randomly lying somewhere?

Stupid, stupid people (not to mention the penalties not fitting the crime: 30 minutes should've been for the bartering while 2 hours should've been for the pump hiding).

Up next: A season with Eric Sanchez.

I'm willing to give Emily a pass, simply because there's a difference between having a shitload of people mob you while you're stuck in a rickshaw and bitching about an entire group of people while you're in a taxi cab in one of the most touristy parts of Dakar (relatively speaking, of course).

13. The Amazing Race: All Stars



(switch Eric and Danielle with Kevin and Drew, and you have a very easy divide of people who don't suck and people who do. <3)

For those not obsessively in the TAR fandom, the hype for AS started around TAR 4, coinciding with ASS. TAR *4*. Then after TAR 7, the hype grew, since of course ASS was season 8, so zomg TAR 8 must be ASS too. And of course, TAR 8 turned out to be ass, but that's for a different day. So we get a MOR ending to TAR 10 and then: BAM! AS! As Tyra would say, it's the season with all the potential in the world.

And if we're continuing the ANTM metaphor, TARAS would look like this:



Awesome, right? But then it would take pictures like this:



Um, ew.

But yeah, part of it is its route. This season *also* had a bit of TAR 7itis in the shitload of time spent in South America. Ecuador would've been great were it not the fact that it was basically the Andes, and could've been done anywhere in the cordillera. The Atacama Desert, alternatively, was an awesome location from a visual perspective. Puerto Montt was interesting in that it looked temperate but was sort of mountainous. Punta Areas/Ushuaia was more of the same (though I loved the Isla de Redonda Pit Stop).

Moving on the Africa: Mozambique was interesting in that we don't really get a lot of urban legs in Africa. Zanzibar...I'll hold off on that, since it's tied into the mechanics of the season.

Poland was an interesting location, however I'm not sure about the decision to have the Krakow leg in the dark (if anything, Warsaw should've been done at night while Krakow should've been done in the early morning, but that's me).

I liked the greater focus on Kuala Lumpur compared to the last time; it was also an interesting hybrid of the "modern" and "traditional" Asian legs which are typically separated. Hong Kong was poorly used, as was Macau (both will be discussed in the task section, however I dislike the fact that TAR went to Macau and did no gambling). Guam was a beautiful location but disconnected to the tasks of that leg. And Hawaii and San Francisco were both done better in TAR 2.

Up next, the teams. I'm *sure* you can guess my thoughts on them.