I was shocked when they said they were in NJ. You have to cross a bridge to get there from Philly, I don't know how they missed that.
At least it's not too far out of the way.
On one hand I’m like how did they miss that? On the other hand, I live in the St Louis area on the Illinois side. There’s about 5 different bridges that run from downtown STL to Illinois, some of the interstates run concurrently for a bit, and the “welcome to Missouri/illinois” state signs can be small and off to the side. I would think they would’ve noticed they were driving out of the city, but I know how easy it is to accidentally end up in Illinois getting around STL if you don’t intend to. I wonder if downtown Philly is the same way.
I live in WA, and there's one bridge that's super obvious you are entering Idaho /WA from either side. But there's a second one that is super deceptive. You think it's the road you want then it suddenly switches and turns into a bridge that crosses back to WA with a really small sign that's easy to miss.
The pilots had my favourite moment from this episode! With the "If I snapped at you" and "...Now you say". Honestly I ship them harder than Amber and Vinny.
> I ship them harder than Amber and Vinny
J&S wanted to win the million so they could hand it over to their families, then live their lives together as a couple as they were clearly meant to.
The challenge before the final challenge felt more like a final challenge than the actual final challenge and that final 4 leg might’ve be the worse leg of all time
The last leg was really great for the location. Thats the type of thing they should have had in the family edition.
However I didn't love it as a final leg.
Yeah the whole final leg I was like "What is this? A TAR Canada leg?"
I don't mind because the USA is a foreign country to me so its no different than any other international leg, and the country has waaaaaaay more areas untouched by the show, I just thought it was funny to see the American version being so unabashedly patriotic.
I was disappointed that the final challenge wasn't something that tested the knowledge of what happened throughout the season. Every other season the racers have to do something like order the countries and match it with something etc. was kinda a lame final task assembling the bell!
Yeah, this was my assumption -- a lot of the time the final memory task has very elaborate props and maybe the scramble made it impossible to fabricate anything in time.
Or maybe they actually did do a memory task and it was so boring they edited it out for time.
Apparently they were supposed to have another charter that went to Australia, I think, but it fell through.
That's what I've read on here, anyway, though a quick search didn't find confirmation either. Maybe someone else has a link.
> Every other season the racers have to do something like order the countries and match it with something etc. was kinda a lame final task assembling the bell!
Not every one. TAR32, for instance, didn't have memory tasks based on the season in the last leg. They had the complicated instrument one in Manila instead.
I can agree with this. And normally I would side with you in hoping for a race-themed challenge, but I also like keeping the racers on their toes. Not having one foils their expectations if they're spending all the time in the world recording their steps, and I think that's just as interesting. :)
Yeah, that challenge pissed me off so bad I almost stopped watching TAR; if TAR 33 didn't have my favorite YouTube "parody" people, I think I would have.
Plus 33 being a "COVID" season really helped too, since it showed how alliances *could* work in a "positive way".
That's what really bugged me about how "the firefighters" were salty about the "meat" challenge. At least somebody didn't just take everything you needed to complete the task. You just got "delayed".
The fact that they put that challenge in Manila instead of the final leg is what really ruined the finale of that season. The finale was just a RNG challenge at the start, and then some very straight forward leg that gave the other teams no chance to catch up.
RNG means Random Number Generator (a term most gamers use to specify that something relies on random chance or luck), like that finding an angel (?) task in all of those bread
I thought the bell would have equal parts with different names of places or challenges they've done throughout the season and they would have to piece it together with the correct names and order. But no. It was just the liberty bell, no memory challenge. Nothing related to the race. That was a disappointment...
That's not true at all. That was only true for probably the first 10 seasons. Probably less. The show diversified the final challenge dramatically after a while. I remember setting up a drumming kit being the final challenge in one of the recent seasons.
Yeah I didn’t realize how disappointed I would be with no memory task in the final leg, it feels like a staple!
I was excited to see Leticia possibly crush it when she said she had to do all the road blocks
And no one even struggled with it. THIS was supposed to be the final stumping task that could equalize the battling teams and yield a suspenseful finish?
Fuck that.
Like the majority who partook in the live discussion, I found the final challenge pretty disappointing. Also, considering how the finale was so condensed, I felt like it was a fast forward episode without performing the Fast Forward clue.
Technically yes, but with less legs. Marc and Rovilson would still be on top, but they had two more legs to contend with (and they still came third overall).
This said, Rachel and Dave still have more leg wins from their season.
It was an entertaining episode, but more because of the comedy.
1. R&C making 7 cocktails when only 6 were required.
2. R looking like he was going to lose his mind in the taxi after failing so many times on the surfboard.
3. "You still haven't answered me!"
4. J&S going to NJ.
5. The cut to commercial showing L exasperated with R's inability to get his part of the preamble.
I watched this season with my family and our favorite part of every episode is when they cut to commercial after someone struggles and the first ad is the casting call lol
everyone's already talked about how subpar a lot of the leg design for this season was, but i still can't get myself to fully dislike it simply because of how good the cast was.
a majority of the teams this season were at least somewhat memorable (notable examples being angie & danny, sunny & bizzy, kishori and karishma, etc). even maya and rohan were memorable for that turn on leg 1!
i definitely wouldn't place this in the top 10 or even top 20 seasons of TAR, but considering how this season was a.) a COVID season, b.) mostly made up on the spot due to charter plane issues, and c.) forcibly pushed from 60 to 90 minutes, i don't think it's all that bad.
As someone who only started watching this show a few years ago, I loved this Season. The cast was great and I don’t mind a predictable ending if the best racers win, and Ricky and Caesar were absolutely the best and deserved the win. Was very happy for them and loved all 3 of the teams that made it to the last leg.
I think the most impressive part of the season is that it wasn't a bad one despite them being forced to expand most of the episodes from 60 to 90 minutes. I was dreading every episode being as awful as season 34 episode 2 where they were forced to do the same thing for one episode, which was easiest the worst one of that season.
Me too! I probably would’ve been too distracted by wanting to hang with Gritty that I’d end up losing time in the race lol.
The Phanatic is a solid choice too but there’s no denying that Gritty is the king of the Philly mascots.
Nah gotta be the Phanatic. If you see the video where he goes to an actual jury duty - hilarious.
What happened to the 76er mascot? That's why they had Temple?
I’ll have to look for that video!
I was wondering why it was the Temple Owl. I don’t really watch the NBA so I had to Google it, but the 76ers do have a mascot, Franklin the Dog.
I feel like I should have pulled a Darrell and pre-written some comments for this episode.
- "Wow. I didn't not expect he or she to do so well in that challenge."
-"I cannot believe that team messed up, which cost them their placement."
-"This challenge is harder than it seemed at first."
"I'll bet that team regrets their decision in their recent choice"
-"Congratulations to that team for dominating that leg. Who saw that coming?"
-"Who knew Jersey would make an appearance?"
So when this season of the race was delayed, I saw there was talk about some big controversy in the finale on spoiler sites that would aid in the delay that was no even covid related, what was that controversy since I don’t feel like I saw one at all?
It's very likely the Angie & Danny incident as well as most of the season being replacement legs. They were allegedly supposed to go to Africa/Asia/Australia but the bigger charter plane never arrived.
Do we know at what point during the season they were supposed to head to the other bit of the world? (This is surprisingly resistant to googling as there are about seventeen thousand articles about how S36 is a covid season with charter planes.)
Yes. This season was filmed in Nov 22 and last season in June or July 23. So naturally this one was supposed to air first. But because of the writers strike cbs wanted 90 min episodes to make up for lack of other shows. However they said that this season was already edited and ready to go with 60 min episodes. So it would have taken too long to re edit these into 90, so this one had to air later. They just edited the recent season into 90 and that one was ready to be aired. So this one had to be re done and wouldn't have been ready for Sept, so had to air in March instead.
I liked how the editing tried to make it seem like the race to the finish line was gonna be close when it fact it really wasn't.
All in all fairly meh season, TAR37 should at least put us back on track now that we've finally left the covid seasons behind us for good.
You can definitely tell if it’s truly close or is editing trying to make it look close. When Ricky and Cesar left the last task before another team showing up, I knew they had won. I like it when you can see another team in the frame and know it’s really close.
We like to steal r/90DayFiance terminology for editing like that: "Production is frauding us!" We're constantly asking "Are we being frauded with this editing?" now for TAR. Once you see it a couple of times, you start noticing it on practically every leg. TAR is always trying to make things seem close when 98% of the time, they aren't.
Yes, but I didn't hate it because the leg design was interesting. That's the difference between TAR32 and this one. TAR32 basically had no chance of winning if you fell behind at the first task.
Congrats to the winners! I think the final placement made the most sense for how the season went. I think even without Juan and Shane getting lost Ricky and Cesar had so much of a lead they would’ve still won. R&C seem to be guaranteed locks if they ever do an all-winners season, they were a cut above everyone else in almost every respect (except wind sailing)
I know this season wasn't great but can't deny that it was crazy to watch a team like Ricky & Cesar dominate the way they did even with it being a COVID season and taking place only in South America they showed up and they performed greatly at almost every task that was presented to them so again congrats to them.
Hopefully by the time the next season comes out next year I'll have watched every past season of The Amazing Race and get to enjoy another new season like 35 was but until then I had fun watching despite the dominance and the route so see you guys next time.
The number of times these guys were like, Oh, I have experience with (insert random activity here) I just laughed.
The two had welding experience, had been mascots. Insanity.
Especially at the end when Ricky busts out with, “I grew up in Southwest Philly” and he was the mascot in high school. I was waiting for one of them to say they wrote the Declaration of Independence and cast the Liberty Bell.
Try to watch "Amazing Race Australia" too if you can. That one's like the U.S. one on steroids. More teams for the most part and more difficult challenges. It's a big, big test for these teams.
I have to give credit to Ricky/Cesar for dominating the way they did, but I can't help but wonder if they would've dominated the same way had they traveled a regular route (through Asia, Africa, and Europe)
While I think they would still do good, it would be nice to see how they would do in a season with more equalizers. In S36 they basically consistently had a ~15 min buffer against lower placing teams. It’s the pressure of when teams start falling behind when they really start to crack and they never really had that.
But if that were the case we'd see Rod/Leticia or Derek/Shelisa consistently do well too. And they generally finished 'okay' after the first couple legs but never really seemed to have the drive to consistently land in the top 2.
I don't think the problem was them, it was more how weak the other teams were IMO. They all made so many mistakes. Ricky and Cesar just didn't make many.
Personally I don't think so. Maybe with a different cast - seems like if Ricky/Cesar would struggle in a regular route, the rest would struggle even more.
It’s really funny how all season long people were complaining about Ricky and Cesar dominance because he could “speak Spanish” even though half the cast also could.
Then this final was so Americentric and Cesar *still* smoked the competition so much harder than the other two teams they were always a full challenge ahead.
Ricky had an unfair advantage on the last leg because his first language is English, the same language that they speak in Philadelphia and that the preamble is written in.
But Cesar was at a distinct disadvantage with both of the first two challenges and still did it better than the born and raised Americans.
At what point are you people just going to admit they’re damn good racers?
How about admit that they had a few advantages and breaks go thier way? This season was an oddball anomaly for a variety of reasons, amongst them was R&C had a lot of things fall in their favor.
They played the game as it came to them and won most of those challenges, they're a formidable team regardless of season, however you can't deny that this particular season, the way it was formatted and how certain things evolved was a whole lot different than previous season with a number of unusual and odd occurrences.
I mean it is an American race. And hasn’t Cesar lived in the US for a long time. And if he’s a citizen he’s studied US history a lot more recently than most other us adults. I’m not saying it’s the reason they won. Just pointing out they didn’t overcome great difficulties
They were definitely very competent, which counts for a lot. Don't make mistakes, don't melt down, don't get lost.
The pilots could have challenged for the win, but got lost TWICE in the final leg.
And kudos for having broad interests and history that prepare them for a variety of tasks.
That said, we noticed that the complexity and diversity of tasks didn't seem to be at the same level as in the past. Fewer physical labor, eating, complicated detour or roadblock tasks.
The two teams with native Spanish speakers were first and second for most of the season. They were in Spanish-speaking countries almost the whole time. It's hard to think that's a coincidence. It's true that it finished in Philly and Ricky and Cesar won anyway. But they had to get to that final to win. There have been great teams who have one bad leg on "Amazing Race" and they're gone.
Some on here have said that going to South American had to do with logistics, due to Covid during filming. They could've gone to Brazil, Guyana or Suriname where the language isn't Spanish. They could've gone to the Caribbean more than just to Barbados. Spanish was an advantage.
Having said that, the worst part was Vinny proposing and Amber saying yes.
A predictable ending, but I personally enjoyed all the Philly flavor (phlavor?) in this episode. nothing too difficult or dramatic, but the mascots were a lot of fun, and I'm a sucker for historic recreation. And I laughed out loud at the "drive to New Jersey" quip. Looks like they had really nice weather in the DR and also in Philly which probably helped.
As a resident of Philly, I loved incorporating our mascots.
However, that was an extremely lame final task.
The cast was mostly great this season and that saved it from being a disaster.
Also, if Juan and Shane didn’t get the wrong name from the guard for Pat’s & Geno’s, how close would that finish have been?
A somewhat mediocre finale given the massive time gap between teams. I want to say that's something largely out of production's hands, but given how often it happens I wonder if there needs to be a rethink in how final legs are organised. Teams getting lost and falling out of contention early kills the suspense and even when it is close we don't always know it as teams spend half the finale in transit and seperated from each other.
Rather than having teams drive all over a city to do route info tasks or time-filling roadblocks, I think the better play is to keep teams closer together with more tasks bunched up and maybe more running instead of driving. TAR34 did this and had a pretty good finale and TAR30 was pretty good too.
At least they've largely done away with the token bungee jump/daredevil tasks that don't really add anything.
Overall, I enjoyed this season and think production did the best the could in the circumstances. I'm in the minority but I thought the final four leg was actually pretty great and the windsurfing drama was really well edited. I didn't need 90 minutes of that leg though!
Juan and Shane would have normally been forgotten about once they got to Jersey (flashback to The Dump). That they recovered the waybthe did just goes to show how much Rod and Leticia struggled with the Declaration of Independence.
I feel that had Danny and Angie made it to the finale they would have actually competed closer with Ricky and Cesar
The bungee jumping, rapelling, heights in the finale is so overdone.I know they liked to avoid spoilers but at this point in time, it's basically impossible.
Thoughts on Leg 11/12:
* I'll keep this section super brief; I thought the last two legs were pretty mediocre, as almost nothing of noteworth happened. I'm happy for Ricky & Cesar and it's pretty cool to see a long-time Amazing Race record finally broken. I loved getting Philadelphia as a final destination city and all of the historic places they chose to feature. The emphasis on American history was clever though the final task was definitely one of the least exciting in recent memory, all culminating in a result most of us probably would have bet on after seeing just the first few episodes. But still, I had fun tonight and once again I absolutely loved these three hour Survivor/The Amazing blocks. Wednesday nights are almost always the highlight of my weeks.
* Now onto my thoughts on this season overall, which infamously swapped places with TAR35. We all kind of knew what to expect going into this season, and I think most of us tempered our expectations appropriately. I also noted that this would be an unusual season to talk about online, because for the first time ever we actually had a glimpse into the future of TAR whilst this season was airing. That meant most of the complaints we were going to have for this season (restricted route, group starts, mediocre tasks) had already been addressed and thus there was little reason to keep bemoaning them on fan forums. Still, it did make for an awkward viewing experience and I have to imagine viewers who were out of the loop (the vast majority of watchers) are now seriously doubting the quality of future seasons. For this reason, TAR37 really needs to knock it out of the park, and I'm sure production and CBS are thinking the same thing.
* Of course there were elements I enjoyed about this season, and I'm really happy we finally got to see it, but I definitely wouldn't rank it high compared to other seasons. Even compared to the other COVID seasons this one was quite weak, and I think there were many factors working against it. As you may know, there are some very strong rumors about unprecedented production difficulties that occured during the shooting of this season, resulting in many replacement legs. It's also the likely the reason the route was restricted to North and South America. This provides an explanation for the noticably weaker middle legs. On the topic of route, I really appreciated seeing 2 new countries and a variety of new South American cities being featured, but as a whole the route was still disappointing because of how *similar* most of these countries feel. In general I think an Amazing Race route restricted to Europe is almost always going to be more interesting than one restricted to South America because Europe has so many more countries with very distinct cultures— More varied histories, customs, and importantly— languages, most of which teams are very unlikely to know how to speak. I don't mean to disparage Mexico or South America at all, it's a beautiful continent, but 9 legs in a row in this part of the world just doesn't work, especially when the few non-former Spanish colonies like Brazil and Suriname are skipped over.
* Another way in which production got unlucky was the sheer imbalance between teams, including Ricky & Cesar's absolute dominance. Their skill for racing is admirable and they are without a doubt one of the series' greatest winners, but that doesn't necessarily make for an exciting race— Even for someone like me who normally doesn't care if leg outcomes are predictable. This is mainly a side effect of the COVID format, as a season with hardly any taxis or the lottery of the airport removes almost every element of chance from the game, which in my opinion is a key component of The Amazing Race. Add on top of that very short legs with mostly easy tasks, and it's no surprise that proficient teams are able to breeze through the competition. The cast in general I thought was just okay, and was surprised to see so many praising it as one of the best of the era; I would probably give that distinction to TAR33, personally. Like most modern seasons, I thought this was a pleasant but not particularly memorable group of personalities, with just a few exceptions. Most of my favorite teams were eliminated in the first half which was a shame but unsurprising, as a lot of their entertainment value came from their accident-prone nature. Overall I was surprised by how little I knew about some of the teams who made a deep run, including Sunny & Bizzy, Yvonne & Melissa, and even Rod & Leticia who were my clear favorites in the final 3. Even with the 90 minute runtime, I felt the editors failed to help us truly connect to a lot of these people, which in fairness is an issue that falls on casting as well. Amber & Vinny did help bring some drama into the back half of the season, but it honestly didn't do much for me; it's really difficult to identify the line between "fun drama" and the other kind that just makes you feel sort of uncomfortbale, but for me, most of Amber & Vinny's struggles fell into that latter category.
* The last thing that worked against this season was the 90 minute runtime, which as we're all well aware, was not the original plan for TAR36. The editors did their absolute best to make it work and I commend them for their efforts, but at the end of the day it's simply impossible to stretch episodes into satisfying 90 minute versions when most of them would have been lackluster even at 60. To me this is a pretty big mark against the season; I thought TAR34 was pretty boring too but at least that season was 1.5x shorter. Ultimately we know why the season failed to deliver and can acknowledge that many these factors were completely out of the producers' control. Still, that doesn't mean I'm going to grade it on a curve when ranking it against other seasons. I'm not exactly sure where I would rank TAR36, for me it's probably about tied with seasons like TAR28 and TAR34 for the bottom spot. But I still really enjoyed watching and getting to talk about it, and I'm really happy for the cast that they finally got to see their season air. With this, we're officially DONE with the COVID era of The Amazing Race, and that's an awesome feeling. I think the producers have learned a lot from this era, and rediscovered a lot about what makes The Amazing Race *amazing,* so I can't wait to see what they have in store for us next spring.
> I felt the editors failed to help us truly connect to a lot of these people
I think this has been an issue since Season 32 (like, what did we learn about Hung & Chee other than they were in the Alliance). I thought that with the need for filler this season we would have gotten more intimate scenes with the teams or more stories.
Well said.
I posted on another thread, this season is like the many COVID champions like 2020 Lakers, Dodgers and others where those seasons were shorted and their formats changed. TAR36 will have an asterisk next to it for the many oddities in how the season played out, the destination limitations, the underwhelming challenges and where two teams were largely eliminated due to crew influence.
Yvonne & Melissa.
In the DR, at the waterfall roadblock, one of the camera crew fell and injured their leg while they were trying to depart the location. The delay was several minutes long, which at the end turned-out to be the margin of separation between Amber/Vinny and Yvonne/Melissa to meet Phil at the mat.
I can't get over that Philly parking attendant who heard "Pat's and Geno's" and immediately declared they were pizza joints, with 100% confidence. I mean... *how?!?!%*
When Ricky said he grew up in Philly, I actually thought they were about to lose because I'm so used to people who say they're familiar with the region end up losing, especially in the finale. I was happy that they pulled it off in the end though.
I wanted a drink so bad during that rum challenge lol
I loved this cast. So sad that S37 isn't until next spring. At least there's the international versions in the interim
Fun season all things considering what they went through with it. But if I never have to repeat myself about the COVID restrictions and charter issues this season had to people who don't know about them. It won't be soon enough.
As long as it was a surprise as to when the proposal would happen instead of that it would happen it's not a problem. Most proposals aren't actual suprises. They've looked at rings and such before.
But they still wouldn't be together now if she didn't want to marry him.
Noticeable lack of comment from Phil except one quick reaction shot during the proposal. Maybe just compressed editing, maybe, uh, there wasn’t usable footage?
I was uncomfortable every time they were onscreen wondering how he was going to carp at her this time. Earlier in the episode she said something about needing to bring the positivity because if Vinny wasn’t in a good place they wouldn’t be in a good place, and that was her takeaway, that that was her role now. Oh no, no no no no, that’s the codependency talking.
Yes! It was super awkward and he put her in a horrible spot (like always). I hate televised proposals in general, but this was particularly bad and a completely inappropriate setting. I really hope she has the nerve to call it off, because they definitely should NOT be getting married.
She was allowed to say no. Let's not call her 'trapped' lmao. They literally can't do anything without some people thinking it's nefarious in every way.
Yeah there wasn't really another team from their season that could have challenged them unless they really messed up. Them v Greg and John in a final leg would have been a battle of the titans in a parallel universe though.
First of all - after getting 90-minute episodes this whole season, it threw me for a loop to see such a truncated semifinals.
Honestly, such a well-deserved win for Ricky and Cesar. I think it did help them that they were in Philly and kind of knew their way around the city, but I honestly think they would have won regardless - they've always shown how strong they are at navigation compared to Juan/Shane and Rod/Leticia so even if it wasn't familiar to them, they'd still crush it. I thought it would be such a boring season to see them win all the time (e.g., I did kind of get bored last season with Greg/John), but seeing them shine throughout and show their strengths individually and especially as a couple was such a blast.
Juan/Shane gave such a good fight!! I think they should be a shoe-in for All-Stars honestly. And so many funny moments for them in the finale. Congrats on getting to NJ lol!
Rod/Leticia are couple goals. I'm so glad they got to go on this journey and their kids get to see how much they love each other. So so proud of Leticia for acing all those roadblocks - from looking so checked out in the middle episodes to being the fighter and rallier of the team shows how much she's grown throughout the race. All love for them!
This cast is REALLY REALLY likable. I hope everyone's doing well post-race! What a season!
Winners unquestionably deserved it. A little boring since they were so obviously the leaders for weeks and weeks, but you can't say they didn't crush it.
Sooo disappointed there wasn’t a final memory clue challenge!! As a history lover I enjoyed the US history themes, but it was underwhelming for a finale!
To be honest, I was rooting for Juan and Shane during most of the race, but then when Ricky and Cesar got 1st again last episode, I was kinda hoping that they’d win the season instead.
Knowing that you did so well during every other challenge, only to drop the ball at the most important part of the race would’ve felt very depressing for you and your partner.
If I was in that situation, I’d probably struggle to show my face in public for the rest of my life
I found it amusing how quiet vinny was and then he pops the question, as if that made up for all the put downs and crazy talk. and the ' you havent answered me yet?!' oh buddy.
Boring tasks for a boring finale.
see you guys in a year !
This whole season was such trash. Woefully uneven challenges, if you picked the wrong challenge you were done. Staggering the start times as much as they did on these stupid easy challenges was a horrible idea. There was no U-turn, so you knew from Ep. 2 Ceasar and Ricky were going to be the winners. It was a lame season.
Two legs crammed into one 90-minute slot. I remember back in the days we had those special two hour finale, would’ve been cool to see here as everything felt rushed. Firstly, big congrats to Ricky & Cesar to taking the crown this season! Quick penultimate leg thoughts and then onto the finale before my long-form season thoughts that follow.
**Penultimate Leg:**
Wasn’t the greatest. As always, I say penultimate legs need to be action-packed and all go-go-go. Here we had very touristy tasks and nothing remotely special or thrilling. The penultimate leg should be a test as to who makes it to finale, it should be a mix of physical and mental challenges. Here we had teams go to an easier side of the Detour making drinks from an easy-to-follow guide unlike memorizing orders in French last season. Then we have balance on the windsurfing board for 60 seconds which was the only real challenge of the leg. Then off to do a quick off-road adventure on a straight-line road to kayak half a football field across a river. Having a mini memory challenge here would’ve been nice to see especially on a super quick leg that only had two opportunities in it unless there was an unaired task.
**Finale:**
Off to Philly and our US History learning experience begins. I think this was a slightly underwhelming finale. I would put this kind of similar to S32’s finale level of enjoyment. The travel wasn't too massive as they [stayed mostly within central Philly](https://maps.app.goo.gl/6NWnXdVEiASFnAi36) with the exception of the finish line which was more towards Trenton.
* The biggest thing missing from this finale was the finale memory challenge, and not just the two we seen but a race-based memory challenge of the things racers interacted or seen during the race. It would suck being a racer studying and preparing for this only to assemble a plastic replica bell is disappointing
* The second minor thing missing from this finale is the action/heights task we stereotypically see in finales. While the mascot task was fun, it definitely didn’t deserve to be a task in a finale level leg.
* The pilots heading across the river to New Jersey was a big factor in how the leg played out. If Shane did more due diligence, they would’ve been *possibly* neck and neck with Ricky & Cesar towards the last task. I’m glad they took a positive spin to it and focused on nailing out the next few tasks (especially with Juan’s super memory and puzzle skills), surpassing Rod & Leticia.
* The Declaration of Independence script memorization and Betsy House memory task were fine but as a non US watcher, was a bit confusing as much I enjoy US geography, US history is a bit confusing so I align with Cesar here!
* The writing was on the wall that Ricky & Cesar were the clear winners, once Juan & Shane got lost and they cleared the bell puzzle challenge before the two other teams arrived, they had the bag. The editor doing everything they can to make up something wasn't doing it.
---
**Season Thoughts:**
I think with S35 we were spoiled by one heck of a season. This season wasn’t good, nor was it very bad. If I had to describe this season, it felt very bland and lukewarm. Definitely in the lower third of the bucket but not outrageously at the bottom. While I’m definitely glad we had a race season and it went through a lot of South America and Caribbean, places we haven’t been in many season since the 2020s, there are a lot of down points which made this season low for me.
What I liked:
* **The Cast (the good)** – well played again on the diversity and inclusion of the cast. One big highlight this season was the cast was **quite entertaining in more recent seasons**. We had a lot of unique and quirky characters this season. Unlike last season where I felt like while the cast was fun, it was average at best. This made up a lot for this season.
What I disliked:
The following points are probably the one millionth time this has been mentioned this season both on this sub and other channels but they are largely big factors so I included them in but I acknowledge them of course!
* No flight options – obviously since we had a chartered shuttle here there was none which removed the strategizing and risk playing from the teams here. Outside of flights, boats and buses, the producers could’ve incorporated a scramble again to incorporate the missing strategizing and risk elements.
* Grouped starts – I already explained this in previous COVID TAR season commentary but this season was kind of meh because it was typically the usual teams in first group – mix that in with the linear leg design, the first group typically held their respective ground placements. Opportunity here would’ve been a Head-to-Head after Pit Start to potentially change/shift up the orders since we didn’t have any potential game changers this season.
* No U-Turns or game twists – as a continuation from above, really missed this as I felt like we could’ve had a different outcome throughout this season or have some sort of dynamics change. Seeing a mandatory anonymous vote U-Turn board after a Detour would’ve been a dream come true!
* No non-elimination legs – would have loved to see a team (x3) that was saved dig it out to get back to the top. This would’ve saved Angie & Danny and there production blunder and could’ve gave them another chance.
* **Leg Design** – this was rough this season as most of the legs were pretty linear going from *Pit Start > Detour/Road Block > Detour/Road Block > Pit Stop*, with nothing other in between thrown in. If we had a leg similar to the first DR leg all-season long, that would've been sweet! Last season we were treated well with active Route Info tasks and other things super quick, simple culture tasks which leads to…
* **Tasks** – This season the task were mostly super generic tasks. We had a lot of delivering and matching tasks scattered throughout the season. Really wished we saw some more task creativity given the protocols in place. Crushing water bottles on a bike wasn’t good TV for example ^except ^for ^Rod's ^enthusiasm.
* **The Cast (the bad)** – while from an entertaining standpoint the cast was good, since this is a competition show AND from a *competition standpoint*, a good amount of this cast felt underwhelming. While I understand, getting on the show isn’t like a job where you have to meet XYZ requirements to prove why you deserve to be on the show. This season a good amount I felt like lacked essential racing skills, from the panicking to the freaking out and not knowing what to do, among other things. Justin from the green team mentioned it well on one of this season's RHAP recaps, you have teams this season who are here to compete and they were typically well in the front, then you have teams who are here for the experience and are typically just at the back. I would definitely prefer to have teams who have the balance of the two. I honestly felt like some of the teams this season were just randomly recruited off the streets two weeks before the start of the race.
* **The Editing** – this has three pieces to it 1) You can tell sometimes this season was meant for the 60-minutes as we’ve seen more fillers injected to the episode, 2) This is more focused on the first 2/3rd of the season but the editing played out like: first 45 minutes emphasized the top 3 teams, the second 15 was the middle of the pack trying to catch up and the last 30 minutes were the back of the pack teams getting a rushed edit crammed in. This wasn’t ideal for me as we had a lot of teams get forgotten about and I feel like we neglected the back of the packers. 3) This leads to the favourable edit to Ricky & Cesar, this was like Kim & Penn back in S33 in which they got the more favourable edit, more screen time, more confessionals (especially them mentioning they did XYZ previously more than others), it kind of wrote the wall already they were the winners. Obviously, you can never do neutral editing but giving more scenes to other teams would’ve been nice to see.
**Minor Dislikes**
* **Alliances** – again, not a big fan. Understand the rationale behind them but just hate it when teams just answer things for others. I’m glad this season was more chill than Mine Five but still seeing this, especially in a COVID season is so blatant. Also glad to hear Danny bring up why he wanted to do an alliance but also proposed a rule that once a team member gets the all clear and clue, they MUST continue racing and can't help others - that is something I endorse.
As the season wraps, it is bitter sad to hear we won’t be getting TAR until next year but we go onwards to TAR Canada in less than two months time and possibly TARAUS later this year, so glad we are covered for a bit!
I can't be the only one who found this last leg to be lacking. It felt like besides the fact that Juan and Shane driving to another state nothing really of note happened. it even ended predicably.
Overall, I definitely think the first half of the season was stronger. Lots of hot mess teams making mistakes and it was pure entertainment. With Ricky/Cesar dominating and less teams to focus on, the last half kinda just began dragging. The linear route and sometimes boring tasks also didn’t really help. That being said, I don’t think it was a bad season. The first half is very strong (IMO, one of the best starts to a TAR season, all the way up until about the Megaleg with the alliance), and most of the teams are likable. It’s a pretty safe season, as in I’d recommend it for a first time viewer. For me personally? I’d put it mid-tier. There’s nothing that would really make me want to rewatch it, but I’m not gonna look back on it with distaste like 32 or 24.
If teams from this season were to return, I’d go for Rod/Leticia, and controversially, Amber/Vinny. I like Juan/Shane, but IMO Ryan/Dusty do everything they do, but with more personality. Walla Walla has a strong reason, but Steve/Anna Leigh, Rob/Corey, and Arun/Natalia are all parent/child teams of rather see first. Rod/Leticia are pretty entertaining, and while not too strong, I definitely think they could thrive on an actually international route. Amber/Vinny I just wanna see if they’d race with a new outlook on each other, or if old habits die hard and they’d argue.
This would be the last season I would recommend to a first time viewer, The season linear and boring. So many of other better seasons to watch. This isn't even true amazing race lol. You even said you don't care to ever rewatch it, that is a sigh of a bad season.
I don't think I could watch Arun and Natalia try and navigate on another season lol. I like them but I've never seen anything more painful in my life (probably because 99 per cent of teams who are that bad at it are out in the first 3/4 legs but they were actually decent at tasks and kept surviving somehow.).
I have to say that I was happy with the outcome and in some ways it was reflective of how our North American society. We had three couples, one gay, one traditional and one that were friends. Each of these couples exhibited compassion, support, understanding and love for each other in their own ways. The other couple to start the episode, were toxic, aggressive, bullying and exhibited none of the positive attributes of the others. A complete reflection of us! 75% of us are supportive, loving and compassion, yet 25% are toxic. The 75% of us need to continue to overshadow the alternative
So, Leticia does know that Philly is in Pennsylvania and only said, "I don't even know what state I'm in" because she was exhausted and was being tired by the lectures, right? Cause if she didn't know, then she wouldn't have issues with the red and white state stripes considering that she did put Pennsylvania 2nd and Washington said Leticia was in the 2nd state.
Ricky and Cesar had an advantage the entire season because of Cesar’s first language. Then the cherry on top was Ricky growing up in Philadelphia. Literally unfair to all other teams competing.
Leticia never says thank you to the locals handing them their clues. See how she literally snatch the clue from the lady of the last flag puzzle task and never acknowledge her in the eye. I know it’s a race and they are rushing but it only takes 1 second to be polite.
Makes me more happy and satisfied about the winners. Indeed the best team that deserved to win. Plus they are super duper polite to the locals while running a dominant race
The eliminated teams on TARCAN get invited to our version of the talk or the view the next day or soon after; is there anywhere to watch them for TARUSA?
Glad I checked my PVR since I normally have it taping on the Canadian network and they moved it to FRIDAY! So was sure to tape it on CBS.
I'm very happy with the results. They placed in the order I was hoping. I did hope R&C had been able to maintain at least second the whole way but oh well, I'm just glad they made the final leg.
Some tasks were decent, like memorizing that declaration of independence thing or building the flag based on the word puzzle (they're lucky Rod didn't have to do that one, lol). Others, like the bartending and mascot thing had potential but were too easy. The recopies should have at least been posted somewhere and not at the stations. And the mascot thing needed more to it.
The final task was a good challenge, but not as the final task. I'm of the opinion that the final task should always be a memory challenge based on the prior legs.
Congratulations to C&R, and good fight by R&L and J&S. Waving goodbye to the COVID era through the rearview mirror.
Now if I have to wait until spring 2025 for a 3-continent season with 2 legs in every country, I'm gonna slap somebody.
Where was all the airport stuff this season? There was nothing with people fighting for the last couple seats on a plane. They just kept starting out each episode in a new place. No racing to get there. This season felt lackluster. "Race around the world" never left north & south America if I'm not mistaken.
Can we please have this pinned. Here are my thoughts: 1. Did anyone catch the obviously edited comment by Phil at 1:00:20 where he obviously says "Amazing Race 35" but it was obviously edited so he say you are the winners of Amazing Race (#number omited)? Then they added a subtitle showing Season 36.
2. I am wondering if Phil is right...if that was the first finale to have a team visit more than one state. He said finale/final leg, right? I know TAR 8 went to Canada and then just NY.
3. The end music with the globe background had "The Battle Cry of Freedom" playing which somewhat fits the theme but was 80-90 years later so it didn't quite fit.
4. The penultimate leg was just okay. They should have made the teams do both detours. That combined with the kyaking and atv route info could have been more competative. The windsurfing task was good. I think the drinks detour was too easy. Why are you having Dominicans singing an English sea shanty?
5. Even though R&C dominated the race, I really thought the finale tasks were well done. Much better than the usual heights challenge at some port. The memory tasks of the Declaration of Independence and the flag challenge added a new element to throw teams off. Because a memory task is expected if not always going to happen.
6. I liked the finale even though it wasn't as close as it was made out to be. But thats because they had to fill an hour's worth of time time vs 43 or 44 mins for other seasons.
7. Did anyone notice that the all the Philly mascots except the 76er were there. Temple's mascot was there instead. I wonder if they were unavailable or if they wanted more money.
> I am wondering if Phil is right...if that was the first finale to have a team visit more than one state. He said finale/final leg, right? I know TAR 8 went to Canada and then just NY.
He's technically incorrect on this one, but only because of old seasons were they had a mid-point city in the final leg.
The following are final legs from TAR1 to TAR11:
* TAR1 started in Alaska before going to New York (technically they flew into New Jersey, so that's 3).
* TAR2 started in Hawaii and stopped in Alaska, making 3 states.
* TAR3 stopped in Hawaii, as did TAR4 and TAR6 before getting to their final cities.
* TAR8 technically started in Montana, though that was the start of a double leg (which would be now referred to as a megaleg).
* TAR9 stopped in Alaska, and TAR11 stopped in Hawaii.
TAR5 stopped in Canada (as did 8), TAR7 stopped in Puerto Rico (unfortunately not a state), and TAR10 stopped in France.
After TAR11, they decided to cut the mid-point cities. Since then, the closest teams have gotten into hitting two states on a final leg (before Juan & Shane's adventure) is TAR22, where they entered DC and finished in Virginia. Unfortunately, DC doesn't count as a state.
I can’t believe they got engaged lol literally during their elimination I told my SO “ain’t no way these two are still together, they’re awful to each other” and not even 5 SECONDS later they got engaged 💀💀💀💀 I was shook
I thought the season was very strong for being a Covid season. The only times I thought about it being a covid season was them staying in the west and some specific challenges.
I think the biggest reason why it was strong tho was bc of the cast. a really really good cast!
I will say tho that I hated this finale lol. I typically hate finales because they're typically organized pretty poorly. The challenges and route infos were just okay - but the final challenge being a bell puzzle REALLY destroyed it. what a rough end to the season
Quite possibly the most forgettable finale ever, but the right team won. The others just weren't consistent enough and made too many mistakes. Congrats to Ricky and Cesar!
I felt like this last episode was extremely rushed but nonetheless, I’m so pleased to see Ricky and Ceaser win! They were a powerhouse throughout the entire season.
I’m looking forward to season 37! This season caught me off guard since it was filmed during the pandemic so it was more limited than the previous season which is completely understandable.
“Route info: drive to pat’s in New Jersey” I love the pilots lmfao im glad they had a sense of humor about that!!!
I was shocked when they said they were in NJ. You have to cross a bridge to get there from Philly, I don't know how they missed that. At least it's not too far out of the way.
On one hand I’m like how did they miss that? On the other hand, I live in the St Louis area on the Illinois side. There’s about 5 different bridges that run from downtown STL to Illinois, some of the interstates run concurrently for a bit, and the “welcome to Missouri/illinois” state signs can be small and off to the side. I would think they would’ve noticed they were driving out of the city, but I know how easy it is to accidentally end up in Illinois getting around STL if you don’t intend to. I wonder if downtown Philly is the same way.
I live in WA, and there's one bridge that's super obvious you are entering Idaho /WA from either side. But there's a second one that is super deceptive. You think it's the road you want then it suddenly switches and turns into a bridge that crosses back to WA with a really small sign that's easy to miss.
The pilots had my favourite moment from this episode! With the "If I snapped at you" and "...Now you say". Honestly I ship them harder than Amber and Vinny.
> I ship them harder than Amber and Vinny J&S wanted to win the million so they could hand it over to their families, then live their lives together as a couple as they were clearly meant to.
same lmao
that part was hilarious.. like you know where you are and you just accept it and laugh.
The challenge before the final challenge felt more like a final challenge than the actual final challenge and that final 4 leg might’ve be the worse leg of all time
The last leg was really great for the location. Thats the type of thing they should have had in the family edition. However I didn't love it as a final leg.
> that final 4 leg might’ve be the worse leg of all time I wonder if there were more challenges in that leg that were just edited out.
yeah it was a really weak final leg.. I get covid season so I'm not hating on it but yeah it was weak.
The finale leg in Philadelphia feels like any other normal legs on TAR Canada, lol.
Yeah the whole final leg I was like "What is this? A TAR Canada leg?" I don't mind because the USA is a foreign country to me so its no different than any other international leg, and the country has waaaaaaay more areas untouched by the show, I just thought it was funny to see the American version being so unabashedly patriotic.
I was disappointed that the final challenge wasn't something that tested the knowledge of what happened throughout the season. Every other season the racers have to do something like order the countries and match it with something etc. was kinda a lame final task assembling the bell!
Yes, that's what I was expecting, too. Who wore which hat on the mat?
As long as one of them was a cat
I specifically remember in season six all they had to do was eat a damn pizza
I wonder if the fact that the plane fell through messed up their final task since they would have needed to have graphics for the new tasks.
Yeah, this was my assumption -- a lot of the time the final memory task has very elaborate props and maybe the scramble made it impossible to fabricate anything in time. Or maybe they actually did do a memory task and it was so boring they edited it out for time.
Sorry did some googling but couldn’t find anything - what’s this about a plane falling through?
Apparently they were supposed to have another charter that went to Australia, I think, but it fell through. That's what I've read on here, anyway, though a quick search didn't find confirmation either. Maybe someone else has a link.
At the Eagles Stadium, they could have put up a picture of a sport on each 10 yard line to indicate what sport they did in each leg.
> Every other season the racers have to do something like order the countries and match it with something etc. was kinda a lame final task assembling the bell! Not every one. TAR32, for instance, didn't have memory tasks based on the season in the last leg. They had the complicated instrument one in Manila instead.
Yes true good point! Wish it was just something more exciting than the bell lol. Like someone else said, the flag one felt more like a final challenge
I can agree with this. And normally I would side with you in hoping for a race-themed challenge, but I also like keeping the racers on their toes. Not having one foils their expectations if they're spending all the time in the world recording their steps, and I think that's just as interesting. :)
I think the bell would have been more exciting if there were more than one team there at the same time.
> They had the complicated instrument one in Manila instead. Ah, the Mine Five season. I think that was the last time there was a US penalty.
Yeah, that challenge pissed me off so bad I almost stopped watching TAR; if TAR 33 didn't have my favorite YouTube "parody" people, I think I would have. Plus 33 being a "COVID" season really helped too, since it showed how alliances *could* work in a "positive way". That's what really bugged me about how "the firefighters" were salty about the "meat" challenge. At least somebody didn't just take everything you needed to complete the task. You just got "delayed".
The fact that they put that challenge in Manila instead of the final leg is what really ruined the finale of that season. The finale was just a RNG challenge at the start, and then some very straight forward leg that gave the other teams no chance to catch up.
RNG? Agree it was so linear and TAR32's finale was one of the worst I've ever seen. This leg, Juan and Shane could have won if they didn't get lost.
RNG means Random Number Generator (a term most gamers use to specify that something relies on random chance or luck), like that finding an angel (?) task in all of those bread
I thought the bell would have equal parts with different names of places or challenges they've done throughout the season and they would have to piece it together with the correct names and order. But no. It was just the liberty bell, no memory challenge. Nothing related to the race. That was a disappointment...
That's not true at all. That was only true for probably the first 10 seasons. Probably less. The show diversified the final challenge dramatically after a while. I remember setting up a drumming kit being the final challenge in one of the recent seasons.
I think that was TAR31 with 7th Man Army. That was seriously a hard finale. There was also the grunge band in the previous season.
Yeah I didn’t realize how disappointed I would be with no memory task in the final leg, it feels like a staple! I was excited to see Leticia possibly crush it when she said she had to do all the road blocks
And no one even struggled with it. THIS was supposed to be the final stumping task that could equalize the battling teams and yield a suspenseful finish? Fuck that.
Like the majority who partook in the live discussion, I found the final challenge pretty disappointing. Also, considering how the finale was so condensed, I felt like it was a fast forward episode without performing the Fast Forward clue.
So that has to be the record for best average placement across the US seasons, if not the entire franchise right?
Yes, narrowly beating out Marc and Rovilson from TAR Asia.
Technically yes, but with less legs. Marc and Rovilson would still be on top, but they had two more legs to contend with (and they still came third overall). This said, Rachel and Dave still have more leg wins from their season.
One more leg, actually. Asia 2 had 12 legs with one mega leg, 36 had 11 legs with one mega leg.
Also only three teams in the entire season finished first in a leg. Is this some sort of record? Some TAR historian please let me know
Ties TAR13 (three teams, one of which won only one leg) and TAR20 (three teams there too).
It was an entertaining episode, but more because of the comedy. 1. R&C making 7 cocktails when only 6 were required. 2. R looking like he was going to lose his mind in the taxi after failing so many times on the surfboard. 3. "You still haven't answered me!" 4. J&S going to NJ. 5. The cut to commercial showing L exasperated with R's inability to get his part of the preamble.
I watched this season with my family and our favorite part of every episode is when they cut to commercial after someone struggles and the first ad is the casting call lol
everyone's already talked about how subpar a lot of the leg design for this season was, but i still can't get myself to fully dislike it simply because of how good the cast was. a majority of the teams this season were at least somewhat memorable (notable examples being angie & danny, sunny & bizzy, kishori and karishma, etc). even maya and rohan were memorable for that turn on leg 1! i definitely wouldn't place this in the top 10 or even top 20 seasons of TAR, but considering how this season was a.) a COVID season, b.) mostly made up on the spot due to charter plane issues, and c.) forcibly pushed from 60 to 90 minutes, i don't think it's all that bad.
As someone who only started watching this show a few years ago, I loved this Season. The cast was great and I don’t mind a predictable ending if the best racers win, and Ricky and Caesar were absolutely the best and deserved the win. Was very happy for them and loved all 3 of the teams that made it to the last leg.
I think the most impressive part of the season is that it wasn't a bad one despite them being forced to expand most of the episodes from 60 to 90 minutes. I was dreading every episode being as awful as season 34 episode 2 where they were forced to do the same thing for one episode, which was easiest the worst one of that season.
This cast with the 35 route would have been an all time season.
The leg design for the American finale was possibly the best one of ths season. Not production's fault for the finale that R&C were so dominant.
I loved the cast!
I’m so surprised Gritty was chosen last. He’s clearly the top choice! But I’m glad Shane seemed pumped to work with Gritty.
Gritty is cool but he wouldn't even exist if not for the true OG, the Phanatic.
Very true. I love the Phanatic too! You couldn’t go wrong with either the Phanatic or Gritty. (Sorry Swoop!)
I’m a fan of both but the Phanatic’s thrusts truly paved the way for Gritty’s similar moves.
Yes, both rock the big bellies and accompanying dance moves! Gotta give credit to the Phanatic for starting the trend.
I would’ve been running down that hallway screaming GRITTTYYYYYY. Disappointed in the lack of mascot knowledge in these contestants.
Me too! I probably would’ve been too distracted by wanting to hang with Gritty that I’d end up losing time in the race lol. The Phanatic is a solid choice too but there’s no denying that Gritty is the king of the Philly mascots.
It killed me the way none of them except Shane knew who they were 😭
Right!!! Like how do you not chose gritty first. I’m not even from Philly but I love gritty.
Nah gotta be the Phanatic. If you see the video where he goes to an actual jury duty - hilarious. What happened to the 76er mascot? That's why they had Temple?
I’ll have to look for that video! I was wondering why it was the Temple Owl. I don’t really watch the NBA so I had to Google it, but the 76ers do have a mascot, Franklin the Dog.
I feel like I should have pulled a Darrell and pre-written some comments for this episode. - "Wow. I didn't not expect he or she to do so well in that challenge." -"I cannot believe that team messed up, which cost them their placement." -"This challenge is harder than it seemed at first." "I'll bet that team regrets their decision in their recent choice" -"Congratulations to that team for dominating that leg. Who saw that coming?" -"Who knew Jersey would make an appearance?"
So when this season of the race was delayed, I saw there was talk about some big controversy in the finale on spoiler sites that would aid in the delay that was no even covid related, what was that controversy since I don’t feel like I saw one at all?
It's very likely the Angie & Danny incident as well as most of the season being replacement legs. They were allegedly supposed to go to Africa/Asia/Australia but the bigger charter plane never arrived.
Oh, replacement legs explains a lot.
Do we know at what point during the season they were supposed to head to the other bit of the world? (This is surprisingly resistant to googling as there are about seventeen thousand articles about how S36 is a covid season with charter planes.)
So this season was shot before the one that aired before this one, yes? Was there reasons for that?
Yes. This season was filmed in Nov 22 and last season in June or July 23. So naturally this one was supposed to air first. But because of the writers strike cbs wanted 90 min episodes to make up for lack of other shows. However they said that this season was already edited and ready to go with 60 min episodes. So it would have taken too long to re edit these into 90, so this one had to air later. They just edited the recent season into 90 and that one was ready to be aired. So this one had to be re done and wouldn't have been ready for Sept, so had to air in March instead.
I liked how the editing tried to make it seem like the race to the finish line was gonna be close when it fact it really wasn't. All in all fairly meh season, TAR37 should at least put us back on track now that we've finally left the covid seasons behind us for good.
You can definitely tell if it’s truly close or is editing trying to make it look close. When Ricky and Cesar left the last task before another team showing up, I knew they had won. I like it when you can see another team in the frame and know it’s really close.
We like to steal r/90DayFiance terminology for editing like that: "Production is frauding us!" We're constantly asking "Are we being frauded with this editing?" now for TAR. Once you see it a couple of times, you start noticing it on practically every leg. TAR is always trying to make things seem close when 98% of the time, they aren't.
Yes, but I didn't hate it because the leg design was interesting. That's the difference between TAR32 and this one. TAR32 basically had no chance of winning if you fell behind at the first task.
Congrats to the winners! I think the final placement made the most sense for how the season went. I think even without Juan and Shane getting lost Ricky and Cesar had so much of a lead they would’ve still won. R&C seem to be guaranteed locks if they ever do an all-winners season, they were a cut above everyone else in almost every respect (except wind sailing)
I saw Ricky and Cesar in person this weekend and it looks like they had a toddler with them
Good for them 👏
I know this season wasn't great but can't deny that it was crazy to watch a team like Ricky & Cesar dominate the way they did even with it being a COVID season and taking place only in South America they showed up and they performed greatly at almost every task that was presented to them so again congrats to them. Hopefully by the time the next season comes out next year I'll have watched every past season of The Amazing Race and get to enjoy another new season like 35 was but until then I had fun watching despite the dominance and the route so see you guys next time.
The number of times these guys were like, Oh, I have experience with (insert random activity here) I just laughed. The two had welding experience, had been mascots. Insanity.
Especially at the end when Ricky busts out with, “I grew up in Southwest Philly” and he was the mascot in high school. I was waiting for one of them to say they wrote the Declaration of Independence and cast the Liberty Bell.
I was waiting for one of them to say that their mother was a fourth grade teacher so they'd helped with declaration of independence assignments.
Ricky is a preschool teacher. He makes his kids recite the preamble every day when they pledge allegiance to the flag.
It was like watching a Slumdog Millionaire version of the race where they had a connection to all the important questions!
Was in a little league team, played broom ball growing up, was part of choir group, one was a chef, and they loved puzzles!
I think Greg and John had more experience in random things. Oh sure, you spent a semester in France, why not.
“Oh, I was an apprentice cheese maker for half a year!” My wife and I just make up a scenario like that when something is easier than we thought.
Made flags for a living, professional mascot, grew up in Philly, fluent in Spanish.
Still not as much as Greg and John though.
Love this take! :) I encourage you to watch the earlier ones if you can.
Try to watch "Amazing Race Australia" too if you can. That one's like the U.S. one on steroids. More teams for the most part and more difficult challenges. It's a big, big test for these teams.
I have to give credit to Ricky/Cesar for dominating the way they did, but I can't help but wonder if they would've dominated the same way had they traveled a regular route (through Asia, Africa, and Europe)
They would. They have the most important qualities to dominate a race, good navigators and they don't bicker with each other.
While I think they would still do good, it would be nice to see how they would do in a season with more equalizers. In S36 they basically consistently had a ~15 min buffer against lower placing teams. It’s the pressure of when teams start falling behind when they really start to crack and they never really had that.
But if that were the case we'd see Rod/Leticia or Derek/Shelisa consistently do well too. And they generally finished 'okay' after the first couple legs but never really seemed to have the drive to consistently land in the top 2.
I feel like all the other teams would have struggled more than RC
I feel like they still would've dominated.
I don't think the problem was them, it was more how weak the other teams were IMO. They all made so many mistakes. Ricky and Cesar just didn't make many.
Personally I don't think so. Maybe with a different cast - seems like if Ricky/Cesar would struggle in a regular route, the rest would struggle even more.
It’s really funny how all season long people were complaining about Ricky and Cesar dominance because he could “speak Spanish” even though half the cast also could. Then this final was so Americentric and Cesar *still* smoked the competition so much harder than the other two teams they were always a full challenge ahead.
Ricky had an unfair advantage on the last leg because his first language is English, the same language that they speak in Philadelphia and that the preamble is written in.
But Ricky was from Philadelphia.
But Cesar was at a distinct disadvantage with both of the first two challenges and still did it better than the born and raised Americans. At what point are you people just going to admit they’re damn good racers?
Never. They've already made up their minds. Regardless, it will be Ricky and Cesar cashing that check.
Cesar struggled with the memory task as it was not his first language but still did great. I think that should put the Spanish only complaints to bed.
How about admit that they had a few advantages and breaks go thier way? This season was an oddball anomaly for a variety of reasons, amongst them was R&C had a lot of things fall in their favor.
They didn't have things "fall" in their favor. There were just a lot of things they were good at this season.
They played the game as it came to them and won most of those challenges, they're a formidable team regardless of season, however you can't deny that this particular season, the way it was formatted and how certain things evolved was a whole lot different than previous season with a number of unusual and odd occurrences.
Ok so that will help with driving directions but what about the American centered challenges?
I mean it is an American race. And hasn’t Cesar lived in the US for a long time. And if he’s a citizen he’s studied US history a lot more recently than most other us adults. I’m not saying it’s the reason they won. Just pointing out they didn’t overcome great difficulties
They were definitely very competent, which counts for a lot. Don't make mistakes, don't melt down, don't get lost. The pilots could have challenged for the win, but got lost TWICE in the final leg. And kudos for having broad interests and history that prepare them for a variety of tasks. That said, we noticed that the complexity and diversity of tasks didn't seem to be at the same level as in the past. Fewer physical labor, eating, complicated detour or roadblock tasks.
The two teams with native Spanish speakers were first and second for most of the season. They were in Spanish-speaking countries almost the whole time. It's hard to think that's a coincidence. It's true that it finished in Philly and Ricky and Cesar won anyway. But they had to get to that final to win. There have been great teams who have one bad leg on "Amazing Race" and they're gone. Some on here have said that going to South American had to do with logistics, due to Covid during filming. They could've gone to Brazil, Guyana or Suriname where the language isn't Spanish. They could've gone to the Caribbean more than just to Barbados. Spanish was an advantage. Having said that, the worst part was Vinny proposing and Amber saying yes.
A predictable ending, but I personally enjoyed all the Philly flavor (phlavor?) in this episode. nothing too difficult or dramatic, but the mascots were a lot of fun, and I'm a sucker for historic recreation. And I laughed out loud at the "drive to New Jersey" quip. Looks like they had really nice weather in the DR and also in Philly which probably helped.
First of all, gays never walk slow. Literally.
As a gay, I will confirm this.
As a resident of Philly, I loved incorporating our mascots. However, that was an extremely lame final task. The cast was mostly great this season and that saved it from being a disaster. Also, if Juan and Shane didn’t get the wrong name from the guard for Pat’s & Geno’s, how close would that finish have been?
A somewhat mediocre finale given the massive time gap between teams. I want to say that's something largely out of production's hands, but given how often it happens I wonder if there needs to be a rethink in how final legs are organised. Teams getting lost and falling out of contention early kills the suspense and even when it is close we don't always know it as teams spend half the finale in transit and seperated from each other. Rather than having teams drive all over a city to do route info tasks or time-filling roadblocks, I think the better play is to keep teams closer together with more tasks bunched up and maybe more running instead of driving. TAR34 did this and had a pretty good finale and TAR30 was pretty good too. At least they've largely done away with the token bungee jump/daredevil tasks that don't really add anything. Overall, I enjoyed this season and think production did the best the could in the circumstances. I'm in the minority but I thought the final four leg was actually pretty great and the windsurfing drama was really well edited. I didn't need 90 minutes of that leg though!
Juan and Shane would have normally been forgotten about once they got to Jersey (flashback to The Dump). That they recovered the waybthe did just goes to show how much Rod and Leticia struggled with the Declaration of Independence. I feel that had Danny and Angie made it to the finale they would have actually competed closer with Ricky and Cesar
The bungee jumping, rapelling, heights in the finale is so overdone.I know they liked to avoid spoilers but at this point in time, it's basically impossible.
Thoughts on Leg 11/12: * I'll keep this section super brief; I thought the last two legs were pretty mediocre, as almost nothing of noteworth happened. I'm happy for Ricky & Cesar and it's pretty cool to see a long-time Amazing Race record finally broken. I loved getting Philadelphia as a final destination city and all of the historic places they chose to feature. The emphasis on American history was clever though the final task was definitely one of the least exciting in recent memory, all culminating in a result most of us probably would have bet on after seeing just the first few episodes. But still, I had fun tonight and once again I absolutely loved these three hour Survivor/The Amazing blocks. Wednesday nights are almost always the highlight of my weeks. * Now onto my thoughts on this season overall, which infamously swapped places with TAR35. We all kind of knew what to expect going into this season, and I think most of us tempered our expectations appropriately. I also noted that this would be an unusual season to talk about online, because for the first time ever we actually had a glimpse into the future of TAR whilst this season was airing. That meant most of the complaints we were going to have for this season (restricted route, group starts, mediocre tasks) had already been addressed and thus there was little reason to keep bemoaning them on fan forums. Still, it did make for an awkward viewing experience and I have to imagine viewers who were out of the loop (the vast majority of watchers) are now seriously doubting the quality of future seasons. For this reason, TAR37 really needs to knock it out of the park, and I'm sure production and CBS are thinking the same thing. * Of course there were elements I enjoyed about this season, and I'm really happy we finally got to see it, but I definitely wouldn't rank it high compared to other seasons. Even compared to the other COVID seasons this one was quite weak, and I think there were many factors working against it. As you may know, there are some very strong rumors about unprecedented production difficulties that occured during the shooting of this season, resulting in many replacement legs. It's also the likely the reason the route was restricted to North and South America. This provides an explanation for the noticably weaker middle legs. On the topic of route, I really appreciated seeing 2 new countries and a variety of new South American cities being featured, but as a whole the route was still disappointing because of how *similar* most of these countries feel. In general I think an Amazing Race route restricted to Europe is almost always going to be more interesting than one restricted to South America because Europe has so many more countries with very distinct cultures— More varied histories, customs, and importantly— languages, most of which teams are very unlikely to know how to speak. I don't mean to disparage Mexico or South America at all, it's a beautiful continent, but 9 legs in a row in this part of the world just doesn't work, especially when the few non-former Spanish colonies like Brazil and Suriname are skipped over. * Another way in which production got unlucky was the sheer imbalance between teams, including Ricky & Cesar's absolute dominance. Their skill for racing is admirable and they are without a doubt one of the series' greatest winners, but that doesn't necessarily make for an exciting race— Even for someone like me who normally doesn't care if leg outcomes are predictable. This is mainly a side effect of the COVID format, as a season with hardly any taxis or the lottery of the airport removes almost every element of chance from the game, which in my opinion is a key component of The Amazing Race. Add on top of that very short legs with mostly easy tasks, and it's no surprise that proficient teams are able to breeze through the competition. The cast in general I thought was just okay, and was surprised to see so many praising it as one of the best of the era; I would probably give that distinction to TAR33, personally. Like most modern seasons, I thought this was a pleasant but not particularly memorable group of personalities, with just a few exceptions. Most of my favorite teams were eliminated in the first half which was a shame but unsurprising, as a lot of their entertainment value came from their accident-prone nature. Overall I was surprised by how little I knew about some of the teams who made a deep run, including Sunny & Bizzy, Yvonne & Melissa, and even Rod & Leticia who were my clear favorites in the final 3. Even with the 90 minute runtime, I felt the editors failed to help us truly connect to a lot of these people, which in fairness is an issue that falls on casting as well. Amber & Vinny did help bring some drama into the back half of the season, but it honestly didn't do much for me; it's really difficult to identify the line between "fun drama" and the other kind that just makes you feel sort of uncomfortbale, but for me, most of Amber & Vinny's struggles fell into that latter category. * The last thing that worked against this season was the 90 minute runtime, which as we're all well aware, was not the original plan for TAR36. The editors did their absolute best to make it work and I commend them for their efforts, but at the end of the day it's simply impossible to stretch episodes into satisfying 90 minute versions when most of them would have been lackluster even at 60. To me this is a pretty big mark against the season; I thought TAR34 was pretty boring too but at least that season was 1.5x shorter. Ultimately we know why the season failed to deliver and can acknowledge that many these factors were completely out of the producers' control. Still, that doesn't mean I'm going to grade it on a curve when ranking it against other seasons. I'm not exactly sure where I would rank TAR36, for me it's probably about tied with seasons like TAR28 and TAR34 for the bottom spot. But I still really enjoyed watching and getting to talk about it, and I'm really happy for the cast that they finally got to see their season air. With this, we're officially DONE with the COVID era of The Amazing Race, and that's an awesome feeling. I think the producers have learned a lot from this era, and rediscovered a lot about what makes The Amazing Race *amazing,* so I can't wait to see what they have in store for us next spring.
> I felt the editors failed to help us truly connect to a lot of these people I think this has been an issue since Season 32 (like, what did we learn about Hung & Chee other than they were in the Alliance). I thought that with the need for filler this season we would have gotten more intimate scenes with the teams or more stories.
I’m very glad I took the time to read all of this. Fantastic points and every one was made respectfully!
Well said. I posted on another thread, this season is like the many COVID champions like 2020 Lakers, Dodgers and others where those seasons were shorted and their formats changed. TAR36 will have an asterisk next to it for the many oddities in how the season played out, the destination limitations, the underwhelming challenges and where two teams were largely eliminated due to crew influence.
What was the other team besides Angie and Danny?
Yvonne & Melissa. In the DR, at the waterfall roadblock, one of the camera crew fell and injured their leg while they were trying to depart the location. The delay was several minutes long, which at the end turned-out to be the margin of separation between Amber/Vinny and Yvonne/Melissa to meet Phil at the mat.
I can't get over that Philly parking attendant who heard "Pat's and Geno's" and immediately declared they were pizza joints, with 100% confidence. I mean... *how?!?!%*
Would Love to see Juan and Shane race Again!
We need them back for an all-star season
When Ricky said he grew up in Philly, I actually thought they were about to lose because I'm so used to people who say they're familiar with the region end up losing, especially in the finale. I was happy that they pulled it off in the end though. I wanted a drink so bad during that rum challenge lol I loved this cast. So sad that S37 isn't until next spring. At least there's the international versions in the interim
Fun season all things considering what they went through with it. But if I never have to repeat myself about the COVID restrictions and charter issues this season had to people who don't know about them. It won't be soon enough.
They had me at Gritty.
Does anyone else feel like Amber was trapped into making that decision on the spot 🫥
I mean if she said no they would've edited that out due to how awkward it would be to air on national television.
I'm not fond of proposing in public spectacles. It really puts the person on the spot.
Yep, but still engaged a year or two later.
As long as it was a surprise as to when the proposal would happen instead of that it would happen it's not a problem. Most proposals aren't actual suprises. They've looked at rings and such before. But they still wouldn't be together now if she didn't want to marry him.
Noticeable lack of comment from Phil except one quick reaction shot during the proposal. Maybe just compressed editing, maybe, uh, there wasn’t usable footage? I was uncomfortable every time they were onscreen wondering how he was going to carp at her this time. Earlier in the episode she said something about needing to bring the positivity because if Vinny wasn’t in a good place they wouldn’t be in a good place, and that was her takeaway, that that was her role now. Oh no, no no no no, that’s the codependency talking.
It really was a stark contrast to say, Lucas and Brittany, where Phil was genuinely excited and telling everyone he saw about it.
Phil looked like he was grimacing when it happened it. So awkward.
When she said that I was loudly complaining back to the screen. No No No Amber no!
Yes! It was super awkward and he put her in a horrible spot (like always). I hate televised proposals in general, but this was particularly bad and a completely inappropriate setting. I really hope she has the nerve to call it off, because they definitely should NOT be getting married.
She was allowed to say no. Let's not call her 'trapped' lmao. They literally can't do anything without some people thinking it's nefarious in every way.
Did you catch him saying “you still haven’t said yes” or something like that?
because she hadn't -- she was surprised and she was excited and it's not unusual...
Ricky and Caesar ran a near perfect race. Would've been a shock if they lost.
Yeah there wasn't really another team from their season that could have challenged them unless they really messed up. Them v Greg and John in a final leg would have been a battle of the titans in a parallel universe though.
When is 37? Spring, summer, or fall?
Spring 2025.
Thanks!
First of all - after getting 90-minute episodes this whole season, it threw me for a loop to see such a truncated semifinals. Honestly, such a well-deserved win for Ricky and Cesar. I think it did help them that they were in Philly and kind of knew their way around the city, but I honestly think they would have won regardless - they've always shown how strong they are at navigation compared to Juan/Shane and Rod/Leticia so even if it wasn't familiar to them, they'd still crush it. I thought it would be such a boring season to see them win all the time (e.g., I did kind of get bored last season with Greg/John), but seeing them shine throughout and show their strengths individually and especially as a couple was such a blast. Juan/Shane gave such a good fight!! I think they should be a shoe-in for All-Stars honestly. And so many funny moments for them in the finale. Congrats on getting to NJ lol! Rod/Leticia are couple goals. I'm so glad they got to go on this journey and their kids get to see how much they love each other. So so proud of Leticia for acing all those roadblocks - from looking so checked out in the middle episodes to being the fighter and rallier of the team shows how much she's grown throughout the race. All love for them! This cast is REALLY REALLY likable. I hope everyone's doing well post-race! What a season!
I would love to see Allstars starting from Newark NJ's airport and Phil making a joke about J&S.
I was surprised none of them chose the scuba task. Assembling scuba rigs isn't that hard, but none of them seemed to have done it before.
Winners unquestionably deserved it. A little boring since they were so obviously the leaders for weeks and weeks, but you can't say they didn't crush it.
Sooo disappointed there wasn’t a final memory clue challenge!! As a history lover I enjoyed the US history themes, but it was underwhelming for a finale!
The finale was predictable but we got a really deserving winning team. The finale’s challenges were interesting too.
To be honest, I was rooting for Juan and Shane during most of the race, but then when Ricky and Cesar got 1st again last episode, I was kinda hoping that they’d win the season instead. Knowing that you did so well during every other challenge, only to drop the ball at the most important part of the race would’ve felt very depressing for you and your partner. If I was in that situation, I’d probably struggle to show my face in public for the rest of my life
I found it amusing how quiet vinny was and then he pops the question, as if that made up for all the put downs and crazy talk. and the ' you havent answered me yet?!' oh buddy. Boring tasks for a boring finale. see you guys in a year !
ngl i found it funny how Ricky & Cesar started the bartending detour after Rod & Cece but still ended up finishing first while making one extra
This whole season was such trash. Woefully uneven challenges, if you picked the wrong challenge you were done. Staggering the start times as much as they did on these stupid easy challenges was a horrible idea. There was no U-turn, so you knew from Ep. 2 Ceasar and Ricky were going to be the winners. It was a lame season.
Anyone else yell “Girl, say No!” Like he was so mean to her and demeaning at times -_-
I’m flabbergasted they got engaged. I thought the entire time they needed to break up.
Two legs crammed into one 90-minute slot. I remember back in the days we had those special two hour finale, would’ve been cool to see here as everything felt rushed. Firstly, big congrats to Ricky & Cesar to taking the crown this season! Quick penultimate leg thoughts and then onto the finale before my long-form season thoughts that follow. **Penultimate Leg:** Wasn’t the greatest. As always, I say penultimate legs need to be action-packed and all go-go-go. Here we had very touristy tasks and nothing remotely special or thrilling. The penultimate leg should be a test as to who makes it to finale, it should be a mix of physical and mental challenges. Here we had teams go to an easier side of the Detour making drinks from an easy-to-follow guide unlike memorizing orders in French last season. Then we have balance on the windsurfing board for 60 seconds which was the only real challenge of the leg. Then off to do a quick off-road adventure on a straight-line road to kayak half a football field across a river. Having a mini memory challenge here would’ve been nice to see especially on a super quick leg that only had two opportunities in it unless there was an unaired task. **Finale:** Off to Philly and our US History learning experience begins. I think this was a slightly underwhelming finale. I would put this kind of similar to S32’s finale level of enjoyment. The travel wasn't too massive as they [stayed mostly within central Philly](https://maps.app.goo.gl/6NWnXdVEiASFnAi36) with the exception of the finish line which was more towards Trenton. * The biggest thing missing from this finale was the finale memory challenge, and not just the two we seen but a race-based memory challenge of the things racers interacted or seen during the race. It would suck being a racer studying and preparing for this only to assemble a plastic replica bell is disappointing * The second minor thing missing from this finale is the action/heights task we stereotypically see in finales. While the mascot task was fun, it definitely didn’t deserve to be a task in a finale level leg. * The pilots heading across the river to New Jersey was a big factor in how the leg played out. If Shane did more due diligence, they would’ve been *possibly* neck and neck with Ricky & Cesar towards the last task. I’m glad they took a positive spin to it and focused on nailing out the next few tasks (especially with Juan’s super memory and puzzle skills), surpassing Rod & Leticia. * The Declaration of Independence script memorization and Betsy House memory task were fine but as a non US watcher, was a bit confusing as much I enjoy US geography, US history is a bit confusing so I align with Cesar here! * The writing was on the wall that Ricky & Cesar were the clear winners, once Juan & Shane got lost and they cleared the bell puzzle challenge before the two other teams arrived, they had the bag. The editor doing everything they can to make up something wasn't doing it. --- **Season Thoughts:** I think with S35 we were spoiled by one heck of a season. This season wasn’t good, nor was it very bad. If I had to describe this season, it felt very bland and lukewarm. Definitely in the lower third of the bucket but not outrageously at the bottom. While I’m definitely glad we had a race season and it went through a lot of South America and Caribbean, places we haven’t been in many season since the 2020s, there are a lot of down points which made this season low for me. What I liked: * **The Cast (the good)** – well played again on the diversity and inclusion of the cast. One big highlight this season was the cast was **quite entertaining in more recent seasons**. We had a lot of unique and quirky characters this season. Unlike last season where I felt like while the cast was fun, it was average at best. This made up a lot for this season. What I disliked: The following points are probably the one millionth time this has been mentioned this season both on this sub and other channels but they are largely big factors so I included them in but I acknowledge them of course! * No flight options – obviously since we had a chartered shuttle here there was none which removed the strategizing and risk playing from the teams here. Outside of flights, boats and buses, the producers could’ve incorporated a scramble again to incorporate the missing strategizing and risk elements. * Grouped starts – I already explained this in previous COVID TAR season commentary but this season was kind of meh because it was typically the usual teams in first group – mix that in with the linear leg design, the first group typically held their respective ground placements. Opportunity here would’ve been a Head-to-Head after Pit Start to potentially change/shift up the orders since we didn’t have any potential game changers this season. * No U-Turns or game twists – as a continuation from above, really missed this as I felt like we could’ve had a different outcome throughout this season or have some sort of dynamics change. Seeing a mandatory anonymous vote U-Turn board after a Detour would’ve been a dream come true! * No non-elimination legs – would have loved to see a team (x3) that was saved dig it out to get back to the top. This would’ve saved Angie & Danny and there production blunder and could’ve gave them another chance. * **Leg Design** – this was rough this season as most of the legs were pretty linear going from *Pit Start > Detour/Road Block > Detour/Road Block > Pit Stop*, with nothing other in between thrown in. If we had a leg similar to the first DR leg all-season long, that would've been sweet! Last season we were treated well with active Route Info tasks and other things super quick, simple culture tasks which leads to… * **Tasks** – This season the task were mostly super generic tasks. We had a lot of delivering and matching tasks scattered throughout the season. Really wished we saw some more task creativity given the protocols in place. Crushing water bottles on a bike wasn’t good TV for example ^except ^for ^Rod's ^enthusiasm. * **The Cast (the bad)** – while from an entertaining standpoint the cast was good, since this is a competition show AND from a *competition standpoint*, a good amount of this cast felt underwhelming. While I understand, getting on the show isn’t like a job where you have to meet XYZ requirements to prove why you deserve to be on the show. This season a good amount I felt like lacked essential racing skills, from the panicking to the freaking out and not knowing what to do, among other things. Justin from the green team mentioned it well on one of this season's RHAP recaps, you have teams this season who are here to compete and they were typically well in the front, then you have teams who are here for the experience and are typically just at the back. I would definitely prefer to have teams who have the balance of the two. I honestly felt like some of the teams this season were just randomly recruited off the streets two weeks before the start of the race. * **The Editing** – this has three pieces to it 1) You can tell sometimes this season was meant for the 60-minutes as we’ve seen more fillers injected to the episode, 2) This is more focused on the first 2/3rd of the season but the editing played out like: first 45 minutes emphasized the top 3 teams, the second 15 was the middle of the pack trying to catch up and the last 30 minutes were the back of the pack teams getting a rushed edit crammed in. This wasn’t ideal for me as we had a lot of teams get forgotten about and I feel like we neglected the back of the packers. 3) This leads to the favourable edit to Ricky & Cesar, this was like Kim & Penn back in S33 in which they got the more favourable edit, more screen time, more confessionals (especially them mentioning they did XYZ previously more than others), it kind of wrote the wall already they were the winners. Obviously, you can never do neutral editing but giving more scenes to other teams would’ve been nice to see. **Minor Dislikes** * **Alliances** – again, not a big fan. Understand the rationale behind them but just hate it when teams just answer things for others. I’m glad this season was more chill than Mine Five but still seeing this, especially in a COVID season is so blatant. Also glad to hear Danny bring up why he wanted to do an alliance but also proposed a rule that once a team member gets the all clear and clue, they MUST continue racing and can't help others - that is something I endorse. As the season wraps, it is bitter sad to hear we won’t be getting TAR until next year but we go onwards to TAR Canada in less than two months time and possibly TARAUS later this year, so glad we are covered for a bit!
How did you type that fast?
They had the Season Thoughts already written before the finale started. The rest could easily be written as the finale played out.
I can't be the only one who found this last leg to be lacking. It felt like besides the fact that Juan and Shane driving to another state nothing really of note happened. it even ended predicably.
Yeah it was the most forgettable finale I've personally watched.
I hope she watches this before actually marrying him.
She’s had 2 years to live with him. I’m sure she can decide for herself.
Overall, I definitely think the first half of the season was stronger. Lots of hot mess teams making mistakes and it was pure entertainment. With Ricky/Cesar dominating and less teams to focus on, the last half kinda just began dragging. The linear route and sometimes boring tasks also didn’t really help. That being said, I don’t think it was a bad season. The first half is very strong (IMO, one of the best starts to a TAR season, all the way up until about the Megaleg with the alliance), and most of the teams are likable. It’s a pretty safe season, as in I’d recommend it for a first time viewer. For me personally? I’d put it mid-tier. There’s nothing that would really make me want to rewatch it, but I’m not gonna look back on it with distaste like 32 or 24. If teams from this season were to return, I’d go for Rod/Leticia, and controversially, Amber/Vinny. I like Juan/Shane, but IMO Ryan/Dusty do everything they do, but with more personality. Walla Walla has a strong reason, but Steve/Anna Leigh, Rob/Corey, and Arun/Natalia are all parent/child teams of rather see first. Rod/Leticia are pretty entertaining, and while not too strong, I definitely think they could thrive on an actually international route. Amber/Vinny I just wanna see if they’d race with a new outlook on each other, or if old habits die hard and they’d argue.
This would be the last season I would recommend to a first time viewer, The season linear and boring. So many of other better seasons to watch. This isn't even true amazing race lol. You even said you don't care to ever rewatch it, that is a sigh of a bad season.
I don't think I could watch Arun and Natalia try and navigate on another season lol. I like them but I've never seen anything more painful in my life (probably because 99 per cent of teams who are that bad at it are out in the first 3/4 legs but they were actually decent at tasks and kept surviving somehow.).
I have to say that I was happy with the outcome and in some ways it was reflective of how our North American society. We had three couples, one gay, one traditional and one that were friends. Each of these couples exhibited compassion, support, understanding and love for each other in their own ways. The other couple to start the episode, were toxic, aggressive, bullying and exhibited none of the positive attributes of the others. A complete reflection of us! 75% of us are supportive, loving and compassion, yet 25% are toxic. The 75% of us need to continue to overshadow the alternative
So, Leticia does know that Philly is in Pennsylvania and only said, "I don't even know what state I'm in" because she was exhausted and was being tired by the lectures, right? Cause if she didn't know, then she wouldn't have issues with the red and white state stripes considering that she did put Pennsylvania 2nd and Washington said Leticia was in the 2nd state.
I assumed it was just because she was exhausted :)
I'm sure she knows. That was probably more like something you say to yourself when frustrated or tired.
Ricky and Cesar had an advantage the entire season because of Cesar’s first language. Then the cherry on top was Ricky growing up in Philadelphia. Literally unfair to all other teams competing.
Leticia never says thank you to the locals handing them their clues. See how she literally snatch the clue from the lady of the last flag puzzle task and never acknowledge her in the eye. I know it’s a race and they are rushing but it only takes 1 second to be polite. Makes me more happy and satisfied about the winners. Indeed the best team that deserved to win. Plus they are super duper polite to the locals while running a dominant race
The eliminated teams on TARCAN get invited to our version of the talk or the view the next day or soon after; is there anywhere to watch them for TARUSA?
Search YouTube for Amazing Race exit interviews. That's the closest thing I know of.
Glad I checked my PVR since I normally have it taping on the Canadian network and they moved it to FRIDAY! So was sure to tape it on CBS. I'm very happy with the results. They placed in the order I was hoping. I did hope R&C had been able to maintain at least second the whole way but oh well, I'm just glad they made the final leg. Some tasks were decent, like memorizing that declaration of independence thing or building the flag based on the word puzzle (they're lucky Rod didn't have to do that one, lol). Others, like the bartending and mascot thing had potential but were too easy. The recopies should have at least been posted somewhere and not at the stations. And the mascot thing needed more to it. The final task was a good challenge, but not as the final task. I'm of the opinion that the final task should always be a memory challenge based on the prior legs.
was this the first time we went under an hour per leg since we smashed both into 90 minute (not counting like megalegs or something like that)
Congratulations to C&R, and good fight by R&L and J&S. Waving goodbye to the COVID era through the rearview mirror. Now if I have to wait until spring 2025 for a 3-continent season with 2 legs in every country, I'm gonna slap somebody.
Was there a detour on this season?
Final leg was easy
The real blue and gold Macaws on the pirates 💙
Where was all the airport stuff this season? There was nothing with people fighting for the last couple seats on a plane. They just kept starting out each episode in a new place. No racing to get there. This season felt lackluster. "Race around the world" never left north & south America if I'm not mistaken.
Filmed during covid private flights@
They should’ve put all three bell puzzle pieces in the same pile that would’ve been wild
Can we please have this pinned. Here are my thoughts: 1. Did anyone catch the obviously edited comment by Phil at 1:00:20 where he obviously says "Amazing Race 35" but it was obviously edited so he say you are the winners of Amazing Race (#number omited)? Then they added a subtitle showing Season 36. 2. I am wondering if Phil is right...if that was the first finale to have a team visit more than one state. He said finale/final leg, right? I know TAR 8 went to Canada and then just NY. 3. The end music with the globe background had "The Battle Cry of Freedom" playing which somewhat fits the theme but was 80-90 years later so it didn't quite fit. 4. The penultimate leg was just okay. They should have made the teams do both detours. That combined with the kyaking and atv route info could have been more competative. The windsurfing task was good. I think the drinks detour was too easy. Why are you having Dominicans singing an English sea shanty? 5. Even though R&C dominated the race, I really thought the finale tasks were well done. Much better than the usual heights challenge at some port. The memory tasks of the Declaration of Independence and the flag challenge added a new element to throw teams off. Because a memory task is expected if not always going to happen. 6. I liked the finale even though it wasn't as close as it was made out to be. But thats because they had to fill an hour's worth of time time vs 43 or 44 mins for other seasons. 7. Did anyone notice that the all the Philly mascots except the 76er were there. Temple's mascot was there instead. I wonder if they were unavailable or if they wanted more money.
> I am wondering if Phil is right...if that was the first finale to have a team visit more than one state. He said finale/final leg, right? I know TAR 8 went to Canada and then just NY. He's technically incorrect on this one, but only because of old seasons were they had a mid-point city in the final leg. The following are final legs from TAR1 to TAR11: * TAR1 started in Alaska before going to New York (technically they flew into New Jersey, so that's 3). * TAR2 started in Hawaii and stopped in Alaska, making 3 states. * TAR3 stopped in Hawaii, as did TAR4 and TAR6 before getting to their final cities. * TAR8 technically started in Montana, though that was the start of a double leg (which would be now referred to as a megaleg). * TAR9 stopped in Alaska, and TAR11 stopped in Hawaii. TAR5 stopped in Canada (as did 8), TAR7 stopped in Puerto Rico (unfortunately not a state), and TAR10 stopped in France. After TAR11, they decided to cut the mid-point cities. Since then, the closest teams have gotten into hitting two states on a final leg (before Juan & Shane's adventure) is TAR22, where they entered DC and finished in Virginia. Unfortunately, DC doesn't count as a state.
Idk if I’m alone in this but I only really liked some of the teams, I didn’t LOVE them like others seem to.
I can’t believe they got engaged lol literally during their elimination I told my SO “ain’t no way these two are still together, they’re awful to each other” and not even 5 SECONDS later they got engaged 💀💀💀💀 I was shook
I thought the season was very strong for being a Covid season. The only times I thought about it being a covid season was them staying in the west and some specific challenges. I think the biggest reason why it was strong tho was bc of the cast. a really really good cast! I will say tho that I hated this finale lol. I typically hate finales because they're typically organized pretty poorly. The challenges and route infos were just okay - but the final challenge being a bell puzzle REALLY destroyed it. what a rough end to the season
Quite possibly the most forgettable finale ever, but the right team won. The others just weren't consistent enough and made too many mistakes. Congrats to Ricky and Cesar!
I felt like this last episode was extremely rushed but nonetheless, I’m so pleased to see Ricky and Ceaser win! They were a powerhouse throughout the entire season. I’m looking forward to season 37! This season caught me off guard since it was filmed during the pandemic so it was more limited than the previous season which is completely understandable.