15 Comments

  1. Gee they dragged out those last ten minutes. My gosh, I thought it went on for hours.

    But after a mad race through the ACT and a desperate sprint up the side of Australia’s highest mountain … the Cowboys won the day.

    Deserving winners. I liked the boys. As disappointing as it was that the girls didn’t win (no woman has ever won the Australian TAR. Not the original three seasons, nor these two with Beau. It’s only ever been all-male teams), if the Cowboys had run out of puff, halfway up the mountain, and been overtaken in a foot-race? That would’ve been crushing.

    I liked that, yes, all the past teams showed up for one of the challenges (even the sexually-ambiguous twins, who voluntarily quit after one leg), but we missed any footage of the other teams celebrating the winners. Do they even know who won? That’s something I would’ve liked to see.

      • I’m honestly not sure. I’m sure there’s been lots of academic thought put into the trend.

        And it’s not isolated. With the American show, it was season 3 before co-ed team won (and even then, the female winner was Flo, a girl who over-estimated her ability to handle the emotional struggles of the Race, and spent the last several legs having an extended breakdown. It was hard to watch, but her partner somehow still managed to get her over the finish line, first). It was season 17 before the first all-female team won (and several more have won since. So obviously the dam broke, at that point), which is an odd length of time, given the strength and ability of numerous all-female teams.

        The stars just didn’t align properly until then, I suppose.

        But I imagine that younger, fitter, physically-strong male teams would have an advantage in the physical challenges. A poorly-designed race might naturally favour them.

      • We were asking ourselves why all-women teams who win are usually so unlikeable. WS, can you remember a winning pair who were universally loved?
        I loved Jen and Kristi, who were one of the best teams I have seen, but they came second to the Big Brother powerhouse and his whiny handicap Jess.

        • I’m not sure I see that.

          I loved the two all-female teams in season 17. The doctors ran a stress and angst-free Race, never bickered or fought with any other team, and given their history as emergency doctors (used to stressful and sleep-deprived situations where they have to think quickly), it wasn’t a surprise they won. But the home shopping network girls were brilliant as well, I loved them.

          I never much cared for the sisters (who lost one American race because one of them had to stop and pee, and that caused them to come to the pit stop last and be eliminated, but they came back for a second season and won), but I liked the candy girls (food scientists who were totally outclassed by the physical challenges … until the final math-based challenge, where they annihilated the other teams and finished first).

          Now I’m thinking back to the strong all-female teams of past seasons (like the Bama girls or Beauty Queens in season 10, the bowling mothers in season 5), and I think it’s just a mix of personalities. Some of them were pretty likeable, and somd weren’t. I guess I don’t really have strong feelings either way.

          • I think I have a lot of seasons to catch up on! Most of those are unfamiliar, but I do have a vague memory of someone stopping to pee and being eliminated (pun intended).

            It wasn’t so much that the all-women teams are unlikeable, just those that win, and I was thinking of all competition shows not just TAR. I suppose it feels a little like they have to be a bit nasty to get to the winning position (or one of them does, not necessarily both).

    • I was expecting the finish line to be a bit boring with just Beau, but it was great. The long race up the mountain contributed to that with Jackson collapsing etc, but it was just heartwarming. The girls must have been further behind than it looked because the farmers had recoverd quite well by the time they got there.

      Beau copped a lot of criticism in the first series. He was just too out there, and huggy, and casual. Just not enough like Phil, really. But I love him now, with his own style, his relaxed Aussie humour, and his funny, fake attempts at the challenges. Aussies love someone who is willing to take the mickey out of themselves.

  2. How many times has that guy from the cowboys thrown up? He must have a very weak stomach. He throws up at the drop of a hat. That was a very unopportune time to throw up last night letting the girls overtake them. What a nail biting ending. Every time they stopped I yelled lat at the TV keep going the girls are right on your arse. I was actually hoping the Seikhs would come from behind & overtake all of them.

  3. It was a great finale in terms of a good mix of challenges, the frequent lead changes and a cliff hanger ending. Not many seasons (talking about ours and US together) manage a close finish, and sometimes the finish is so inevitable that you can turn off if you like. If the Sikhs couldn’t win (as we expected, they came undone with the travel) then I am very happy for the Farmers to win. I think they certainly earned it in that leg.

    I liked that the challenges weren’t easy. Quite a few this season have been too easy. I had a moment when the helicopter/rope ladder one was revealed – another one-at-a-time, unfailable challenge – but it turned out to be the shortest and least interesting of the night. All the other challenges required some physical ability (but not too much), brains, balance, and I think every one resulted in a mix up of the order.

    Great kudos to the Sikhs for running up the hill when they couldn’t find the gondola ride. That couldn’t have been easy.

    While overall it was a really good episode, there were some negatives. Number one was having “250 k” yelled every five seconds. I wanted to jump through the TV and find some “non-violent” way to stop that mouth (sorry, last night I wanted to be violent, but I am not allowed to say that re a woman now). It really showed where the priorites were. Thank goodness they didn’t win.

    Secondly, they spent way too much editing tape on the teams’ goals, aspirations, journey through the race, and the fact that they just needed to “smash it out” before each challenge. The US version is always guilty of this in the finale, but I think ours was worse last night.

    In general, the finale left the season with a good taste in the mouth. There were lots of problems with the season – many due to covid, some due to really bad design decisions (free pass, intruders) – and yet, it was still a lot of fun, and a show to look forward to amongst a real deficiency of decent competition shows all year.

    • Oh, you’re right!

      We predicted it in last week’s thread, didn’t we? Re: the Sikhs.

      Great guys, and fantastic at challenges, but utterly terrible when it comes to actually travelling anywhere. If they didn’t have that ability to get lost no matter where they were going or what they were doing (to the point where they couldn’t even find the gondola, last night. You’d think that would be an easy thing to find. All you’d have to do is look up) … they probably would’ve come in first with time to spare.

  4. Just remembered, we ROFLing when Anurag was swimming to the edge of the river, and was just too fatigued to swim any further, only to discover that the water was only waist deep. One of the funniest moments in the season!

  5. One thing that really annoyed me this season, apart from every second episode being a non-elimination & the sabotage/advantage, was that there were 2 vegan teams, and they had so many bloody food challenges featuring foods that vegans can’t eat. They wouldn’t know when they would be eliminated so they would ned to assume they make it the whole way. Both teams made it pretty far. I found that inconsiderate.

    • Do you mean that the challenges should have been chosen to fit with their food situation? I’m not sure where that would stop as a concept, as you could have teams asking to have no water challenges because they can’t swim, or nothing with animals because they are scared of dogs and cats, for example. I imagine the producers would have to say “unless the challenge is life-threatening to you, you will have to find a way to do it or take the penalty”. Skye could have argued that many challenges included arm strength and that she was disadvantaged.

      Who were the other vegan team? I don’t remember.

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