4/8 TAR 20 Show Discussion **West Coast Spoilers**

[sweetpea]

Thanks for the breakdown on the video, Cantstopwatchin

I was racking my brain trying to figure out why JJ (I'll use the name too, although I, like you, am not completely sure) would bother wasting time and energy bullying Mark and Bopper into choosing sides. BUT you mentioned him asking about the U-turn and what M/B would do with it. They just want Mark and Bopper to do their dirty work for them, if they get there before BP.

I think these two guys are used to being heavy-handed at work, and I think many border guards have a serious superiority complex. Whether that develops as a result of their job or whether people who gravitate to that profession are naturally like that, I don't know. One guard here in Canada threatened my Mom once to take her car away and leave her stranded at the border because she forgot to mention the 5 skins of embroidery thread in a small bag on her dashboard when she declared her eggs and milk coming back into Canada!!

As much as I dislike Rachel's tears and whining, I also tend to lean more to her side than Vanessa's. As I said before, Vanessa strikes me as a mean person. I don't think she is modeling very good behaviour for her stepdaughter, frankly. I don't care at all about Ralph's muscles or his tats, what worries me about him is that he's been through three marriages already at such a young age.

[Arielflies]

Yes, thank you for the breakdown, it was difficult to hear with all the background noise. Right now it seems to be the bullies against the nerds type mentality fostered by the alpha dogs. It is not a pretty sight and even more disturbing than the middle school taunting between Vanessa and Rachel; which, wait...is also a form of bullying.

With all the anti-bully messages put out by the media over the past year, the public may be more sensitive in distinguishing it, and may be why we noticed it.

[holly71]

Vanessa is a little snot. She's 38 & acts 13.
I guess she's never heard the expression "pretty is as pretty does". The way she acts makes her very UGLY!!!

[Babbred]

Sorry for the double-post but I just watched the videos and found them interesting -



_____

The video between tall one (I'll call him JJ, though I'm not positive) was unbelievable - my brief notes below -

JJ says to Bopper, if you hook your wagon with those two teams, we'll cut your nuts. If you hook your wagon with these three teams, it'll be a 4-way race.

Bopper replies he just wants to get along with everybody and doesn't want to be part of the drama.

JJ tells him no, says they need to start thinking strategically and that when they come to a roadblock, you can hook your wagon up to one of those two teams or you can hook it up with us. Then he asks them what they'd do with the U-turn and Bopper says we wouldn't use it, we don't want to use it. JJ argues with them and Mark comes up and says that if they're out in front, they're not going to use it.

I can't remember a time (that they've shown us) where a team has tried to bully another and created "alliances" for the race. I want them gone, gone, gone. And I hope there's some kind of fallout for their actions as these episodes air. I think in that kind of work, you need to represent your agency in a good way and all they've done is show border patrol agents are bullies, which I believe was an observation Brendon made in the beginning of the race. Anyway, the FBI ladies are doing a great job at that, I think.

It's funny - I could totally see Art & JJ on Big Brother after the videos/episodes we've seen. They try to manipulate and bully everyone into doing their dirty work to "stir the pot"...

I hate this kind of crud. The closest comparison I can think of is a a couple of seasons ago, when all the other teams got together and shared info among themselves in order to make sure that the Cowboys came in last on the bicycling challenge. I was SO mad about that. I came within a hairsbreadth of not watching this show anymore. Now I'm to the point of almost not watching the rest of this season. I hope all these whiny, annoying, idiotic people get screwed when these alliances blow up in their faces.

And then in the aftermath, I want Bopper and Mark to sail to the finish line and claim the prize for Bopper's daughter.

And just behind them, the Feds to come and give them a big hug.

And then the four of them can go off and while the rest of these twits try to figure out what happened.

[CCL]

^ I would be up for that.

[jadewarlock]

The way the season is going this is how I feel of them:

Whom I'd love to see win - Mark and Bopper or the FBI agents.

Whom I'd be OK, but not overly happy seeing win - Rachel and Dave (she kicks butt and hopefully HE gets a wakeup call he's got a woman as strong as him with a heart of gold)

Whom I'd be disappointed with winning but at least they will have earned it if they do win - Rachel and Brendon, if only because she won her season and I feel Brendon is controlling (yes, I have less problems with Rachel than Brendon),

Who I do NOT want to see win at all - Vanessa and Ralph, and Art and JJ (especially here after the threat to Bopper and Mark).

[JohnnyK]

I'm kind of wanting Bopper and Mark to win now.

[Midol]

An observation based not on just this show, but many of the mainstream reality shows...Survivor, Bachelor/ette, Biggest Loser, BB.

They all seem to be losing viewers as many shows are down in ratings, so they seem to be casting more and more controversial, drama causing participants...see Colton from Survivor this year, Kendra on BL and Courtney on Bachelor... in the hopes of improving ratings. However, I see this as a reason their ratings are declining. Once you start on this road you just have to keep upping the ante and after a while, the real, long time fans get turned off and the fickle ones who just come to view the drama, move on to newer, wilder options. I'm seeing this with AR. They are starting to stunt cast regularly from other CBS reality shows or celebrity type teams...Rob and Amber, Globetrotters, from BB Jeff and Jordan and now Rachel and Brendon. They also seem to be casting more and more for drama, hence every season we are seeing more and more Venessa type personalities who are then no doubt egged on by the producers to stir up even more drama...Did you see what X team did? Are you just going to let them do that? You saw how they were when they were on BB?

I personally don't mind the casting of people from other shows as the race is very different from their own shows, but I do mind the drama casting. Pick interesting, fun people...Bopper and Mark, cowboys, hippies, the autistic gentleman and his friend (sorry I'm not sure of the names...Zev and Justin?), etc. and let the structure of the game and the amazing locations take care of the rest!!!

[JohnnyK]

These stupid shows and their producers need to realize that most of us don't need controversy to want to watch. If anything it repels us.

[pretlitdev]

I agree, I don't mind the stunt casting if it's not a drama filled couple, and for the most part, it seems like teams on past seasons don't really mind it either, UNLESS the stunt casting results in teams that are anti social. For instance, comparing Rob and Amber to Team BB this season- I think the reason why Rob and Amber didn't get the vitriol is because despite all his scheming, Rob is extremely personable and Amber can't be called anything but a sweetheart. Of course, when those two first did the Race, there wasn't anything like the UTurns so there was less a chance of scheming, but both of them clearly understood the benefits (both in terms of sharing info on the Race and just for mental health) in interacting with other teams.

Rachel and Brendan...now where to start. Not saying that Vanessa is at ALL in the right (in fact, I think she is a hideous witch herself) but she and Rachel must have had SOME kind of tiff, maybe during a pitstop when the cameras were off. I can't see the point of their feud unless something happened that was not filmed. Between the snarking back and forth, the whining/crying Rachel seems to do at every task, and perhaps not being as friendly as she could be, and with Brendan being so aloof and super competitive, I can understand why teams wouldn't want to be around the two. The fact that she's already won BB....well I probably wouldn't like her being on the Race either, not with their attitudes.

And again, to compare- Jeff and Jordan, a previous BB team that also had Jordan winning BB. Again, nobody on their season seemed to mind them being there, probably because while Jeff could be super competitive, he never really let it develop into viciousness, either towards Jordan or another team. And she always tried her best, even when it was clear she was exhausted and struggling, and the two were friendly towards other teams.

Finally, for the other Survivor couple-Jenna and Ethan didn't last long on their season, but they seemed to attract heat first for trying to hide who they were (like there wouldn't be at least one person on the Race who watched Survivor) and then bickering constantly. Who knows how teams would have acted toward them if they had lasted longer, but Jenna is not exactly the most loveable person even if Ethan is a sweetheart. I tend to believe that with her attitude, and their bickering that was shown in just a few episodes, they might have been viewed more like Rachel and Brendan that Jeff/Jordan or Rob/Amber.


For me, like I said, I don't mind the stunt casting, as long as the teams fall into the general criteria I have for judging ANY of my favorite teams from any season: They can't be constantly at each others' throats (I understand some fighting, that's to be understood when there's so much stress and so little sleep, but there are ways to fight fair, figure out a solution, and move on) they need to be respectful of each other, the other teams, and the cultures they encounter; they should appreciate the opportunities they are getting and the places they are seeing; they have to try their hardest on every leg; and they shouldn't whine their way through tasks.