User blog:Stryzzar/Stryzzar reviews The Ridonculous Race

Hi guys, it's been forever since I've made a blog. So I decided to do one of these, just so you know this is my first shot at doing a season review.

Teams
I think it's safe to say, these two were the seasons biggest misfits. They immediately stand out among most of the other "normal" characters, with how delusional and distant from reality they are. I think Leonard returning came as quite a surprise to everyone. Not an unexpected reaction considering how poorly received he was in Pahkitew Island. I am a little baffled at how much love he's getting in TDRR. Admittedly he was slightly better this time round, reason being this time they fleshed him out a bit and gave some backstory as to why he was a delusional roleplayer. Though I still feel his inclusion was pretty pointless. To me it was pretty obvious he was brought back because they didn't want to go to any more effort on a fodder character. Sorry to any of you guys who thought he was going to develop, but alas that was not to be. Now Tammy, in all honesty, I don't remember her doing much other than throwing confetti. The very vague memories I have of her talking, I keep getting vibes of Staci's voice. This is essentially what she is, a second Staci with a Viking theme. She just served as the other half of Leonard's character, and couldn't really thrive as her own character. This is one team which I fully agree on their team placing, they realistically did not have the ability or the plot to make it further than first out.
 * LARPers:

When I first saw these two, I was very quickly annoyed by them. All they did was endless "old people" jokes and laughing at the other teams. Them sabotaging each other in the first episode kind of ticked me off as well. They got a bit better in French is an Eiffel Language, where their jokes started getting slightly funny. Though at best, I'm only neutral on them. I wasn't too big on the inclusion of adults contestants in the show, and while my stance on that has changed, having two old geezers still doesn't work well with me. Also, everyone has noticed Pete looks like Chris. Fresh TV's twitter will probably give some ambiguous "maybe, sort-of" revelation of them being relatives, just so they will stop getting those questions.
 * Tennis Rivals:

Now while this team didn't have a very interesting plot, they sure have a very interesting reception in the fanbase. As soon as they were revealed, they were either immediately loved or immediately hated, especially Ellody. Reasons why they were liked: they seemed like an intelligent team, who could have done a lot, and Ellody is a nerd who is good looking (unlike the other nerds on the show with the exception of Scarlett). Reasons why they were hated: Ellody is a Courtney clone in appearance and voice, and the team as a general did nothing and were obvious fodder. Regardless of whether you liked them or hated them, I think we can all agree, they could have done something on their time on the show. Mary doesn't even talk until her elimination episode, and seemed to have less purpose than Tammy. Being a fodder team isn't a reason to be vocal in only one episode. I'm one of the few who doesn't hate this team, but they gave me no reason to like them either. I was surprised by how early they were eliminated, and do think they they could have had slightly more purpose, but I'm not really downed by their placing.
 * Geniuses:

Another pair which seemed to be love them or hate them, who were coincidentally voiced by the same VAs as the above team. There seems to be a character similar to the Vegans in every generation (Dawn, Ella), and much like their predecessors they ended up being fodder. Part of me was hoping these two would break that trend and have a little more purpose, but it was not to be. These two are a fairly mixed bag in the fanbase, and were sort of "hit-or-miss" characters. Depending on whether you like the nature thing, you could end up loving them or getting extremely annoyed by them. I fall into the group who did like them. They gave me quite a few entertaining moments, such as their exaggerated protectiveness towards animals. "Take hikes, not hump." - Wow, the implications that can be drawn from that slogan. Them wasting time to channel energy and thanking the spirits, which was absolutely hilarious. And who could forget Laurie reaching her rage breaking point and mauling Don? Now if only that could happen to Chris.
 * Vegans:

I've also heard the Tumblr fandom seems to have additional reason for disliking them, due to Laurie's Rasta cap and dreadlocks making her racist? Yeah, honestly that's a bunch bull. If I go and wear a kilt, even though I'm not Scottish, does that make me racist? Don't get any ideas. Another thing I'd like to mention is, most of the eliminations in this season were done well, with almost all the characters leaving with their dignities left intact. The Vegans are one of the teams where this was not the case. They couldn't just be eliminated like that, but they had to put Laurie through all that punishment. Her face gets swollen and disfigured, she gets heartbroken as she's repeatedly reminded of her actions, and nothing seems to go right for her in the episode, all the while she states she deserves it. Now I know a lot of you are going to disagree with me on this, and say "but Laurie enjoyed eating the meat, so she was right to be punished." Yes, Laurie was not completely innocent in that matter, but was the consequences of her actions seems to be disproportionate with her "crimes". All she did was enjoy the taste, but she gets receives antagonist level karma. Honestly even Heather didn't have it that bad in TDI, and she made so many lives miserable. If you haven't realized by now, they are named after writers Miles Smith and Laurie Elliot, who the latter just so happened to be the writer of said episode. Just a hunch that I have, Laurie Elliot isn't particularly fond of the character that was named after her, which may have led her to put in all that treatment.

The season's ensemble darkhorses. Tom and Jen are of course named after the show's creators, and with that carried the expectation that they would be brilliant characters. And from the way they've been received, I'd say they lived up to it. Personally, I'm neutral/okay with these two, sure they're decent characters, but I don't understand why they're that popular. From what I can gather, their appeal comes from them providing a lot of funny moments, that stems from their stereotype as fashionistas and being vanity conscious. They're partners, but both have a strong sense of individuality, especially Jen who has a "I know what I want" attitude. I will say, they were spectacular during their elimination episode. The way their friendship became strained, how they had to earn back their trust in each other, and leaving the show on a happy note and having succeeded in their fez idea. One of the most memorable eliminations in the show. After seeing that episode I was actually hoping they could stay rather than the other team in second last place, but I'll get to that later.
 * Fashion Bloggers

I'm going to get a lot of hate for this, but I'll just come out and say it. I'm not very fond of this team. Before you start flaming me, please hear me out. Firstly, they had one of the most predictable plots on the show: bratty daughter is very rude to patient mother all season long, at some point mother realizes daughter isn't so perfect, mother finally snaps and puts daughter in her place, they realize they do love each other THE END. That literally could not have progressed in any other way. And like several other teams, they followed the same pattern of developed at last minute, and eliminated once their purpose was served. I would have liked them more if they had some purpose outside of their relationship with each other, the closest we ever got to that was Taylor intimidating Mickey, and Kelly chatting with Dwayne. My other issue is, Taylor annoys me to no end. Every season has a character like her: bossy, snobby girl who is mean to everyone she comes across. But all those other characters (other than maybe Amy), all had something else outside of the bossiness and condescending remarks. That's pretty much all Taylor had to offer. While that works if you're a fan of that kind of thing, for those who aren't, Taylor doesn't click well.
 * Mom and Daughter:

Okay, now that I got all that out of the way I'll talk about the positives. Of course this team warranted the obligatory "bullied character learns to stand up for themselves and gets pay back" plot. As far as that goes, it was done decently. It did have some build-up, and Kelly had the appropriate push to have her eyes opened. Many would say it was done a lot better than the twins in TDPI, since it didn't involve the blatantly obvious switcheroo that nobody noticed, and the fact we don't know the fate of the twins. Here everything was completely natural, Taylor's comeuppance wasn't too extreme, and both ended on a happy note.

The most controversial team in the season. Before TDRR had begun airing there were comments everywhere going "Ew, Cameron clones", "they're so fugly", "they're going to pull a Cameron again and go all the way to the finales". There only seemed to be two expectation on their team placing: either they were going to follow Cameron and defy expectations by going the underdog route, or they were obvious fodders who would be one of the first outs. But neither was what we ended up getting. They went and placed a middle ranking of 12th, not so far that they floated through the competition, but far enough so they could be proud of themselves for "making it this far." I felt this was an appropriate time to let them go. If you haven't realized already, their placing was intentional from the start, due to the twins association with the number 12 "the number right before cursed", which is why they ended up consecutively placing 12th for several episodes. The team as a whole has gotten a lot of hate, and I can really understand why. For most of the season, they were just there, and didn't really do much other than list of adversities. One problem with this team is, due to their obvious weakness in challenges, there are several episodes they are not shown actually doing the challenge, only completing it with little explanation. This problem was also shared with the Stepbrothers, and to a lesser extent Mom & Daughter. It probably wasn't the best idea to reuse Cameron's design, and his role as a character. One major issue I have with them was, they should not have been twins. They are literally the exact same character in two different bodies, with one of them wearing a hat/head-gear thingy and having a higher voice. What is the point of that? I think it would have been much better if they had just one adversity boy who was paired with someone different from them.
 * Adversity Twins:

Now I'll just say, while I don't hate the team, I can't find much reason to like them either. They did have a few moments here and there, such as Mickey's interactions with Kitty and the their sort-of alliance, I was really disappointed that plot was thrown out after one episode. I also liked them in A Tisket, a Casket, I'm Gonna Blow a Gasket, which I honestly thought was a good time to eliminate them since they were struggling in the challenge and thought they would lose.

I also realized what FreshTV were trying to do with these two. They were the show's closest attempt to sympathetically depict characters with a disability (Mike doesn't count since his disability was insensibly used for humor). Most people thought they were just Cameron clones who existed solely to go the underdog route again. But this wasn't quite the direction Fresh was going for. They didn't simply make some underdogs who would far because it's unexpected, they were intended to be extremely underprivileged characters who still pushed on despite their disadvantage. Notice when they were eliminated, it was one of the few times Don was sympathetic to them and commented how far they had come. In real life if someone like them went onto a reality show, they'd probably get a lot of support for doing so much despite the odds weighed so heavily against them. Having said all that, they were far from flawless and Fresh could have done that a lot better. But just felt like throwing in my two cents on what Fresh wanted to do.

Whew, that was a long one.

Would I be right in saying these two were the most consistently disliked team in the season? I really don't have much positive to say about them. They were okay in the first two episodes, but they quickly became repetitive and tiresome. They literally did nothing for twelve episodes except exchange childish insults with each other. Fresh, at the very least, make their banter a bit more sophisticated. All I remember was: "Get your face off my gitch!" "Get your gitch off my face!" or however the hell that went. The team was very predictable and went pretty much the same way as Mom & Daughter, characters behave the same way for every episode until an episode before their elimination where WHAM, they suddenly develop and get booted once their purpose was served. Only unlike Mom & Daughter, there was almost nothing about these two that people liked.
 * Stepbrothers:

Not particularly fond of these two, and for quite a while they were my least favorite team. When I first saw all the teams, these guys were the ones who made me go "Huh?" over the decision of including them in the season. Why are two wannabe rock stars competing in a race? My dislike for them grew, when they literally did nothing 9 (I think) episodes, except air guitaring and Spud bobbing his head to music. Like seriously, DO SOMETHING!! They finally got some plot in New Beijinging, where Rock starts using Spud's delayed reaction time to complete challenges. Okay, yeah that was sort of funny. But couldn't it have occurred, I don't know, 7 episodes ago? I'm still not big on this team, and not too keen on them returning.
 * Rockers:

I liked these two when I first saw them, but I didn't think I would like them that much. I honestly thought these two were amazing. It's like you think they will be predictable and know what's going to happen with them, but they actually turn out to be completely different. Dwayne and Junior of course represent the well-meaning, embarrassing parent and the child who's ashamed. What was interesting however was, Junior is one of the maturest characters in the show. While Dwayne's role as a bumbling parent is something we've all experienced at some point. It was pretty clear that they would eventually reach the "parents and child come to an understanding and accept each other", but unlike Mom & Daughter, and Stepbrothers, there was a very gradual build-up towards it. They had quite a rough roller-coaster ride in their relationship, and actively explored and experiment what they meant to each other, while trying new approaches. Never the same stale thing, and always something fresh. They had quite a few heartwarming moments, from Dwayne losing and reuniting with Junior, to Junior's gratitude of how hard his father is trying and accepting him.
 * Father and Son:

I was quite pleased to hear Owen and Noah would be returning, the dynamic duo of TDWT would be back. Though Owen immediately starting getting flack due to speculation he would be nothing but a farting floater. This did have me a little concerned at first, but I was genuinely surprised and happy with his turn-out. For the first time since, well... ever, we see Owen maturing out of his happy-go-lucky nature. He becomes serious about the competition and tries to take charge. Noah also underwent changes, but in the other direction. He becomes less sarcastic and indifferent about everything, and becomes very distracted from the challenges, which of course was Emma. I still can't get over how Noah's crush came out of nowhere, as he literally fell for her after seeing her do a gymnastics flip. Yeah, yeah, I know the rumors he was attracted several episodes before, but the two had still yet to have a proper conversation and gotten to know each other, so my point still stands. Now speaking of Noemma, that relationship was one that I was very conflicted on. While it seemed to make both Noah and Emma more mellow and nicer, it also made Noah lose his stoic, sardonic personality which he was loved for. Emma seemed to be his only motivation for doing anything, and he started becoming all lovey-dovey and awkward. Very un-Noah-like. I'm also not big on how Emma seemed to set up that ultimatum, that she would only date Noah if she won and he didn't. I'll go into more of their relationship later. Back to Owen and Noah, overall they were a moderate team for me, but very surprisingly Owen is the one who held up the team's popularity, effectively switching their roles in TDWT.
 * Reality TV Pros:

I'll update more of this later, and to give you guys a chance to read all that.