Thread:Fedora Kid/@comment-4742462-20150926230428/@comment-1734566-20150927002932

But see, I disagree there. I feel that, unlike TDA or even TDWT, the amount of non-elimination episodes is just right and IS perfect for development, BECAUSE there are so many characters. In TDA, what did we have? 14 characters (not counting the first few booted right away and thus got little development) dragged out over the course of 26 episodes, half of them non-eliminations. In World Tour, there were fewer non-eliminations, but they were done so frustratingly with "fake ceremonies" or Chris changing the results of the vote JUST to save people he liked like Duncan and Courtney - it was idiotic and infuriating. And, of course, TDR, TDAS, and TDPI all felt SO rushed due to being so short, even if there were fewer non-eliminations.

Here, I feel it's done for a good purpose. The Hippies being saved in Iceland because that episode started their development (with Laurie discovering that she likes meat), which carried over into the next elimination and was more or less resolved by the time they left. The Rockers DEFINITELY deserved to stay past Beijing, because their relationship got fleshed out so much more and developed further in those next few episodes. The Daters, yeah, they suck - but that's just one pair out of 18, and honestly, the ONLY pair this season that truly sucks and has zilch development (along with maybe the Geniuses).

And funny that you referenced the back-to-back non-elimination episodes - I actually thought that was one of the BEST twists in TD history. Because ask yourself: Did YOU see it coming? Could ANYONE have predicted two back-to-back non-eliminations? I certainly didn't see it, and thus, I genuinely believed that the Cadets were FINALLY toast because of it, AND because the Shawshank episode DID do a fantastic job of intensifying their rivalry with the Skaters, to the point where I genuinely DID believe that they would finally go. THAT'S a very clever example of manipulation of the audience's expectations to bring about the biggest "*gasp* WTF?" moment in the season yet.

So I guess we'll just have to disagree there, haha. :P