Thread:BarBar/@comment-1734566-20150706004518

And what thoughts better describe it? I'm literally writing this to you RIGHT after watching the latest version on YouTube (which will probably be down soon).

My thoughts? Well, first off, one of the biggest elephants in the room presented itself quite clearly: A clusterf*** of a show as a result of having SO many people. Like, seriously - there was VERY little room for development and interactions between the teams, with only BRIEF hints at an alliance because of the twins - other than that, nadda. And yet, strangely enough, I actually think I'm KINDA OK with this, namely because 1) A lot of the interactions between partners is funny/entertaining enough (and that's really the focus of the show, isn't it?) And 2) Obviously, it's JUST the first episode, so that's probably a point that will change dramatically as the series progresses. But nevertheless, this still resulted in there being cases where you almost forget that some pairs exist (namely Geoff/Brody, the hippies, and the Goths).

Oh, yeah; the characters. Yeah, in all honesty, there's only ONE pair that I dislike so far, and that's Tom and Jenn the fashion bloggers. Yeah yeah, I know you guys ALL said that the stepbrothers suck, but I actually don't mind them so much (sue me), and as I predicted, I think I WILL like Mickey and Jay, just because I love that geeky little misfit, totally-unprepared-to-handle-this-adversity stereotype of underdogs that Cameron set up. Plus...Cameron's original design. <3

I also LOVE Sanders and McArthur, as I predicted, and I think I might like the Hippies enough because I think they're actually supposed to be a PARODY of real-life hippies and environmentalists, since they're SO over-exaggerated. This is something that other pairs based on stereotypes, like, say, Tom/Jenn and the Rockers, don't do quite as well. I also thoroughly enjoy the Tennis Rivals. XD

As for the returning characters: Noah and Owen, of course, were fantastic (I especially loved the bit where Owen is hanging onto Noah on the tower like a sail. XD); Geoff and Brody, again, were basically non-existent in this one - which worries me on top of the fact that they finished in the last third of pairs, so I REALLY hope they're not in danger of going early AGAIN (in Geoff's case), although I loved Brody's "injury" that was an obvious call-back to Geoff's similarly weak "injury" in "Up the Creek." And Leonard and Tammy, sadly, are about as bad as you'd expect. And see, that's what worries me in regards to both Geoff/Brody and Leonard/Tammy - the returnee of the two totally overshadows the newcomer, especially since, in both cases, the newcomer is basically the exact same as their returnee counterpart, so it makes the point of originals paired with newbies kinda moot (again, especially when these spots COULD have gone to already-established pairs of originals, like Katie/Sadie and Amy/Samey).

And Don...I actually kinda like him enough because they're obviously not trying to make him as MUCH of a self-absorbed d**chebag as Chris was, but he still has SOME vain elements to him. It's especially good that he doesn't have a co-host, since there's barely even enough screentime for Don himself.

Obviously, there's a lot more left to talk about as far as the characters go, so I'll do a full summary of my thoughts and rankings of all the pairs, based on this one episode, on my RR Rankings page, HERE. 