1. TAR5 - Colin & Christie 2. TAR2 - Oswald & Danny 3. TAR1 - Kevin & Drew 4. TAR7 - Rob & Amber 5. TAR3 - Teri & Ian 6. TAR6 - Gus & Hera 7. TAR4 - Jon & Al
I'm not completely sold on that positioning yet, 1, 3 and 7 are all pretty close for me and I think there may end up being movement there as I continue through this ranking. Anyway, I had a good time with season 7, and it was about as enjoyable as I rememebered it. I'm curious to hear why a few of you guys seem to dislike it so much. Teams were a bit of a mixed bag, but I think overall the cast was good. Obviously I'm a Romber fan, and Rob is great here. Meredith and Gretchen bumbling their way into 4th is terrific - a storyline I totally forgot about until the rewatch. Uchenna and Joyce and good, satisfying winners, probably the best ones up to this point. Brian and Greg were fairly fun for the bro-y archetype. Ron "Did you know I was in the military" and Kelly sucked, but at least they got hosed at the end. Lynn and Alex I didn't completely hate, but the anti-Romber sentiment that was running throughout the season wore a little thin after a while. I get it, given this was hot off the heels of All-Stars, but in 2020 it's a little eye rolling.
I think the biggest knock against the season is that the route actually kinda sucks. Not circumnavigating the globe is lame. They spent too long roaming around South America early in the season, and some of the legs were very linear. The leg Brian and Greg got eliminated especially stands out. It was basically a straight line with zero catch-up points because the Detours and Road Blocks were so straightforward, so they were completely dead from the start just by virtue of leaving the pit stop last. Which, whatever, it happens sometimes, but I feel like this was the first season I really noticed it.
Also yes Rob and Amber totally got hosed at the end there, but given how unbelievably lucky they were the entire race up to that point, it's hard to feel too bad. Also the fact that they already won a million bucks. And then would win another million in 6 years.
Thus concludes all the seasons I had watched on original airing for a while. The combination of Season 8 being Season 8 and me going off to college at the time had me fall off the show until Season 15, so aside from the first couple episode of All-Stars, these will all be new to me for a while, even though I do know who wins every season.
