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The Amazing Race 35


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On 4/4/2024 at 8:52 PM, The Ace of Aces said:

This season blows. Terrible teams and no real travel. 

My issue is that they're only visiting Hispanic countries giving teams that speak Spanish a huge advantage.

Also, I'm still trying to figure out how the navigation/puzzle challenge could have possibly been so hard.  All but one team had the damn starting line tile bleeding off one of the sides.  The track started and ended at the same spot, the tile had to have a single road above and below it.  And it had to be on the right side as they made a large loop around to the left.  There.  3 of the 9 tiles.  Even without actually driving the track, the puzzle shouldn't have been that difficult.

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15 hours ago, Knoxtnhorn said:

My issue is that they're only visiting Hispanic countries giving teams that speak Spanish a huge advantage.

This is a big issue for me as well.  Several of the teams speak Spanish, but for those who don't, it sucks.  

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On 4/19/2024 at 4:41 PM, Knoxtnhorn said:

My issue is that they're only visiting Hispanic countries giving teams that speak Spanish a huge advantage.

Also, I'm still trying to figure out how the navigation/puzzle challenge could have possibly been so hard.  All but one team had the damn starting line tile bleeding off one of the sides.  The track started and ended at the same spot, the tile had to have a single road above and below it.  And it had to be on the right side as they made a large loop around to the left.  There.  3 of the 9 tiles.  Even without actually driving the track, the puzzle shouldn't have been that difficult.

Yeah, it was a puzzle for a five year old.  Forget about the racetrack, just put it  together to form a closed loop.  Even if you had it rotated 90, 180, or 270 deg I'm thinking they would give it to you.

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So Amber can't navigate, drive a stick, or do any challenge?  Vinny isn't exactly hiding his feelings about those things, but I'm sure I would have thrown her out of the car and driven to Tierra del Fuego by now.  How do you decide to go on The Amazing Race without doing anything to address your deficiencies in areas that you know are going to come into play?  And what possesses you to bring someone like that as your partner?  The fact that they are not only still in the race, but lurking near the top emphasizes how weak this cast is.  Amber is going to be completely dependent on you forever in every facet of life.  Run, Vinny.  Run!

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This was a dream leg for Team Momma's Boy.  It was like Cliff Clavin playing Jeopardy.
image.png.2789d64e1b2d5304ebfb9a3859a00578.png

 

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1 hour ago, idigTexas said:

So Amber can't navigate, drive a stick, or do any challenge?  Vinny isn't exactly hiding his feelings about those things, but I'm sure I would have thrown her out of the car and driven to Tierra del Fuego by now.  How do you decide to go on The Amazing Race without doing anything to address your deficiencies in areas that you know are going to come into play?  And what possesses you to bring someone like that as your partner?  The fact that they are not only still in the race, but lurking near the top emphasizes how weak this cast is.  Amber is going to be completely dependent on you forever in every facet of life.  Run, Vinny.  Run!

I see their relationship quite the opposite. Vinny is a condescending asshole who constantly puts her down. She definitely has her insecurities and weaknesses, but he preys on those and tears her apart, then offers some half-assed encouragement like "you can do it babe" when it's already too late. 

She can't drive a stick, which I think is a fair criticism, but half the people in the history of TAR have lacked this skill. Her navigation skills seem adequate. There are definitely teams that are worse, and it doesn't seem like poor navigation has hurt Amber and Vinny at any point so far. Even other "good" teams have struggled with navigation, but they don't destroy each other over it.

As far as completing challenges, Amber has mostly been fine and it's very difficult to do anything well when your partner is constantly telling you how stupid and shitty you are. Imagine spending a day with your spouse, having to assemble things, navigate a foreign city, perform music routines, and your wife spends the entire day calling you pathetic, slow, and stupid, all on television for the world to see. How can anyone be expected to do well in those circumstances? She should leave his ass.

I don't even particularly like Amber, but I think Vinny is a narcissistic piece of shit. If they split up, I would fully expect him to find another insecure and emotionally vulnerable partner and treat her like shit.

Edited by wild_turkey
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52 minutes ago, wild_turkey said:

I see their relationship quite the opposite. Vinny is a condescending asshole who constantly puts her down. She definitely has her insecurities and weaknesses, but he preys on those and tears her apart, then offers some half-assed encouragement like "you can do it babe" when it's already too late. 

She can't drive a stick, which I think is a fair criticism, but half the people in the history of TAR have lacked this skill. Her navigation skills seem adequate. There are definitely teams that are worse, and it doesn't seem like poor navigation has hurt Amber and Vinny at any point so far. Even other "good" teams have struggled with navigation, but they don't destroy each other over it.

As far as completing challenges, Amber has mostly been fine and it's very difficult to do anything well when your partner is constantly telling you how stupid and shitty you are. Imagine spending a day with your spouse, having to assemble things, navigate a foreign city, perform music routines, and your wife spends the entire day calling you pathetic, slow, and stupid, all on television for the world to see. How can anyone be expected to do well in those circumstances? She should leave his ass.

I don't even particularly like Amber, but I think Vinny is a narcissistic piece of shit. If they split up, I would fully expect him to find another insecure and emotionally vulnerable partner and treat her like shit.

He is an asshole.  She is beaten down.

I hope they have broken up by now.

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1 minute ago, UTPhil2006 said:

Someone above looked it up and said they’re still together 

I had looked it up. I usually like to know more about the cast members so I found this site that gives a pretty good breakdown, including IG info for everyone:

https://thedirect.com/article/the-amazing-race-2024-cast-contestants-season-36-photos

On their IG pages, they both appeared to be aspiring influencers, Vinny moreso than Amber. He had posts and videos about getting out of student loan debt, becoming an entrepreneur, flexing his arms in scrubs in ridiculous poses, and generally looking like a narcissistic asshat. Their accounts both still featured each other, and called themselves The Dream Team, so I interpreted that as them being together.

When I was watching this episode last night, I looked at their IG again mid-episode and saw lots of fresh comments from TAR fans, telling Amber to leave his ass. People basically started comment bombing all of their old posts on both accounts, saying what an asshole Vinny is.

I just looked again and both accounts are now private, which is...quite funny. Aspiring influencers now have private accounts. Probably in damage control mode, or perhaps the breakup is happening as we speak.

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24 minutes ago, wild_turkey said:

I had looked it up. I usually like to know more about the cast members so I found this site that gives a pretty good breakdown, including IG info for everyone:

https://thedirect.com/article/the-amazing-race-2024-cast-contestants-season-36-photos

On their IG pages, they both appeared to be aspiring influencers, Vinny moreso than Amber. He had posts and videos about getting out of student loan debt, becoming an entrepreneur, flexing his arms in scrubs in ridiculous poses, and generally looking like a narcissistic asshat. Their accounts both still featured each other, and called themselves The Dream Team, so I interpreted that as them being together.

When I was watching this episode last night, I looked at their IG again mid-episode and saw lots of fresh comments from TAR fans, telling Amber to leave his ass. People basically started comment bombing all of their old posts on both accounts, saying what an asshole Vinny is.

I just looked again and both accounts are now private, which is...quite funny. Aspiring influencers now have private accounts. Probably in damage control mode, or perhaps the breakup is happening as we speak.

I'm hoping they are "together" through the airing so that it helps their (his) online presence.

Hopefully, she's done with his stupid ass.

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I was obviously too hard on Amber, and I agree that I did not put enough blame on what impact Vinny's abuse has on her, but damn it's frustrating when people go on the race unprepared.  If you can't drive a stick or navigate yourself out of a wet paper bag, then TAR probably isn't for you, even in a watered down low-travel season.  

I am embarrassed for them at how they are being edited, and I have to assume that reality is worse than what we are being shown.  Perhaps I should have suggested that Amber kick Vinny out of the car and drive herself to Tierra del Fuego, but one, she can't drive a stick, and two, she would have ended up in Canada.  

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25 minutes ago, idigTexas said:

I was obviously too hard on Amber, and I agree that I did not put enough blame on what impact Vinny's abuse has on her, but damn it's frustrating when people go on the race unprepared.

I definitely agree with the bolded part. I personally can't drive a stick, but if I applied for TAR, the first thing I would do is rent a stick shift and force myself to drive it for a month or longer. I also don't understand how some people can be so incredibly out of shape physically on this show.

That said, there have been countless teams and contestants that struggle with the above, but very few reach the level of verbal abuse than Vinny inflicts on Amber. She says this is a test run for marriage. I think it's pretty obvious how that marriage would go. Any time Vinny perceives that Amber as done something less than perfect for the sake of their family, he would tear her apart.

I'm willing to excuse a lot of her shortcomings at this point. Your brain can't function well when your partner is in your head, constantly criticizing you. You spend more time thinking about their criticism and replaying those failures or discussions in your mind, and it's hard to do simple things like remember where you parked a car. She wasn't strong to begin with, but he's fucked her up.

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