[5.9/10] Here was the format: The players were divided into 2 teams that were designated as Team USA and Team UK based off their country of origin, which I thought was interesting since the show hadn’t done a traditional 2 team format since The Ruins (season 18).
But that’s not where the problem lies.
The problem I have with this season is production and how they edited the Paulie and Cara Maria alliance. Long story short, Team USA was split down the middle into 2 factions at the beginning: Bananas/Laurel/Jordan/Tori/Zach/Leroy (sometimes)/Nany/Josh vs. Wes/Paulie/Cara Maria/Kam/Ashley/Ninja with Faith as an afterthought and Turbo playing the middle.
Bananas’s side decided to backstab Wes by manipulating Josh into voting Wes into an elimination against Bear, which broke the trust with Wes’s side of the house. A lot happens after that, but just know that Paulie and Cara Maria clap back hard and orchestrate the demise of Laurel and Bananas.
Then, production decided to edit Paulie and Cara Maria as the villains (calling Cara’s alliance a cult), when they were the underdogs of the narrative when the season began.
And it got better: Jordan Wisely was edited as the underdog/hero of the season, and production went out of their way to manipulate dailies and eliminations to ensure Jordan and Tori made it to the final. This is the same Jordan, in the past, who said and did racist things on his Real World season, called women inferior on Exes II, and talked down and bullied women on this season alone. This was the hero of the narrative?
And CT literally did nada the entire season, never being called out for being the weakest male on Team UK for the entire time. Plus, he called a Black man Ted Bundy...not cool.
In this season’s final, Team USA was somehow penalized for having more players (they won 11 of the 14 dailies on the season) by having to carry more weight during stage 1 of the final. Look, if you’re going to do that, the team with more players should be allowed to have more people carrying the weight. Team UK had too much of an advantage during that stage because they had less women on their team plus less weight to carry. No wonder Paulie nearly died.
The most interesting tidbit I took from this season was that there was some great strategy with how Paulie and Cara Maria’s side completely flipped things in their favor.
This is the season when Leroy finally realized he needed to pivot and increase his win conditions. This is the best season, strategically, for Paulie, Cara Maria, Leroy, and Kam.
It’s sad that this season is bottom tier because episode 4 (the Laurel/Ninja elimination) is one of the greatest episodes in the history of the show.
Review by Whitney TrevonBlockedParentSpoilers2021-05-02T21:37:59Z— updated 2021-05-04T06:35:05Z
[5.9/10] Here was the format: The players were divided into 2 teams that were designated as Team USA and Team UK based off their country of origin, which I thought was interesting since the show hadn’t done a traditional 2 team format since The Ruins (season 18).
But that’s not where the problem lies.
The problem I have with this season is production and how they edited the Paulie and Cara Maria alliance. Long story short, Team USA was split down the middle into 2 factions at the beginning: Bananas/Laurel/Jordan/Tori/Zach/Leroy (sometimes)/Nany/Josh vs. Wes/Paulie/Cara Maria/Kam/Ashley/Ninja with Faith as an afterthought and Turbo playing the middle.
Bananas’s side decided to backstab Wes by manipulating Josh into voting Wes into an elimination against Bear, which broke the trust with Wes’s side of the house. A lot happens after that, but just know that Paulie and Cara Maria clap back hard and orchestrate the demise of Laurel and Bananas.
Then, production decided to edit Paulie and Cara Maria as the villains (calling Cara’s alliance a cult), when they were the underdogs of the narrative when the season began.
And it got better: Jordan Wisely was edited as the underdog/hero of the season, and production went out of their way to manipulate dailies and eliminations to ensure Jordan and Tori made it to the final. This is the same Jordan, in the past, who said and did racist things on his Real World season, called women inferior on Exes II, and talked down and bullied women on this season alone. This was the hero of the narrative?
And CT literally did nada the entire season, never being called out for being the weakest male on Team UK for the entire time. Plus, he called a Black man Ted Bundy...not cool.
In this season’s final, Team USA was somehow penalized for having more players (they won 11 of the 14 dailies on the season) by having to carry more weight during stage 1 of the final. Look, if you’re going to do that, the team with more players should be allowed to have more people carrying the weight. Team UK had too much of an advantage during that stage because they had less women on their team plus less weight to carry. No wonder Paulie nearly died.
The most interesting tidbit I took from this season was that there was some great strategy with how Paulie and Cara Maria’s side completely flipped things in their favor.
This is the season when Leroy finally realized he needed to pivot and increase his win conditions. This is the best season, strategically, for Paulie, Cara Maria, Leroy, and Kam.
It’s sad that this season is bottom tier because episode 4 (the Laurel/Ninja elimination) is one of the greatest episodes in the history of the show.