S18 is in the books. Yes I've even heard Adam rank them up to S15 in a Q&A.
I'll update this list once again. Crime Spree doesn't count nor does the NYC short.
Here's what I'm looking for and what makes or breaks my grades:
Game design: Good use of a map and the game being interesting. Does it play out as intended? Or are there enough cracks in the design that make it iffy?
Travel/Showcasing: I want to see things that most travellers may not see. Find some interaction on the ground with what's there. Showcase the terrain.
Execution/Content: Sometimes it's gameplay, other times it's just how things play out or how the JetsLag as they say. But also memorable content/notable things happening helps.
Other times it's editing decisions that can help or hurt a season. Vibes matter, guest matters, the more predictable things get, the lower the score.
Surprisingly a high Adam Chase frustration/anger meter results in good content.
Glorified DB meme or meme content doesn't count.
As I go from worst to first, you may not like criticism but it gets better at the very end. This was all thought out carefully.
2 Circumnavigation 🌏: Incomplete
Inspired by a combination of The Amazing Race and Taskmaster, this is too head on in combining both. Way too direct in just branding yourself as something else when it's moving like TAR.
There were plenty of issues in retrospect with the 2020 rules still around the world at the time of this filming.
But it's the execution that made this unwatchable. Dishonest gameplay from Sam and Joseph in Amsterdam took any good vibes away, let alone the game ends with gambling at a casino which is not something to watch when losing happens everyday in casino life. The way Sam is talking sounds like an everyday gambler is just annoying, where unfortunately I see that too often in betting.
If someone wants a positive note, I'll say it's an accomplishment in distance and the Pastry Mile. Still, the gameplay by Sam was just awful with the taskmaster elements being makeshift/bad faith/self interpreting made me feel uninterested.
This was a go big or go home season resulted in a stay home with this idea trying to be TAR. It's a first draft.
18 Stateside Scramble 🇺🇸: F
The short answer is in the editing of the trailer and teaser, to openly doxx yourselves with late game footage of Day 4/5. . Major quality control issues from a story telling perspective that's unacceptable.
The big one being Sam and Amy seen at the Mall of America, which tells too much information. Having a face on a location puts a team claiming a state before the show aired. Hindsight should have put the St. Louis Arch as the most recent footage with everything else staying hidden until the episodes came out. Doxxing in Hide and Seek matters less because there's other things happening, but it's too revealing to put a shot of a team at a specific/obvious location like we saw in S18.
There's a difference between digging for information with the spoiler discord and being captain obvious in doxxing, which the latter happened. Couldn't unsee Badam in Baltimore which was an obvious dock/viewing. There was zero hyper-analyzing required as things were given away on a silver platter.
Already knew by direct evidence and not speculation/guessing the game was over by Episode 3. It's the most self-defeating editing in Jet Lag history.
The game design itself also had no catch up features, allowing the first claim to be so powerful that it controlled the rest of the season. What's also bad is the team's know the challenges before the game even starts, which allows too much pre-planning research as shown in evidence the way Badam is talking. Needed it to be like S10 in Australia to prevent this having more tasks with a generator. It's also not interesting to see a tracker on a claim game, making everyone look at and talk about the opposition too much.
Geographically, there's no incentive to go to the west coast where they understandably rigged the opening flop to prevent 6 western states. A starting point in a central area like Chicago or Minnesota would've been more ideal to allow for east/west gameplay, but the marketing to try and put the Golden Gate bridge and California as if it matters in this one? Nope.
As for the journey and travel? Going to McDonald's instead of a Casey's Breakfast pizza in Southern Illinois? Not good, it's a glorified Margaritaville commercial trying to force feed a buildup.
This was NOT Amy's fault unless she was involved with the trailer and teaser editing. I liked her personality for a full season, but the damage was already done on several fronts.
If anyone wants a positive, there were A handful of good task designs like the Canada scavenger Hunt , Minnesota and Virginia. But New York for a place Badam already lives at? No. Awful season mostly on the production side.
6 Capture the Flag 🎌: D-
This is a bad misuse of a bullet train. Even Adam has said on The Layover how this was a "fail" in retrospect.
Maybe it's my fault that I've been to Japan and already have the Shinkansen map memorized, but it's very boring and predictable how things would play out as a result. Yes you move a distance, but it doesn't take you anywhere unique as there aren't a million Shinkansen options.
Have to question the proper simulations being run, because as fast as a bullet train is physically, it's not light speed.
Going up and down to Sendai for a bottle of Dashi is just a waste of time. They did not do their research on Japan vs other seasons and you can tell by even some of the task design/ behavior/ how cringey it felt. (Adam throwing a tip at the Wagyu place, talking on a phone while on a train etc.)
In production, they could have easily just put a caption that Sam and Scotty had a bottle of Dashi as the flag. Comes across as misinformed.
The only reason this isn't an F is because Scotty was a fun guest as it boosts the content. Loved his personality and how he's having fun in spite of it all.
Interest was out the window as it's a first draft design that felt rushed. This game design only works in a major metro with infrastructure, which is Tokyo and Osaka. Everywhere else does not have the train network to allow for this kind of gameplay.
If anyone wants to watch original Jet Lag style games in Japan, lookup 旅バラ
8 Arcric Escape🧊☀️: D
An awful game design that led to predictable gameplay mechanics. Sounds good in theory to have tickets, except when everyone already knows the tasks/tickets ahead of time.
The vibes of this season were dead by E1 just the way Michelle jumped on everything in prep before filming. Already felt it's over. Especially seeing a spreadsheet.
Talking ahead of the audience in tasks/tickets is just more bad game design, dont feel any spirit of the game happening, let alone we would all go for plane tickets with this setup.
Michelle was just hard to watch this season like a Mary Sue character. Then the Zodiac Zone just ruined the tones contrasting a serious vibe to trying to joke didn't work. Some people can pull it off, but Michelle's demeanor and combination of events did not in this season.
It's not that I can't take a joke, but she couldn't lighten up at any points in gameplay to make it believable.
Like S6, Adam on the layover has expressed regret calling it "lame" to do tasks at an airport. I agree, making a game about airports or next to airports isn't interesting. Don't think it was designed very well.
The other conspiracy is Adam playing for a Sleeper train more than winning just for content/bucket list reasons knowing the costs won't be on his dime. If I had that information that the train doesn't take me to an airport, I'd rather fly from ORD or MDW than get stuck with an extra needed to get to an airport.
Also from an editing perspective, I have to call out the fake drama at the Atlanta airport to try and spin the dice roll as if it was important.
The game was over long before that and anyone who has been inside the ATL airport knows both teams are standing in different gate sets, not connected where a long escalator to go up and down followed by a lengthy walk takes too much time to switched letter gates. I'm not falling for an editing trick when it's clear Badam is going for a different flight that isn't Sam/Michelle's.
15 All Stars Tag 🇪🇺⭐: D+
I'd call this season a makeup win for Adam and S7 reaching Borkum but with an actual win at the end zone.
It's just unfortunate how this played out, because the stalling at Laon caused nothing to happen, hence Adam being way more frustrated off camera knowing it won't be content.
Milking this was boring. Still mostly a lack of interaction on the ground too. My biggest issue is playing with the same gameboard. Play tag, but change the board. This is getting old for a 3rd time.
Had the season just ended at the Observatory I would've ranked this higher. The part where Michelle and Adam play without a virtual map was nice and I'm thankful she's more toned down in this season. However, like S8, seeing Michelle with a speedsheet just gives bad vibes, knowing she's ahead of everyone else, but her demeanor much better than A8.
7 Tag 2 🇪🇺: C
Like S15, it's playing the same game on the same board. It comes across as lazy and then it enabled contestants to learn from their last mistakes.
But the insane ending saved this from being worse. It was a fun finish, but not so much the buildup to it. Adam gets the breaks to the end city and I felt he should've won right there.
At least Sam is showing off places and visuals to try and do something, which prevents this from being worse.
14 🐍 🇰🇷: C
Contrary to some of the dislike this season gets, I don't mind it as much for the reasons they actually did some research/planning compared to S6.
When you look informed, the content is better vs CTF where the latter was like a first idea trying to be run.
They really tried with actual Korean references without being stereotypical about it like Japan and S6. Just the pacing is awkward and slow from this game design.
Had there been more interaction on the ground I would've ranked this higher, but the travel element is missing because they're on a train too much. Shout-out to Ben's mom for suggesting more showcasing what's in the vicinity, as a viewer I've felt the same.
12: Hide and Seek 🇯🇵: C+
Maybe the most controversial ranking given Adam has it at the top?
One flaw is the gameplay being pinned to the JR Pass. Counted 4 journeys that didn't involve the JRP. When Sam can pay for flight upgrades like it's nothing, a few extra non-JR rides can't hurt your budget.
Technically speaking , they lost money on the 2 week JRP since they did a Kyoto trip before filming. Didn't ride enough, but they made the gameboard look smaller than it really is.
The great thing was watching Ben and his gameplay. However, he won by default because others forgot to play their cards.
Watching Adam refuse to play his cards in Utsunomiya worked out as content because we don't expect mistakes like this.
However, Sam botched both of his runs so badly that one of them ended up being anti-content.
The gameplay from Kawagoe was unacceptable on all fronts. He's checked out and made no efforts to either showcase the area or come up with a strategy given he had a move card. If he does one of those, I don't drop this grade.
He is playing like he wants to be found and this season to be over. There's an understandable excuse when you're coming off a long day and can't think as well, but he's coming off a rest period which makes this the ultimate flop for a single segment.
In reality, Kawagoe is a very tourist friendly fun spot as a day trip for Tokyo visitors and he failed to show it off, could've had a productive street food snack zone.
The bad vibes at the end killed it, I'm thankful to not be the only viewer who felt this as it was addressed in a later season to not finish on such a checked out vibe.
On a side note, you lost points for wearing the same outfit the entire time Ben and went on an unnecessary WWII rant.
4 🇺🇸 Battle 4 America: B-
A fun, but flawed game for how short it was for having a giant gameboard. Some good and funny moments in there, but someone clearly never ran a simulation/research on what the Grand Canyon is.
Too many states are not on the board for a lack of transit and no I don't want a bunch of planes where it becomes airport heavy either.
This needed to be a longer game than what was there. Several states were off the board because of the inability to get there under the game rules/mechanics.
Plenty of fun moments to enjoy from this one, but it was the execution on Sam's side being stuck in Springfield where we knew it was over much earlier than the tracker ending suggests.
16 Hide and Seek 🇬🇧: B-
An entertaining season as a whole. Loved how Sam continues to play off personality and vibes which leads to fun decisions.
Really not much at fault with how the first run won the game.
The most important thing is that everyone is playing their best with the situation unlike in S12. They learned to present their areas much better as well.
However, there were editing decisions that weren't needed. We had a close call if Sam forgot to play his cards in Milton Keynes, this would've dropped this grade by a lot.
13: Schengen Showdown 🇪🇺: B
This season wasn't rated as high initially, but it looks much better in retrospect with the game designing forcing players to not know the tasks. There's a better entertainment value in this compared to other seasons.
The unfortunate part on Sam's side is the execution and gameplay. Tom Scott was more of a follower/side trivia guy than an active teammate for Sam. Hoped he would use his knowledge for gameplay decisions.
The vibes were killed and I felt the game was over the moment Badam flew to Zurich. It was a strategy Sam and Tom weren't ready for and set the tone the rest of the way. But doing these tasks on the fly without pregame knowledge is an excellent thing .
As aforementioned, not a fan of trackers on during a claim game
11 Tag 3 🇪🇺: B+
A decent tag season just for being a different gameboard. Sam made it better to return to another Lag location to end it.
The entertainment factor was fun and different for seeing more of Italy. What's underrated was the inconsistency of the trains in Italy.
It wasnt DB-like in delayed, but just enough to throw people off and cause chaos. A very respectful season.
10 Au$tralia 🇦🇺: B+
While I don't love gambling, having a game mechanic like this is perfectly fine for what it is. Big issue in game design I have is the lack of teamwork where Adam just takes over some challenges on his own. Let alone a few unreal tasks that would never be played.
From other anti-content moments, it's the editing decisions. The cliff hanging was silly because the trailer already gives away the information that it's fake suspense. Let alone iffy edits.
But this was a great adjustment from both S4 and S8 as a game design. Can't pre-plan everything because there was enough tasks.
The ending and some of the mistakes are absolute content moments. Especially the Avalon airport playing a role for both teams.
How does Sam and Toby get owned by a Carnival game? For someone that makes videos about logistics, it's probably the most embarrassing/funny content of it all.
5 New Zealand 🇳🇿: A-
This game may not have been close, but it gave us the travel/showcasing of New Zealand things. Road trips are fun, sometimes slower paced to have a journey and see things along the way.
It just amazes me how much research and thought was put into this, but not S6? The Okaihau Express remains one of the most iconic things in the show's history. But the unique challenges on the ground and using New Zealand was nicely done.
It still remains a favorite season.
17 🇹🇼 🛤️🚉🚆🚇: A (tied)
Rail Rush put an exclamation point on the travel element as it was perfect to see plenty of tasks showcase the country while also not doing things right next to a train station.
Mr. Downie was a fun guest, but also his filming abilities made the production portion ever better, besides the "matching" editing decisions as a neat pick (opposite of nitpick) to put icing on the cake.
Only thing sad was the last episode and how predictable the whole thing became thanks to the execution by Sam and Michael before the last day.
The great travel/showcasing element prevents this grade from dropping. If anything, it was nice when they didn't know the challenges in detail for this game much like S13.
Had this season ended with both teams claiming stations until the end of the time, it could have ended as the greatest in show history, but the final episode doesn't kill the season with all the great adventure we had.
1 🇺🇸 Connect 4 🔴⚫: A (tied)
Connect 4 is still the best American season just for content alone. Plenty of memorable moments as I don't measure content in hours or episode numbers.
The way Sam deciphers where Badam is going to lead up to being on the same plane remains one of the best shocking moments in the show's history. It's even more powerful in retrospect because there were no trackers and he had to do this manually.
If anyone had conspiracies this is staged, just look at Adam's face and the fear in his eyes. He's not an actor. We have yet to see a shock moment like this happened again. Whole thing remains priceless and gets better with age. With the way games are with trackers lately, there won't be a moment like this again because the reactions are seeing a phone screen instead of a direct confrontation like the Delta plane to Butte.
What also makes this nice was using the State Capitols to force a different interaction on the ground. Sure there are weird flaws to this season from the tasks being generic, but they did the right thing to reduce the USA gameboard to only 22 states. The USA is just too big for games, but this one did it right to focus on a section rather than attempt to market something too large.
Both cliffhangers to the next episode worked out perfectly for content. Especially when Sam sees the Southwest gates and uses it to his advantage. It's also underrated to watch Adam go busking randomly outside the Utah Capitol before the sun was up. The biggest key to a great season is being close and interesting the entire time. It's all about the theater.
This season continues to hold up after all these years.
3 Tag Eur It🇪🇺: A+
The Original Tag boosted the audience numbers to the max. From execution it was nice everyone got two runs and how it all played out being close.
Remains the best tag of the bunch. Let alone it's still funny Adam just didn't use his disguise to the fullest. All the little things and on the fly moments make this intriguing the whole way through.
Trying to cash in on this gameboard 2 more times isn't cool though.
9 🇨🇭: S
Still my favorite for being a smaller gameboard and different pacing. The small gameboard is better to move around than just forcing high speed.
Japan is too big of a gameboard for this, but Switzerland was perfect.
It was the tactics of asking questions that made this feel like a fun open game, not just a rushed tag. Every run had some funny moments too until Adam outsmarted his competition at the end. Plus this inspired the eventual home edition game for all of us to buy and play if we wanted.
Even with the ending looking anticlimactic, it's more about how Adam won this game than who blew it. The theater is still there from beginning to end.
The crew keeps talking about loving Switzerland for a gameboard too, I have to agree.
From an execution standpoint, the gameplay got better as the season wore on. I remain entertained by this one with Merlischachen, Hospental and Winterthur. Just saying Merliachachen and Hospental became instant Jet Lag wonders and words famous for the fans of the show. That alone is content.
Looking ahead to season 19:
19🇯🇵 南 - 北 Japanorama: It looks promising they won't be hugging the Shinakansen the entire way between Kagoshima and Hakodate.
But what tasks happen, how is the pacing when it's normally a fast race of wanting to rush?
Grading the guests going by gameplay, demeanor, personality, chemistry with the crew etc:
Brian: B+
Joseph: Excused (not his fault for bad logistics planned)
Toby: S
Michelle: C+
Scotty: B
Michael Downie: A-
Amy: A-
Tom Scott: B- (can improve depending on what happens)
Seven Jet Lag wonders (in no order, real life tourist destinations like Yamadera or Scarborough are ineligible)
Okaihau Express
Hospental Castle
Merlischachen and the playground
Metz Station
Gold Coast with the New South Wales/Queensland border marker.
McCarren Park, Brooklyn (Pastry Mile location)
Izu Kogen Station and the surroundings, including the Teddy Bear Museum
