The Worst Thing About Ride or Dies

Now that season 38 is over, we’ve seen another long season with twists, turns, rookies, veterans, drama, hookups, and shocking moments. In my personal opinion, this was a step up from Spies, Lies, and Allies, and there was a lot to like about the season.

Here’s a quick list of the improvements I think we saw when compared to Spies, Lies and Allies:

• The format made sense (though some of the pairs were questionable)
• Challenges that didn’t rely heavily on a gimmicky theme
• The veterans cast included a few surprises and people who had taken seasons off
• While the rookies certainly had targets on their backs, the safety dagger and number of nominees made the veterans less secure
• For the most part, the pacing felt better because one pair would go home each week

The season wasn’t free of faults, but the biggest one came mid-way through when the pairs split. Watching Bloodlines, we know this formatting could have been worse. But, the execution was still quite weird.

One of the perks of Ride or Dies was understanding the format — something that’s unclear on seasons like Total Madness or Spies, Lies and Allies (though Double Agents was a bit more obvious). So, when the teams split, the game became a lot more confusing. Add to the fact that there was a twist, and viewers didn’t really know what was going on.

The worst thing of all: The two teams didn’t even have names. They were unofficially called “Team Faysal” and “Team Moriah” because they were the captains for one episode. They didn’t even get new jerseys. In fact, their team colors changed based on the day. It should be fairly obvious that when we have two teams, it’s critical for viewers to know who’s working with whom.

I understand that production felt the need to slow the pace of the season, but viewers also want a format they understand. While watching Rivals or Exes, I never heard viewers hope for the partners to splits. And, we watched the format change multiple times on Spies, Lies and Allies. This isn’t something we need each season.

Fortunately, we went back to the partnerships later in the season. The final may have been long, but we can’t complain about weird formatting during it like we could last season. This is certainly another improvement, but it would be nice to see a future season that has a format and sticks to it.