Apologies sir, I missed that you had already raised this point before I put forward my thesis on Strapped West Texas and Hell or High Water!
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I’m currently thru Baltimore on my first watch.
Tip top stuff:
All of Northeast
All of Louisiana
Good stuff:
Baltimore (this is closer to the next tier up than the next one down)
Iowa
Not sure what was going on and didnt love it:
Reno
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Maybe it was all the babies and memories talk and explosions in the sky rip offs, but I got a little sentimental watching this season.
Strapped won’t be around forever. To quote the man in the outro song, “how lucky can one man get” to have Strapped in his life (and more to the point of that song, forget all these petty budget arguments 20 years from now)
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Absolutely banger of a movie!
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Any personal quibbles I may have with any episode/season of Strapped are immediately put in the rear view mirror when I embrace the joy and camaraderie of Randy, Neil, and DJ. This content provides a lot of fun and has been an excellent creative journey to follow. Great stuff as always @djpie @MerchCzar @Randy
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How you gonna say the budget wasn’t a factor, when you posted your concern about it live during the premiere?
They came in under budget, that’s the point. It’s like shooting under par, it’s what you’re trying to do. You’re like @Soly saying it doesn’t count because the course rating was too low.
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Because it seemed at that moment that they were spending with abandon and then after the next two days we realized that they had front loaded the airBnB and golf costs?
It’s funny, I’m kicking myself now because I cannot remember the season it was, but on one of the seasons they had some extra money in the budget and they went and found some good food or extra col beers to buy because they were afraid if they came in that far under budget that the C-Suite would tighten the screws on them.
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No apology needed. I enjoyed you fleshing out the idea more than just one pic.
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So they should rehash that old bit again? It wouldn’t make sense in a post SSC world.
I mean we can just leave it at the fact that we disagree over how important the budget is to the show. The fact that they had spent half their budget in the first day was exciting to me because I thought they had gotten out over their ski’s in standard Strapped fashion. To find out at the end of the episode that in reality they spent $400 the first day to only spend $300 combined the next two days was a bit of a letdown.
They even said in SSC that they knew they could not break bad in future Strapped seasons or else it would automatically cheapen the fact that they did that one time. Giving them enough budget that they don’t even have to consider breaking bad does basically the same thing IMO.
Again. I enjoyed the heck out of the episode. The budget is only part of why I tune in. I’d be lying though if I felt like an essential ingredient felt missing. Like baking cookies without butter.
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Dislike
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Maybe you should just watch someone count nickels
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I think it’s time they go in a new direction. I’d like a series called Flush, where Tron and Soly give us a tour of the practice facilities at some of the nation’s most exclusive and prestigious Golf Clubs.
Then they can head to the clubhouse for lunch and a meeting with the club’s Somm so Tron can do a blind wine tasting. He’ll get points for getting grape, region, and vintage correct and depending on how he does it will either add or subtract to the budget him and Soly have to spend in the pro shop.
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What a needlessly snarky response to someone explaining why they liked something less than in the past. Just because you and I enjoy things for different reasons doesn’t mean you need to be like this about it.
I can respect where @treeputttim and others who don’t care about the budget are coming from here. I just disagree.
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Noticed it as well.
I always forget that Strapped: Spring Training even happened. The weakest season in the series, IMO. Even as I was reading his issue with the increase to $800, I knew it had been covered but couldn’t recall when.
I agree with this quite a bit. At times, this felt like it trended more towards a long weekend Tourist Sauce than Strapped as we all know and love it.
Co-sign.
Hell yes.
Ditto. Best angle/feel of the entire episode.
Same…but then at the end they didn’t even have $100 left so it had to of a been a factor at times.
Might need the C-Suite to do some better CoL adjustments depending on locations. I think $500 can be too punitive now overall, but $800 might be a tad much based on the location. Perhaps make the money round more difficult as well? Start losing points for doubles or worse?
$800 in West Texas feels like the NBA scoring exploding when they got rid of the handcheck and allowed the freedom of movement rule. Need something to bring some balance back…
I will say though, $800 for lodging and golf in the next season if it moves closer to a true metro area (Shooting my shot for MN/SP or Milwaukee) could burn up pretty quickly.
I won’t stand for your slandering of muni courses.
BONK THREAD.
Overall, loved the hell out of the episode. Was just great to see Randy and Neil back on camera and chopping it up together. I didn’t check my phone one time during the entire ep. and while I agree some things could be fine tuned or adjusted, I loved the content.
Was it my favorite Strapped ever? No…but it is up there.
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Don’t be putting words in my mouth. I never said I don’t care about the budget. I merely pointed out that the budget was a factor in the first half (by your own admission), but they had a solid gameplan for the second half, executed well and succeeded in their goal. Sorry that specific storyline wasn’t a nailbiter for the entire 90 minutes.
I think the budget is an important ingredient, but when you’re baking anything you have to weigh your ingredients and incorporate them correctly or the dish won’t turn out right. I think they produced something here with great balance, and I don’t think any ingredient of strapped was overtly missing.
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the strapped poster is soo soo good. INSTANT buy
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I can’t believe this is a hot take, but watching the boys stay at dodgy Airbnbs was never the appeal of the series. Yes, some great people were met from that desperation/limitation, but the sword lady is the absolute spirit animal of the Airbnb host in New England. Just delightful people, whom I find very interesting, talking about their own things that thrill/delight them and exciting the boys and us viewers on that subject matter.
When looking at video, TS Oregon was the line when the quality of production became better than stuff on linear TV. It’s a much more interesting film/episode when it’s not just Big and Neil playing 18 holes at a local muni. Doing that at Bandon Dunes courses, Royal Melbourne, and that level makes sense because the elite course is the character.
The drama of the elusive mega bonus is what thrills and delights me personally. And the lesson that the real mega bonus is the time you spend with your favorite people and a ton of people you’d never meet without the game of golf.
Honestly, once the mega bonus is hit and we are trending, that is the natural conclusion to Strapped. The boys visiting each other’s hometowns is the grown up cousin of Strapped and likely easier to film and produce.
Last point to the rigid Strapped fans. I have to imagine your own personal finances are better than they were 7-8 years ago. Just economic life cycle stuff. My golf trips aren’t a race to the bottom when they are as infrequent with kids/career/spouse as they are now. The NLU guys have grown their own careers, company, and finances. It’s ok to evolve up economically and not feel a weird guilt about it, while still being nostalgic for when your problems were much more serious, but had lower stakes when you were solving them for a 1 or 2 person household.
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Just want to mention that this is art, which can mean different things for different people. Just glad this series isn’t a banana duct taped to a wall.
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It’s literally called strapped….
The budget is whatever. I agree it was meaningless this season, and I agree the series could go in a slightly different direction. But that doesn’t take away what it has been historically and what’s implied in the future. It’s all well done regardless just weird how many people want to ignore part of the premise of the entire series lol
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