PoultryDancer

Just not finding a lot that's all that exciting this season. It's great that teams are having to drive themselves a lot, but the tasks have been pretty underwhelming (how many memory/pronunciation challenges can there be?), and theres been a real lack of memorable moments. I can't remember a thing about Quinton and Mattie. Pleasant people I'm sure, but contributed very little to the season for making it so far.

I like that it was 90 minutes. Given the chaotic, condensed nature of the premiere, this episode could breathe and get to know the teams more. And you actually saw driving and communicating segments rather than task-task-task. Very sad to see Tim and Rex go. Even sadder to see Travelocity go.

Biggest twist of the new season: 'The Amazing Race is brought to you by EXPEDIA?!?!' What kind of backwards world am I living in? Ok premiere. Between having 12 teams instead of 11, and the whole 'scramble' thing, it was absolute chaos and tough to follow who was ahead of who, but glad to have it back.

I understand there's only so much the editors can do when it's such a blowout, but that was an absolute snoozer. The problem with those needle in a haystack challenges is that there's always the risk that one team will find it normally and, as we saw, the rest could be there searching for hours, negating any suspense for the rest of the leg. The final globe challenge could have been suspenseful if multiple teams were there. Between the irritating alliance, and the yawner of a finale I can see why CBS was sitting on this season for so long. It was....not great, despite a solid cast and great route. I hope the show can come back better when travel is safe.

Probably mentioned by now, but I thought this 'mega leg' stuff was really stupid. It was an extra set of tasks in the same city. They've done far, far more brutal legs in the show. Theres a 'to be contunued' episode almost every season now and often they head to an entirely new country without a pitstop. Pretending this was some brutally designed leg was falling on deaf ears for me. It was still just a flight and one day of tasks that they all finished before the sun set.

Sad to see Jerry and Frank go. They didn't get a lot of screentime or do anything too memorable, but it was hard not to tear up along with the dad when they were at the second detour and knew they would be out. So appreciative to just have the experience with his son, and it got me a little.

Great start! Only thing I didn't care for was how much they spread out the team intros through the first half of the episode. We're seeing teams running and I'm like Who the heck are they! But I'm so happy to have the show back.

Having just watched season 2 recently, I distinctly recall that Libby clearly states in Dez's flashback "He named it after me." Referring to her now-deceased husband. ETA: Was beaten to it by mere seconds!

That's true, but doesn't change the fact that her character was wildly underdeveloped. It makes that cliffhanger ending to 'Dave' meaningless.

My winter project is rewatching Lost, which I haven't seen since the finale in 2010. I finished season 3 last night. How about Ben's young friend Annie? That had promise and I know it doesn't come up again in future seasons. Libby is entirely dropped as a character, after teasing that she was in the mental hospital with Hurley. I'd love an honest interview with Cuse or Lindelof explaining how designs or plans change over the course of a show. For example, I imagine Mr Eko had to have been slated for a much larger role in the overall scheme of things, but I know the actor asked to be let go after season 2 and they talked him into the early season 3 death episode. I think an interview with many of these scenarios listed would be fascinating.

I find it interesting that in this male-dominated cast (5 M/M teams), we've lost 4 straight of those teams. All 3 dating teams remain, along with easily the strongest female team, and the IndyCar guys. I do really like the IndyCar guys. Loading the tires into the wrong truck was fantastic (I was so hoping the guy would drive away with them), their attitude at the singing task was great, with Alex putting it in his top 3 achievements, and I like their general humor with each other and the other teams (the winch king was funny). I like the X games girls, but the older one was clearly having a bad day. Maybe she was secretly extremely bitter about working with Jessica but hid it well. I know many dislike Brittany, but I just end up chuckling when she says something that I know will irritate viewers (like the diamond/already have one comment). Think of the truly annoying/awful teams we've had on the show before, and remember how your 'villain' team is nowhere near as vicious as past ones.

This was my favorite episode in a long while. The partner swap wasn't as bad as I had feared. Worked out more like the intersection from many moons ago (not that I liked that twist, but it wasn't show-ending). And the way it meshed with the NEL/Keep-on-racing was fine. But mainly though, everything else about these two episodes was great. 2 episodes in the same country, but totally different legs with one in the wilderness and one in the city. Unique locations such as that mall, many hilarious moments, and great tasks. And the u-turn, a device I hate even more now that its before the actual tasks, didn't interfere much with the outcome. I like that the editors let the language instructors have some airtime/personality/introductions as well. Really humanizes the show which is great. I discovered about halfway through this episode that I didn't want any of these teams to go home. This is the most likable cast of teams the show has had in ages, possibly even ever in my opinion. This is so much better than teams who do nothing but snipe and have petty arguments with each other (as much as the show tries to build up stupid stuff like the Kristi/Evan thing, it's nothing). Excellent show all around.

I don't really dislike any of the teams. The lifeguards are clearly the team many viewers can't stand, but I don't mind them. I would probably be pissed about the gnome thing too and might be a bit petty about it later. I think I like their line of communication better than the Yale team, where Evan's tone kind of annoys me. She never raises her voice but still has that really commanding attitude. I hate the stuff like 'Ugh maybe you should check next time', since I take that as 'you better run everything you do by me or we are done'.

It's so stupid to put the u-turn before the dang detour. Make the team earn its use. The violinists rocked the quiz detour faster than anybody, yet are still screwed because they have the slowest cab out of the airport. And now Phil keeps teasing some big twist coming, which I won't spoil here since preview discussion isn't allowed. When will the designers realize that the race in its original form is the best version? Disheartening.

I did some Google searching and checked their Facebook page....I got nothing. It's usually around this time in January, but I haven't seen anything. Maybe they want to wait until after the Olympics since they are part of the NBC family?