S35.E01: The Amazing Race Is Back!

[ChiCricket]

I would pick a smaller masseuse...maybe they'd  be weaker?

(I've never had a massage.)

I really thought the smaller woman's body (Jocelyn?) was going to snap like a chicken bone. 

Edited October 3, 2023 by ChiCricket
Didn't like my post.

[chitowngirl]

You’d be surprised by how strong masseuses are

[shura]

5 hours ago, eel2178 said:

My best guess is that they'll all have to vote for who they want to U-turn at the beginning of the leg then when you get to the detour spot you find out the results of the vote. (Another possibility is once you get to the mat, you hear "You've been U-turned. Go back and do the other task," but I think it would be less likely to work that way.) 

I do like the premise behind it. This will ensure that the U-turn has to be used. We don't have to watch strategy going to waste because everyone wants to stay friends. It gives the U-turned team a better chance of survival because it could be the team that arrives at the head of the pack instead of "we have to U-turn the only team behind us to make sure they stay behind us."

That would be pretty interesting, I like it.  Who would one vote for?  You could U-turn the team that’s been the strongest so far - but chances are that a U-turn won’t eliminate them nor help you avoid being eliminated. Or you could vote for the weakest team hoping that they will be behind you when they get to the U-turn and that will increase your safety cushion. No guarantee that they won’t be ahead of you in any particular leg though. Or you could just spite a team you don’t like, for no strategic reason.  The only thing is, this voting U-turn opens a new possibility of alliances against someone, which might be ugly.

[Jodithgrace]

One of the most painful ordeals I’ve been through, not counting childbirth, was a foot massage I got in Beijing. I’m also not sure if my neck/shoulders would have survived that massage, though the teams all did seem fine afterwards. 
Those sisters attacking those bugs? Incredible! 
I was thinking Isle of something, but I could never see the board long enough to figure it out. Did Phil tell the racers that it was their next destination, or just the audience? I ask because a lot of the guesses were not places. 
A very fun premiere. The deaf guy, Rob(?) and his son are a team to watch, I think, especially if they are underestimated. 

[kaygeeret]

Excellent episode.

So glad to see the show is back.

[Skooma]

1 hour ago, iMonrey said:

I've never liked the U-Turn and I never will. It always struck me as interference from the network because they wanted to interject animosity and drama between the teams to make the show more like Survivor.

Ditto!  I hate that stuff.  I loved the Fast Forward which added strategy and hated it being replaced with all the reality show garbage they have had since.

1 hour ago, TAG42481 said:

Here's the other thing.  I started watching season 7.

Wow then you haven't seen Classic TAR yet.  Check out Seasons 1, 2, 3 and 5 that feature some of the most iconic teams the Race has ever seen.

[anniebird]

2 hours ago, shura said:

That would be pretty interesting, I like it.  Who would one vote for?  You could U-turn the team that’s been the strongest so far - but chances are that a U-turn won’t eliminate them nor help you avoid being eliminated. Or you could vote for the weakest team hoping that they will be behind you when they get to the U-turn and that will increase your safety cushion. No guarantee that they won’t be ahead of you in any particular leg though. Or you could just spite a team you don’t like, for no strategic reason.  The only thing is, this voting U-turn opens a new possibility of alliances against someone, which might be ugly.

I'm not sure the team has to be behind you - I got the impression that it could just be the team who gets the most votes, including those ahead of you. Now, how that will work I don't know - someone above suggested the team will find out when they get to the mat - that's one possibility or maybe everyone votes before the beginning of the leg and the team finds out when they get to the U-turn. 

[Steph Sometimes]

A few weeks ago, I went to get a massage. I booked a Swedish, and at the beginning, I told the massage therapist that I like a really light touch. She argued with me, saying I wouldn't be able to feel any improvement, and then I'd complain. I swore I wouldn't complain, but please do the light touch. I love massages, but I have an incredibly low pain tolerance, so anything harder than the lightest pressure hurts like hell, and I would probably start sobbing.

Yeah, I probably would've had take my chances with the sword.

I am from Los Angeles, love word puzzles, am not under any kind of time pressure, and I still didn't get that. 

This would've been a bad leg for me.

So glad this show is back!

[SVNBob]

On 9/27/2023 at 11:58 PM, 30 Helens said:

There were no teams that stood out to me in particular, but it seemed there was an awful lot of mirroring. The mother-daughter team looked like twins, the boyfriends had identical hairstyles, and the (eliminated) brother-sister team had identical lives. Honestly, who would want to work AND live with their sibling? Good for them if it works, but that would be way too much family togetherness for me.

I did like the deaf dad and his son; they seemed to have a good bond.

When they were showing the backstory of deaf dad and son, they showed a picture of the two when son was a baby, and dad looked almost exactly like son does now.  So even more mirroring there...with a time delay.

They also had some similar facial expressions during their massages.

 

19 hours ago, Lady Calypso said:

Morgan/Lena powered through the food task to get that express pass and I loved every second of them onscreen. They reacted how I would, especially Lena, who I believe was the one who was intensely telling her sister to hurry up.

Whichever one it was, she needed to dial it down during that task.  They were the only ones there for most of the time.  The one team they did see before finishing immediately noped tf out.  So they had lots of time to finish their snack (which, after a 14.5 hour flight and 90-minute cab ride, they were probably hungry.)  There was no need for the extra pressure and haranguing.

 

18 hours ago, shura said:

I saw the ""TY" at the end of that letter string and my mind goes "Sea of Tranquility! Wait, that's on the Moon..."

Right?  You'd think one would need a sense of urgency to be on TAR, and discussing for 5 minutes who is going to do the challenge is not it.  They didn't seem like serious people, between this and the way they went to attempt the sword dance after clearly not learning enough during practice.  But it would have been entertaining to watch them for a few episodes.

I am not sure about the 90-minute episodes, it could become tedious to watch when there are fewer teams left.  I suppose they have all the footage already and feel that it won't be a problem.  Also, how exactly is the voting on the U-turn going to work?  You can only U-turn a team that is behind you, right? (meaning that only a team that gets to the U-turn later can be forced to do it.)  Are the teams going to have an idea of who is behind them or are they going to vote blind and inadvertently try to U-turn teams that are ahead?  And wouldn't the results of this voting only be known after the last team gets to the U-turn?

About Thai massage, is it safe for everybody?  I am quite convinced my body cannot bend that way without breaking or spraining something.

The father and son have the friendliest faces ever.  Very bright-eyed, open and smiley.  When they look at you (well, at the camera, but you see them looking at you), you feel that they are super happy to see you and cant' wait to know what you have to say.  

 

13 hours ago, eel2178 said:

My best guess is that they'll all have to vote for who they want to U-turn at the beginning of the leg then when you get to the detour spot you find out the results of the vote. (Another possibility is once you get to the mat, you hear "You've been U-turned. Go back and do the other task," but I think it would be less likely to work that way.) 

I do like the premise behind it. This will ensure that the U-turn has to be used. We don't have to watch strategy going to waste because everyone wants to stay friends. It gives the U-turned team a better chance of survival because it could be the team that arrives at the head of the pack instead of "we have to U-turn the only team behind us to make sure they stay behind us."

The U-Turn Vote is a mechanic imported from one of the international versions of TAR; namely the Israeli one, HaMerotz LaMillion, where this happened in practically every leg in their 2nd season.  (The only legs that it didn't happen in had a Yield vote instead.)  And TARChina, TAROZ, and TARPhillipenes have also used it. 

Apparently the procedure is as speculated above: the vote takes place at the start of the leg, and the teams learn the result at the detour.  And if it's anything like the image on the wiki, the board will also show exactly which teams voted for the team(s) that will have to U-Turn.  (Possible plural, because there can be tie votes leading to multiple teams getting U-Turned.)

There's also the advanced version of this that the following season of HaMerotz LaMillion did: the Double Must-Vote U-Turn.  That starts the same, but the team that gets U-Turned also gets to (try to) U-Turn another team.

 

I was not too surprised that Rob was able to solve the puzzle on his own and quickly.  He's all about visual communication.

[shura]

7 hours ago, anniebird said:

I'm not sure the team has to be behind you - I got the impression that it could just be the team who gets the most votes, including those ahead of you. Now, how that will work I don't know - someone above suggested the team will find out when they get to the mat - that's one possibility or maybe everyone votes before the beginning of the leg and the team finds out when they get to the U-turn. 

You are right, the “winner” of the vote can be ahead of you, of course. I was just thinking that you may want them to be behind you - if they are ahead, slowing them down might not help you survive the leg. Just thinking about what I would base my U-turn vote on if I had to vote.

[Haleth]

Oh, yay!  TAR is back!  And it's 90 minutes long!  Unfortunately for me the frantic pace gets my adrenaline going so watching it until 11pm is out of the question, I have to wait til the next day.  That's ok.  I'm just happy we are racing around the world again.  

Great start!  Unlike Survivor TAR generally has likable teams.  I can't really say anyone bothered me much and I do like several teams quite a bit.  The brother who ended up cut didn't show nearly enough hustle, and their quirkiness may have annoyed me later, but they're gone.  Glad the mother and daughter (and wow, they could be mistaken for twins!) pushed on.

I was very impressed with Rob figuring out the word puzzle and the Anna Leigh flying across the high wire.  Also the engaged couple who nailed the sword routine.

LOL starting in LA.  Getting from the Hollywood sign to the airport (with a stop downtown) is a nightmare, even on a Sunday morning when this was probably filmed.

The return of the gross food challenge!  I had to look away.  Could not watch the girls chowing down on bugs.

[aradia22]

I saw the DVR getting ready to record the first episode and I was hyped... then I had to wait so long I lost interest a little. I wasn't quite sure about the new cast in the first few minutes but I soon got on board. It's too early to really tell which teams will be likable or annoying (or get those edits) but so far there's a lot to like.

The casting is solid this season. I think there's a good mix of older competitors and photogenic young people. Not that older people can't be photogenic but some of the young people they cast look like social media stars even when they aren't. No one seems that fame hungry so far. Airports/flights are back! 

The episode was very front-loaded for me. There are a lot of contestants but it seems like they knew there would be diminishing returns with something like the massages so we saw less and less of the subsequent teams. All the drama was in getting to the mat first, not who was going home. 

The tightrope task didn't make much difference but I guess it's good to challenge the teams with heights and they all performed admirably. I took notice of Greg when he gave himself a pep talk to get through the tightrope walk he clearly hated. Liam did the same thing later. Do I need to start talking to myself more? 

Their struggle with the puzzle made me worry about the rest of the race. It took me a few minutes to solve the scramble but I'm surprised they struggled SO much. Of course, the editors made it easier by highlighting "of" for the audience early on. I got distracted because I found the word "isle" (and other random words) and I was looking for a specific place. Then I saw all the letters of "city" in the correct order and it became much simpler to unscramble "angels." I was momentarily perturbed because I thought they were solving for their destination (not their current location) until they told us Thailand is also called the city of angels. 

They had to eat SO MANY insects for the express pass. Maybe it'll come in handy at some point but I would have skipped it. Even if it wasn't a plate of insects, that's just a lot of anything to choke down. Not as bad as the caviar but it had Fear Factor vibes and I don't remember Fear Factor even requiring that many bugs. It just kind of seemed like a punishment for the sisters that lost them their lead since no one else even tried. 

Between the two detours, massage makes the most sense but I like Thai massages and I can't learn choreography. From the example of the engaged couple, it clearly wasn't impossible. The choreography was arguably slower and simpler than some dances racers have had to learn. Some people seemed to genuinely enjoy their massages. I don't know if the others weren't used to it or if the masseuses had been instructed to really go hard on them. 

[aradia22]

At first I thought I'd have trouble telling the teams apart and then I realized it's just that a lot of the people who are related look super similar. Like, I'd believe you if you said there were a bunch of twins this season. I thought Elizabeth and Iliana were sisters. Almost every sibling set could pass for fraternal twins.

Corey is one of the super photogenic ones. He looks like a Disney prince. Or someone they'd hire at the parks. Or James Marsden. His dad Rob is a super expressive signer. I appreciate that while they have an interpreter on the show, they mostly let him speak for himself and utilize subtitles rather than having someone else speak for him. 

They weren't getting a full villain edit but I think Todd and Ashlie (mostly Todd) came the closest to being unlikable. It was due to little things like the gameplay of getting the others to let him go ahead, how they spoke to a few of the locals, but I'll also admit he just looks like someone annoying. Spencer Pratt? Some sports guy? It'll come to me. Oddly, I softened a bit when he realized he messed up at the massage detour and needed to tone it down and shut up. 

Jocelyn and Victor won me over early just because I was rooting for an older couple to last as long as possible. Obviously they were getting a positive edit because they won. But I also think they did a good job telling us interesting things about themselves. They gave the editors soundbites to choose from. The at-home birth, Victor speaking Laotian... they were saying things I could actually register and remember. 

We saw very little of Robbin and Chelsea. I was worried they might leave early when we got so much backstory and they were otherwise barely in the episode. They really try with the physically fit all female teams sometimes. I want to see them make it at least halfway. I worry about Andrea and Malaina. I actually thought it was smart that Malaina skipped the express pass when she saw the sisters had such a head start and chose the sword task if they were sore. They did seem to really get messed up by the weight of the sticks vs. the swords. 

I was annoyed early when everyone clustered around the guy walking his dog because he had a phone. We did get to see a cute gray dog though.

Derek and Claire looked good in plain clothes (as opposed to their race outfits). I was pleasantly surprised to see them again. 

I wonder how long Anna Leigh and her dad will last. The fact that she's a pageant girl was barely mentioned. They did get a fair amount of screen time for not doing much and not being near the top of the rankings.

John and Garett (the army best friends) honestly made me a little sad for a bit. They were babies in those old photos. It's been so many years. Yeah, just a little sad moment in the middle of the show. 

This year's military brothers Liam and Yeremi have beautiful eyes and beautiful hair and don't seem to be very remarkable racers at the moment. As far as brother teams go, I preferred Greg and John who didn't register too much but seemed like nice young men when they were on screen.

[aradia22]

Quote

We are usually overwhelmed with endless young dating couples 99% or which are dull and boring as anything never having had a life as yet and all the damn yelling they do as they face challenges for the first time in that life.  Only the engaged gay couple are youngish and they seem fine.  And the two married couples are more mature. 

THAT was it. There are a fair number of young people but most of them aren't couples. Not that other teams can't fight but couples vibes are just... Joe and Ian were bringing tension now that people mention it. And I've already stated my thoughts on Todd. Their vague mention of a rough patch in their imperfect marriage that they chose to work through screams cheating though it could always be something else. 

Quote

Morgan/Lena powered through the food task to get that express pass and I loved every second of them onscreen. They reacted how I would, especially Lena, who I believe was the one who was intensely telling her sister to hurry up. 

I felt bad for the sister looking for sympathy when the other one was just yelling at her to do it. The bickering doesn't bode well for KF down the road. They have completely opposite needs/approaches and it wasn't like her sister didn't intend to go through with the task. She just needed positive reinforcement. 

[GenerationX]

I liked how the team that switched out of the sword routine task memorized the steps by naming them.  They also recognized it was a more difficult task than it looked when they used actual swords in the routine (noting that the weight/weight distribution was far different than the practice wooden swords).

I liked the word puzzle, too.  I had "castle" for the last word and then "isle of" for the first two words before finally solving it.

Great start to the Race!

[Guest]

1 hour ago, aradia22 said:

I took notice of Greg when he gave himself a pep talk to get through the tightrope walk he clearly hated.

I enjoyed the intense toothy grimace grin he had the entire time, like he was trying to convince himself he was enjoying it.

[TVbitch]

I am optimistic for the season. (Which I haven't felt for a long time.) It has a bit of a "back to basics" feel. Glad they did not give out 3 express passes that the winning team gets to distribute. Good introductions, but not a huge focus on everyone's sob story. Even quite a few older folks in the mix! And no social media celebrities! 

[iMonrey]

3 hours ago, aradia22 said:

The casting is solid this season. I think there's a good mix of older competitors and photogenic young people. Not that older people can't be photogenic but some of the young people they cast look like social media stars even when they aren't. No one seems that fame hungry so far.

3 hours ago, aradia22 said:

THAT was it. There are a fair number of young people but most of them aren't couples. Not that other teams can't fight but couples vibes are just... Joe and Ian were bringing tension now that people mention it. And I've already stated my thoughts on Todd. Their vague mention of a rough patch in their imperfect marriage that they chose to work through screams cheating though it could always be something else. 

That's what works for me too. I don't find dating couples particularly compelling because I consider their relationships to be much weaker and potentially temporary, compared to family members or married couples. And sometimes married couples can be pretty boring too but I love Jocelyn and Victor so far. 

Also love Rob and Corey, Malaina and Andrea, Greg and John, Liam and Yeremi, and liked Alexander and Sheridan so sorry to see them go. 

On the fence about Ashlie and Todd and Joel and Garrett. 

Just didn't get much of an impression of Morgan and Lena, although they did a great job getting the Express Pass. Not sure about Steve and Anna Leigh, Joe and Ian, or Robbin and Chelsea. 

[aghst]

Anna Leigh was fearless on that tightrope but she's tiny and her father may not be able to keep up.

Looks like after the anagram separated the good ones from the bad ones, the taxi lottery reset the order when they landed in Bangkok.

Did the gay couple knock out the knife task in less than 30 minutes?  Because it seems like none of them would be able to do it faster than the 30-minute massage, not to mention the massage place seemed much closer when they got the Detours than the place where they'd have to do the knife thing.

The brother and sister team, you knew they were going to be in trouble when neither of them could decide right away which one would do the tightrope:  "you do it, no you do it, no you do it ..."

And apparently they kept trying to finish the knife task rather than cutting their losses and switching right away.  You can't tell with editing though maybe the mother and daughter team got to the massage place way later than the brother and sister got to the knife task.

It will be interesting to see how puzzles and other mental tasks trip up the teams.  The anagram may be a bad sign for many of the teams.

[J-Man]

Is there going to be an Express Pass on every episode? And if so, is there a limit to how many Express Passes one team can accumulate?

[Tango64]

I fully endorse everyone's enthusiasm for the return of classic TAR and the lack of social media people. 

My only complaint is with the contestants sharing the answer to the anagram. I groaned in fear of another season of alliances. Just compete, people!

[illdoc]

1 hour ago, J-Man said:

Is there going to be an Express Pass on every episode? And if so, is there a limit to how many Express Passes one team can accumulate?

I'm rewatching TAR from the beginning (just finished season 19). They only had a few seasons which had an Express Pass (just 1 and just the first leg). I believe later (I have seen all the seasons, just not lately) there were a couple of seasons which had 2 EP, but both were given to the first place team on the first leg, with that team having to give away one of the passes to the team of their choosing. So, to answer your questions--(a) Express Pass only on first leg and (b) you can only have one Express Pass. Assuming, of course, that nothing has changed since the last time they gave away EPs (I think it's been several seasons).

[zapper]

The give away express passes - IMHO - did nothing but promote the alliances that we all know and love.

I will always remember the incredulous look on Phil's face for the team that came in very very last for a leg, was eliminated from the race, and while holding an express pass.

[eel2178]

2 hours ago, Tango64 said:

My only complaint is with the contestants sharing the answer to the anagram. I groaned in fear of another season of alliances. Just compete, people!

I do viewer opinion surveys for CBS, and I have told them a number of times that it would improve the show if there were rules forbidding the sharing of information between teams. I doesn't appear I'm getting anywhere towards wearing them down.

[eel2178]

2 hours ago, aghst said:

The brother and sister team, you knew they were going to be in trouble when neither of them could decide right away which one would do the tightrope:  "you do it, no you do it, no you do it ..."

They reminded me of a joke from at least 40 years ago:

A set of twins were months past their due date. The doctor finally decided to do a C-section and found the 2 babies at the entrance to the birth canal saying "After you." "No, after you." "No, after you." "No, after you," etc.

[iMonrey]

3 hours ago, Tango64 said:

I fully endorse everyone's enthusiasm for the return of classic TAR and the lack of social media people. 

Well, perhaps not classic TAR. I don't think we'll ever see a return to pre-9/11 airport scrambling. Nor the plethora of grueling physical tasks that had to be completed in a single leg. 

That said, this was certainly in improvement over the last several seasons, especially the Covid-era ones.

It's been years since I've seen two Detour options where some teams potentially could not physically accomplish either one. That's probably on purpose, though, after that one girl team was eliminated because they simply could not do either task. 

Still, I'd like to see the show up its game in making the tasks a bit more challenging. Some of the classics that took teams out, like the dreaded phone-answering task or the two pounds of meat tasks where teams simply give up and take the penalty.

[illdoc]

5 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

I don't think we'll ever see a return to pre-9/11 airport scrambling.

Well, since TAR 2 aired Mar 2002 (from wikipedia "Location scouting took place during September 2001 but was paused for a month and a half following the September 11 attacks.") we've really only had one season of "pre-9/11 airport scrambling". I think you meant "pre-COVID"

[iMonrey]

9 minutes ago, illdoc said:

Well, since TAR 2 aired Mar 2002 (from wikipedia "Location scouting took place during September 2001 but was paused for a month and a half following the September 11 attacks.") we've really only had one season of "pre-9/11 airport scrambling". I think you meant "pre-COVID"

No, in the early seasons the teams had to go to the airport or go to travel agents and find flights. None of this showing up at the airport and lining up for one of two available flights. That's what I mean. I could swear this was a feature for many years early on but you're right about the math.

[Shrek]

1 hour ago, iMonrey said:

Well, perhaps not classic TAR. I don't think we'll ever see a return to pre-9/11 airport scrambling. Nor the plethora of grueling physical tasks that had to be completed in a single leg. 

 

After looking for a flight to visit back home in the UK there were very few actual different flights, lots of airlines were selling seats under their name but on someone else's flight whereas before covid there were at usually 10 or so different flights to choose from on most days now there is one or two.

All that to say I doubt very much there will be the scramble for tickets on lots of different flights via lots of different routes at varying times like in the old days, which was always fun to watch.

[anniebird]

1 hour ago, iMonrey said:

No, in the early seasons the teams had to go to the airport or go to travel agents and find flights. None of this showing up at the airport and lining up for one of two available flights. That's what I mean. I could swear this was a feature for many years early on but you're right about the math.

Maybe subsequent legs will have the airport scrambling we all love but as far as I remember, the first leg always had pre-assigned flights.

[sinycalone]

Really enjoyed the premiere....the extra 30 minutes allowed for learning more about each time than past seasons.

I can't say any of the teams annoyed me, and some were very pleasant.  I have a bias...I am rooting for Andrea and Melaina.  They live in Philly....where I was born and raised.  

Really impressed by:  Anna Leigh zipping across the wire and Rob rocking the word puzzle.  The Philly women were smart to pass on the bug eating...they were never going to beat the women already there.

I got the word puzzle - City of Angels after about 5 minutes - but rejected it because (in my mind) they were already in the only City of Angles I know, lol.

 

 

 

 

 

[Quilt Fairy]

16 hours ago, SVNBob said:

Whichever one it was, she needed to dial it down during that task.  They were the only ones there for most of the time.  The one team they did see before finishing immediately noped tf out.  So they had lots of time to finish their snack (which, after a 14.5 hour flight and 90-minute cab ride, they were probably hungry.)  There was no need for the extra pressure and haranguing.

This ended up being a task that only they performed, during which they only saw one other team.  Yes, they were on the first flight, but they knew they still had a detour to do (assuming they're not going to blow the EP right away) and at least a chance of getting the likely prize for coming in first.  So, I can see the need to hurry.  

From a totally different perspective, those bugs ain't gonna taste any better if you go slow.  They're more likely to get it done if they go fast.  I would've been chugging a lot of water, though. 

[aghst]

Were the brother and the sister the only team from the first flight to fall behind flight 2 teams?

 

 

[Tango64]

5 hours ago, eel2178 said:

I do viewer opinion surveys for CBS, and I have told them a number of times that it would improve the show if there were rules forbidding the sharing of information between teams. I doesn't appear I'm getting anywhere towards wearing them down.

You’re doing the Lord’s work. 

[Ancaster]

On 9/28/2023 at 7:51 AM, Colorado David said:

 

I had to look up Patagonia as I am not familiar - an unusual choice, but seems like a rather interesting place to see, not your usual touristy destination. Fun fact: Sylvester Stallone owns land there.

Not sure why it's unusual -- seems like a great choice to me.

13 hours ago, aradia22 said:

 

I wonder how long Anna Leigh and her dad will last. The fact that she's a pageant girl was barely mentioned. 

 

She's also an influencer - double yuck.

10 hours ago, TVbitch said:

Good introductions, but not a huge focus on everyone's sob story. Even quite a few older folks in the mix! And no social media celebrities! 

As I just mentioned, Anna Leigh is an influencer.  :-(

[iMonrey]

23 minutes ago, Ancaster said:

As I just mentioned, Anna Leigh is an influencer.  :-(

To be fair half the people her age could be described as such.

[North of Eden]

Happy to have the race back and happy a team I like won the first place. Also and happy the eliminated team seemed to take it okay so I don't feel so bad for them.

Team Mom/Daughter (can't believe she's the mom and not a close-in-age sister!) seem like very marginal racers so they may not be long for this race.

Cheers for the demise of chartered flights.

Too much time spent in LA though but since I'm a Hollywood sign junkie I will forgive it though they should have shown a BW pic of it saying HOLLYWOODLAND.

I get why Claire and Derek were there as winners and because of the highwire but that just served to remind me that was when I stopped liking Claire when her reality show persona slipped and she got real nasty, real quick, and turned me off from her forever.

Superficially Ashlie is a smoke show....don't even remember hubby's name but he can stick around if it means getting Ashlie on screen for as many episodes as possible.

Anyway so far no one is really obnoxious though I could have done without deaf dad mugging for the camera.

Bald Snarks in the season premiere. You can't go wrong.

I really, really, really want to see the FAST FORWARD brought back weekly as I always loved teams wasting time to go for it when its gone. We got a taste of that tonight with the EXPRESS and it was glorious.

Lastly, leave it to TAR to bring back what SURVIVOR doesn't have the guts to anymore and that's the gross food challenge. Also thumbs down to SURVIVOR fans that tune out when TAR comes on. I'll never understand that.

[ChiCricket]

.

On 9/29/2023 at 10:15 PM, North of Eden said:

Anyway so far no one is really obnoxious though I could have done without deaf dad mugging for the camera.

 No, the "faces" he was making is part of speaking in sign language.

From Google:

 "Facial expressions are part of the grammar of signed languages. That’s one part of it.

The other part of it is the visual needs of Deaf people:  Deaf people need to see tones, moods, and so forth. Hearing people have a pair of fully working ears, so they don’t really need facial expressions.

But Deaf people's ears don’t work as well …so what works for you, doesn’t work for them.

So…instead of all this stuff that goes into a vocal inflection, they all go up on the face. All these inflections become visual, and become part of their signed languages.

Remember,Deaf people are People Of The Eye. Auditory is always bad, and visual is always good."

PS I'm not deaf but my niece's parents are, so I've seen this many times.

Edited October 3, 2023 by ChiCricket

[Stardancer Supreme]

On 9/28/2023 at 12:49 PM, mertensia said:

I loved at the word puzzle the shot of the couple of people puzzling in the foreground and in the background the guy is quietly spelling out Angels and leaves.

I got City of Angels almost immediately, but I am at home on the couch. With pressure on? Yeah, no. I'd be worse than Jared and golden on Big Brother.

 

TAR is back! This is my favorite reality show.

I liked the majority of the teams, which is good.  I'm rooting for Andrea & Malaina (they are from Philly!), Greg & John, and Jocelyn & Victor.  

I figured Alexandra & Sheridan would be the first out. I was yelling "RAAAACE!" at them while they were lollygagging with getting directions from that man with his dog. How are you the first to get to him, yet are the last to leave with the directions? 

Liam & Yeremi are real nice to look at. 

I don't think anyone should underestimate Rob. He figured out the puzzle with no help. He and Corey should do just fine in the pack.

They really took 50 minutes to figure out the puzzle? Yikes. I blame GWB and that "No Child Left Behind" law. LOL!   I figured that "City Of Angels" just referred to Los Angeles; I learn something new with every season of TAR!

Morgan & Lena are the MVPs of this episode because I wouldn't have eaten the bugs or the spider!  I don't do bugs, alive or fried, but I am definitely a huge arachnophobe. Eat the fried tarantula? Aw Hell Naw.  I would have told my partner, "We don't need that Express Pass. Eff that."

[Fake Jan Brady]

27 minutes ago, Stardancer Supreme said:

Morgan & Lena are the MVPs of this episode because I wouldn't have eaten the bugs or the spider!  I don't do bugs, alive or fried, but I am definitely a huge arachnophobe. Eat the fried tarantula? Aw Hell Naw.  I would have told my partner, "We don't need that Express Pass. Eff that."

Baby sister should have eaten the spider first; that giant thing looked even more unappetising alone on the plate.

[SVNBob]

5 hours ago, Quilt Fairy said:

This ended up being a task that only they performed, during which they only saw one other team.  Yes, they were on the first flight, but they knew they still had a detour to do (assuming they're not going to blow the EP right away) and at least a chance of getting the likely prize for coming in first.  So, I can see the need to hurry.  

From a totally different perspective, those bugs ain't gonna taste any better if you go slow.  They're more likely to get it done if they go fast.  I would've been chugging a lot of water, though. 

Fair points. 

But still, the level of haranguing was a bit much, and didn't really seem to help.  And since they still finished before a 3rd team showed up at the task, there really was no need for it.

 

4 hours ago, aghst said:

Were the brother and the sister the only team from the first flight to fall behind flight 2 teams?

No, the ladies from Philly also fell behind from 2nd place (as they were the team that noped out of the Express Pass challenge), in part due to them Bald Snarking the Detour.  Someone (I think it was Anna Leigh) commented on it at the massage parlor.

[Skooma]

10 hours ago, eel2178 said:

I do viewer opinion surveys for CBS, and I have told them a number of times that it would improve the show if there were rules forbidding the sharing of information between teams. I doesn't appear I'm getting anywhere towards wearing them down.

I like alliances at times my favorite being Season 3's Band of Brothers featuring The Opposite Brothers (Ken & Gerard) and The Wonder Twins (Derek & Drew) teaming up (later FireCop joined) when the 20-something teams ganged up on The Wonder Twins. 

This lead to a really great storyline as many of the the 20-somethings started to fall away and Flo fell for one of The Wonder Twins yet accidentally sealed their demise when The Opposite Brothers had to go head-to-head with them for the last spot of the final three. 

Without those alliances you wouldn't have one of the best story arcs and dramatic final three endings in the history of the show.

(Also loved Kevin & Drew helping Nancy & Emily in Season 1).

9 hours ago, iMonrey said:

Well, perhaps not classic TAR. I don't think we'll ever see a return to pre-9/11 airport scrambling. Nor the plethora of grueling physical tasks that had to be completed in a single leg. 

That said, this was certainly in improvement over the last several seasons, especially the Covid-era ones.

 

9 hours ago, illdoc said:

Well, since TAR 2 aired Mar 2002 (from wikipedia "Location scouting took place during September 2001 but was paused for a month and a half following the September 11 attacks.") we've really only had one season of "pre-9/11 airport scrambling". I think you meant "pre-COVID"

 

9 hours ago, iMonrey said:

No, in the early seasons the teams had to go to the airport or go to travel agents and find flights. None of this showing up at the airport and lining up for one of two available flights. That's what I mean. I could swear this was a feature for many years early on but you're right about the math.

Okay let us see about sorting this all out.  Classic TAR is usually considered anywhere up to Season 5 and some stretch it to Season 7 even.  (Season 8 was the horrible 4 team, stay in America "Family Edition" disaster thus making it kind of the border line).

In ALL  seasons the first flights out of the US were always line up for 2 or 3 pre-booked flights since production didn't want to have the first episode broadcast risking showing one team sitting back in NY or LA while everybody else was on an entirely different continent.  (Example: Season 1 had three pre-booked flights out to South Africa with enough seats between the three for everybody).  Airport scrambles always started in Leg 2.

History details:  Season 2 was scheduled to start in October 2001 but was postponed until New Year's Day 2002 because of 9/11 so only Season 1 was run pre-9/11 in March of 2001.  The first episode was broadcast just a day or two before 9/11 and had great ratings.  But by the time the show started up again a lot of people didn't want to see the rest of the world unfortunately and the ratings fell a lot, sigh.  Thus TAR's struggle to stay afloat in those early years.

2 hours ago, North of Eden said:

I really, really, really want to see the FAST FORWARD brought back weekly as I always loved teams wasting time to go for it when its gone. We got a taste of that tonight with the EXPRESS and it was glorious.

Yes!!!!  The FAST FORWARD was one of the best things about the Race.  It could save a team or destroy a team.  It added strategy.  And it provided 2 separate paths to the pitstop for the last 2 trailing teams often making it easier for the editors to make a convincing case for how close they might be.

They said they got rid of it for cost reasons.  Garbage.  They could just use the team's video crew - not a location crew like on detours and roadblocks - and make it something simple like jumping in a pool or eating a meat pie or hunting through rolled up rugs.  It just had to be some place you navigated to. 

And it never worked in it's waning seasons as just one a season.  It needed to be available in every leg until the last 2 though each team could only use one in the entire Race thus the strategy.

[aradia22]

Quote

But still, the level of haranguing was a bit much, and didn't really seem to help.  And since they still finished before a 3rd team showed up at the task, there really was no need for it.

Agreed. It was strange she absolutely refused to give her sister ANY positive motivation or answer questions. It was ALL negative. Maybe she knows it works best with her sister but it seemed like she was playing it up for the camera or genuinely being mean and unable to comprehend why that was not helpful. It felt like a weird attitude to take right at the start of the race. She acted like her sister was on her last nerve when they seemed to be keeping pace with each other pretty well and her sister gave no indication of wanting to quit the task.

It was a very small moment but I'd compare it to Greg and John where one of them told the other something like 'hey, if the massage gets to be too much, let me know and maybe we can talk through it instead of quitting.' We've seen stubborn contestants on this show. Nothing the one sister was saying seemed to warrant all that negativity. (Eventually I will learn their names... I'm doing my best just to recall team names now. Next I'll try to remember which is which.)

[Hera]

I just remembered that this season had started airing. I like the longer episode format, especially since there are more teams to get to know this season. Agree with everyone about the attractiveness of the younger members of the cast, though the show has a history of casting for attractiveness—there were a lot of models on the beloved early seasons as well.

On 9/28/2023 at 3:51 PM, Colorado David said:

I liked Elizabeth and Iliana, the mother (Elizabeth) reminds me of me esp on the 'i can't just sit around and wait' thoughts. That would drive me crazy if I'm not progressing forward most of the time.

Same. But Iliana was right—getting to the other task and then getting dressed would take time as well, and probably longer than the 15 minutes or whatever that they had to wait for a massage slot to open. They couldn't have known for sure that the massage was the faster task, but it was, and so staying was absolutely the right move. But on a visceral level, I am 100% Elizabeth. Having to sit and wait when I know there's an option not to drives me nuts. Plus, she was a right about the demoralization aspect of seeing everyone else leave first.

On 9/28/2023 at 3:51 PM, Colorado David said:

Greg and John I think are going to be tough serious competition.

I think so too. They seem to have a close bond and are using the race to hang out with each other rather than to work through underlying issues. I don't generally root for the fit all-male teams (and I still might not end up rooting for them), but for whatever reason, they're more likeable to me than Liam and Yeremi or Marcus and Michael from last season.

They also endeared themselves to me with this from their Parade interview:

Quote

What do you think is the most important skill required to win The Amazing Race?
John Franklin: Read the directions. Read the freaking directions.
Greg Franklin: Yeah, attention to detail.
John: That's a better one, just all-encompassing. And that's both for navigational directions as well as task directions.

On 9/29/2023 at 12:36 AM, Jodithgrace said:

Did Phil tell the racers that it was their next destination, or just the audience?

I am never clear on exactly what the teams are told, vs. the audience. I think sometimes they are told things we are not and vice versa.

Edited September 30, 2023 by Hera
Adding to my reply.

[zapper]

12 hours ago, North of Eden said:

... We got a taste of that tonight with the EXPRESS ...

i see what you did there.

[iMonrey]

A few things I noticed on rewatch:

You can see a sound guy with a microphone chasing after Joe when he crossed the tightrope and ran for the puzzle.

I didn't catch it on first watch, but Todd said "stop" midway through the massage and they had to start over again. Both of them.

When they showed Group 1 getting onto the first flight it looked like there were a lot of empty seats. But I suppose the airline might have allowed the teams to board first so the show wouldn't have to get waivers from all the other passengers, or blur all their faces.

I don't enjoy travel, but if they ever invent Star Trek's beaming technology I would love to go to Thailand. It looks amazing.

[whinewithwine]

The Amazing Left Eyebrow Arch!   Never change, Phil.

[anniebird]

1 hour ago, iMonrey said:

 

When they showed Group 1 getting onto the first flight it looked like there were a lot of empty seats. But I suppose the airline might have allowed the teams to board first so the show wouldn't have to get waivers from all the other passengers, or blur all their faces.

 

I don't think TAR's restriction on "Only the first six teams" has anything to do with the actual number of seats available. I think actual availability doesn't come into play until subsequent legs when there are no pre-assigned flights. 

[seacliffsal]

The only team I don't like at this point is Todd and his wife-primarily due to Todd.  He tried to get extra camera time on the tightrope by 'dancing' on the line and then went with 'look, only one hand' while taking one of his hands off the guide wire.  Then, during the massage, he said 'stop' after which he stated that he didn't know they would actually stop and that he shouldn't have gone for the theatrical 'stop.'  So, basically, he admitted that he said it for additional attention.  Yep, they need to go.

My favorities are father/son, married couple that came in first, and the brothers-one of whom knew some signing.

[aghst]

2 hours ago, anniebird said:

I don't think TAR's restriction on "Only the first six teams" has anything to do with the actual number of seats available. I think actual availability doesn't come into play until subsequent legs when there are no pre-assigned flights. 

It's probably an artificial constraint, only 6 teams on the first flight, to reward those who figured out the anagram and navigated to LAX faster than the others.

Flying from the US to Thailand is one of the longest flights in the world.  Only a couple of direct flights but more that connect through some city in eastern Asia.

There are other airlines which serve this route so there might have been other flights to get more of the teams to Bangkok faster than that second flight.

Edited September 30, 2023 by aghst