S37.E01: Double the Stakes, Double the Eliminations

[chitowngirl]

Fourteen teams compete; in Hong Kong, teams confront the inaugural Fork in the Road, forcing them to choose which direction and route they want to take to the Pit Stop, creating two parallel races where two teams will be eliminated.
 

Airdate March 5, 2025 on CBS

[Rodney]

As a women's team pundit, I'm not really feeling too confident about any of them.  One is already gone (and they looked hopeless from the beginning, so no shocker there), and the remaining three don't look much stronger, either.

Looks like another season of men's teams ruling the roost.

Edited Thursday at 04:06 AM by Rodney

[InDueTime]

I'm so glad that TAR is on my TV again.

I felt bad for Mark and Larry. Not last, but still eliminated.

Because of this, I'm not a fan of the Fork in the Road.

I felt bad for Jackie and Lauren. However, if something like stairs can give you pause, this may not be the show for you. Last season had an episode that was almost completely stairs.

I would have done Dance. Singing involves likely movement and correctly pronouncing lyrics in a different language.

I may be alone in this, but I like the Intersection.

[Giuseppe]

Thank whoever responsible for creating a separate thread for live chat this season for those of us who don’t like wading through real time posts before getting to the beginning of the overall episode talk.

I honestly wasn’t too hopeful based on the previews (I don’t know why they keep leaning into commercials that give off these feel-good, you-can-do-it, sentimental-type rah-rah feelings instead of tense, exciting, edge-of-your-seat race moments), but pretty great first episode! Liked that there were no overly-long team intros with hokey music accompaniment. SO happy to see the return of racing from the start line to the airport to catch the early flight! Also, YES to teams racing to catch a ferry and one team barely making it ahead of other teams. This is what I’ve really missed from this show lately…actual racing to catch various modes of transport that can make or break the leg. I hope that continues with planes, trains, buses, etc. Editing was good. Tension was good. I didn’t even mind the performance based tasks this time because they didn’t feel as repetitive and dragged out as we usually get on those tasks. Lots of placement shake-ups. Actually felt like old school TAR.

Jonathan and Ava (?) are giving early Frank and Margarita vibes. Even though they fell behind at the fork in the road, they seem like they’ll be a team to contend with.

Speaking of fork in the road, basically just a re-branded Detour, except the last team to check in from either option gets eliminated. Don’t love it, don’t hate it.

Looking forward to the season if this continues to be the vibe.

[Fiftyninth]

48 minutes ago, Giuseppe said:

Speaking of fork in the road, basically just a re-branded Detour, except the last team to check in from either option gets eliminated. Don’t love it, don’t hate it.

I expected the fork to have more than one task on each route, so that was a little disappointing to me. I wish it were less than just a revised detour. 

But overall, I really liked the episode. I feel like I have zero idea who the mother/daughter team are.

[aghst]

The dating nurses barely survived.  IF they'd have been eliminated because they couldn't get a taxi, it would have been a bad look to have them be one of the double-eliminations.

Were they the only ones to have so much trouble getting taxis from the ferry or was it just editing to show them having difficulties but not the other teams?

It would seem to be the former because they were one of the last teams to get to the Fork in the Road.

Was it that the taxi drivers didn't want to drive way out of the way to a different location?  Because I think maybe it involved crossing Victoria Harbor, from Hong Kong Island to Kowloon or vice versa.  Or maybe the unpleasant possibility that because they were black, they had troubles getting a taxi.  I don't know if that's a phenomenon in Hong Kong but it's certainly a thing in some parts of the US.

I also suspect that the judges were told no more than x number of attempts, pass them even if they didn't really improve.

OK, HK is a real long flight from LAX.  I'm hoping the eliminated teams get to spend at least a couple of days there before being flown out.  It would be tough if they had to fly out the day after their race.

I believe it's about a 10-11 hour flight so for them to run off the plane and jump on taxis and race is difficult enough.

[kitkat343]

3 hours ago, InDueTime said:

I'm so glad that TAR is on my TV again.

I felt bad for Mark and Larry. Not last, but still eliminated.

Because of this, I'm not a fan of the Fork in the Road.

I felt bad for Jackie and Lauren. However, if something like stairs can give you pause, this may not be the show for you. Last season had an episode that was almost completely stairs.

I would have done Dance. Singing involves likely movement and correctly pronouncing lyrics in a different language.

I may be alone in this, but I like the Intersection.

Jackye and Lauren at least seemed like lovely people who really appreciated their brief time on TAR and clearly have a wonderful relationship with each other.  But honestly the producers need to stop casting people for whom the only question is "will they be philliminated on the field during the first leg, or will they actually manage to complete one leg before being eliminated at the mat."  Having difficulty climbing the pole in Hong Kong is reasonable for this show; having difficulty climbing a flight of stairs is not.

[Fake Jan Brady]

Jonathan comes across as a teensy bit controlling; I'd hoped we'd seen the last of the "let's test our relationship on TAR" couples. 

Dressing fourteen teams we'd just met in dragon costumes and opera make-up wasn't great for getting to know them; most of the middle teams are a blur to me.

Sorry to see the firefighters go; they seemed as if they'd be self-effacing and entertaining. 

Because I'm deeply superficial I'm rooting for the jacked father and son and the ridiculously attractive Vegas husbands [who absolutely blitzed the dragon task].

Edited Thursday at 09:44 AM by Fake Jan Brady

[shura]

So, theoretically, one half of the Fork could be made so easy that everyone choosing it would be done before the first team from the other half checked in?  Meaning that teams that finished 7 and 14 would be eliminated?

What’s with the father of eight saying that he “empowers” his wife to make decisions so she doesn’t have to wait for his approval when he is out of town and she runs the household?

Loved the many team colors even though I don’t know the names of half of them.

[Haleth]

The fork in the road was interesting but, yeah, it’s still a detour.  Maybe it will encourage teams to hustle if they know they might not have a choice and could be eliminated even if they finish ahead of teams doing the other task. I expect there will be one more fork to lose the extra team  

14 teams. And a good portion of the epi half of them were in makeup. Yikes. Maybe next week we can start to sort them out and learn names.

I was a little worried why the dating nurses could not get a taxi. It looked bad that drivers kept turning them down. Good to know it was their own mistake, not using the name of the street(?) the drivers would know.

So far everyone seems fun.  Yeah, a couple of the guys were kind of intense right out of the gate but their partners didn’t mind.

The ladies who were so far behind were on the wrong show. I’m glad they were allowed to do all the tasks though. It was a nice adventure for them. I loved when all the handlers cheered on the one sister who climbed the bamboo. (Was she the same one who was afraid of stairs?  But climbing the tower was ok?)

[mojoween]

No I think the stair-fearing sister did not climb the structure.

The producers must think “oh boy” when they see a Jonathan apply for this show.  Going by the information presented to us, their prior separation is not a surprise.

Hey we’re dancers!  So we’ll sing, so that I can pout and fuss some more like a toddler.

[KeithJ]

6 hours ago, aghst said:

Were they the only ones to have so much trouble getting taxis from the ferry or was it just editing to show them having difficulties but not the other teams?

I was wondering this myself.  Once they finally got a taxi they said something about something written and they were showing the drivers the wrong thing? The first thing I thought though was racism as many people in Hong Kong are fairly racist towards minorities.

Edited Thursday at 01:40 PM by KeithJ

[chaifan]

6 hours ago, aghst said:

Were they the only ones to have so much trouble getting taxis from the ferry or was it just editing to show them having difficulties but not the other teams?

It's explained well at the end of the live chat thread... there was a portion of the clue that had the destinations in Chinese, and they should have showed that to the taxi drivers.  They weren't doing that, and it looked like the drivers didn't understand the English version.  

I'm glad the nurses survived.  There's something about their dynamic that I like.  I don't know if they'll be a strong team or not, but I'm rooting for them to stay in for a little while.

The 14 teams to start and double elimination did nothing for me.  Don't make changes just to make changes, Phil.  This show works for a reason.  I thought the "fork in the road" was a glorified detour.  And I also think the challenges really weren't equal.  Normally, I'd go for "sing" over "dance", because sing judges tend to be more forgiving than dance.  But this was "get into costume, get elaborate make up done, sing and dance" vs. " put on pants and dance".  If every team on one challenge finishes ahead of every team on the other, I think that's a strong indicator that they weren't balanced.  I would have been ok if  in "sing" they had to learn the movements but really weren't judged on them.  But nope.  TAR fail on this.

I can't believe all the rain!  Have we seen that heavy of a downpour during challenges before?  

Other than the nurses, I don't have any real favorites.  Not a fan of Jonathan, with his "if we're not in first we're losers" attitude.  ugh.  But he was fine the rest of the episode, so I'll give him a conditional pass on that.  Barely saw the dad & daughter team.  

I'm glad TAR is back, so I'll put up with the "surprises".  

 

 

 

[tv echo]

I enjoyed this first episode. So far, I like all of the teams. The only two teams that gave me even slightly negative vibes were the married couple where the husband was unhappy because they came in second (Jonathan and Ana), and the older married couple with 8 sons where the husband talked about letting his wife do things without his approval while he's away (Scott and Lori).

Edited Thursday at 03:10 PM by tv echo

[Browncoat]

I am not a fan of the glorified Detour that is Fork in the Road.  It doesn't sit well with me that a team can come in 7th overall (out of 14) and still be eliminated.  If you want a double elimination, then the true last two teams to arrive should be eliminated.

I don't know who's who yet, but that one guy on the tower was amazing!  He just scampered up that slippery bamboo like it was nothing!  And good on the purple (eliminated) team for completing that task -- I loved that the task organizers cheered for them.

Edited Thursday at 02:50 PM by Browncoat

[anniebird]

14 minutes ago, Browncoat said:

I am not a fan of the glorified Detour that is Fork in the Road.  It doesn't sit well with me that a team can come in 7th overall (out of 14) and still be eliminated.  If you want a double elimination, then the true last two teams to arrive should be eliminated.

 

I think it's fair because the two teams that were eliminated came in last against teams who were doing the exact same task. If they had just eliminated the last two teams that would have been really unfair because the Sing task was so much more difficult than the Dance task. I hope they will send them out with the the two first place teams going together and then the two second place teams etc. That would negate the difference in difficulty between the two tasks.

[Notabug]

19 minutes ago, Browncoat said:

I am not a fan of the glorified Detour that is Fork in the Road.  It doesn't sit well with me that a team can come in 7th overall (out of 14) and still be eliminated.  If you want a double elimination, then the true last two teams to arrive should be eliminated.

I don't know who's who yet, but that one guy on the tower was amazing!  He just scampered up that slippery bamboo like it was nothing!  And good on the purple (eliminated) team for completing that task -- I loved that the task organizers cheered for them.

I believe the guy who was so agile on the tower was Brett, one of the married guys from Vegas.  As I recall, he performs with Cirque du Soleil, which explains a lot.  His husband is a professional dancer.  They should be pretty formidable on a lot of the physical tasks.

[RunningMarket]

6 hours ago, shura said:

What’s with the father of eight saying that he “empowers” his wife to make decisions so she doesn’t have to wait for his approval when he is out of town and she runs the household?

I'm surprised more posters haven't mentioned this! I immediately groaned. 

I wish the Fork had more parts than basically 1 detour, which could have led to a shifting of places more. It doesn't seem fair that a team who didn't actually finish last, still gets eliminated.

[Notabug]

20 minutes ago, RunningMarket said:

I'm surprised more posters haven't mentioned this! I immediately groaned. 

I wish the Fork had more parts than basically 1 detour, which could have led to a shifting of places more. It doesn't seem fair that a team who didn't actually finish last, still gets eliminated.

It's particularly galling because one of the challenges was clearly shorter and easier than the other.  When no one from the singing had even gotten to the pitstop before the first elimination, it showed how unfair and lopsided it was.  I understand that it is impossible to make both sides of a detour exactly equal but this wasn't even close.

I groaned when dad of 8 talked about 'empowering' his wife to essentially parent her children, as if she couldn't do it without his permission.  I don't think I'll be rooting for them.

[Silver-hyren]

I'd been giving Jonathan side-eye for his (IMHO) over the top exuberance at the beginning of the race, but then when he and his partner started acting like it was a personal affront that the other teams caught up to them at the ferry after the tower climb my opinion dipped even lower.  His "second is as good as last" mentality at the end tanked my opinion of the team completely.  At least I have someone to root against?

Have to wonder if the Fork in the Road is a way for production to justify expenses.  As many have said, it's essentially a detour.  How many times have they put the time and effort (and money) into setting up a detour branch that NO teams end up taking?  The Fork at least ensures both tasks are completed since half the teams are forced to do it.  Hope if they do it again, there isn't a doubt elimination because it isn't fair.  Reminds me of the season or two when they had teams compete against each other at the end of the leg before they could check in.

My reaction to OctoDad saying his wife is empowered to make decisions when he's not home was a loud "HUH?"

[jah1986]

Like others I got strong Frank and Margherita vibes from Jonathan (not another troublesome Jonathan). They were so disappointed, like have they never seen the show? There's no way you're going to be hours ahead of all the other teams. 

I really liked the two eliminated teams, so sorry to see them go. I knew the sisters wouldn't make it through but they seemed to enjoy the experience and were so supportive of each other.

I didn't mind the fork in the road, it cut the teams down very quickly. 

I know there are 3 (?) parent/child teams, but I can only remember the lumberjack father and son. Not sure how far they will go, but I liked them.

Glad to have the show back!

[shura]

Wait, the guy’s name is Jonathan?  Oh, that’s too good.

[KeithJ]

25 minutes ago, Notabug said:

It's particularly galling because one of the challenges was clearly shorter and easier than the other.  When no one from the singing had even gotten to the pitstop before the first elimination, it showed how unfair and lopsided it was.  I understand that it is impossible to make both sides of a detour exactly equal but this wasn't even close.

If the singing one was just singing, they would have been a lot more closer. When you add in the additional movements, that's what everyone had problems on.

31 minutes ago, Notabug said:

I groaned when dad of 8 talked about 'empowering' his wife to essentially parent her children, as if she couldn't do it without his permission.  I don't think I'll be rooting for them.

Did they say what his "Out of state" job is? Is he going to the same place every time or is he like a traveling salesman or consultant or truck driver?  I'm assuming it must be some sort of traveling job.  Otherwise, why would you have not moved your family?

[aghst]

On the singing task, they must have had flash cards because I can't imagine they memorized those verses in Cantonese.  Plus they elongated certain words.

[Haleth]

7 hours ago, shura said:

What’s with the father of eight saying that he “empowers” his wife to make decisions so she doesn’t have to wait for his approval when he is out of town and she runs the household?

Didn’t he say something like he’s happy she feels empowered to make decisions while he is out of town?  (I may be wrong, that’s how I remember it.). That’s still not the best word to use but it’s more proactive on her part than him ceding her the power.

i didn’t mind Jonathan and Ana (?) being annoyed that the other teams caught up (shoot, I would have been louder in my displeasure), but his reaction to being second in was a poor response. 

Edited Thursday at 05:11 PM by Haleth

[shura]

The exact quote is “And I think it’s so important, like, empowering her to make decisions without necessarily having to have my approval.”  And then some stuff about how she is the one running the ship and he is supportive of her.

47 minutes ago, Silver-hyren said:

Have to wonder if the Fork in the Road is a way for production to justify expenses.  As many have said, it's essentially a detour.  How many times have they put the time and effort (and money) into setting up a detour branch that NO teams end up taking?  The Fork at least ensures both tasks are completed since half the teams are forced to do it.  Hope if they do it again, there isn't a doubt elimination because it isn't fair.

If it’s a single elimination, or even a double elimination of the last two teams to arrive regardless of what path they took, then it is just a Detour.  It’s only different if the two paths produce a single elimination each.  Or if each path is at least two challenges both different from the other path (in which case it becomes a lot more expensive to set everything up). 

[iMonrey]

First of all, I wish starting with 14 teams could have meant fewer non-elimination legs, rather than a double elimination in Episode 1.

Second, I concur with those who found Fork in the Road unfair. It just doesn't feel right when a team crosses the finish line in 8th place out of 14 and is eliminated. I get the concept, I get the argument that it's fair within that concept, but the optics are terrible and it screws with precedent. On any other season Mark and Larry would still be around and Melinda and Erika would be gone.

When I previewed all the teams before the season started I pegged Jackye and Lauren as the first team to go. 

Brett and Mark finished "Dance" on the first attempt and Brett shimmied up that Roadblock like he'd been doing it all his life. I'd say they were the team to watch but they must have some navigation issues, since they were on the second flight and in the back half of getting to the Fork. The show didn't spend a lot of time with them.

We did see a lot of Jonathan and Ana and the Brooklyn Bros. The latter seem to be the editors' favorites. They also seem to like the geeky gamers, but they did come in first whereas Brooklyn Bros. came in 7th.

There's no one I really hate yet, but I'm definitely keeping my eye on Jonathan.

[Browncoat]

2 hours ago, anniebird said:

I think it's fair because the two teams that were eliminated came in last against teams who were doing the exact same task. If they had just eliminated the last two teams that would have been really unfair because the Sing task was so much more difficult than the Dance task. I hope they will send them out with the the two first place teams going together and then the two second place teams etc. That would negate the difference in difficulty between the two tasks.

It's fair if they're running two different races.  But everyone's all in the same race, so it isn't fair to be eliminated if you don't come in last.

[chaifan]

3 hours ago, RunningMarket said:

I'm surprised more posters haven't mentioned this! I immediately groaned. 

I will admit, I tune out during the talking heads.  It's all blah blah blah.  So I didn't even hear that line.  And with them they kept showing pictures of the family, and I couldn't care less. The one thing I did notice was that in those pictures both the husband and the wife were much heavier in the pictures than on the show.  Especially the husband, he's lost a ton of weight.  I wondered if they did that to race?  Were they recruited and had advance time?  I'll be interested to see who makes the final call when they disagree on something in the race, and whether that comes back to bite them.

2 hours ago, KeithJ said:

If the singing one was just singing, they would have been a lot more closer. When you add in the additional movements, that's what everyone had problems on.

Also factor in the costume and makeup time.  The dancers had to just put on pants.

 

Edited Thursday at 07:53 PM by chaifan

[Stardancer Supreme]

3 hours ago, tv echo said:

I enjoyed this first episode. So far, I like all of the teams. The only two teams that gave me even slightly negative vibes were the married couple where the husband was unhappy because they came in second (Jonathan and Ana), and the older married couple with 8 sons where the husband talked about letting his wife do things without his approval while he's away (Scott and Lori).

Same. My thought on Jonathan was that killer fatigue is going to be his undoing. He seems so emotionally bombastic with the high of being the first team in the beginning of the leg and the lows of not finishing first. He might race himself into a coronary if he keeps that up!

Scott and Lori made me rewind their talking head because I couldn't believe what he said about her! What do you mean that "she runs the ship without my approval"? Sir, you leave her with EIGHT children to work out of state! The very least you can do is "allow" her to run things without you since you are NOT there to help her! 

 

4 hours ago, KeithJ said:

I was wondering this myself.  Once they finally got a taxi they said something about something written and they were showing the drivers the wrong thing? The first thing I thought though was racism as many people in Hong Kong are fairly racist towards minorities.

I was so worried for Courtney and Jasmin; my first thought was that the taxi drivers was being a bit racist against Black women until the talking head in the cab later explaining that they were giving the taxi drivers the English version of the route info instead of the Chinese version.

 

10 hours ago, kitkat343 said:

Jackye and Lauren at least seemed like lovely people who really appreciated their brief time on TAR and clearly have a wonderful relationship with each other.  But honestly the producers need to stop casting people for whom the only question is "will they be philliminated on the field during the first leg, or will they actually manage to complete one leg before being eliminated at the mat."  Having difficulty climbing the pole in Hong Kong is reasonable for this show; having difficulty climbing a flight of stairs is not.

I loved the sisters, but I knew they would be philiminated right off the bat.  That trauma of falling down stairs to the point of grievous injury would have put me off of applying for the race.  I would rather be a tourist than to go on this show when my physical abilities are questionable at best and my phobias are numerous.

Rooting for Pops and Jeff, Han and Holden, and Courtney and Jasmin!

[dancingdreamer]

Jonathan comes across as controlling , I don't care for him, pouting because he came in second, I bet Phil gave him the side eye off camera ..

Fourteen teams in dragon costumes and opera makeup wasn't good for getting to know names, I am glad they wore different colour shirts.

The purple team that came in last, and the firefighters, both got something out of this one leg, they were happy to have been in the AR. I enjoy  people  like that.

Team Vegas  are my favorites,  so far.

 

 

[Stardancer Supreme]

1 hour ago, Haleth said:

Didn’t he say something like he’s happy she feels empowered to make decisions while he is out of town?  (I may be wrong, that’s how I remember it.). That’s still not the best word to use but it’s more proactive on her part than him ceding her the power.

No. He "Empowered her to run the ship without his approval". (I wrote that down!) I am only a fan of Lori because she gave birth 8 times; there was no twins in that pack.  I guess she really wanted a daughter but realized too late that wasn't going to happen.

 

[chaifan]

This may be a horribly unpopular opinion, but I'll just say it...

This is nothing against Jackye and Lauren on a personal level, but it sort of pisses me off that they were cast in the first place.  The one sister's fear of stairs was a death knell, and they knew it going in.  Stairs are going to happen in practically every single leg.  And I'd guess a majority of the stairs racers have encountered over the history of TAR have not been the nice, even steps like the ones they had problems with.  The fear of stairs would be a time suck every single leg.  They would bleed time every single leg, some more than others.  They were doomed from the start, and took the space of a team that truly had a chance to compete.  They should have traded with the firefighters for the red shirts.

 

Edited to add:  OK, so not so unpopular of an opinion.  Thanks for the external validation, everyone.  😁

Edited Friday at 11:18 PM by chaifan

[Tango64]

I immediately thought it sounded weird for the dad to be out of state while mom raises eight boys on her own. I mean, great if that works for them, but it's an odd way to raise a large family.

Still, I think people are reading too much into the "empowering" comment. It struck my ear funny at first too, but I see it as him trying to acknowledge that he's away, she has a lot of responsibility at home without him, and one of the ways they make it work is that it is understood that some decisions that normally would require a sign off by both parents are going to be made by her alone. He "empowers" her to make his 50% of the decision sometimes. That's a good thing. I don't think we have to read it in the worst possible way to make him a bad guy.

Edited Thursday at 08:19 PM by Tango64

[tinkerbell]

I dont mind the Fork in the Road. It makes up for all the times we've seen a detour where one choice was significantly shorter, and the craziness when teams switch tasks then switch back.

Jonathan was too intense at the start, then upset that they were first but others caught up at the ferry. This always happens, the tasks are designed that way. But his attitude at the mat was unforgiveable.  Other teams were happy to not be eliminated, he was pouting about not being first. Has he ever heard that you only have to come in first on the last leg? He's heading for a meltdown.

[aghst]

1 hour ago, Stardancer Supreme said:

No. He "Empowered her to run the ship without his approval". (I wrote that down!) I am only a fan of Lori because she gave birth 8 times; there was no twins in that pack.  I guess she really wanted a daughter but realized too late that wasn't going to happen.

 

They wore T-shirts which said Salt Lake so maybe they're Mormons and wanted to have many children.

[watch2much]

I really wanted to see more of the guy best friends. They had such good attitudes and were funny.

[Jodithgrace]

I definitely thought Mormon as soon as I saw Salt Lake on the 8 kids couple. I guess his empowering speech is supposed to show how enlightened he is. For a Mormon. 
It didn’t bother me too much that the singing task seemed so much harder because the teams were only competing against others in the same task. In a standard detour it’s annoying when the tasks are unequal because choosing the wrong task can be a death knell. 
Stairs are my nemesis. When I am in Japan, there are stairs everywhere and trying to run for a train up 4 flights of stairs nearly did me in a few times!  But I’m 74 and not trying to be on The Amazing Race. But those sisters  had great attitudes throughout. As did the fire fighters. 
$3,000 is kind of chintzy for a first place finish, even for two teams, especially since it’s often $5,000 apiece! Has the budget been cut drastically? 

[Netfoot]

I am very pleased The Race is back!

Casting 14 teams just because you plan to eliminate two at once is not something I can applaud. Multi-eliminations have never appealed. Eric & Lisa at the start of S15 and Bilal & Sa'eed mid-leg of E1 on (I believe) S10. Not good Television. This episode was not much better. Perhaps if the FITR had occurred earlier and the two groups had had more tasks to do... but more tasks equals higher production costs... Unless they have already used the FITR at the start of S38, I predict we will ever never see it again.

Everyone on the race comes across to me as an arrested adolescent. But as I get older, that is true of everyone I encounter, everywhere! In this context it means I start off with a general dislike for everyone and that remains the case, except for those who, through their actions, gain my respect. Often, I start to develop a liking for certain teams in E1, but not this season. Right now, I don't care who gets eliminated.

Phil looks good. The challenges are on par, and I'm looking forward to E2! But so far, not to any of the racers in particular.

 

Edited Friday at 01:15 AM by Netfoot

[howiveaddict]

16 hours ago, shura said:

 

What’s with the father of eight saying that he “empowers” his wife to make decisions so she doesn’t have to wait for his approval when he is out of town and she runs the household?

Loved the many team colors even though I don’t know the names of half of them.

 

6 hours ago, aghst said:

They wore T-shirts which said Salt Lake so maybe they're Mormons and wanted to have many children.

I didn't see the Salt Lake tshirts, but pegged them for Mormon just from what he said about he empowered her.  

Lady scared of stairs is me.  I had the same type accident as her, though not nearly as bad as hers.  I took walk up and down stairs very gingerly.  I hold onto the rail for dear life.  Also, when ever I dream about the Amazing Race, I am Philiminated first!

[SG429]

2 hours ago, Netfoot said:

Casting 14 teams just because you plan to eliminate two at once is not something I can applaud.

OTOH at least one season featured a challenge and elimination before even going to the airport, so at least these teams got to run a full leg.

Edited Friday at 03:13 AM by SG429

[Steph Sometimes]

I've been doing a rewatch of past seasons, and I was really excited for this premiere, but it just didn't work for me.

I missed the intros at the beginning where you meet the teams and learn their relationship to each other, etc. I know not everyone's going to get equal time, but with 14 teams (28 total people), there needed to be more than what we got. Maybe half the teams got a little segment about themselves, and the other half were just there. It felt really unbalanced.

And the Fork in the Road just seemed like a change for change's sake.

It was just the first episode, so I'm hoping I'll enjoy it more.

And it's always so good to see Phil.

[Skooma]

22 hours ago, aghst said:

The dating nurses barely survived.  IF they'd have been eliminated because they couldn't get a taxi, it would have been a bad look to have them be one of the double-eliminations. ...

Why?  They totally screwed up by not showing any of the taxi drivers the location in Chinese.  It was a major mistake on their part and the kind that often times leads to elimination.  In other words, read the entire damn clue!  The info to give the cabbies was on a sheet right in the clue itself.

19 hours ago, Fake Jan Brady said:

Dressing fourteen teams we'd just met in dragon costumes and opera make-up wasn't great for getting to know them; most of the middle teams are a blur to me.

Every single season of TAR is this way though.  The middle teams hardly get any air time because they are in the middle.  You follow the leaders to see the tasks right away and you follow the trailing teams to see who gets eliminated.

As the herd thins we will get to know all the remaining teams still around quite well.  Like in Season 2 we hardly saw fan favorites Oswald & Danny much until Leg 3 some and Leg 4 where they started to really click with people.

15 hours ago, KeithJ said:

I was wondering this myself.  Once they finally got a taxi they said something about something written and they were showing the drivers the wrong thing? The first thing I thought though was racism as many people in Hong Kong are fairly racist towards minorities.

For me each person is their own person and should not get to be placed into some "everyone in a group is guilty" trip especially since there was no indication on the part of any of the cabbies that was happening.  We even saw the other Black teams had no problems.

I'm glad TAR included the mea culpa footage from that team admitting they had made a giant mistake because if not I'd hate how people on social media would be rushing to judgement about all of this.

12 hours ago, aghst said:

On the singing task, they must have had flash cards because I can't imagine they memorized those verses in Cantonese.  Plus they elongated certain words.

There only seemed to be just a few words they sang really slowly.  There were a lot lot longer songs and such that have been memorized on other Races.  This one seemed pretty simple by comparison.  I actually think this might have been the quicker task if they didn't have to stop for that long, elaborate make-up session first.

[Lantern7]

I'll have to rewatch the episode. I think 28 people are a few too man to keep track of.

I like the idea of the Fork, but it needs to be fine-tuned. In this episode, it acted more like a Detour a team couldn't change. Have teams choose a path and have them do Detours and/or Roadblocks. Also, I'd get rid of the separate mats. A team arrived last on the Dance mat getting eliminated while most of the Sing folks hadn't finished . .  . it didn't feel right.

Nine sons. DAMN.

Fear of stairs. DAMN. I kind of get that, though. Still, damn.

Nice for this season to start in the States. I miss the public starts, but I'm good with not kicking things off overseas.

[Cotypubby]

Not a fan of the Mormons. Oh wow, you empowered your wife to be able to do things without your approval, did you? Because you are the Head and the only one with power and so you must give it to her. She can’t empower herself, she’s a woman. What an enlightened man you are… 🙄

Was obvious from the start who the last team would be. It’s kinda annoying they were even on the race. If you have a fear of STAIRS for fucks sake what are you doing here!?

[QuantumMechanic]

Kicked off in LA.

So how many seasons has the TAR curse struck now?

[SVNBob]

17 hours ago, KeithJ said:

I was wondering this myself.  Once they finally got a taxi they said something about something written and they were showing the drivers the wrong thing? The first thing I thought though was racism as many people in Hong Kong are fairly racist towards minorities.

I suspected this too at first.  I also thought sexism could be a factor.  So it wasn't just that they were black, but black women.
(We never saw if the last place team also had this issue...but they were dead in the water for so long it would have been a non-factor anyway.)

It could also be a combination of all three; racism, sexism, and clue comprehension failure.

And it sounded to me (as we never really saw them) like the cabbie that finally picked them up was female.  So that could also have been a factor in why they were finally able to catch a cab.

 

 

 

6 hours ago, Jodithgrace said:

$3,000 is kind of chintzy for a first place finish, even for two teams, especially since it’s often $5,000 apiece! Has the budget been cut drastically? 

TBF, they did have to give out two First Place prizes this time.  And they did have to spend more budget on this leg than usual, what with 14 teams and all.

And as I recall, the first cash prize is usually $2500 each.  So it seems like they split that usual prize between the two Firsts, but bumped it up a little to (appear to) be less chintzy.

[tkc]

Yay, another season of TAR!

Did the Amazing Yellow Line get an upgrade this season, or has it had that sparkle at the front for a while?

I was a bit worried about the racers in the climbing task — the rain was coming down!

[Netfoot]

4 hours ago, Cotypubby said:

Oh wow, you empowered your wife to be able to do things without your approval, did you? Because you are the Head and the only one with power and so you must give it to her. She can’t empower herself, she’s a woman. What an enlightened man you are… 🙄

And here I was, thinking he was just ribbing her. My misogyny detection circuit must be faulty.

3 hours ago, SVNBob said:

I also thought sexism could be a factor.  So it wasn't just that they were black, but black women.

Hmmm. My racism detection circuit must be faulty as well. 

 

[PurpleTentacle]

If you put a fork in the road, maybe put more than one task in each fork. Otherwise it's just a detour with two eliminations. Having like two or even three tasks in each fork, would be a lot of fun. To see how teams cope with them and how their skills help or hinder them in more than one task.

This was a bit low on tasks for one hour (without ads) anyway. Which doesn't bode super well for the rest of the season. Amazing Race US still having so much fever and shorter tasks than any other version, and itself in earlier seasons, is a bit of a bummer, since I think they do everything else right. The camera work, editing, locations and voiceover are all spot on and better than most other versions. But the lack of tasks makes these longer episodes drag. It's kinda okay in the first episode, since we get to know the teams better and that takes up time, but as soon as the second episode, it's a problem.

Other than that, I'm glad the race is back and that they are trying new (and old) things. I'm excited for next week the upcoming thing was always one of my favourites.