Thoughts on Leg 2:
* On the same day that Survivor brings back its intro after not airing it since 2017, The Amazing Race brings back *real* departure times. This must be a dream. I cannot stress how much this changes the viewing experience me— finally the Amazing Race is *truly* back. I understand that the staggered departures were probably some form of covid protocol, but I was so worried that the producers would just make that the "new normal," not unlike Survivor's switch to 26 days; after all, it keeps things much simpler, logistically speaking. But to my utmost glee, the teams checked out in the same intervals they checked in, with Team #12 leaving over two and a half hours later than team #1— most of the legs from the last two seasons would probably be *over* in that time, but here, two and a half hours in, no one was even past the Roadblock yet. Departure times just make me so happy. The race is *continuous* again. The stakes feel so much grander; maybe you can get lucky and survive a 3 hour blunder *this* leg, but uh oh, there's a decent chance it's going to cost you *next leg.*
* I thought the tasks were all good this episode (a classic shopping challenge and the pomelo side was nice), but the Roadblock was FANTASTIC. Beautiful location, great use of culture, legitimately challenging, and it truly felt like something we've never seen before on The Amazing Race (35 seasons in, those are becoming rarer and rarer). I really don't know what else I could ask for in an Amazing Race task. That being said... it *did* start to drag a bit. It's not the task's fault, there simply wasn't enough content to fill this episode in my opinion. For 90 minute episodes, I no longer view a third task as a "a nice little bonus, if we get one," but rather, something I feel should *always* appear in *every* leg. Maybe if we get a lengthy airport segment that could fill the same gap, but for a leg like this where we stay in the country, we *need* something extra. I hope this leg is just an exception and we aren't headed down the same road as TAR34 with every leg being a predictable Roadblock → Detour → Pitstop. But I have faith we aren't.
* A few other little rapid fire thoughts: I love Jocelyn & Victor, I love that they are dominating these early legs, I hope they keep it up. This has always been one of my favorite "archetypes." The Pit Stop location was beautiful. A lot of the music this episode was genuinely terrific; they really nailed the soundtrack this episode with all the Southeast Asian instruments. I was surprised and a little disappointed to see the shortened version of the intro this episode, I kind of figured we would get the full version all season since episodes are longer. Is there some rule of the universe that Survivor and Amazing Race can't both air their full intros on the same night?!!
I'm torn about the staggered departure times. In many ways, I agree with you that it is a return to form and the concept that each leg is one piece of a much larger race. But on the other hand, I saw a lot of comments in the live thread of people lamenting no position changes despite a fairly tough roadbloack. Greg & John were able to easily recover from a seemingly big navigation error with little impact because they started the leg so far ahead of other teams.
IMO, the staggered starts only work if the race offers some real challenges that give the teams that start 2+ hours behind a fighting chance. Other than just U-Turns. HARD roadblocks, the opportunity to take a risky flight route that could catapult or bury them, etc. But...I don't see that happening. While we got true staggered start times this episode, I'm willing to be next week when they leave Thailand that the staggered start times will end up with them bunching in the airport to get on one, maybe two flights. Or those tasks where they grab a start number for something that starts 10 hours later and puts 15-30 minutes between each group.
I know everyone is excited commercial air travel is back, but we have to remember it will never be like the early seasons. Air travel these days is at capacity, especially during the summer when this is filmed. Production has to secure flights ahead of time, it's too risky to have teams scattered across airports or have teams not make it to the destination. People here get excited when they see teams "booking flights" but I can almost guarantee they aren't booking anything. Those interactions are TV magic, and largely what is actually happening is that the teams are checking in and claiming seats held by production. There are negotiations with the airlines on the backend to hold a certain amount of seats but not ticket them to specific passengers because they won't yet know who is still racing, but the seats are pre-sold. I hope production will split that into more than just one flight like in the premiere, but just saying I wouldn't expect the true start times to hold.
My hope is that flights will be like they sometimes did for limited availability routes in the old days, where production provides teams with a guaranteed ticket but they are not required to use it and free to find something better on their own
Yes. The sold out sign was obviously for tv. Look at the really old seasons when they actually book the flights and such a sign would not be found. That said, I do like that they are using commercial and staging it as if it were not prebooked. Probably the best we can get in today's world.
Yes, that’s exactly what I said they are doing. The tickets are pre-booked and teams have to “claim” them and get the seat ticketed in their name, plus check in.
What also is TV magic is when you teams ask for 2 tickets. They are actually getting 4, including camera and sound guys.
I used to watch years ago when I was younger and only got back into the show the past couple of years. Remind me the departure times thing, and how it’s different than last year?
Sure! Up until the so-called "covid era" of the race, teams would always depart from the Pit Stop in the same order at which they arrived in the previous leg. Originally, it would always be exactly 12 hours later, i.e. if a team finishes Leg 1 at 8:31 am, they would begin Leg 2 at 8:31 pm. Over time, the producers gradually moved away from the rest period being exactly 12 hours, but the intervals between departures would nonetheless be preserved, i.e. if Team #1 finishes 28 minutes ahead of Team #2, they will still start on the next leg 28 minutes before Team #2. Usually the teams end up departing fairly close to each other, but occasionally they spread pretty far apart; I believe Season 21 is the last time we had an episode where some teams were able to finish an entire leg while others hadn't even started it yet.
The format was massively overhauled for the covid legs; instead of preserving teams' leads heading into the next leg, teams would depart in groups leaving 15 minutes apart, regardless of how far ahead or behind they fell in the previous leg. For instance, the first 3 teams all depart at 8:00 am, the next 3 teams all depart at 8:15 am, and the last 3 teams all depart at 8:30 am, even if Team #1 actually finished the previous leg hours ahead of Team #9.
For viewers who like the competitive aspect of constantly keeping the teams bunched together, I can understand the apeal of the covid format. But what I admire about the original format is that it preserves the notion established by Season 1 that this is really just one *big* race— every leg is connected, every decision that you make can have long-term consequences; if you take a risky flight and earn a big lead you may get to ride it for a few legs, if you make a costly mistake, it might take you a few legs to catch back up, and so on. Of course some legs have equalizers like an "hours of operation" or a train that only leaves once a day, but there's no guarantee those things will show up on any given leg. Every second on the course is precious, those 3 minutes you wasted on Leg 6 *could be* the 3 extra minutes you needed to make the faster flight on Leg 7!
Awesome, thank you! I agree the leave depending on when you arrive is much better, as is booking your own flights. I found an older thread hear discussing people's favourite airport drama episodes. Think I'm gonna have to go back and watch those haha
Agree with all your thoughts, except that I didn't find the roadblock task itself to be all that great. Although maybe that's just bc I got bored of seeing so much screen time for it. The drone shots of the lotus field were amazing tho. I also love J & V and think it's so refreshing to see a team that is simultaneously strong and appreciating the experience bc often the teams who appreciate it are also the slow ones
Almost no teams switched placements this leg besides 7th and 9th. I don’t know if that was more common when there were departure times but I guess that means that all the teams did equally well on the tasks and it was just based on who left first
There were a lot of tiny placement changes during the leg which somehow ended up cancelling each other out. Greg and John arrived at the roadblock 5th, but then smashed through the roadblock and came out 3rd again. Liam and Yeremi also got the taxi delay, but then did better on the roadblock and that along with Joel and Garrett having to go back for the fanny pack somehow got them back to 8th. Elizabeth and Iliana finished the Roadblock ahead of Andrea/Malaina and Robbin/Chelsea, but then missed one item on the Detour.
I think Scoop Up is largely linear though so teams that arrived there in a certain order left in a certain order.
Yeah, despite lack of placement changes a lot actually still happened, and at least for me it was engaging to see people fall and then still recover to show that they still had that consistency.
I laughed out loud when the father daughter team was sinking and she said “quick take some out” as you see all the pomelos slowly spread out in the water
I have to say, I loved that Todd and Ashlie chose the shopping challenge. It really showed their fun side, and I think it was the perfect task for Ashlie to forget her frustrations from the roadblock. It was chaotic fun.
Can’t say that it was the same case if you’re in the bottom places though. It would be a mad scramble - and true enough, a team got the shopping list wrong.
That segment definitely made me like Todd and Ashlie a lot more! Not that I disliked them before; I just felt very neutrally about them. But it was fun to watch them just lean into looking silly and connect with the market vendors.
Same actually, was neutral about them - I think the first episode didn’t really tap into what they are about since there were so many teams to keep track of. But that task really let them shine.
Funnily enough, there was a survey somewhere that they are super fan favorites since episode 1, tied with Rob and Corey. I can’t find it again but Rob and Corey’s IG account picked that survey up.
Rob and Corey are definitely my favourites! I'm always a sucker for a good-parent child team; they have great energy; the dad's got a unique storyline with his disability; and the son's hella easy on the eyes. I'm surprised Todd and Ashlie were faves after E1, though - all I can remember is they used to have marital problems or something.
I like all of the Top 4 quite a bit, actually, but it helps that we've seen a lot of them.
Rob and Corey are one of my fave teams too! You really can tell they’re best friends (and not in a disfunctional Gilmore Girl sorta way), the way they interact with and support each other is so refreshing to see and yeah, inasmuch as we don’t want to objectify, at this point it’s just stating a fact: Corey is just damn fine lol. Let’s just put it that there’s a lot to like about the team.
Rob and Corey put the survey results in an IG story and for the life of me, I can’t remember where it was from. The survey asked positive, neutral or negative perception toward a team and I think Rob and Corey and Todd and Ashlie got 100% positive. The other teams got a mixture. I’ll post here when I see it again.
Aw, I really do like all the teams so far, so it's too bad other teams are getting a bit of shade? I think this is probably one of the most likeable casts from the get-go, honestly!
I know right?! Def one of the most likeable casts. I can see a bit of catty tension from Ian from the first leg (although might be just some starting line jitters/fear of getting eliminated first) but nothing that would peg him as a villain outright. I liked the cast of TAR35 as a whole!
Surprised Jocelyn and Victor was not universally well liked. Love them and their story. Wish I can show the survey results.
He said something about not being able to show the sellers the shopping list, and IMO that’s why his segment was more entertaining. But it was confusing when other teams were showing their list to everyone they could.
He was saying it wasn’t really helpful because they were written phonetically for English speakers to pronounce Thai. So the list was neither in Thai nor the English words for the goods.
I honestly thought something happened to Joe and Ian and they got edited out or something because it was about 20 minutes into the episode before I really saw them.
Slowing down and watching the demo again would probably have cut those repeated attempts by a lot.
AR can be quite like a biathlon -- run run run (or ski ski ski) then completely change gears to a detailed precise task.
I used to watch all the time as a kid with my mom. Last season was the first one I started back up in a decade. This season is already so great, I feel like we both chose the perfect time to start watching again!
By all accounts, this should have been a boring episode. Have we ever seen two opening legs with practically identical placements across them? The only placement changes were Joe & Ian swapping with Joel & Garrett.
But I really couldn’t care because this cast is just so damn likable, and the challenges are challenging and interesting to boot. The lotus flower roadblock instantly become something like a top 20 or 25 roadblock for me. The only real negative I can say is a third challenge probably would have made this episode feel fuller. (No the elephant offering doesn’t count lol).
I can’t stress enough how much the casting and crew nailed it this season. Great job TAR. I’ve missed you.
If you just look at the end results the placements are near identical, but there were a lot of little mid-leg switches. Two teams got to the wrong location first for the Roadblock, one team loses their fanny pack, another team meant to go to one Detour and ended up at another.
The Roadblock threw a lot of teams in different order, and then all the tiny mistakes brought them pretty much in line again.
I love her! I hope we get to see some of her grit and tomboy come out that dad has been telling us about. I believe she was the one in the first episode that absolutely flew across the tight rope
Steve and Anna Leigh are fucking *adorable.* Just absolute sweethearts.
I was a little worried about Steve during the Detour, though. He was looking *spent.*
I noticed that too. I kept expecting him to pass out considering how Thailand and SE Asian legs have caused health concerns on the Race as well as Survivor.
I find it funny how almost every team got the same placement as the first leg, with the only exception being Joe and Ian swapping places with Joel and Garrett
Victor and Jocelyn are carrying just one backpack as a team? Interesting concept. I wonder how much it helps. Although it keeps one member from carrying two backpacks when someone tires.
This is more common than you’d think - at least for the teams that prepare by realizing that the partners have to stay within a short distance of each other. So it makes sense for the faster one to carry the single backpack and they keep a similar pace that way.
In reality, you only need one backpack. Almost every team that ever races talks about how they end up throwing out half their bags after the first 2-3 legs. When it comes down to it, everything in the bag is just a luxury. The only thing you need to compete is your passport.
I do enjoy when there's a close race and you can see both teams are there at the same time. They can get a little tricky with the editing sometimes, so it's more exciting when you know that it actually is coming down to one task.
Woah I didn't even notice they went back to proper departure times!
This episode was great. Loving this cast and the complete lack of former reality star contestants (which I have never been a fan of...there are so few casting slots on the show to begin with, and it annoys me when Survivor/BB contestants take up a slot almost by default when SO many other regular teams audition and never make it).
After last season, I sadly thought my many years of being a TAR fan were at an end - and not just because of what covid did to the show. It just seemed like a shell of its former self even before they shut down production.
But man, this last episode felt far closer to old-school TAR than the show has felt in a long, long time.
Edit: Also, as someone who has had to assemble professional flower arrangements (and sucked at it, if I'm being honest), I can attest that the roadblock was DIFFICULT - especially getting the leaves right without tearing them.
> But man, this last episode felt far closer to old-school TAR than the show has felt in a long, long time.
100%. I've felt so happy with these first two episodes. I didn't hate the COVID seasons, but they obviously felt very limited in comparison. This season feels like it's bringing that joy and wonder associated with traveling distant lands back.
I did love the shopping challenge team sounding out the strange word only to realize that it's "broccoli" in Thai, too. Props to the challenge designer who threw that one in!
Victor and Jocelyn had a bit of a home team advantage, not only with Victor being able to make himself understood in Thai, but having run the family grocery store and being familiar with so many of the items they were sent to fetch. They also have a great partnership, supportive and happy.
Not that the other teams aren't great too -- i look forward to seeing more of them in the weeks to come.
They were definitely being a little bit lenient with the last remaining teams on the roadblock. I saw at least one bud that was blooming on the bouquets that were approved.
This always annoys me. They're especially guilty of this in the dance/rhythm challenges - over the years some shockingly bad performances have been passed, while very good but not perfect ones, if the teams are near the front, have been failed. I think if the teams are that bad, they should be given a certain number of attempts and then given a time penalty.
Ooh a time penalty would make so much more sense. It’s always obvious when they give them a “sympathy” approval. Like ‘okay we’ll be here all night if I don’t approve you and we got to get the show on the road’.
I noticed as well how Jocelyn received absolutely no feedback with her bouquets. Then as soon as she got a clue, they told the other teams exactly what was wrong every time.
Felt unfair.
Really love this season.
Love the fact that they are so many family teams this season: married couple, parent and child, siblings.
Love the extended duration of the episode.
And what are the odds that the pink team got a pink taxi???
Appreciated the team willing to make goofy fools of themselves in the market. I think that's a fun to watch approach when you're totally out of your element like that.
The lotus challenge seemed surprisingly hard, and honestly the judging did seem inconsistent. Some of those bundles that passed looked like the leaves just weren't big enough.
Most all the teams are at least somewhat likable, and some of them really so. That's a nice plus. No real bland pairs left either.
That fist bump attempts though! 💀🤣😹😝☠️
Had me cracking up and then having to hold himself back at attempting it again at the end lol. Love Greg and John, and Rob and Cory and the father daughter team.
I’m REALLY digging this season. First one I’m watching (partially) live and I have zero complaints! I genuinely believe The Amazing Race is better with the 90 minute episodes, perhaps more so than Survivor. I am hopeful that the placements switch up a little bit more in the next episode.
Really enjoyed this episode! Lots of cultural tasks, and the roadblock was actually a pretty good challenge. I think the no placement shuffling was a little boring, but the Roadblock was a pretty good equalizer so I can’t blame it on the route or anything. So far I feel like there’s no standout team to beat yet, especially since it looks like Jocelyn/Victor are gonna hit some bumps in the next leg.
Not sure why the other post episode thread got deleted but copying my thoughts:
- Generally enjoyed the episode - the roadblock seemed challenging. I’m kind of surprised that it took that many tries to be honest, it didn’t seem *that* hard, but I won’t complain about seeing some struggles.
- Detour was pretty decent too and well balanced. The shopping task is one we’ve seen many times before but I always thinks it’s a good one to throw in there every now and then, scoop was pretty straight forward but somewhat physical - would’ve been interesting to see this one with more teams there at the same time since that might have been chaotic in the canals and require some strategy.
- A little disappointed in the lack of placement changing but I think some of that is coincidental - outside of the top 2 and Steve/Anna Leigh being locked in sixth there was a decent amount of movement and different groups that were bunched together, just so happened that only two teams swapped places.
Lots of good moments this episode - really enjoying the longer episodes:
- Greg getting a fist bump not reciprocated then not going for a second one
- Steve and the roadblock just fumbling around
- The roadblock group wondering about how worried their partners are meanwhile they are all playing with catfish
- ‘Something just touched my butt and not in a good way’
- Learning how to pronounce ‘broccoli’
I’ve noticed a lot of camera cuts where one team says one thing and either that exact thing is happening somewhere else (Elizabeth/Iliana saying they think they’ll be checking with another team while Joel/Garrett and Andrea/Malaina check in at the same time) or the exact opposite is happening (see the catfish) - I’ve enjoyed it.
I will need to rewatch and see I was getting tired. I just wouldn't have wanted to do it in personal clothes and being gross the rest of the leg. Would make sense if they were able to get normal looking clothes and didn't want the full gear. The full gear could slow some down.
Another great episode, absolutely loved the cinematography and the challenges were pretty difficult, especially the Road Block! It's nice to see a challenge that really puts the teams to work. Personally I would love to do the pomelo challenge just for fun LOL
The only big thing I didn't like was the lack of change in placements. Seeing the same top 6 is kinda insane. It shows that an equalizer is badly needed next episode. It wasn't for bad leg design though, because it seemed like there were plenty of opportunities to slip up and fall behind.
Not much drama yet, but these teams are truly great. There are so many that I genuinely really like (Jocelyn/Victor, Rob/Corey, Andrea/Malania, Liam/Yaremi, and Todd/Ashlie are my faves right now).
Looking forward to see the pack shuffle next week! The preview looks promising.
Solid episode with more equal challenges than the premiere. The elephant challenge could've been harder but otherwise I don't have much of a problem with the leg.
I loved seeing the times each team left the pit stop. It felt like a throwback to older seasons.
This leg certainly had some challenging tasks. One thing I noticed. The teams near the back at the market challenge seemed to show the vendors the grocery list. Didn't the high school sweethearts mention that teams couldn't show the note?
I also liked that they were having fun and enjoying making connections despite not knowing Thai.
Another solid leg in the books. I'm glad we have non-grouped departures anymore and it values the placement the team earned in the previous leg. Good to see the more rural side here while making it exciting and intense.
* Lotus Road Block: I liked how it had many elements to it from getting into the muddy water, having to tie it properly, cut it properly, fold the leaves properly and have the 3-4-3 configuration. I am sure some folks were there for at least an hour and a half. I liked it how the non Road Block performing member were able to feed the catfishes and keep themselves occupied.
* Lucky Elephant: It was funny to see the race actually make a little cut out on the race flag where the coin is supposed to be inserted. Did wish we had something here like rather than be given the coin, search the premise for the coin itself.
* Detour: Stock Up - I like a simple market task with multiple items and the items given in a phonetic list. What I am confused about was Todd & Ashlie said they weren't able to show the list to the vendors but we saw the last two teams showing the list to the vendors. Unless I am mistaken, I am a bit confused. Scoop Up - holy, those look very heavy. Really enjoyed how they had to retrieve 5 big buckets worth and navigating those narrow canals must've been hectic. They seemed painfully slow enough that the camera operators just casually walked along them the whole time!
* I think the big theme this episode was to double check at the right time, for Jocelyn & Victor it was checking to see if they had the right quantity just as they were going in for the market inspection and for the CS Brothers, checking the canals before almost deciding on switching detours.
* What I kind of didn't like this episode was the editing had a big emphasis on the top 3 teams this leg for the first hour and then crammed the remaining teams in the last 30-minutes. Don't really mind it as I really enjoy the top 3 teams so far but the editing felt really rushed and cramped towards the last 30-minutes.
IIRC regarding the shopping list they said it wouldn't be helpful to show the locals the list b/c the phonetic spelling =/= the actual spelling in Thai so just reading it wouldn't be of any use to them.
Thai has a completely different "alphabet" so showing a transliteration in "English" would have been meaningless. I also wouldn't be at all surprised if some of those market workers were illiterate in Thai.
Thailand has a 95% literacy rate and English has been a compulsory subject in schools there for nearly 30 years. Some of the market workers were definitely shown looking at the transliterations and sounding them out
I think for the stock up task what Todd meant was just that because the list was phonetically in English, the vendors couldn't easily read it. They showed Todd and Ashlie showing the list to a vendor right before that for the quantity part so it definitely wasn't a rules thing. I think he was probably right though that the vendors would have trouble reading the list because we saw the teams later trying to show it to people and them not knowing what they meant right away.
> Todd & Ashlie said they weren't able to show the list to the vendors but we saw the last two teams showing the list to the vendors.
ah my interpretation is more like they can't show it since it's not in thai, rather than they can't show it as part of the rule.
Pomelo is definitely a heavy citrus fruit, but they are super delicious. I had the yellow-flesh pomelo instead of the pink-flesh pomelos shown in the episode.
I also didn't get the initially not showing then being allowed to show the shopping list. Unless the producers decided mid task that Jocelyn and Victor had an unfair advantage because of Victor being Laotian.
Does anyone else feel like past few casts have been a little TOO nice with each other?? Not that there's anything wrong with that but I miss when there was some animosity and drama between the teams like in 25 and 29
This season has been the hardest for our family to watch. Once we met the teams, we’re so invested in them now. Like watching friends get eliminated. It’s been crazy.
It seemed to me like they were restocking the pomelos in those canals, perhaps even using the same ones. It never got much harder for teams.
Then again, while it seemed like a relatively small place to me, it could have been much larger than it seemed.
Seeing Greg and John place top 3 again got me thinking; how many black M/M teams have we had that did well? My fossil memory only brings to mind Flight Time and Big Easy. EDIT: Just remembered Marcus and Michael, who did do pretty well.
Chester and Ephraim did have a good two-leg run before getting one of the worst flight adventures ever, so it might be too early to say yet, but I’ve been quietly impressed by Greg and John so far.
I think Asian M/M teams haven’t had very prominent showings either in my memory, but again, fossil memory only brings to mind the Cho Bros.
Double commenting to share some data:
Went through the entire list of Racers and yeah, the pattern definitely fits. Now, there have been very few overall black male/male teams. But when you look at the data, most of them have a very low placement and overall average placement as well.
Besides Flight Time + Big Easy's first two appearances, Marcus and Michael in TAR 34 are pretty much the only team that really contended to win. That's 3 out of 14 teams. There's a couple teams that I don't think anyone expected to go all the way (i.e., Ron + Tony) but if you look at this list, most of these teams on paper seem like potentially strong candidates. And a lot of them even started very strong only to either spin out or have one very unlucky leg.
I honestly don't think there is any good explanation for this beyond coincidence -- there is no real commonality in these teams reasons for elimination -- but it's definitely an interesting fact to consider.
TAR 2
Shola + Doyin (8th)
TAR 3
Andre + Damon (6th)
TAR 15
Flight Time + Big Easy (4th)
TAR 17
Ron + Tony (11th)
TAR 18
Flight Time + Big East (2nd)
TAR 22
Idries + Jamal (10th)
TAR 23
Chester + Ephraim (9th)
TAR 24
Flight Time + Big Easy (6th)
TAR 27
Ernest + Jin (9th)
TAR 28
Darius + Cameron (10th)
TAR 30
Cedric + Shawn (9th)
TAR 33
Michael + Moe (11th/7th)
Taylor + Isaiah (Withdrew)
TAR 34
Marcus + Michael (5th)
There has been a weird curse of generally strong black male/male teams not doing well, going all the way back to Shola and Doyim losing due to a taxi running over one of their feet.
There are a bunch of black male/male teams that on paper should win it all and may start out strong but end up not doing well. I don’t think there is any correlation to be made with that but it is a weird coincidence.
Define “on paper.” Just because some black M/M teams have muscles and can run doesn’t make them great racers. TAR is about a lot more things than perceived physical ability. The best teams complement one another in strengths and weaknesses in physical and mental acuity, navigation, emotional stability, etc. That’s why M/F teams do the best.
Shola/Doyin had the taxi foot incident happen at the beginning of Leg 2, which they easily survived.
They came in last on the 4th leg getting lost in the desert and then bogged down in the sand in Namibia.
Does anyone else feel like past few casts have been a little TOO nice with each other?? Not that there's anything wrong with that but I miss when there was some animosity and drama between the teams like in 25 and 29
I started this season late, so I don’t know names yet. But I recall one woman (Ashley?) telling a dude during the roadblock“not to get comfortable, we’re right behind you”… his team finished second, and I think her and her husband were close to last 😂 not sure why she felt it was necessary to say that but I really liked the way they handled their detour and had fun with it.
Guys I was excited for the 90 min episodes. We all where. But I think we can all agree they are too damn long! More than half an hour of screen time separating the 1st and last place? I have never actually wanted to stop watching a leg early before tonight and I have been watching since I was a little kid.
im just watching this for the first time again after 10 years or so, and i disagree. i was riveted by the challenges and i was interested in most contestants. in my view it actually felt like it flew by?? i thought it was paced well. i’m def invested now and will be tuning in next week.
Pretty good tasks this episode, but unfortunately the lack of any bunching really stopped there from being all that much switching around in the placements. IMO they should have stuck to the prior post-COVID rule where teams departed together in groups at certain times, especially for a leg with no other bunching.
Also that roadblock looked to be absolutely brutal.
I have to disagree TAR already has a built in bunching point and it’s called flights.
Besides the roadblock was definitely difficult enough it could have resulted in teams being jumbled up more, the near identical placements are mostly coincidental.
The only 2 reasons the Covid era did group departures was they needed teams to be on the course (and at risk of Covid infection) as little as possible. And because the charter plane removed flights as a built in bunching point.
I was quite surprised to see the teams struggle so much on the roadblock. I’m still deciding on what team I want to support since all the teams are so likeable.
The neighborhood they were in at the end of leg- were there any details on this during the episode? I tried to rewind it to find out. I’d love to know where that is.
Thoughts on Leg 2: * On the same day that Survivor brings back its intro after not airing it since 2017, The Amazing Race brings back *real* departure times. This must be a dream. I cannot stress how much this changes the viewing experience me— finally the Amazing Race is *truly* back. I understand that the staggered departures were probably some form of covid protocol, but I was so worried that the producers would just make that the "new normal," not unlike Survivor's switch to 26 days; after all, it keeps things much simpler, logistically speaking. But to my utmost glee, the teams checked out in the same intervals they checked in, with Team #12 leaving over two and a half hours later than team #1— most of the legs from the last two seasons would probably be *over* in that time, but here, two and a half hours in, no one was even past the Roadblock yet. Departure times just make me so happy. The race is *continuous* again. The stakes feel so much grander; maybe you can get lucky and survive a 3 hour blunder *this* leg, but uh oh, there's a decent chance it's going to cost you *next leg.* * I thought the tasks were all good this episode (a classic shopping challenge and the pomelo side was nice), but the Roadblock was FANTASTIC. Beautiful location, great use of culture, legitimately challenging, and it truly felt like something we've never seen before on The Amazing Race (35 seasons in, those are becoming rarer and rarer). I really don't know what else I could ask for in an Amazing Race task. That being said... it *did* start to drag a bit. It's not the task's fault, there simply wasn't enough content to fill this episode in my opinion. For 90 minute episodes, I no longer view a third task as a "a nice little bonus, if we get one," but rather, something I feel should *always* appear in *every* leg. Maybe if we get a lengthy airport segment that could fill the same gap, but for a leg like this where we stay in the country, we *need* something extra. I hope this leg is just an exception and we aren't headed down the same road as TAR34 with every leg being a predictable Roadblock → Detour → Pitstop. But I have faith we aren't. * A few other little rapid fire thoughts: I love Jocelyn & Victor, I love that they are dominating these early legs, I hope they keep it up. This has always been one of my favorite "archetypes." The Pit Stop location was beautiful. A lot of the music this episode was genuinely terrific; they really nailed the soundtrack this episode with all the Southeast Asian instruments. I was surprised and a little disappointed to see the shortened version of the intro this episode, I kind of figured we would get the full version all season since episodes are longer. Is there some rule of the universe that Survivor and Amazing Race can't both air their full intros on the same night?!!
I'm torn about the staggered departure times. In many ways, I agree with you that it is a return to form and the concept that each leg is one piece of a much larger race. But on the other hand, I saw a lot of comments in the live thread of people lamenting no position changes despite a fairly tough roadbloack. Greg & John were able to easily recover from a seemingly big navigation error with little impact because they started the leg so far ahead of other teams. IMO, the staggered starts only work if the race offers some real challenges that give the teams that start 2+ hours behind a fighting chance. Other than just U-Turns. HARD roadblocks, the opportunity to take a risky flight route that could catapult or bury them, etc. But...I don't see that happening. While we got true staggered start times this episode, I'm willing to be next week when they leave Thailand that the staggered start times will end up with them bunching in the airport to get on one, maybe two flights. Or those tasks where they grab a start number for something that starts 10 hours later and puts 15-30 minutes between each group. I know everyone is excited commercial air travel is back, but we have to remember it will never be like the early seasons. Air travel these days is at capacity, especially during the summer when this is filmed. Production has to secure flights ahead of time, it's too risky to have teams scattered across airports or have teams not make it to the destination. People here get excited when they see teams "booking flights" but I can almost guarantee they aren't booking anything. Those interactions are TV magic, and largely what is actually happening is that the teams are checking in and claiming seats held by production. There are negotiations with the airlines on the backend to hold a certain amount of seats but not ticket them to specific passengers because they won't yet know who is still racing, but the seats are pre-sold. I hope production will split that into more than just one flight like in the premiere, but just saying I wouldn't expect the true start times to hold.
My hope is that flights will be like they sometimes did for limited availability routes in the old days, where production provides teams with a guaranteed ticket but they are not required to use it and free to find something better on their own
Would be nice, but probably unlikely for budget reasons. Last minute airfare is crazy expensive so it’s probably not allowed.
Yeah that's fair - other shows keep this in check by making cost of travel an important part of the race, but that's never been the case for TAR.
Yes. The sold out sign was obviously for tv. Look at the really old seasons when they actually book the flights and such a sign would not be found. That said, I do like that they are using commercial and staging it as if it were not prebooked. Probably the best we can get in today's world.
Yes, that’s exactly what I said they are doing. The tickets are pre-booked and teams have to “claim” them and get the seat ticketed in their name, plus check in. What also is TV magic is when you teams ask for 2 tickets. They are actually getting 4, including camera and sound guys.
I used to watch years ago when I was younger and only got back into the show the past couple of years. Remind me the departure times thing, and how it’s different than last year?
Sure! Up until the so-called "covid era" of the race, teams would always depart from the Pit Stop in the same order at which they arrived in the previous leg. Originally, it would always be exactly 12 hours later, i.e. if a team finishes Leg 1 at 8:31 am, they would begin Leg 2 at 8:31 pm. Over time, the producers gradually moved away from the rest period being exactly 12 hours, but the intervals between departures would nonetheless be preserved, i.e. if Team #1 finishes 28 minutes ahead of Team #2, they will still start on the next leg 28 minutes before Team #2. Usually the teams end up departing fairly close to each other, but occasionally they spread pretty far apart; I believe Season 21 is the last time we had an episode where some teams were able to finish an entire leg while others hadn't even started it yet. The format was massively overhauled for the covid legs; instead of preserving teams' leads heading into the next leg, teams would depart in groups leaving 15 minutes apart, regardless of how far ahead or behind they fell in the previous leg. For instance, the first 3 teams all depart at 8:00 am, the next 3 teams all depart at 8:15 am, and the last 3 teams all depart at 8:30 am, even if Team #1 actually finished the previous leg hours ahead of Team #9. For viewers who like the competitive aspect of constantly keeping the teams bunched together, I can understand the apeal of the covid format. But what I admire about the original format is that it preserves the notion established by Season 1 that this is really just one *big* race— every leg is connected, every decision that you make can have long-term consequences; if you take a risky flight and earn a big lead you may get to ride it for a few legs, if you make a costly mistake, it might take you a few legs to catch back up, and so on. Of course some legs have equalizers like an "hours of operation" or a train that only leaves once a day, but there's no guarantee those things will show up on any given leg. Every second on the course is precious, those 3 minutes you wasted on Leg 6 *could be* the 3 extra minutes you needed to make the faster flight on Leg 7!
Awesome, thank you! I agree the leave depending on when you arrive is much better, as is booking your own flights. I found an older thread hear discussing people's favourite airport drama episodes. Think I'm gonna have to go back and watch those haha
Agree with all your thoughts, except that I didn't find the roadblock task itself to be all that great. Although maybe that's just bc I got bored of seeing so much screen time for it. The drone shots of the lotus field were amazing tho. I also love J & V and think it's so refreshing to see a team that is simultaneously strong and appreciating the experience bc often the teams who appreciate it are also the slow ones
I agree with your summary! Although TAR Australia S07 (airing around the same time) also has some pretty good and tough Detour tasks.
I enjoyed the team members feeding catfish while they waited for their partners' return.
"I'm sure they're all stressing out waiting for us to come back." [Cut to all the teammates happily throwing food to the catfish]
They definitely had very different interactions with catfish this roadblock
That roadblock looks so hard. No switch placements for the Top 6 teams.
Almost no teams switched placements this leg besides 7th and 9th. I don’t know if that was more common when there were departure times but I guess that means that all the teams did equally well on the tasks and it was just based on who left first
There were a lot of tiny placement changes during the leg which somehow ended up cancelling each other out. Greg and John arrived at the roadblock 5th, but then smashed through the roadblock and came out 3rd again. Liam and Yeremi also got the taxi delay, but then did better on the roadblock and that along with Joel and Garrett having to go back for the fanny pack somehow got them back to 8th. Elizabeth and Iliana finished the Roadblock ahead of Andrea/Malaina and Robbin/Chelsea, but then missed one item on the Detour. I think Scoop Up is largely linear though so teams that arrived there in a certain order left in a certain order.
Yeah, despite lack of placement changes a lot actually still happened, and at least for me it was engaging to see people fall and then still recover to show that they still had that consistency.
Great episode! Beautiful locations. Watching the pomelos float was satisfying
I laughed out loud when the father daughter team was sinking and she said “quick take some out” as you see all the pomelos slowly spread out in the water
Funniest moment of the episode for me, tied with the failed fist bump!
I have to say, I loved that Todd and Ashlie chose the shopping challenge. It really showed their fun side, and I think it was the perfect task for Ashlie to forget her frustrations from the roadblock. It was chaotic fun. Can’t say that it was the same case if you’re in the bottom places though. It would be a mad scramble - and true enough, a team got the shopping list wrong.
That segment definitely made me like Todd and Ashlie a lot more! Not that I disliked them before; I just felt very neutrally about them. But it was fun to watch them just lean into looking silly and connect with the market vendors.
Same actually, was neutral about them - I think the first episode didn’t really tap into what they are about since there were so many teams to keep track of. But that task really let them shine. Funnily enough, there was a survey somewhere that they are super fan favorites since episode 1, tied with Rob and Corey. I can’t find it again but Rob and Corey’s IG account picked that survey up.
Rob and Corey are definitely my favourites! I'm always a sucker for a good-parent child team; they have great energy; the dad's got a unique storyline with his disability; and the son's hella easy on the eyes. I'm surprised Todd and Ashlie were faves after E1, though - all I can remember is they used to have marital problems or something. I like all of the Top 4 quite a bit, actually, but it helps that we've seen a lot of them.
Rob and Corey are one of my fave teams too! You really can tell they’re best friends (and not in a disfunctional Gilmore Girl sorta way), the way they interact with and support each other is so refreshing to see and yeah, inasmuch as we don’t want to objectify, at this point it’s just stating a fact: Corey is just damn fine lol. Let’s just put it that there’s a lot to like about the team. Rob and Corey put the survey results in an IG story and for the life of me, I can’t remember where it was from. The survey asked positive, neutral or negative perception toward a team and I think Rob and Corey and Todd and Ashlie got 100% positive. The other teams got a mixture. I’ll post here when I see it again.
Aw, I really do like all the teams so far, so it's too bad other teams are getting a bit of shade? I think this is probably one of the most likeable casts from the get-go, honestly!
I know right?! Def one of the most likeable casts. I can see a bit of catty tension from Ian from the first leg (although might be just some starting line jitters/fear of getting eliminated first) but nothing that would peg him as a villain outright. I liked the cast of TAR35 as a whole! Surprised Jocelyn and Victor was not universally well liked. Love them and their story. Wish I can show the survey results.
He said something about not being able to show the sellers the shopping list, and IMO that’s why his segment was more entertaining. But it was confusing when other teams were showing their list to everyone they could.
He was saying it wasn’t really helpful because they were written phonetically for English speakers to pronounce Thai. So the list was neither in Thai nor the English words for the goods.
IMO their segment was more entertaining because they were having more fun. This shifts when teams are competing to avoid elimination.
Greg, the judge ain’t fist-bumpin’
Curious with the uneven editing. Some of those middle teams get not much airtime.
It’s always been that way in early episodes. There are too many teams to cover equally.
I honestly thought something happened to Joe and Ian and they got edited out or something because it was about 20 minutes into the episode before I really saw them.
15+ different attempts at the lotus bouquet. Yikes - the FRUSTRATION.
Slowing down and watching the demo again would probably have cut those repeated attempts by a lot. AR can be quite like a biathlon -- run run run (or ski ski ski) then completely change gears to a detailed precise task.
As a massive biathlon fan, I'm so happy to see a biathlon analogy.
this was my first amazing race episode in like a decade. i loved it!!!!
I used to watch all the time as a kid with my mom. Last season was the first one I started back up in a decade. This season is already so great, I feel like we both chose the perfect time to start watching again!
By all accounts, this should have been a boring episode. Have we ever seen two opening legs with practically identical placements across them? The only placement changes were Joe & Ian swapping with Joel & Garrett. But I really couldn’t care because this cast is just so damn likable, and the challenges are challenging and interesting to boot. The lotus flower roadblock instantly become something like a top 20 or 25 roadblock for me. The only real negative I can say is a third challenge probably would have made this episode feel fuller. (No the elephant offering doesn’t count lol). I can’t stress enough how much the casting and crew nailed it this season. Great job TAR. I’ve missed you.
If you just look at the end results the placements are near identical, but there were a lot of little mid-leg switches. Two teams got to the wrong location first for the Roadblock, one team loses their fanny pack, another team meant to go to one Detour and ended up at another. The Roadblock threw a lot of teams in different order, and then all the tiny mistakes brought them pretty much in line again.
We finally get a little more personality from Steve & Anna Leigh and Robbin & Chelsea.
I think Anna Leigh could walk into a character on Yellowstone or the old Nashville show.
I love her! I hope we get to see some of her grit and tomboy come out that dad has been telling us about. I believe she was the one in the first episode that absolutely flew across the tight rope
It's the hair! Shades (pun intended) of Reba and Connie Britton. and Kelly Reilly.
Reba? Did she go on a journey for an advantage yet?
Steve and Anna Leigh are fucking *adorable.* Just absolute sweethearts. I was a little worried about Steve during the Detour, though. He was looking *spent.*
I noticed that too. I kept expecting him to pass out considering how Thailand and SE Asian legs have caused health concerns on the Race as well as Survivor.
I find it funny how almost every team got the same placement as the first leg, with the only exception being Joe and Ian swapping places with Joel and Garrett
And that was due to forgetting the fanny pack, I guess.
Victor and Jocelyn are carrying just one backpack as a team? Interesting concept. I wonder how much it helps. Although it keeps one member from carrying two backpacks when someone tires.
Derek and Claire carried one backpack as well the previous season! worked out well for them
Thanks! I didn’t notice.
I think they are only the second team to ever do that? That I can remember.
This is more common than you’d think - at least for the teams that prepare by realizing that the partners have to stay within a short distance of each other. So it makes sense for the faster one to carry the single backpack and they keep a similar pace that way.
In reality, you only need one backpack. Almost every team that ever races talks about how they end up throwing out half their bags after the first 2-3 legs. When it comes down to it, everything in the bag is just a luxury. The only thing you need to compete is your passport.
I do enjoy when there's a close race and you can see both teams are there at the same time. They can get a little tricky with the editing sometimes, so it's more exciting when you know that it actually is coming down to one task.
Woah I didn't even notice they went back to proper departure times! This episode was great. Loving this cast and the complete lack of former reality star contestants (which I have never been a fan of...there are so few casting slots on the show to begin with, and it annoys me when Survivor/BB contestants take up a slot almost by default when SO many other regular teams audition and never make it). After last season, I sadly thought my many years of being a TAR fan were at an end - and not just because of what covid did to the show. It just seemed like a shell of its former self even before they shut down production. But man, this last episode felt far closer to old-school TAR than the show has felt in a long, long time. Edit: Also, as someone who has had to assemble professional flower arrangements (and sucked at it, if I'm being honest), I can attest that the roadblock was DIFFICULT - especially getting the leaves right without tearing them.
> But man, this last episode felt far closer to old-school TAR than the show has felt in a long, long time. 100%. I've felt so happy with these first two episodes. I didn't hate the COVID seasons, but they obviously felt very limited in comparison. This season feels like it's bringing that joy and wonder associated with traveling distant lands back.
I did love the shopping challenge team sounding out the strange word only to realize that it's "broccoli" in Thai, too. Props to the challenge designer who threw that one in! Victor and Jocelyn had a bit of a home team advantage, not only with Victor being able to make himself understood in Thai, but having run the family grocery store and being familiar with so many of the items they were sent to fetch. They also have a great partnership, supportive and happy. Not that the other teams aren't great too -- i look forward to seeing more of them in the weeks to come.
They were definitely being a little bit lenient with the last remaining teams on the roadblock. I saw at least one bud that was blooming on the bouquets that were approved.
This always annoys me. They're especially guilty of this in the dance/rhythm challenges - over the years some shockingly bad performances have been passed, while very good but not perfect ones, if the teams are near the front, have been failed. I think if the teams are that bad, they should be given a certain number of attempts and then given a time penalty.
Ooh a time penalty would make so much more sense. It’s always obvious when they give them a “sympathy” approval. Like ‘okay we’ll be here all night if I don’t approve you and we got to get the show on the road’.
Good idea @axholme.
I noticed as well how Jocelyn received absolutely no feedback with her bouquets. Then as soon as she got a clue, they told the other teams exactly what was wrong every time. Felt unfair.
Yep, noticed this too.
Really love this season. Love the fact that they are so many family teams this season: married couple, parent and child, siblings. Love the extended duration of the episode. And what are the odds that the pink team got a pink taxi???
Appreciated the team willing to make goofy fools of themselves in the market. I think that's a fun to watch approach when you're totally out of your element like that. The lotus challenge seemed surprisingly hard, and honestly the judging did seem inconsistent. Some of those bundles that passed looked like the leaves just weren't big enough. Most all the teams are at least somewhat likable, and some of them really so. That's a nice plus. No real bland pairs left either.
That fist bump attempts though! 💀🤣😹😝☠️ Had me cracking up and then having to hold himself back at attempting it again at the end lol. Love Greg and John, and Rob and Cory and the father daughter team.
The fist bump scene was hilarious. I also laughed when the daughter asked the father if he was about to cry
Were you quivering?
Yup, I was trying to remember how she phrased it 🤣
Lol that was good too! We are in for a good season! The 90 minute episodes rock!
I’m REALLY digging this season. First one I’m watching (partially) live and I have zero complaints! I genuinely believe The Amazing Race is better with the 90 minute episodes, perhaps more so than Survivor. I am hopeful that the placements switch up a little bit more in the next episode.
Really enjoyed this episode! Lots of cultural tasks, and the roadblock was actually a pretty good challenge. I think the no placement shuffling was a little boring, but the Roadblock was a pretty good equalizer so I can’t blame it on the route or anything. So far I feel like there’s no standout team to beat yet, especially since it looks like Jocelyn/Victor are gonna hit some bumps in the next leg.
Not sure why the other post episode thread got deleted but copying my thoughts: - Generally enjoyed the episode - the roadblock seemed challenging. I’m kind of surprised that it took that many tries to be honest, it didn’t seem *that* hard, but I won’t complain about seeing some struggles. - Detour was pretty decent too and well balanced. The shopping task is one we’ve seen many times before but I always thinks it’s a good one to throw in there every now and then, scoop was pretty straight forward but somewhat physical - would’ve been interesting to see this one with more teams there at the same time since that might have been chaotic in the canals and require some strategy. - A little disappointed in the lack of placement changing but I think some of that is coincidental - outside of the top 2 and Steve/Anna Leigh being locked in sixth there was a decent amount of movement and different groups that were bunched together, just so happened that only two teams swapped places. Lots of good moments this episode - really enjoying the longer episodes: - Greg getting a fist bump not reciprocated then not going for a second one - Steve and the roadblock just fumbling around - The roadblock group wondering about how worried their partners are meanwhile they are all playing with catfish - ‘Something just touched my butt and not in a good way’ - Learning how to pronounce ‘broccoli’ I’ve noticed a lot of camera cuts where one team says one thing and either that exact thing is happening somewhere else (Elizabeth/Iliana saying they think they’ll be checking with another team while Joel/Garrett and Andrea/Malaina check in at the same time) or the exact opposite is happening (see the catfish) - I’ve enjoyed it.
Surprised they didn't get supplied with some gear during the Lotus challenges. Phil was suited and booted during the demo haha.
Didn't Jocelyn walk up and pick out her clothes and shoes?
I will need to rewatch and see I was getting tired. I just wouldn't have wanted to do it in personal clothes and being gross the rest of the leg. Would make sense if they were able to get normal looking clothes and didn't want the full gear. The full gear could slow some down.
It looks like they all had the same shoes and gloves
Missed the last 15 minutes of the ep because of a weather alert -sigh-
same here going crazy in texas. I had to go find a stream lol
Another great episode, absolutely loved the cinematography and the challenges were pretty difficult, especially the Road Block! It's nice to see a challenge that really puts the teams to work. Personally I would love to do the pomelo challenge just for fun LOL The only big thing I didn't like was the lack of change in placements. Seeing the same top 6 is kinda insane. It shows that an equalizer is badly needed next episode. It wasn't for bad leg design though, because it seemed like there were plenty of opportunities to slip up and fall behind. Not much drama yet, but these teams are truly great. There are so many that I genuinely really like (Jocelyn/Victor, Rob/Corey, Andrea/Malania, Liam/Yaremi, and Todd/Ashlie are my faves right now). Looking forward to see the pack shuffle next week! The preview looks promising.
My wife is now craving pomelo and demanding we get some. And that's fine with me because it is delish.
Solid episode with more equal challenges than the premiere. The elephant challenge could've been harder but otherwise I don't have much of a problem with the leg.
The elephant challenge was almost like a route info task. I kind of wish it was.
I loved seeing the times each team left the pit stop. It felt like a throwback to older seasons. This leg certainly had some challenging tasks. One thing I noticed. The teams near the back at the market challenge seemed to show the vendors the grocery list. Didn't the high school sweethearts mention that teams couldn't show the note? I also liked that they were having fun and enjoying making connections despite not knowing Thai.
Another solid leg in the books. I'm glad we have non-grouped departures anymore and it values the placement the team earned in the previous leg. Good to see the more rural side here while making it exciting and intense. * Lotus Road Block: I liked how it had many elements to it from getting into the muddy water, having to tie it properly, cut it properly, fold the leaves properly and have the 3-4-3 configuration. I am sure some folks were there for at least an hour and a half. I liked it how the non Road Block performing member were able to feed the catfishes and keep themselves occupied. * Lucky Elephant: It was funny to see the race actually make a little cut out on the race flag where the coin is supposed to be inserted. Did wish we had something here like rather than be given the coin, search the premise for the coin itself. * Detour: Stock Up - I like a simple market task with multiple items and the items given in a phonetic list. What I am confused about was Todd & Ashlie said they weren't able to show the list to the vendors but we saw the last two teams showing the list to the vendors. Unless I am mistaken, I am a bit confused. Scoop Up - holy, those look very heavy. Really enjoyed how they had to retrieve 5 big buckets worth and navigating those narrow canals must've been hectic. They seemed painfully slow enough that the camera operators just casually walked along them the whole time! * I think the big theme this episode was to double check at the right time, for Jocelyn & Victor it was checking to see if they had the right quantity just as they were going in for the market inspection and for the CS Brothers, checking the canals before almost deciding on switching detours. * What I kind of didn't like this episode was the editing had a big emphasis on the top 3 teams this leg for the first hour and then crammed the remaining teams in the last 30-minutes. Don't really mind it as I really enjoy the top 3 teams so far but the editing felt really rushed and cramped towards the last 30-minutes.
IIRC regarding the shopping list they said it wouldn't be helpful to show the locals the list b/c the phonetic spelling =/= the actual spelling in Thai so just reading it wouldn't be of any use to them.
Thai has a completely different "alphabet" so showing a transliteration in "English" would have been meaningless. I also wouldn't be at all surprised if some of those market workers were illiterate in Thai.
Thailand has a 95% literacy rate and English has been a compulsory subject in schools there for nearly 30 years. Some of the market workers were definitely shown looking at the transliterations and sounding them out
Thanks for the information and correction.
Oh right. Good to know, thanks for the clarification as I only saw the shopping list card quickly.
Todd and Ashlie said they "couldn't" because the words were spelled phonetically, meaning the locals wouldn't be able to read the list 🙂
I think for the stock up task what Todd meant was just that because the list was phonetically in English, the vendors couldn't easily read it. They showed Todd and Ashlie showing the list to a vendor right before that for the quantity part so it definitely wasn't a rules thing. I think he was probably right though that the vendors would have trouble reading the list because we saw the teams later trying to show it to people and them not knowing what they meant right away.
> Todd & Ashlie said they weren't able to show the list to the vendors but we saw the last two teams showing the list to the vendors. ah my interpretation is more like they can't show it since it's not in thai, rather than they can't show it as part of the rule.
Pomelo is definitely a heavy citrus fruit, but they are super delicious. I had the yellow-flesh pomelo instead of the pink-flesh pomelos shown in the episode.
I also didn't get the initially not showing then being allowed to show the shopping list. Unless the producers decided mid task that Jocelyn and Victor had an unfair advantage because of Victor being Laotian.
Does anyone else feel like past few casts have been a little TOO nice with each other?? Not that there's anything wrong with that but I miss when there was some animosity and drama between the teams like in 25 and 29
Hoping for a HoO venue next week to bunch everyone up again. May be asking a bit too much though…
This season has been the hardest for our family to watch. Once we met the teams, we’re so invested in them now. Like watching friends get eliminated. It’s been crazy.
It seemed to me like they were restocking the pomelos in those canals, perhaps even using the same ones. It never got much harder for teams. Then again, while it seemed like a relatively small place to me, it could have been much larger than it seemed.
Greg trying to fist bump the old Thai lady at the bulb arrangement Roadblock was hilarious. 😆
Seeing Greg and John place top 3 again got me thinking; how many black M/M teams have we had that did well? My fossil memory only brings to mind Flight Time and Big Easy. EDIT: Just remembered Marcus and Michael, who did do pretty well. Chester and Ephraim did have a good two-leg run before getting one of the worst flight adventures ever, so it might be too early to say yet, but I’ve been quietly impressed by Greg and John so far. I think Asian M/M teams haven’t had very prominent showings either in my memory, but again, fossil memory only brings to mind the Cho Bros.
Double commenting to share some data: Went through the entire list of Racers and yeah, the pattern definitely fits. Now, there have been very few overall black male/male teams. But when you look at the data, most of them have a very low placement and overall average placement as well. Besides Flight Time + Big Easy's first two appearances, Marcus and Michael in TAR 34 are pretty much the only team that really contended to win. That's 3 out of 14 teams. There's a couple teams that I don't think anyone expected to go all the way (i.e., Ron + Tony) but if you look at this list, most of these teams on paper seem like potentially strong candidates. And a lot of them even started very strong only to either spin out or have one very unlucky leg. I honestly don't think there is any good explanation for this beyond coincidence -- there is no real commonality in these teams reasons for elimination -- but it's definitely an interesting fact to consider. TAR 2 Shola + Doyin (8th) TAR 3 Andre + Damon (6th) TAR 15 Flight Time + Big Easy (4th) TAR 17 Ron + Tony (11th) TAR 18 Flight Time + Big East (2nd) TAR 22 Idries + Jamal (10th) TAR 23 Chester + Ephraim (9th) TAR 24 Flight Time + Big Easy (6th) TAR 27 Ernest + Jin (9th) TAR 28 Darius + Cameron (10th) TAR 30 Cedric + Shawn (9th) TAR 33 Michael + Moe (11th/7th) Taylor + Isaiah (Withdrew) TAR 34 Marcus + Michael (5th)
I like Greg & John, they are really smart. We've had a lot of strong black MM teams but only few made it far.
In amazing race Canada this season the black M/M team placed high
LOVED Ben & Anwar!! They were my faves!
I really like Greg and John as well. I also liked Marcus and Michael last season so I hope they keep it up.
There has been a weird curse of generally strong black male/male teams not doing well, going all the way back to Shola and Doyim losing due to a taxi running over one of their feet. There are a bunch of black male/male teams that on paper should win it all and may start out strong but end up not doing well. I don’t think there is any correlation to be made with that but it is a weird coincidence.
Define “on paper.” Just because some black M/M teams have muscles and can run doesn’t make them great racers. TAR is about a lot more things than perceived physical ability. The best teams complement one another in strengths and weaknesses in physical and mental acuity, navigation, emotional stability, etc. That’s why M/F teams do the best.
Shola/Doyin had the taxi foot incident happen at the beginning of Leg 2, which they easily survived. They came in last on the 4th leg getting lost in the desert and then bogged down in the sand in Namibia.
Honorable M/M mention being Leo and Jamal who are simultaneously one of the best teams to play and also the unluckiest
Leo and Jamal are Afghan though, which isn’t the same as Black, right?
Yeah I was just basing my comment on you discussing minority M/M teams
Does anyone else feel like past few casts have been a little TOO nice with each other?? Not that there's anything wrong with that but I miss when there was some animosity and drama between the teams like in 25 and 29
Yes it’s the reason why 33 and 34 are my least favorite seasons. Hopefully this season will get better
I started this season late, so I don’t know names yet. But I recall one woman (Ashley?) telling a dude during the roadblock“not to get comfortable, we’re right behind you”… his team finished second, and I think her and her husband were close to last 😂 not sure why she felt it was necessary to say that but I really liked the way they handled their detour and had fun with it.
Those teams finished in 3rd and 5th, respectively
Oh thanks! Definitely fudged up more details than I could remember 😂still very fun
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Guys I was excited for the 90 min episodes. We all where. But I think we can all agree they are too damn long! More than half an hour of screen time separating the 1st and last place? I have never actually wanted to stop watching a leg early before tonight and I have been watching since I was a little kid.
We have a lot of teams. Once it trims down to like 6 or 7 it'll probably start feeling tighter.
im just watching this for the first time again after 10 years or so, and i disagree. i was riveted by the challenges and i was interested in most contestants. in my view it actually felt like it flew by?? i thought it was paced well. i’m def invested now and will be tuning in next week.
I agree, the fact that the first team got done with all the tasks with over half the episode to go, smh
I agree that doesn’t really work. It really slows down the pace of the show.
Pretty good tasks this episode, but unfortunately the lack of any bunching really stopped there from being all that much switching around in the placements. IMO they should have stuck to the prior post-COVID rule where teams departed together in groups at certain times, especially for a leg with no other bunching. Also that roadblock looked to be absolutely brutal.
I have to disagree TAR already has a built in bunching point and it’s called flights. Besides the roadblock was definitely difficult enough it could have resulted in teams being jumbled up more, the near identical placements are mostly coincidental. The only 2 reasons the Covid era did group departures was they needed teams to be on the course (and at risk of Covid infection) as little as possible. And because the charter plane removed flights as a built in bunching point.
I was quite surprised to see the teams struggle so much on the roadblock. I’m still deciding on what team I want to support since all the teams are so likeable.
The neighborhood they were in at the end of leg- were there any details on this during the episode? I tried to rewind it to find out. I’d love to know where that is.
Those two brothers seem really into each other.