The Amazing Race 32: Legs 1 to 3
Nov. 3rd, 2020 11:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
spiderbraidsAfter an unusually long break between seasons (prolonged by the Covid situation, both literally and figuratively), TAR celebrates travelling one million miles travelled... by going back to basics (well, at least with the casting :-))
Episode 1
1. American telecasts were preceded by a notice from Phil Keoghan acknowledging the Covid situation, but where I live, it immediately started with the "One million miles" montage (with clips from the older seasons, such as Claire getting clobbered by the melon, presented in their proper frame rate... seems like all competitive reality is presented with reduced "Youtube-ready" frame rate now) They're heading back to basics with mostly "commoner" contestants, though with a pair of former Olympian hurdlers, ex-NFL players, and a college hoops legend and his son in the mix (can't exactly not have a parent/child team, right? ;-)) They're nowhere near as well-known as Johnathan "NKOTB" Knight, Caite "Miss South Carolina" Upton, Mike "School of Rock" White, Joey "Competitive eater" Chestnut, Cedric "NBA star" Ceballos, or Bethany "Soul Surfer" Hamilton, but that's kind of the point...
2. Twist #1: Instead of running intro packages before showing the racers at the starting line (this year, The Hollywood Bowl), it just shows them arriving at the start line, with the intro packages being gradually shown over the course of the first half-hour... So anyways, the first stop is a new country, Trinidad and Tobago, and airport drama has been dispensed with, as we jump straight from teams in their cabs in SoCal to teams landing in the middle of the night at Trinidad's airport... for a steel barrel rolling task: Roll them to a carnivale party (and the Caribbean sure knows how to party LOL)
3. The point of this task is to split the teams onto two flights to Tobago: 7 on the first, and 4 on the second, and last place are Indian (as in Delhi) siblings Eswar/Aparna, who have been watching the show since they were 10 and 9 (which is one heck of a testament to the show's longetivity), and after purposely staying back in the hopes of someone falling over, get a "pointing out the obvious" confessional about how that puts them at risk of getting eliminated (obviously) And considering how long they've been watching, they're probably aware of the last time their kind was on, when Vipul "of the people"/Arti were eliminated at the end of the first leg of S10 :-\ Incidentally, that episode was a harsh blow to that season's diversity, since it also took out a team of devout Muslims in a mid-leg twist (now where's THAT kind of team? And I don't think the Afghanimals count :-\)
4. Tobago! Next task involves matching the colors on the fins of a wooden fish in their boat to one of many (125 to be exact) wooden fish in the sea, and then unlock a padlock on the matching fish with the combination printed on the original (all by memory, I might add; they're not allowed to take it with them) Hung/Chee (Asian parents... and Chee's the man, so certain kinds of jokes will not apply to them) just skip the "remember the colors" part and try the combo on all the fish... This nets them (huh, pun, sort of) a 5th place... which is still six places better than Olympians Kellie/LaVonne, who were on the second flight, so they were already 30 minutes behind to start, but it turns out one of them is dyslexic with numbers, which will also affect them at the Roadblock, speaking of which...
5. Roadblock: Who thinks they can STEEL the show? Play a stanza of Day-O (aka the most island-y song ever) on the steel pan (Phil Keoghan: "The only acoustic instrument invented in the 20th century") It's essentially hit the correct number at the correct time... so basically, Simon :-) Out of nowhere, Chee nails the task in one, prompting Michelle/Victoria ("Cajun Asian" sisters, who had been first after the fish) to quip that they probably learned the piano since they're Asian... before cutting to Chee thanking his parents for piano lessons LOL. DeAngelo has Gary (ex-NFL) take the task, expecting to be more of a strength task... and are disappointed to find it's a music task, which would have favored DeAngelo more, so they end up having to compete against the Olympians and non-descript southern friends Nathan/Cody to avoid the dreaded last place...
6. Last stop, goat racing. Hang on to a racing goat on a leash until you cross the finish line... A few teams (like Hung/Chee) take two attempts, but no placement change, as Hung/Chee take the first place... but they're heading to Bogota, Colombia for the next leg immediately... The only placement change between Roadblock and finish sees the Olympians overtake NFL because the former team's boat has two engines vs. one, before out sprinting their racing goats, LOL :-) Twist #2: Unlike every previous "part 1 of 2" leg on TAR US, this one ends with an elimination, and it's Nathan/Cody getting the boot (turned out they were screwed no matter who was playing, according to their post-exit interview)
Bonus: As per above, the actual aired episode completely skipped any scenes at LAX, but according to this tweet, the Cajun Asians happened to run into celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck at LAX (and the scene even gets the caption treatment as if it were part of the episode :-))
Episode 2
1. As already reported, they're headed to Bogota next (all on the same plane) and TIL that it's actually more than a mile above sea level. First task is to head to a salt mine for yet another twist: Find a sandtimer (10 or 20 minutes) to use as part of a new "BYO" twist on the Yield (interestingly, introduced with an archival clip of last season's winner Colin getting Yielded in his original season, in its original frame rate even), then sign up on a board staggering the remaining teams into two groups of 5 leaving at 6 and 6:30am... after an overnight in the mine itself (!)
2. After retrieving either one of two items (golden raft or emerald) from a local cathedral, head back to Bogota to deliver them to either emerald traders in a square or some archaeologist professor dude with a beard at the nearby uni... prompting Riley/Maddison (bearded volleyball players) to quip that they're looking for their dad :-) Of course they'll have to deal with traffic, leading to a scene between Kaylynn/Haley (blondes) asking their cabbie if they're on the freeway... and getting in response: "In theory, yes" LOL!
3. Beards meet the professor, and are worried when prof tells them that it's fake... before they get the clue anyway (though they quip about ripping prof's beard off LOL) This leads to Circa para Todos (translation: Circus for everyone), a Yield (unused for now), and a Roadblock: Who's ready to clown around? It involves twirling on a wheel and then tightrope walking, and having to carry wine one way and wine with two glasses back (looks like some of the shots from the tightrope cameras have been inserted in full frame rate) And of course the contestants get to wear clown makeup and outfits, which prompts DeAngelo to quip that "Red lipstick is not my color", and then Gary quips about DeAngelo's make up after they're done LOL! They also tell the arriving Will/James (fabulous friends, and 9-time applicants according to episode 1) about the tightrope, prompting James to be insistent on having Will do it, since he's so good at dancing :-)
4. Meanwhile, the Olympians continue to struggle to get traction: They were in the 2nd group, and their cabbie to the square in Bogota is last because (get this) his GPS phone is low on battery and he doesn't have a charger cord because he lent it to some other cabbie (of course there's a confessional about how taxis are a matter of luck) For the frontrunners, next stop is decorating a Colombian truck bus (similar to a task from back in S5 for decorating a Filipino jeepney), with Phil Keoghan noting that most teams are expected to miss that there are horns that need to be installed under the fenders... The kicker is that the clue actually specifically mentions hooking up the horns, as revealed when Hung/Chee decide to consult the clue...
5. The only team that has to redo the tightrope task (and twice, at that) are Leo/Alana (bespectacled nerds), and despite Phil Keoghan's voiceover at the start of the task assuring that the props are fragile glass, the wine bottle survives the fall from Alana's tray, and gets pulleyed up in a basket back to the start of the tightrope :-) Okay, the Olympians' cabbie now has a charger for his phone, so they're now competing with the blondes to avoid elimination... and although the blondes have half a mind to Yield the Olympians, they decide against it, so this leg's Yield ends up going completely unused... Meanwhile, Will/James are decorating "Claudia" (that's what they call their truck), and though one of them wants to consult the clue as they're struggling with the task, the other insists that the details won't be in the clue... and it's of course followed by a scene of the beards consulting the clue... and then the Beards, Cajun Asians, and Eswar/Aparna passing them (The confessional after they finally get around to checking the clue calls this a rookie mistake)
6. Pit stop is at Parque Nacional, where Hung/Chee finally get themselves a prize: A trip to Switzerland :-) The bulk of the rest of the leg revolves around teams decorating their trucks, getting bewildered that they're not done yet, wondering what could be wrong, then realizing that they have to hook up the horn, either by reading the clue or hearing from other teams... The only team for which this is not the case is the nerds, who hook up the horn (after overhearing Will/James realizing the same) and still get rejected, and end up having to decorate the back to get their clue... Another fun moment has the Cajun Asians decorating their truck with LSU colors: Purple and gold :-)
7. Leo/Alana finish their truck and tell the blondes about the horn... There may be some perfectly good reasons for this, but they're mostly to take out either of the athletic teams bringing up the rear (the Olympians, and college hoops legend father/son Frank/Jerry), not "Because they're nice" :-\ Will/James are 6th, and are in disbelief that of all teams, someone who's watched all the eps like them would fall prey to such a rookie mistake as forgetting to read the clue... but getting the boot are the Olympians, who never really recovered from either of their bad starts, and reveal in a confessional that they've always made the final of any race they've been in, and are obviously disappointed to be out so early (S21's Amy/Daniel say hello)
Bonus thought: The Yield hasn't appeared on the show since 2007... to put things in perspective, I was still in uni getting my Master's, three of my grandparents were still around (just lost the last of them earlier this year... not from Covid though), and my other favorite show was still between its 3rd season and first movie
Episode 3
1. Time to head to the Amazon, more precisely, Manaus in Brazil, at the edge of the rainforest :-) The first task is a shopping task, and of course everything is written in Portuguese... and of course there are teams who end up running to the port instead, in this case the Cajun Asians and Frank/Jerry :-\ Given the whole alliances thing going on, teams are helping each other find the goods they're looking for, which include fruit, flour, and even a machete with its storage casing (that last one will be important)
2. After the market stop is a trip the rainforest to meet a tribe (presumably not one of the 10% that have never had outside contact before ;-) according to Phil Keoghan), whose chief will use a blowdart to dispense a clue :-) An important point is made about bringing the stuff from shopping along to the rainforest tribe, and while still at the dock, Will/James get off their boat twice to make sure they have everything... Sure enough, one team has to double back to the Manaus market mid-ride to get their bag of stuff... and it's Frank/Jerry (again?)
3. Detour is between making a thatched roof for a tribal hut (they won't actually have to do any climbing, they'll do it on the ground), and making some sort of tribal cuisine. The latter has a neat trick, in which the casing for a machete is used as a strainer for filtering juice :-) With all the talk of alliances going on here, it almost feels like an episode of Survivor... and NFL has a bit of a tiff during a confessional over the nuances of the roofing task, whether they were doing a wall or a roof :-)
4. There's a Double U-Turn after the Detour... and after Will/James U-Turn the nerds, the nerds U-Turn Frank/Jerry (seriously?) Will/James get 1st at a riverboat, and a trip to Bali, while Leo/Alana check-in and when asked by Phil Keoghan about how their day went, can only say "Oh my gawwwd" LOL!
5. It takes 34 minutes for the Cajun Asians to realize that the clue after the Double U-Turn is in the basket next to the panel, but they're still ahead of two teams... One of them is Leo/Alana, and no prizes for guessing the other :-) Frank/Jerry get the last place finish and the boot, but given all the crap they went through today, it's to their credit that they at least manage to make it to the pitstop and finish the leg with some modicum of dignity, because, in their own words, "Eves don't quit" :-) (And we learn in their exit that Frank's had two hip replacements, so Amy/Daniel say hello again :-))
Episode 1
1. American telecasts were preceded by a notice from Phil Keoghan acknowledging the Covid situation, but where I live, it immediately started with the "One million miles" montage (with clips from the older seasons, such as Claire getting clobbered by the melon, presented in their proper frame rate... seems like all competitive reality is presented with reduced "Youtube-ready" frame rate now) They're heading back to basics with mostly "commoner" contestants, though with a pair of former Olympian hurdlers, ex-NFL players, and a college hoops legend and his son in the mix (can't exactly not have a parent/child team, right? ;-)) They're nowhere near as well-known as Johnathan "NKOTB" Knight, Caite "Miss South Carolina" Upton, Mike "School of Rock" White, Joey "Competitive eater" Chestnut, Cedric "NBA star" Ceballos, or Bethany "Soul Surfer" Hamilton, but that's kind of the point...
2. Twist #1: Instead of running intro packages before showing the racers at the starting line (this year, The Hollywood Bowl), it just shows them arriving at the start line, with the intro packages being gradually shown over the course of the first half-hour... So anyways, the first stop is a new country, Trinidad and Tobago, and airport drama has been dispensed with, as we jump straight from teams in their cabs in SoCal to teams landing in the middle of the night at Trinidad's airport... for a steel barrel rolling task: Roll them to a carnivale party (and the Caribbean sure knows how to party LOL)
3. The point of this task is to split the teams onto two flights to Tobago: 7 on the first, and 4 on the second, and last place are Indian (as in Delhi) siblings Eswar/Aparna, who have been watching the show since they were 10 and 9 (which is one heck of a testament to the show's longetivity), and after purposely staying back in the hopes of someone falling over, get a "pointing out the obvious" confessional about how that puts them at risk of getting eliminated (obviously) And considering how long they've been watching, they're probably aware of the last time their kind was on, when Vipul "of the people"/Arti were eliminated at the end of the first leg of S10 :-\ Incidentally, that episode was a harsh blow to that season's diversity, since it also took out a team of devout Muslims in a mid-leg twist (now where's THAT kind of team? And I don't think the Afghanimals count :-\)
4. Tobago! Next task involves matching the colors on the fins of a wooden fish in their boat to one of many (125 to be exact) wooden fish in the sea, and then unlock a padlock on the matching fish with the combination printed on the original (all by memory, I might add; they're not allowed to take it with them) Hung/Chee (Asian parents... and Chee's the man, so certain kinds of jokes will not apply to them) just skip the "remember the colors" part and try the combo on all the fish... This nets them (huh, pun, sort of) a 5th place... which is still six places better than Olympians Kellie/LaVonne, who were on the second flight, so they were already 30 minutes behind to start, but it turns out one of them is dyslexic with numbers, which will also affect them at the Roadblock, speaking of which...
5. Roadblock: Who thinks they can STEEL the show? Play a stanza of Day-O (aka the most island-y song ever) on the steel pan (Phil Keoghan: "The only acoustic instrument invented in the 20th century") It's essentially hit the correct number at the correct time... so basically, Simon :-) Out of nowhere, Chee nails the task in one, prompting Michelle/Victoria ("Cajun Asian" sisters, who had been first after the fish) to quip that they probably learned the piano since they're Asian... before cutting to Chee thanking his parents for piano lessons LOL. DeAngelo has Gary (ex-NFL) take the task, expecting to be more of a strength task... and are disappointed to find it's a music task, which would have favored DeAngelo more, so they end up having to compete against the Olympians and non-descript southern friends Nathan/Cody to avoid the dreaded last place...
6. Last stop, goat racing. Hang on to a racing goat on a leash until you cross the finish line... A few teams (like Hung/Chee) take two attempts, but no placement change, as Hung/Chee take the first place... but they're heading to Bogota, Colombia for the next leg immediately... The only placement change between Roadblock and finish sees the Olympians overtake NFL because the former team's boat has two engines vs. one, before out sprinting their racing goats, LOL :-) Twist #2: Unlike every previous "part 1 of 2" leg on TAR US, this one ends with an elimination, and it's Nathan/Cody getting the boot (turned out they were screwed no matter who was playing, according to their post-exit interview)
Bonus: As per above, the actual aired episode completely skipped any scenes at LAX, but according to this tweet, the Cajun Asians happened to run into celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck at LAX (and the scene even gets the caption treatment as if it were part of the episode :-))
Episode 2
1. As already reported, they're headed to Bogota next (all on the same plane) and TIL that it's actually more than a mile above sea level. First task is to head to a salt mine for yet another twist: Find a sandtimer (10 or 20 minutes) to use as part of a new "BYO" twist on the Yield (interestingly, introduced with an archival clip of last season's winner Colin getting Yielded in his original season, in its original frame rate even), then sign up on a board staggering the remaining teams into two groups of 5 leaving at 6 and 6:30am... after an overnight in the mine itself (!)
2. After retrieving either one of two items (golden raft or emerald) from a local cathedral, head back to Bogota to deliver them to either emerald traders in a square or some archaeologist professor dude with a beard at the nearby uni... prompting Riley/Maddison (bearded volleyball players) to quip that they're looking for their dad :-) Of course they'll have to deal with traffic, leading to a scene between Kaylynn/Haley (blondes) asking their cabbie if they're on the freeway... and getting in response: "In theory, yes" LOL!
3. Beards meet the professor, and are worried when prof tells them that it's fake... before they get the clue anyway (though they quip about ripping prof's beard off LOL) This leads to Circa para Todos (translation: Circus for everyone), a Yield (unused for now), and a Roadblock: Who's ready to clown around? It involves twirling on a wheel and then tightrope walking, and having to carry wine one way and wine with two glasses back (looks like some of the shots from the tightrope cameras have been inserted in full frame rate) And of course the contestants get to wear clown makeup and outfits, which prompts DeAngelo to quip that "Red lipstick is not my color", and then Gary quips about DeAngelo's make up after they're done LOL! They also tell the arriving Will/James (fabulous friends, and 9-time applicants according to episode 1) about the tightrope, prompting James to be insistent on having Will do it, since he's so good at dancing :-)
4. Meanwhile, the Olympians continue to struggle to get traction: They were in the 2nd group, and their cabbie to the square in Bogota is last because (get this) his GPS phone is low on battery and he doesn't have a charger cord because he lent it to some other cabbie (of course there's a confessional about how taxis are a matter of luck) For the frontrunners, next stop is decorating a Colombian truck bus (similar to a task from back in S5 for decorating a Filipino jeepney), with Phil Keoghan noting that most teams are expected to miss that there are horns that need to be installed under the fenders... The kicker is that the clue actually specifically mentions hooking up the horns, as revealed when Hung/Chee decide to consult the clue...
5. The only team that has to redo the tightrope task (and twice, at that) are Leo/Alana (bespectacled nerds), and despite Phil Keoghan's voiceover at the start of the task assuring that the props are fragile glass, the wine bottle survives the fall from Alana's tray, and gets pulleyed up in a basket back to the start of the tightrope :-) Okay, the Olympians' cabbie now has a charger for his phone, so they're now competing with the blondes to avoid elimination... and although the blondes have half a mind to Yield the Olympians, they decide against it, so this leg's Yield ends up going completely unused... Meanwhile, Will/James are decorating "Claudia" (that's what they call their truck), and though one of them wants to consult the clue as they're struggling with the task, the other insists that the details won't be in the clue... and it's of course followed by a scene of the beards consulting the clue... and then the Beards, Cajun Asians, and Eswar/Aparna passing them (The confessional after they finally get around to checking the clue calls this a rookie mistake)
6. Pit stop is at Parque Nacional, where Hung/Chee finally get themselves a prize: A trip to Switzerland :-) The bulk of the rest of the leg revolves around teams decorating their trucks, getting bewildered that they're not done yet, wondering what could be wrong, then realizing that they have to hook up the horn, either by reading the clue or hearing from other teams... The only team for which this is not the case is the nerds, who hook up the horn (after overhearing Will/James realizing the same) and still get rejected, and end up having to decorate the back to get their clue... Another fun moment has the Cajun Asians decorating their truck with LSU colors: Purple and gold :-)
7. Leo/Alana finish their truck and tell the blondes about the horn... There may be some perfectly good reasons for this, but they're mostly to take out either of the athletic teams bringing up the rear (the Olympians, and college hoops legend father/son Frank/Jerry), not "Because they're nice" :-\ Will/James are 6th, and are in disbelief that of all teams, someone who's watched all the eps like them would fall prey to such a rookie mistake as forgetting to read the clue... but getting the boot are the Olympians, who never really recovered from either of their bad starts, and reveal in a confessional that they've always made the final of any race they've been in, and are obviously disappointed to be out so early (S21's Amy/Daniel say hello)
Bonus thought: The Yield hasn't appeared on the show since 2007... to put things in perspective, I was still in uni getting my Master's, three of my grandparents were still around (just lost the last of them earlier this year... not from Covid though), and my other favorite show was still between its 3rd season and first movie
Episode 3
1. Time to head to the Amazon, more precisely, Manaus in Brazil, at the edge of the rainforest :-) The first task is a shopping task, and of course everything is written in Portuguese... and of course there are teams who end up running to the port instead, in this case the Cajun Asians and Frank/Jerry :-\ Given the whole alliances thing going on, teams are helping each other find the goods they're looking for, which include fruit, flour, and even a machete with its storage casing (that last one will be important)
2. After the market stop is a trip the rainforest to meet a tribe (presumably not one of the 10% that have never had outside contact before ;-) according to Phil Keoghan), whose chief will use a blowdart to dispense a clue :-) An important point is made about bringing the stuff from shopping along to the rainforest tribe, and while still at the dock, Will/James get off their boat twice to make sure they have everything... Sure enough, one team has to double back to the Manaus market mid-ride to get their bag of stuff... and it's Frank/Jerry (again?)
3. Detour is between making a thatched roof for a tribal hut (they won't actually have to do any climbing, they'll do it on the ground), and making some sort of tribal cuisine. The latter has a neat trick, in which the casing for a machete is used as a strainer for filtering juice :-) With all the talk of alliances going on here, it almost feels like an episode of Survivor... and NFL has a bit of a tiff during a confessional over the nuances of the roofing task, whether they were doing a wall or a roof :-)
4. There's a Double U-Turn after the Detour... and after Will/James U-Turn the nerds, the nerds U-Turn Frank/Jerry (seriously?) Will/James get 1st at a riverboat, and a trip to Bali, while Leo/Alana check-in and when asked by Phil Keoghan about how their day went, can only say "Oh my gawwwd" LOL!
5. It takes 34 minutes for the Cajun Asians to realize that the clue after the Double U-Turn is in the basket next to the panel, but they're still ahead of two teams... One of them is Leo/Alana, and no prizes for guessing the other :-) Frank/Jerry get the last place finish and the boot, but given all the crap they went through today, it's to their credit that they at least manage to make it to the pitstop and finish the leg with some modicum of dignity, because, in their own words, "Eves don't quit" :-) (And we learn in their exit that Frank's had two hip replacements, so Amy/Daniel say hello again :-))
