The Amazing Race, season 25: Legs 1 to 3
Oct. 17th, 2014 11:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
spiderbraidsTime once again for another trip around the world, but first, a brief moment of silence for Television Without Pity, for making the first 23 1/2 (!) seasons of this little journey more enjoyable... Their successor has quite some big shoes to fill...
Leg 1:
1. For TAR's silver "anniversary" (Phil's words!) they've decided to change things up a bit, starting with 1) a new timeslot, and 2) a well-attended nighttime start in Times Square, NYC, rather than the usual SoCal locations :-) The contestants come in by cab (of course!) and among them are: original one-armed Soul Surfer Bethany Hamilton and her husband Adam, a pair of girl food scientists (yummy :-)), a pair of pro wrestlers, and a pair of former Survivor contestants, though unlike Romber and Ethan/Jenna, they're after my time :-\
2. Change no. 3: instead of the usual team description under the contestants' names, they're now identified with a Twitter-style hashtag, and I'm on the fence about that, seeing that some of the teams have rather generic looking ones :-\ Change no. 4: The first leg prize is now "The Amazing Save", allowing the winners of the leg to save themselves from elimination before leg 9 :-)
3. Anyways, after running up the staircase near the TKTS booth, the first clue is where the first race ended, and all I remember is that it was a big globe thing. Phil notes that there are former contestants in attendance, and one of them identifies it more specifically as the World Expo in Flushing Meadows :-) The first real destination is the US Virgin Islands, and although Misty/Jim (dentists, who get the Twinkle Smile edit a lot on this first leg) are first to the airport, they end up being 3rd to get their tix after standing in the wrong line :-D Still on the first flight though, so that's cool :-)
4. First stop is a local market to sign up for seaplane flights, and the main "highlight" is Lisa/Michelle (Miami realtors/cutesy blondes) stealing the pen from Michael/Scott (Boston firefighters, who talk a lot about recovering from the marathon bombing, yeah we get it) to get one flight ahead of the latter. Yeesh...
5. And another change: Phil is standing near the path of the contestants running towards the next clue box. A bit gimmicky, but eh... Everyone climbs up some rocks (with a cargo net ladder, mind) and then jump off the top to get a message in a bottle, sending them to a nearby pirate ship, which of course has the obligatory pirate on it :-)
6. Pirate has the contestants get in a boat drag themselves along a rope in a boat to the shore (Brooke/Robbie's [wrestlers] boat sinks :-D), and the first (and so far only) Roadblock. It involves reading a liquid compass and using a yard-long shovel to look fortreasure the pit stop clue :-) Jim resourcefully uses his watch compass to realize that he's been reading the thing backwards (like most contestants are), while others resort to using the sun for direction... leading to Lisa telling the other teams that she thought the sun sets in the east, and that's particularly amusing to me, because the word for east in my language literally means the direction of the sunrise :-D
7. Misty/Jim finish the Roadblock, and check into first at a local fort to earn themselves the Amazing Save... replete with twinkly smiles of course :-D Meanwhile, the last three teams are the Miami realtors, Boston firefighters, and wrestlers, and we see that not only do you have to be right on direction with this, your measurement with the shovel has to be bang-on in order to find the box with the clue in it, as we're given graphics showing that all three teams are digging for their box a couple feet from the actual location :-\
8. Eventually, after digging well into the night, they all decide to just pull a Romber (though they specifically cite season 22) and take a penalty, so it's essentially a footrace to the pitstop, where Boston gets back at Miami for stealing the pen at the sign-in board by shoving them out of their van taxi, and it's Miami who ends up getting eliminated. Serves them right...
Leg 2:
1. Next stop, London, and everyone's looking forward to some fish and chips :-) while Amy (/Maya, food scientists) lends Bethany a pair of shoes after the surfer lost hers in the ocean last leg (how sweet... no pun intended of course ;-)) Their first destination in London is a clue pickup at the iconic Tower Bridge, leading them to a Detour between doing a changing of the Queen's Guard routine (this is something that I'd probably not be very good at :-\) and a pancake race (yes, that's totally a thing :-) ) The best part of the former is the drill sergeant repeatedly putting down the contestants for not doing the routine right. One particular highlight: threatening to rip off a contestant's arm and smacking her over the head with it :-D
2. It turns out that we have not one, but TWO pairs of superfans this season who've watched the show from day one: mother/daughter Shelley/Nici, and dating couple Dennis/Isabelle. Meanwhile, Bethany/Adam breeze through the pancake racing :-) Not so much for Boston, who are dinged for not flipping their pancake enough during one run, and then drop their pancake during their next run :-D + :-\
3. Next task is in Oxford, and involves punting. Not of the American football kind, but propelling a shallow boat along a shallow river by shoving a stick against the river floor (not that all the teams know this though ;-)) while the other guy waves a flag :-) Of course, there's plenty of footage of contestants falling off their boats, especially Whitney(/Keith, Survivor contestants, but referred to here as Team Nashville) falling off after being nudged by Misty/Jim (they're shown apologizing in a confessional :-D) and then falling off again immediately after being all, "I only fell off once" :-D :-D Misty/Jim have to do the task twice after being told they're standing on the wrong ends: apparently, one end is called the Cambridge end and the other is called the Oxford end (the things you learn :-)) Another minor highlight: Te Jay(/Tim, college sweethearts) getting chewed out by Tim for dropping the flag he's waving :-D Our local broadcaster edited out the most notable part of this task, though: Shelley/Nici peeing in the river :-\
4. Next stop is a clue pickup at a university courtyard involving a bowler hat and an umbrella (naturally, a few contestants imitate the Charlie Chaplin walk with it :-)) Everyone's supposed to tip their hat to get their next pitstop clue, but it turns out that there's also an opportunity to get an Express Pass in the umbrella, which calls for them to go to a pub (not actually into the pub, mind ;-)) Beth/Adam asks for directions, and somewhat amusingly, the nice redhead they ask waves to the camera as they leave :-)
5. It's not clear from the editing whether Beth/Adam knew how to find the pitstop clue when they decided to open their umbrellas first, but as presented later, they apparently discover that they're supposed to head to Churchill's birthplace after Beth's hat falls off her head :-D Even with the detour to get that Express Pass, Beth/Adam still finish first, and get themselves a trip to Sweden :-) (And as a bonus, the pit stop comes with a Winston Churchill lookalike greeter... :-))
6. After their mighty struggles with the punting, it ends up being the two pairs of superfans that are duking it out to avoid a disappointing early elimination, and (after plenty of crying in the cabs, yeah we get it) it's Shelley/Nici who live topee race another day :-)
Leg 3:
1. Next stop, The Shetland Islands, by way of train, self-driven Ford Focus, and car ferry. It's the middle of the night, and the trains don't leave til morning, so Kym/Alli (cyclists) decide to pass the time by dancing a jig in front of a pub near the train station :-) In more meaningful news, one half of Boston "takes a dixie" (his words) on the way to the station, and later on the ferry, we see that his ankle has turned a rather bad shade of red :-\
2. First stop on the Shetlands, the Royal National Lifeboat Institute to pick up a clue from (get this) a guy in a puffin suit :-D before then heading to a castle full of skeletons (one contestant quips about one of the clues even having a little blood on it :-)) We find out in a confessional that Tim (/Te Jay) is a flight attendant :-) while they're busy getting lost on their way to the castle :-\ Keith/Whitney bring up their time on Survivor while on the way, and considering one of the upcoming tasks, it's hard to believe that's the only reference to Survivor on this leg :-\
3. Castle clue is a Detour between torch-making and peat cutting. The latter Detour also involves delivering the cut-up peat with Shetland ponies, some of which treat the racers roughly :-D Jim notes that their first delivery trip with their pony was smooth sailing, while their second... not so much (Jim even calls him Satan on the way :-D)
4. Torch-making involves wrapping a stick tightly in burlap, nailing it to the stick, and then attaching it with cement. Nashville somehow get through it without mentioning Survivor :-\ while Tim/Te Jay are hoping that the Shetland ponies are sassy... and on cue, cut to Misty/Jim, Shelley/Nici and Beth/Adam having problems with their horses :-) Not having much issue is Amy/Maya, who decide to call their pony Cupcake (sweet! :-D)
5. Brooke/Robbie note that they were really intending to do peat when they happened across the torch-making Detour, and it shows, as they're the last team to pass the torch inspections :-\ After finishing the torches, teams them head to a certain dock and give the torches to a bunch of Vikings for their fire ceremony :-D
6. Next task is at a farm called Berry Farm on Berry Road, but instead of gathering berries, it involves corralling sheep between obstacles and into a pen a la sheepdogs (go figure :-P) The sheeps jump around, and the sound editors add in some boings to the first couple jumps :-) Obviously very tricky :-) Tim/Te Jay improvise a barrier from their clothes to corral their sheep... and it doesn't work well :-D
7. The pit stop clue is a pin, with contestants being told to go where it was originally discovered. Misty/Jim ask a local museum, who points them to the right place, where puffin suit guy is waiting with Phil :-D Dentists get first place and a trip to Dubai, and Phil makes another quip about their teeth :-) Amy/Maya manage to drop from 2nd to 5th after first being directed to an empty church :-D + :-\
8. We have a rather meaningless footrace in which the wrestlers overtake Kym/Alli... for 6th place (HUH.) Last two pairs to get their pin are Boston and Tim/Te Jay (in that order) Boston asks a bartender, who sends them in the opposite direction from where they need (go figure :-P), while Tim/Te Jay ask the same museum the dentists went and knock Boston (sprained ankle and all) out of the race, which almost seems a relief for them, all things considered...
Leg 1:
1. For TAR's silver "anniversary" (Phil's words!) they've decided to change things up a bit, starting with 1) a new timeslot, and 2) a well-attended nighttime start in Times Square, NYC, rather than the usual SoCal locations :-) The contestants come in by cab (of course!) and among them are: original one-armed Soul Surfer Bethany Hamilton and her husband Adam, a pair of girl food scientists (yummy :-)), a pair of pro wrestlers, and a pair of former Survivor contestants, though unlike Romber and Ethan/Jenna, they're after my time :-\
2. Change no. 3: instead of the usual team description under the contestants' names, they're now identified with a Twitter-style hashtag, and I'm on the fence about that, seeing that some of the teams have rather generic looking ones :-\ Change no. 4: The first leg prize is now "The Amazing Save", allowing the winners of the leg to save themselves from elimination before leg 9 :-)
3. Anyways, after running up the staircase near the TKTS booth, the first clue is where the first race ended, and all I remember is that it was a big globe thing. Phil notes that there are former contestants in attendance, and one of them identifies it more specifically as the World Expo in Flushing Meadows :-) The first real destination is the US Virgin Islands, and although Misty/Jim (dentists, who get the Twinkle Smile edit a lot on this first leg) are first to the airport, they end up being 3rd to get their tix after standing in the wrong line :-D Still on the first flight though, so that's cool :-)
4. First stop is a local market to sign up for seaplane flights, and the main "highlight" is Lisa/Michelle (Miami realtors/cutesy blondes) stealing the pen from Michael/Scott (Boston firefighters, who talk a lot about recovering from the marathon bombing, yeah we get it) to get one flight ahead of the latter. Yeesh...
5. And another change: Phil is standing near the path of the contestants running towards the next clue box. A bit gimmicky, but eh... Everyone climbs up some rocks (with a cargo net ladder, mind) and then jump off the top to get a message in a bottle, sending them to a nearby pirate ship, which of course has the obligatory pirate on it :-)
6. Pirate has the contestants get in a boat drag themselves along a rope in a boat to the shore (Brooke/Robbie's [wrestlers] boat sinks :-D), and the first (and so far only) Roadblock. It involves reading a liquid compass and using a yard-long shovel to look for
7. Misty/Jim finish the Roadblock, and check into first at a local fort to earn themselves the Amazing Save... replete with twinkly smiles of course :-D Meanwhile, the last three teams are the Miami realtors, Boston firefighters, and wrestlers, and we see that not only do you have to be right on direction with this, your measurement with the shovel has to be bang-on in order to find the box with the clue in it, as we're given graphics showing that all three teams are digging for their box a couple feet from the actual location :-\
8. Eventually, after digging well into the night, they all decide to just pull a Romber (though they specifically cite season 22) and take a penalty, so it's essentially a footrace to the pitstop, where Boston gets back at Miami for stealing the pen at the sign-in board by shoving them out of their van taxi, and it's Miami who ends up getting eliminated. Serves them right...
Leg 2:
1. Next stop, London, and everyone's looking forward to some fish and chips :-) while Amy (/Maya, food scientists) lends Bethany a pair of shoes after the surfer lost hers in the ocean last leg (how sweet... no pun intended of course ;-)) Their first destination in London is a clue pickup at the iconic Tower Bridge, leading them to a Detour between doing a changing of the Queen's Guard routine (this is something that I'd probably not be very good at :-\) and a pancake race (yes, that's totally a thing :-) ) The best part of the former is the drill sergeant repeatedly putting down the contestants for not doing the routine right. One particular highlight: threatening to rip off a contestant's arm and smacking her over the head with it :-D
2. It turns out that we have not one, but TWO pairs of superfans this season who've watched the show from day one: mother/daughter Shelley/Nici, and dating couple Dennis/Isabelle. Meanwhile, Bethany/Adam breeze through the pancake racing :-) Not so much for Boston, who are dinged for not flipping their pancake enough during one run, and then drop their pancake during their next run :-D + :-\
3. Next task is in Oxford, and involves punting. Not of the American football kind, but propelling a shallow boat along a shallow river by shoving a stick against the river floor (not that all the teams know this though ;-)) while the other guy waves a flag :-) Of course, there's plenty of footage of contestants falling off their boats, especially Whitney(/Keith, Survivor contestants, but referred to here as Team Nashville) falling off after being nudged by Misty/Jim (they're shown apologizing in a confessional :-D) and then falling off again immediately after being all, "I only fell off once" :-D :-D Misty/Jim have to do the task twice after being told they're standing on the wrong ends: apparently, one end is called the Cambridge end and the other is called the Oxford end (the things you learn :-)) Another minor highlight: Te Jay(/Tim, college sweethearts) getting chewed out by Tim for dropping the flag he's waving :-D Our local broadcaster edited out the most notable part of this task, though: Shelley/Nici peeing in the river :-\
4. Next stop is a clue pickup at a university courtyard involving a bowler hat and an umbrella (naturally, a few contestants imitate the Charlie Chaplin walk with it :-)) Everyone's supposed to tip their hat to get their next pitstop clue, but it turns out that there's also an opportunity to get an Express Pass in the umbrella, which calls for them to go to a pub (not actually into the pub, mind ;-)) Beth/Adam asks for directions, and somewhat amusingly, the nice redhead they ask waves to the camera as they leave :-)
5. It's not clear from the editing whether Beth/Adam knew how to find the pitstop clue when they decided to open their umbrellas first, but as presented later, they apparently discover that they're supposed to head to Churchill's birthplace after Beth's hat falls off her head :-D Even with the detour to get that Express Pass, Beth/Adam still finish first, and get themselves a trip to Sweden :-) (And as a bonus, the pit stop comes with a Winston Churchill lookalike greeter... :-))
6. After their mighty struggles with the punting, it ends up being the two pairs of superfans that are duking it out to avoid a disappointing early elimination, and (after plenty of crying in the cabs, yeah we get it) it's Shelley/Nici who live to
Leg 3:
1. Next stop, The Shetland Islands, by way of train, self-driven Ford Focus, and car ferry. It's the middle of the night, and the trains don't leave til morning, so Kym/Alli (cyclists) decide to pass the time by dancing a jig in front of a pub near the train station :-) In more meaningful news, one half of Boston "takes a dixie" (his words) on the way to the station, and later on the ferry, we see that his ankle has turned a rather bad shade of red :-\
2. First stop on the Shetlands, the Royal National Lifeboat Institute to pick up a clue from (get this) a guy in a puffin suit :-D before then heading to a castle full of skeletons (one contestant quips about one of the clues even having a little blood on it :-)) We find out in a confessional that Tim (/Te Jay) is a flight attendant :-) while they're busy getting lost on their way to the castle :-\ Keith/Whitney bring up their time on Survivor while on the way, and considering one of the upcoming tasks, it's hard to believe that's the only reference to Survivor on this leg :-\
3. Castle clue is a Detour between torch-making and peat cutting. The latter Detour also involves delivering the cut-up peat with Shetland ponies, some of which treat the racers roughly :-D Jim notes that their first delivery trip with their pony was smooth sailing, while their second... not so much (Jim even calls him Satan on the way :-D)
4. Torch-making involves wrapping a stick tightly in burlap, nailing it to the stick, and then attaching it with cement. Nashville somehow get through it without mentioning Survivor :-\ while Tim/Te Jay are hoping that the Shetland ponies are sassy... and on cue, cut to Misty/Jim, Shelley/Nici and Beth/Adam having problems with their horses :-) Not having much issue is Amy/Maya, who decide to call their pony Cupcake (sweet! :-D)
5. Brooke/Robbie note that they were really intending to do peat when they happened across the torch-making Detour, and it shows, as they're the last team to pass the torch inspections :-\ After finishing the torches, teams them head to a certain dock and give the torches to a bunch of Vikings for their fire ceremony :-D
6. Next task is at a farm called Berry Farm on Berry Road, but instead of gathering berries, it involves corralling sheep between obstacles and into a pen a la sheepdogs (go figure :-P) The sheeps jump around, and the sound editors add in some boings to the first couple jumps :-) Obviously very tricky :-) Tim/Te Jay improvise a barrier from their clothes to corral their sheep... and it doesn't work well :-D
7. The pit stop clue is a pin, with contestants being told to go where it was originally discovered. Misty/Jim ask a local museum, who points them to the right place, where puffin suit guy is waiting with Phil :-D Dentists get first place and a trip to Dubai, and Phil makes another quip about their teeth :-) Amy/Maya manage to drop from 2nd to 5th after first being directed to an empty church :-D + :-\
8. We have a rather meaningless footrace in which the wrestlers overtake Kym/Alli... for 6th place (HUH.) Last two pairs to get their pin are Boston and Tim/Te Jay (in that order) Boston asks a bartender, who sends them in the opposite direction from where they need (go figure :-P), while Tim/Te Jay ask the same museum the dentists went and knock Boston (sprained ankle and all) out of the race, which almost seems a relief for them, all things considered...
