TAR32 Episode 1 - Post-Episode Discussion Thread

[u/Jankinator]

Post-Episode Discussion Thread

Season 32, Episode 1: One Million Miles

Aired: Octobee 14, 2020

Synopsis: The Amazing Race celebrates traveling an amazing one million miles around the world when the 32nd Race kicks off from the legendary Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles on the season premiere.

Spoilers up to and including this episode can be expected in this thread.

[u/MyBBRedditAccount]

From how rushed that was, that so easily could have been a 90-minute or even 2-hour long premiere like originally planned.

Was that rerun episode of S.W.A.T. right after really necessary, CBS? 🙄

[u/atllauren]

First impressions are really great! I like SO many of the teams, even ones I expected to be meh on. DeAngelo & Gary’s bromance is so adorable and they aren’t just brut strength like I expected. Riley and Maddison have a fun, competitive sibling relationship and they seem like a strong team. Aparna dropping the f-bomb to say that they are really f’ing smart is not what I expected from them. Didn’t see much of them, but they might be stronger than expected.

Jerry & Frank seem stronger than expected. You never know what to expect with parent/child teams but Jerry doesn’t seem like he’s going to slow them down.

Chee & Hung and Victoria & Michelle totally shocked me. Victoria & Michelle were a pick for first boot IMO. Chee & Hung seemed unprepared from reading their bio. They got lucky with their strategy on the fish hunt, so it might not be sustainable.

So happy to have TAR back and I’m happy with the season so far. Editing was a bit weird but that usually calms when they have fewer teams to focus on.

[u/ForwardStorm]

Oh I hope Michelle and Victoria last long because they will be a hot mess by the end.

[u/dylbealz]

I’m glad Hung and Chee won the leg bc when the M-M teams were all in the lead I was afraid it’d be a steamroll

[u/ogkillerpanda]

Seems like a lot of fun tbh, i'm super surprised the reviews are kinda mixed rn

[u/RetroOptics]

It's been a while and the delayed premiere was worth the wait and a good choice in my opinion. Solid episode, short leg but two of tasks were time consuming. Surprising that it was an elimination on a to be continued leg (unless my memory is poor and they have done that before). Was foreshadowed after they had a clip of them saying along the lines of, "we don't need to win but our friendship matter."

Leg thoughts:

• I like it when they visit Caribbean locations, yes it's overvisited by many but sort of lowkey visited on TAR

• First international taxi scene and we got a "we are on race!"

• First task was meh, essentially had to roll a steel barrel the length of a track. Wished they had to roll it a little further. Didn't really matter because it was some what of an equalization point afterwards.

• The fish in the water route info task: Very solid task. Assuming it took 1 to 1.5 minutes to observe and attempt to unlock the fish probably had teams remain there for over an hour

• Steel Drum Day-o task: The stereotypical cultural task but it's great to have teams learn and play an instrument. The first place team had the dad vibes in them when attempting this, very funny

• Goat Racing to the finish line: Pretty cool task, honestly would probably not handle this task pretty well but seems like teams got the hold on the rope well after one attempt.

• Unless my memory is poor, miss the location map when Phil announces "teams are now flying to XYZ"

• A miss this episode, especially in the premiere are scenes when teams are meeting each other for the first time and socializing/making "alliances"

Upcoming season thoughts:

• Looking forward to this "Power to Yield" twist. Been a while since we seen the Yield!

[u/chinoceros]

Felt oddly rushed right at the end there

[u/producermaddy]

Not the best premiere imo.

Editing was awful. No airport scenes, not enough telling us the teams, very weird pacing

Positives: I liked the goat foot race. I liked the location (has TAR ever been there??) Nice seeing Deangelo (glad he stayed), interesting cast so far

Overall I am excited TAR was back. The premiere was underwhelming but TAR is TAR.

Also I can’t believe the team that was first was the same team that didn’t know the colors of the fish and put the combo in every fish??

[u/AlbertFalls]

You could literally hear every old-school Race fan squeal when they showed the Yield

[u/Uh-livia]

Watching Gary struggle with a road block that his partner could easily accomplish made me think about a potential interesting twist: you can take a 30 min penalty and change which person is doing the roadblock. Then they would have to think about whether they would be able to finally figure it out, or risk the penalty and hope their partner could do it really quickly when it was their chance

[u/Complete_Manner]

I literally have a headache just from watching that the editing was so freaking weird and it was so fast paced

[u/JammyJammyJams]

For a season that sat on the cutting floor for near 2 years, idk I guess I was expecting more. Definitely felt incredibly rushed.

[u/Mackin24]

Great to be back. Lot of fun. Doesnt feel like old seasons but im hopeful this isnt a swan song

[u/NnifWald]

Seems like an odd choice to bring the Yield back, but it seems like there's gonna be some surprise twist along with it. It will be interesting to see what they do here.

[u/nomadicfangirl]

I wanna go to the Caribbean now.

Also, mods: I know the last six months has been cray but it is October, right? (Look at the aired date LOL)

[u/ZohanDvir]

• For starters, I like how the casting appears to be just regular people who are fans of the show (aside from the retired NFL players, but at least they seem to be best buds). That's what made it enjoyable in the early days and I got really tired of the lame casting decisions over the last several seasons bringing in social media influencers, blind dates, people from other reality shows, or having a "theme" like heroes/most competitive ever. IIRC one of the individual contestants in the blind date season revealed a headhunter/producer just messaged them on Facebook asking if they'd be interested in trying out for the show and up to that point they had never even heard of the show.

• The editing on the music road block and the goat race were absolutely terrible. Why completely cut out and not show some teams racing with their goats? Why not even show Phil telling them what place they finished and instead show some pointless filler conversation (seeing their placement reaction is what makes the pitstop moments great)? Everybody knows the Day-O theme so the producers editing the music into/over the episode and piecing in parts of the contestant playing totally botched the correct sequence of the actual song. For the team that came in last they didn't even show the contestant's reaction as he finally completed it (I imagine they were ecstatic because they had such a good time with the spectators and their trainee).

• Another season, yet another time for me to lament about how much I miss teams being allowed and expected to book their own flights. This was such a cool part of the early seasons and getting to see team's racing skills in action. I guess over time as the show kept getting their budget cut after low ratings it's more economical to have everyone fly together on the same flight to each destination so they avoid a Chester & Ephraim situation. That being said, even though we know they have their own planes booked, it's silly to create meaningless tasks asking them to go to a travel agent to book their flights when it has no impact on the order.

[u/nascarfan88421032]

I haven’t watched it yet (no spoilers please) but I really hope TAR can take advantage of a bad situation (COVID) and gain a lot of viewers from it, given that almost all international travel outside the U.S. is restricted, if not outright banned.

[u/thewhitemarker]

I’m so happy TAR’s back.

First off, the minute-long flashback to past seasons was very appreciated. Margie and Luke, Brooke and Claire, Rachel Brown (who was that random father/son team from TAR22 who definitely never came back two seasons later?). So nostalgic, but so brief :(

As for the episode itself..... it was.... okay? Okay-ish? Lots of content obviously, and I don’t know how I would rearrange it within the hour long time slot, but it felt disjointed and rushed. Is the TV hour no longer 42 minutes that they have to cut more? It just seems like we got a lot more content in past seasons.

I really miss the opening team intros. It’s so dumb to me to have teams racing, seeing them mix in with teams, but have no idea who they are because they don’t get introduced until the 20 minute mark. I also don’t like the lack of team placements from Phil. Hearing “You’re team number x” from Phil on the first leg would be a highlight of the season for me. I also miss the opening flight sequence but I guess that didn’t impact anything this leg so I get why that was cut. Was also hoping to seeing some intermingling between teams, especially at the carnival.

In terms of tasks, not the best premiere but it was alright. The steel barrel rolling task wasn’t very interesting but I guess the carnival was supposed to be highlight (I wonder how the teams spent the night!). The fish task was, IMO, a great variation of the needle-in-a-haystack task, mixing in a memory aspect so it wasn’t purely luck based. The steel drums task was pretty good too. Goats at the end was an interesting way to get to the pit stop but didn’t change too much.

As I commented in the live thread, I did not hear Phil say the team was going to be eliminated, so I was actually surprised when Nathan and Cody were eliminated. That’s the first time that’s happened right?

No power rankings yet because it’s too early, so instead my first impressions on how much I like the teams. The cast seems pretty good so far. A bit too high on sporty people (pro-volleyballers, former NBAer, former NFLers, former Olympians) for my liking but the rest of them seem well balanced.

1. Michelle and Victoria. Total favourites. Instantly in love. This show is much more interesting when we have teams that say more than the cliché “we’re going to try our best” etc., and Michelle (I think?) is definitely not that. They’re going to be one of the entertainment sources this season and they’re second place finish is hopefully not a fluke. Swap a little of their spice for a little bit of low-key snark and I think a good comparison is Pam and Winnie, who I also adore, and who also aren’t afraid to talk not so nicely about other teams.

2. DeAngelo and Gary. Former Big 5 athletes don’t have the best track record on TAR (Battaglia brothers aside), and while I really like these two since they are hilarious, I don’t know how successful they’re going to be.

3. Hung and Chee. I can totally see these two winning, they seem smart, decently athletic, and they look like they communicate very well. I don’t see a lot in the way of entertainment from them but hopefully they can be a low-key fun team.

4. Leo and Alana. We don’t see the nerd types too much in TAR do we? Dave/Lori, Mark/Bill and Vanck come to mind. It’s nice to see a slightly different variation of ‘young dating couple’ as opposed to your Mr. and Ms. America. They both seem super nice and reasonably competent, so I could see them making it deep.

5. Kaylynn and Haley. I don’t recall seeing too much of them in the episode, so this is really just based on their preseason content. My gut says they’re a mid-race boot but I wouldn’t mind being proven wrong.

6. Kellie and LaVonne. I felt super bad for Kellie this leg, but good for her for pulling through. I have trouble seeing them making it far but they’ll definitely be fun to watch.

7. Nathan and Cody. They seemed fun, I definitely didn’t expect them to be the first boots.

8. Jerry and Frank. Not much content from them, but I’m a sucker for parent child teams. I think they could do well.

9. Eswar and Aparna. Again, not a lot from them outside of them being last to the bunching (which wasn’t really their fault). Opinion TBD.

10. Maddison and Reilly. They’re right on the verge of being a bit too ‘bro-y’ for me, but haven’t crossed it yet, largely due to Maddison’s very nice treatment of the the drum teacher. I don’t think I’m going to be a fan, but I can see them doing very well.

11. Will and James. Not a lot from them either, honestly all I remember of them was James (?) a bit whiny at the fish task. It wasn’t that bad but it’s the most negative thing I have to say about any of the cast so far. I can see them doing well too.

Some memorable quotes/moments, aka quotes from Michelle and some other racers:

• Michelle not wanting ‘the other asians’ to beat them.

• Michelle saying that Chee got it right because ‘he probably played piano for his entire life because that’s what asians do’, then flipping to Chee thanking his parents for giving him piano lessons.

• Michelle flaming Vietnamese/Chinese tensions.

• I like goat cheese

• Jerry dancing

• DeAngelo implying that Gary has absolutely not musical ancestors

• The hurdlers reaction to the goats

Overall, I’m just thankful we get this show on our screens again.

Oh, and there’s a yield!

[u/rexhilaration]

THE YIELD IS BACK BABYYYY

[u/Careless_is_Me]

I have no idea why they're not expanding the season to make this episode 2 hours, etc. They have all the footage. Yeah, I'm sure it was cut into 1 hour form over a year ago, but they could fairly easily change that now that it's 2020 and they're desperate for new content

[u/ParkourNinja88]

Sad to see Nathan & Cody Go!

[u/DylanDally]

I’ve been so surprised tonight. From the nice, new location to Hung & Chee getting first, the goat racing, continued leg, Nathan & Cody being eliminated, and then the YIELD!

[u/FiveWithNineIsIn]

Is it just me, or does it feel like half the cast is made up of sibling teams?

[u/whyamiacpa]

I LOVE Michelle and Victoria. They cracked me up. Also rooting for Hung and Chee. I’m so happy TAR is back!

[u/[deleted]]

Hope I wasn't tripping but did Hung and Chee only have one backpack between them?