TAR S32 E1: Finally after a year long break!

Hello everyone and welcome back to my review of the Amazing Race S32 E1 - for those of you who are not familiar with my blog, allow me to introduce myself: I'm Alex, I live in London, England and I am an avid TAR fan - unlike some of the fans who simply analyze the show from their laptops, I have actually been to a lot of these places featured on the race. Currently I have been to 71 countries on every continent except Antarctica and sadly, the Covid-19 pandemic has really stopped a lot of my travel plans (even though I did manage three new countries this year even during the pandemic). I started doing these TAR episode reviews on my blog some years back as I got sick and tired of trying to discuss TAR on social media - on one hand, you have people who have never even been to the country making really uniformed comments (and I don't want to get into arguments with them), you have people who treat TAR as if it is some kind of popularity contest. They would post comments about how much they like a team and want them to win; I understand that aspect of the programme comes with all reality TV programmes but at the end of the day, I treat this as a sport because it is a race and thus I judge each team on their performance rather than how appealing they are. With all due respect to the folks on social media, it can be pretty frustrating to find people to have an intelligent conversation with about TAR and that's where I hope to raise the bar on that issue with my blog posts where I will talk about each episode as someone who is extremely widely traveled - I also know several former racers and producers who have worked on the TAR franchise. Furthermore, I have probably watched more TAR seasons from the global franchise (Australia, Asia, China, France, Ukraine, Israel, France, Canada, LATAM). I'm in a good position to compare what the production team has done in this season with not just what has been done in other US seasons but also in the franchises from all around the world. 

It has been a crazy long wait but is it worth it?

Goodness me, the last American season of TAR was S31 and we watched that last year (June to July 2019) so it has been over a year's wait - in the meantime, we had the Australian TAR S4 (October to December 2019) that was a pretty good season to watch but this season was actually filmed way back in November to December 2018, so the racers had been waiting an incredibly long time for this season to air; it probably breaks all records on the longest wait between a season being filmed and being aired. The ill-fated TAR S33 was suspended after three legs back in February 2020 when it was obvious that the world was shutting down because of the Corona virus pandemic and that borders were closed - so this could be the last season for us TAR fans to enjoy for a while given the current situation with the pandemic. TAR Australia S5 is going ahead with filming at the moment but it will be run as a domestic race instead of an international one - better than just canceling it I suppose or postponing it indefinitely, but at least it will be something to watch soon. I have worked in reality TV production in the past and one key principle is that a good episode should feel 'fair' to the viewers - that the winning team should have earned their victory rather than for it to be the result of a random draw. The viewer wants to see teams be rewarded for their good planning, their physical efforts, their mental dexterity as well as their excellent teamwork - so the challenges should be designed to allow teams to get ahead of others by performing very well. Thus a good episode should involve different teams being at the front of the pack and the order to be changing constantly, this creates an unpredictable, exciting episode and I think that they did achieve this in this episode: I certainly didn't think that Hung & Chee were going to win after the messed up the painted fish challenge at Swallows Beach by failing to memorize the colour sequence on the fins of their fish, but somehow Chee blasted through the Steel Pan musical roadblock to help them regain the lead and ultimately win the race, so well done to them and especially to Chee! 

Wait, that was a bit of an anti-climax or a false start? 

The teams officially started off from Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles where they got their first clue, got into taxis that took them to LAX for their flight to Trinidad. So as usual there was a lot of excitement on the starting line but what was the point of that? They were all on the same flight, it was not as if getting to LAX first would get the team some kind of advantage over the other teams - once the teams landed in Trinidad, they still had to clear passport control and thus the race really only started when all teams raced out of Piarco airport to try to get a taxi. So quite frankly, the race really only started at Piarco International airport in Trinidad, rather than in Los Angeles per se - this was the exact same gripe I made in S31 when the race really only started when the teams were taken from Tokyo Narita airport to central Tokyo on the same bus. If that had been the plan all along, then why bother staging the 'false start' in Los Angeles then? Was it simply to adhere to some kind of TAR tradition? How about doing it the way they did in TAR Australia S4, where they simply started the race in Seoul, South Korea - where the first leg was ran without bothering with a 'false start' in Australia. I do like the older seasons of TAR where teams had to race to the airport and either try to get on an earlier flight out or even try to book their own flights to the first destination, there was a lot of drama in the earlier seasons and that was fun to watch but you could end up spending half the episode looking at teams trying to run from travel agent to travel agent and camping out at airports or arguing with each other over the route to take to get to the next destination - hence there is an argument to eliminate that element of TAR and simply focus on the tasks that are performed at the destination. Still, that eliminates a lot of navigation from the process and I do hope to see the teams do more navigation in this season. I can't wait for the first team to get hopelessly lost in a city where the locals don't speak a word of English! 

Should we take it easy on the teams on the first leg? 

The teams had to find their way from Piarco Airport to the 24 hour fruit stand in St Augustine - now that seems like an odd choice to me. Even if the flight did land quite late in the night, why direct them to a fruit stand at the side of the road? Surely there must be something else of interest in St Augustine open at night! There is a big university campus there - surely that would have been a more interesting choice than the fruit stand? Having had a look on Google maps, it is just approximately 10 km (6.2 miles) from the airport and the taxi ride would have taken them no more than about 20 minutes max. So I get it, they arrive late, they just want to do something fast near the airport before putting them on the flights the next morning to Tobago - ironically they didn't go to the capital city Port of Spain at all, instead choosing to do the challenge fairly close to the airport. Whilst physically demanding, the teams only had to roll those oil drums a distance of 0.4 km (0.25 miles) and when they got there, it was fairly easy to find the 'Midnight Robber' character with the clues - so the outcome of that task really depended on how fast the teams ran out of the airport and also how fast their taxi drivers drove. Basically if you got a slow taxi driver, then that's it - there's no way you are going to make the first flight and by the same token, if you got a fast taxi driver and got to the fruit stand first, then your chances of ending up on the second flight is pretty low. I would have improved this part of the leg by making the course a lot longer to make it even more challenging and making the character who had the clue at the carnival a lot more subtle: making this task a lot more complicated and challenging would introduce an element of uncertainty that would allow the teams behind the catch up. As such, the course was too short and the 'Midnight Robber' character was literally waving those TAR clue envelops in the air - making the entire process way too easy for my liking. I'm just too evil and I want to see teams pushed to the limit.

Why Tobago? What an odd choice. 

For those of you not familiar with Trinidad and Tobago, it is a beautiful Caribbean island nation comprising of two main islands - Trinidad is the bigger of the two at 4,768 km² whilst Tobago is much smaller at just 300 km². Hence it seemed like an odd choice to keep the teams overnight near the airport, only to put them on a short flight the next morning to go to Tobago where most of the leg was run instead of doing it on the main island of Trinidad. Was there something special in Tobago that they had to fly to that island to see? Not really, most of the action took place on a beautiful beach at Pigeon point and if you wanted beautiful beaches on Trinidad, there are plenty - then the pit stop was at a goat racing track called the Buccoo Integrated Facility but even then, I found it curious that they chose that aspect of the local culture to highlight. Okay, so they have done steel drums and the carnival - what else is there left for the American viewers to find exotic and colourful? I suppose the goat racing was unusual enough and had enough novelty value - we did get plenty of thrills and spills with racers struggling to control their goats and falling all over the place, more on that later. Most international flights would land at Piarco International Airport on Trinidad but it almost seems like the local fixer was a guy from Tobago who was really quite determined that the teams would visit Tobago and this episode would persuade American tourists to make the trip to Tobago if they were already on the main island of Trinidad. In any case, these two islands are linked by ferry - a far more inexpensive way to make the short trip over the to the other island which are only 55 km (34.2 miles) apart and I was shocked that they didn't even go anywhere near the bustling capital city of Port of Spain which frankly I would have found far more interesting than a pristine but otherwise uninteresting beach on Tobago. 

Hung's spill on the pit stop mat 

Okay I'm going to sound like a real TAR geek now but Hung wasn't the first racer to take a fall on the pit stop mat, even though her fall looked pretty brutal as she hit the mat whilst still holding onto her goat for dear life. TAR legend and veteran Bill Bartek (of TAR US S1 and S11) pointed out that they were the first team to make an entrance like that when when his team mate Joe slipped on the pit stop mat in Paris as it was raining. Still, that didn't look as painful as the fall Hung took - she is so determined she didn't let go of her goat even after her fall! But nothing can match the slapstick comedy in TAR Latin America S3 E1, the pit stop for this leg was high up in the Andes Mountains in a town called Calafate in Argentina - the entire area was covered in snow and ice, it was slippery. The second team to arrive at the pit stop Nicolas & Cristobal fell on the slippery pit stop mat, Andre & Nico who came in fifth were the next team to slip on the mat, followed by Rosario & Pablo who came in sixth, same thing - the mat was clearly slippery with ice and melt water and that's three teams that have fallen already, surely the crew must realize that there is an issue with excited teams running into the pit stop mat like this - so from then on, the host Harris Whitbeck started telling the teams not to run and to be careful. But nothing can beat the epic fall from the lovable Mexicans Monica & Rosy (who came in 8th on that leg) who were so excited they both jumped onto the pit stop despite the warnings given by Whitbeck and it led to such an epic fall that is probably what TAR fans will remember them for. So that's four teams with some pretty epic falls at that pit stop and at least to Phil Keoghan's credit, he did tell the following teams to let go of their goats after they had crossed the finish line to prevent more falls. Anyway, thanks to the power of Youtube, you can watch the epic falls on the pit stop from TAR Latam S3 E1 below - it is worth watching, even if it is just for the slow-mo of Monica & Rosy falling together at 6:43. 

Wait, you mean Hung took that hit to her head without even winning a prize? 

Yup, that was the other thing that was different - normally the team that wins a leg would get a prize from a sponsor or at least an Express Pass (that could be used to skip a task in a future leg). But Hung got nothing more than a hug from Phil and their next clue, geez. It would have been nice to have given them a prize, even a rather small one, just for that brutal fall that she took on the mat! Mind you, even if they could not find a sponsor to donate a nice prize, the Express Pass costs nothing - no more than the little bit of cardboard it is printed on and it has been a part of TAR for so many seasons. 

Was I surprised to see Nathan & Cody eliminated? 

Oh man, it must be heartbreaking and gut wrenching to be picked for TAR only to be the first team to get eliminated - I feel sorry for them. Okay, I find what they do with catfish kinda strange but hey, that's the whole point of having diversity in casting. Cody simply didn't have the right kind of skills to get through that steel pan roadblock before the others; I was actually quite surprised as I thought it might have been Kellie or Gary to succumb to the pressure first but quite frankly, at that point it was anybody's game. Cody was plain unlucky and by that token, I think the other two teams escaped elimination because of Nathan & Cody's bad luck. I had expected them to go further in this race but sigh - bad luck guys! 

But why were they eliminated on a "keep on racing, here's your next clue" leg?

Well I did expect this to be a non-elimination leg as well when the racers were told to keep on racing, but I suppose only the producers can answer that question - in the past seasons, more often than not, "keep on racing" legs were non-elimination but I suppose that after so 32 seasons, the producers may have decided to mix things up a bit and throw something unexpected at the racers (and the viewers) just to keep us on our toes. That was a shame for Nathan & Cody.

Who is going to win the next leg (and the season)? 

A few teams definitely stood out as the ones to watch in this season: obviously Hung & Chee as they won this leg, despite the fact that they made an error in the painted fish challenge by ignoring the colours on the fins, but they actually got away with it by simply trying loads of locks in a short space of time. Then there's Michelle & Victoria who were a close second, I think they are not to be underestimated in this season. Perhaps it is a complete coincidence but the top two teams are Asian American and there are plenty of Asian Americans who have done extremely well in TAR US: there are just way too many Asian-American teams from 32 seasons to name individually but Asian-American winners of TAR include Cindy Chiang of Cindy & Ernie, winners of TAR S19. Then there's Victor & Tammy Jih, the brother and sister team that won TAR S14 and then there's Kat Chang (one half of Nat & Kat) who won TAR S17. I haven't seen enough of Leo & Alana but I think they could do extremely well in this season because the race is always a mix of brain & brawn - brute strength can only get you so far in the race and they have obviously portrayed themselves as the smart team; they only finished 6th in this leg but still, my gut instinct tells me they will do very well. I haven't seen enough of the teams in action, under stress and being pushed to the limit yet - so I am going to be very cautious and avoid naming teams that I like personally (such as Will & James - they're adorable) but just focus on teams that I think will be hard to beat on the race because they have the right skills to win TAR. But both teams Hung & Chee and Michelle & Victoria did very well in this leg despite the physical aspects of this leg thus I think they are the two strongest teams to watch out for this season. 

Can teams learn from their mistakes and become better racers? 

This is what people often say in social media - like they have never ever done this before, give them a break, stop being so harsh and critical, it's the first time they're doing TAR and they will get better. However, teams don't have the luxury of learning at their own pace, if they keep making silly errors then they risk getting eliminated (unless there are teams who are more clueless than them). You have to bear in mind the fact that this is not some kind of reality TV programme where the racers are simply having an exotic holiday in beautiful places, the clue is in the name: it is a race and the racers have to avoid elimination. Some of the silly mistakes made in this leg included Eswar & Arpana taking it a little bit too easy when leaving the airport in Trinidad, thus leaving them at the back of the pack on the second flight. Then there was Hung & Chee who didn't bother reading the clue properly and rushed into the painted fish challenge without having memorized the colour sequence on their fish's fins. DeAngelo & Gary made the most mistakes on this leg though - first they rushed into the roadblock and picked the wrong racer to do it then they jumped into a speedboat with only one engine, dropping them one place in the last moments getting to the pit stop. There is an element of 'more haste, less speed' here - of course we all make silly mistakes when we are in a hurry but TAR is quite an unforgiving process when it comes to making mistakes like that. I'm cynical - if you haven't already proven that you could deliver results under pressure (such as by winning a bronze medal at the 2012 Olympics like Kellie did), then it's highly unlikely that you're going to learn super quickly on the race. You don't start practicing the day you have to face Venus Williams at Wimbledon - if you are naive enough to show up totally unprepared, well she is going to totally slaughter you. Either you show up at TAR very well prepared or you're simply going to be eliminated quickly - you don't start "training" after the race has already started!

Who will be eliminated next in Bogota, Colombia? 

Obviously the two teams that had the meltdown stand out - there's the NFL stars DeAngelo & Gary and then there are the hurdlers Kellie & LaVonne. Of course, both teams stand out as incredibly strong physically but TAR will take you out of your comfort zone and force you to do things that you're not comfortable with - such as memorizing numbers and sequences or learning how to play a musical instrument. The way to deal with such a situation is to accept that there is going to be a steep learning curve when learning something from scratch like that, it is going to be incredibly difficult climbing that learning curve and you need to remain very calm whilst trying to do it. We have seen some incredibly tedious TAR challenges which can take hours - I think the most difficult ones involve learning complex dance routines, such as the one from TAR S20 E9 when the teams were in Kochi, India where the teams had to learn a very complex and long Bollywood style dance routine. Oh compared to that roadblock, this one was a walk in the park and it was simply down to staying calm, something a few racers were not that good at. What irked me was the way DeAngelo wasn't supportive of Gary at all and even if they had made the wrong choice by putting Gary up for that detour, DeAngelo should have been a lot more supportive of his teammate rather than say all those negative and pessimistic things. Don't forget, they were actually on the first flight from Trinidad, yet they fell so far behind all the other teams who were on the second flight to barely escape elimination - so no matter how you look at it, they definitely performed the very worst on this leg and thus I have to predict them to be the next team to be eliminated in Bogota, Colombia based on that performance. They live to race another episode but it is only going to get a lot harder from here on - don't forget, in Trinidad & Tobago, the teams were not challenged to navigate that much or use public transport and it is an English-speaking country; but of course, things will get much harder when they get to Spanish-speaking Colombia where few of the locals speak English. 

The (minor) celebrity factor

This is why I tend to get somewhat cynical about the casting because clearly, these two teams: DeAngelo & Gary and Kellie & LaVonne are already famous as they have found great success in their respective fields in sports. Were these two teams cast simply to boost ratings, to ensure that their fans would want to watch them run the race? Should casting directors pick 'ordinary folks' who are not celebrities (or minor celebrities) who have a better attitude, who are more prepared to be taken out of their comfort zones in the race? I think that they should either do a season where everyone is a celebrity of sorts (such as in the social media season, S28 where at least a racer of each time was a social media star or on S31, the reality TV showdown) or simply cast ordinary folks: this kind of mixing with minor celebrities doesn't work. 

Whilst we're on the topic of casting, how do we like this season's cast? 

I think it is pretty good - they did an awesome job. What reality TV programmes like that need to do is to cover a wide range of backgrounds including different ethnic groups, social classes, people from different parts of the country, who have very different careers, ages and sexuality - practically every box was tick apart from the disability box. It is a hard box to tick because on one hand, sure we want to show people who are differently-abled racing with all these other racers on TAR but on the other hand, one does question if it is a level-playing field (and we go back to the issue of fairness) - there are just too many teams with a disabled racer to name them all but some of the more memorable ones include the deaf racer Luke Adams (TAR S14, S18 and S24) but he always raced with his mother Margie who could translate for him and assist him as she was fluent in ASL (American Sign Language). Then we have Lowell Taylor from TAR Canada S4 who is legally blind and has very limited vision. Then of course there was Charla Faddoul (TAR S5 and S11) who is a dwarf at just 1.22 m tall (4 feet). And who could forget Bethany Hamilton who only has one arm - she appeared with her husband Adam on TAR S25 and made the final three - oh she was absolutely awesome. Thus that remains the one box that the casting directors have failed to tick on this season, but otherwise this is still a very diverse cast indeed. The hurdlers claimed they're dyslexic but that's a relatively minor disability compared to being deaf or blind. 

Another mile stone for TAR! 

This leg marks TAR's first ever visit to Trinidad & Tobago - yet another first for TAR. The closest the race has ever got to Trinidad & Tobago was back in S25 E1 when the teams raced to the US Virgin Islands where they did another roadblock on the beach. Of course, there are still a lot of countries in the Caribbean that TAR has yet to visit. And of course TAR is celebrating having race one million miles across the world after 32 seasons, here's hoping that TAR will keep on racing for many years to come and that the pure magic of TAR will continue to appeal a younger audience in the years to come.

That's it from me on this episode, I didn't want to sound too negative - after all, like so many TAR fans I am so thrilled that we have yet another season to enjoy for now and this is the kind of entertainment we need right now at a time when we are unable to just get on a plane to fly to another country for a holiday because of the Covid-19 pandemic. So, what do you think? Were you as thrilled as I was to enjoy a brand new episode of TAR? Do you think the producers did a good job in designing an exciting leg? What were your impressions of Trinidad & Tobago? What do you make of the casting this season? Which team is going to win TAR S32?! So do leave a comment below please and many thanks for reading.