Hello again guys and welcome back to my review of the latest episode of the Amazing Race and what a special episode it was. In this leg, we see the teams leave the pit stop at Russell Square after they were told that it was a "keep on racing" leg and that they had to make their way to Euston Station to get the train to Glasgow in Scotland. But first, let's kick off with the average ranking statistics after leg 3 - the numbers never lie, they take all emotions out of the equation.
TAR S33 average statistics after E3
- Ryan & Dusty 1.66
- Kim & Penn 3.33
- Anthony & Spencer 3.33 (but this team will not return for leg 4)
- Raquel & Cayla 4.33
- Connie & Sam 4.33 (but this team will not return for leg 4)
- Caro & Ray 5.33 (but this team will not return for leg 4)
- Arun & Natalia 7.33 (eliminated in Glasgow)
- Akbar & Sheri 7.66
- Taylor & Isaiah 8.33 ((but this team will not return for leg 4)
- Lulu & Lala 9
Q: Is Euston Station far from the pit stop? Why were the teams rushing to get a taxi?
A: It made no sense. Firstly, it is just about half a mile away (about 0.8 km) and would have been a leisurely ten minute stroll. They could have saved their money because they were all on the same night train known as the Caledonian Sleeper - I have used that train before you visit Scotland and it's actually really convenient because the train leaves London late at night between 11:30 pm and midnight but they let you on the train early so you can settle down and go to sleep if you want. The train will then pull into Glasgow Central at 7:22 am and I found that train very comfortable - it kinda rocks you to sleep. In fact the train goes further north than Glasgow and you can use it to explore other parts of beautiful Scotland. Given the teams all left the pit stop at Russell Square when it was still daylight (even Lulu & Lala) in the afternoon, surely someone should have told them, "relax, you have plenty of time as you're all on the same train to Scotland and that train doesn't leave till 11:30 pm tonight, so y'all can even go sightseeing in London for a few hours, get some dinner as well and come back to the station by 11 pm for that overnight train to Glasgow! See you later, have fun!"
Q: Is that train station easy to find?
A: Euston station is so well known here it'll be like getting a taxi in New York and asking the driver to take you to Grand Central Station - yet somehow, Ryan & Dusty were shown walking in front of St Pancras Station and not Euston Station. We saw them getting into a taxi so I am really surprised that they ended up at the wrong train station! But St Pancras station is only about 0.6 miles (about 1 km) from Euston station so even if they did get a bit lost then, well they still had plenty of time to find their way to the correct station; now that's the kind of detail that only a Londoner like me would spot!
Q: Wait, how do you pronounce Glasgow?
A: Oh this really irritates me. Phil said 'Glas-GOW' (to rhyme with cow and how) but it should be 'Glas-GO' (to rhyme with go and no). The people of Glasgow pronounce it Glasgo with the silent W and it tends to be Americans who mispronounce it the way Phil does. Another city which we often argue over the same way is Moscow, with you Americans calling it Mos-COW (to rhyme with cow and how) and us Brits calling it Mos-Ko (to rhyme with go and no). I am less fussed about the word Moscow as the locals there call their city Maaskva so heck, it doesn't matter what you call it in English as it sounds nothing like the Russian name. But come on, people in Glasgow speak English (albeit with a thick Glaswegian accent) and they call their city Glas-GO to rhyme with go and no - surely they get the final say on this issue.
Q: What the hell is with these unaired tasks?
A: When the teams arrived at Glasgow Central Station, there was an unaired task that was actually really time consuming. The teams had to drive to town of Luss by Loch Lomond to get their next clue - now that's 33.2 miles (53.4 km) away! The next destination was Oran Mor which was back in Glasgow City, a mere 2 miles from Glasgow Central Station. Why did they make the teams go all the way to Luss only to pretend that never happened? Loch Lomond is stunningly beautiful - why on earth would you visit somewhere that stunning only to decide to not air it? Was it the poor weather? Besides, if you're getting the teams to drive to a location so far away, then it will test two things: the teams' ability to navigate and their drive a manual car (aka stick shift) - this played a big role in determining the outcome of this leg and I'm just baffled why they decided to not air this task. As someone who knows Glasgow well, I knew Oran Mor wasn't that far away from the station in Central Glasgow so I was wondering why the teams were using all of these motorways outside the city to get into Glasgow but since they were returning from Luss, it now makes sense why they took those routes - I watched the episode without first reading about the unaired task on Wikipedia and I was confused.
Q: Kilts, bagpipes, talk about Scottish stereotypes? Do Scottish men really wear kilts and play bagpipes?
A: I thought they were going to make them prepare and eat haggis as well whilst they're at it. Scottish men do wear kilts but that's reserved for special occasions like weddings, graduations and New Year's Eve parties so that really means a few times a year. As for bagpipes, again that's for special occasions. Few Scottish people actually know how to play it, it's a musical instrument so unless you've had years of lessons and practice, you won't know what to do with a set of bagpipes. I have family in Scotland in the Dumfries and Galloway region so I've actually been to events in Scotland where the men would wear kilts, the local band (which would include bagpipes) would perform and we would eat haggis.
Q: Did you like the bagpipes roadblock?
A: Not at all for one reason: it was way too straightforward. I like it when teams are given a puzzle they need to solve and thus there's an element of luck and skill at play - making it unpredictable which team will get out of there first. In this case, there was a diagram and even though Natalia did help some of the other teams, I doubt anyone would have been stuck there too long. The second part about playing a note was too easy - it was just an excuse to treat the viewers to more Scottish music. Thus I thought they really could have made that roadblock a lot more difficult by giving them more parts than necessary to assemble the set of bagpipes, so it is not straightforward but more of a puzzle solving exercise.
Q: Speaking of which, should Natalia have helped the other teams out?
A: Yes, she did the right thing. According to Arun, she spent five minutes helping them but they have lost much time getting so lost as they were terrible at navigating and of course, Arun really struggled at the detour when he couldn't memorize the song and dance routine. Thus they had bought themselves some goodwill but they didn't use it - when they were asking for directions in a shop after they got out of Oran Mor, they saw two teams (Raquel & Cayla and Connie & Sam) walk by. They could have easily ran out and said, "hey do you guys wanna work together? Let's make sure we don't get lost and travel together to pick up the next clue together." But no, they missed that opportunity. The whole point about helping other teams out is that they owe you one, now they are obliged to help you in return and if you suck at navigating, the least they can do is, "sure just follow us." So that was the mistake - they should have just asked for help then, so there's absolutely nothing wrong with helping another team out as that's a great way to forge an alliance in TAR.
A: It all went downhill for them the moment they gave up on the barrel task. If Raquel & Cayla could do it, then it is clearly more a question of technique to remove the top two metal hoops off the barrel rather than brute strength per se. Natalia started questioning herself even from the moment she started when what she should have done was simply ran to one of the teams she had helped earlier to ask for help. "Hey you owe me, I helped you earlier, so now I need you to show me how this is done please." It was a huge tactical error on so many levels and it was actually Natalia who was the one who forced her father to switch despite his great reluctance. He should have stuck to his guns and said, look we're here, we're going to stick with this and figure it out instead of wasting precious time switching detours. At least he listened to his daughter - I remember another father and daughter team Ron & Christian (S12 and S18) and Ron was a lot more overbearing, it was difficult to watch him just overrule his daughter all the time. At least Arun & Natalia have a far more healthy, communicative, equal relationship; but it was a shame that they made a huge tactical error in switching detours.
Q: Did the barrel making task on the detour look familiar to you?
A: Oh yes! For those of you hardcore fans of TAR, you would have already seen it last year on TAR Australia S5 E16 when they did an identical task in Tasmania (also as an option on a detour). If you love TAR and you just can't get enough of it, then check out TAR Australia S5 from 2021 as that was the only TAR we got last year because of the pandemic; the entire race was run within Australia, it was good fun and there was a grand total of 24 legs in that season.
Q: Did you like the way the detour was structured?
A: Yes and no. Firstly, I liked the way it offered racers the chance to use very different skill sets - learning a song and dance routine vs hard labour with the barrels. Singing and dancing sounds fun but I fear I might end up like Arun as it is probably the harder side of the detour whilst the barrel side of the detour was just hard labour that favoured the racers with plenty of muscles. However, I didn't like the location of the barrel side of the detour though - it was just some factory in the middle of some industrial park. I get it, that's where they make the barrels but if you're simply looking to do the detour, they could have brought all the materials needed for it to a far more interesting location in Glasgow and have them do the detour there. Likewise, the song and dance side of the detour was held at Britannia Music Hall which is in a very historic building dating back to 1857 and whilst the outside of the building on Trongate is impressive, I'm afraid the stage they performed on was actually rather small and there are other venues with much grander stages in Glasgow city.
Q: Are you surprised that Kim & Penn won this leg?
A: Well yes and no. I never give a straight answer, do I? They aced this leg of course: Kim flew through the bagpipes roadblock and they got a detour that was right up their alley. But most of all, they were brilliant at driving and navigating which was the theme of this leg. We tend to focus on the roadblocks and the detours whilst the drama that happens during the driving is actually what determined the outcome of this leg. So well done to Kim & Penn, they went from the middle of the pack to achieving not just a win but they won by a country mile on this leg. I think it has a lot to do with them being slightly older - I'm the same age as Kim and we grew up in a time when we had to read maps! I am surprised at just how reliant on technology young people are these days to navigate their way through the city - Kim said on leg 2 in London "but man there's an advantage to some youth in this race." Well Kim, you were instrumental navigating your team to the top in this leg and there's definitely an advantage to some life experience in this race too! Mind you, Penn had a terrible time in London in the last leg: from that epic fall on High Street Kensington to overthinking the roadblock at the Mail Train, thus Penn has certainly redeemed himself in this leg especially with that epic performance in the detour!
Q: Why did they sing 'where's your troosers' and not 'trousers'?
A: That's the Scottish accent for you and in British English, we use the word 'trousers' when you American use the word 'pants'; whereas when we do say 'pants' we are actually referring specifically to underwear. And we speak the same language?! I really struggle to understand some Scottish accents and I find American English far easier to understand.
Q: What is a Scottish strongman?
A: Oh you're talking about the greeter at the pit stop. There is a Scottish tradition to find the strongest man in Scotland that goes back a long way - the competitors have to compete a range of range of physically demanding tasks and they all compete wearing kilts. I think there's always an element of comedy to make a man do all these physical tasks in a kilt (you try doing a tug-of-war in a kilt, I will leave the rest to your imagination) but there you go it's an old Scottish tradition.
Q: How do you think Phil handled the suspension of the race in the cloisters?
A: Boy, I cried when I watched it. I watched it again as I prepared to write about it and I cried again. Oh I got so emotional. I think it was handled gracefully and tactfully - it was never going to be an easy thing to do. We have all been through so much through the last two years. I live in London and we've endured two very long lockdowns; it's all something that unites us because no matter where you live in the world, the pandemic has affected us all. I used to travel so much before the pandemic, averaging one trip a month. I would even take these super long holidays that last over a month as you can't just nip down to South America or Australia & New Zealand for a week or so. It wasn't just the inability to travel because the borders had closed but just the waiting and wondering: when will the world go back to normal again? Will it ever go back to the way it was? If so, when? That's when we start looking for evidence that the world is returning to normal and I would compare it to the way I would look for the trees coming back to life at the end of a cold winter, to know that spring is on its way. We need signs that prove to us that things are returning to normal - so for me last year, there were two events that did go ahead: the Eurovision Song Contest and the Tokyo Olympics. Both events were postponed from 2020 because of the pandemic and the fact that they could go ahead gave me that hope, that reassurance that life was slowly returning to normal. That's why when I saw that piece with them resuming the race 19 months later in Switzerland, I cried because it's not just what I want - but it's what we all want so badly, for us to get back to the things we love that makes us happy, so this was truly a unique piece of reality TV history that we have witnessed.
A: From the preview, we can see the following teams: Akbar & Sheri, Raquel & Cayla, Kim & Penn, Lulu & Lala and Ryan & Dusty. We are missing the following teams: Anthony & Spencer, Connie & Sam, Caro & Ray and Taylor & Isaiah. We do know that not all teams were able to rejoin the race and Phil announced that, "we have a few familiar faces taking their place." We don't get to see the faces of the two replacement teams but I counted seven teams from the drone shot, so I am guessing that it might be the two teams that had already been eliminated: Michael & Moe and Arun & Natalia. Or might it be some familiar faces from a previous season? I am wondering though, there are nine teams left after the elimination of Arun & Natalia in Glasgow so if they are continuing with just seven teams, are we expecting a season with two more non-elimination legs than normal, or will this season just have fewer episodes? Personally, I'd refer the former rather than the latter, as I don't want to be shortchanged in the number of episodes we are going to get from this season!
Q: Who is going to win the next leg in Switzerland?
A: I am disappointed that Anthony & Spencer are not rejoining the race as they did win the first leg, I love seeing strong teams perform well in the race and even though they are currently tied in joint second with Kim & Penn with an average of 3.33, they would have certainly given Ryan & Dusty a lot of competition and so now it is down to Kim & Penn and Raquel & Cayla to make sure that Ryan & Dusty don't win this season too easily. Statistically, Akbar & Sheri and Lulul & Lala are much weaker and are unlikely to challenge the top three teams; even if we add Michael & Moe and Arun & Natalia to the mix, well these teams were eliminated for a reason - though I'm willing to be far more forgiving with Michael & Moe, because they had a ridiculous amount of bad luck on leg 1 in London and I think they deserve a second chance.
A: I think the lesson that this leg demonstrated is that the weakest team may not be the one who is eliminated; in spite of their poor performance in Glasgow, three teams were still statistically weaker than Arun & Natalia. Unfortunately they got eliminated for two reasons: they switched detours and they struggled with navigating. So I think one of the weakest teams are definitely going to go next but a lot will depend on whether or not the teams will have to drive themselves in Switzerland and don't forget, we are going to have quite a few non-elimination legs from now on. I'm guessing that because everyone worked so hard to bring the teams back after 19 months, so the next leg will be a non-elimination leg.
Q: What can we expect for the rest of the season?
A: Obviously, the production team had to make the filming of the rest of this season Covid-safe - so that meant very little public transport: teams were taken from city to city with their own private jet and there will be a preference for challenges done outdoors instead of indoors. The safest way for teams to get around would be to drive themselves so that will be interesting given that some teams like Kim & Penn have demonstrated that this is a massive advantage for them whilst others like Akbar & Sheri have struggled with it in Glasgow. Filming will also avoid crowded public spaces and you will inevitably see teams observing rules like social distancing though I'm wondering how much mask wearing we will see. We have seen other reality TV shows like Tough As Nails, the Apprentice, Wie Is De Mol (both Dutch and Belgian versions) and even Pekin Express (French version) complete filming during the pandemic, so it would be interesting to compare the approach. So for example in the Australian version of the Apprentice and the Amazing Race both filmed during the pandemic, we hardly saw anyone wearing a mask and there was no social distancing (but everyone was tested daily) - it didn't feel like it was any different from previous seasons; whilst in Wie Is De Mol, we saw some masks and they didn't try to pretend that there wasn't a pandemic and on the other end of the scale, on Pekin Express the contestants wore masks all the time but they were all made of clear plastic and so it did not hinder communication at all.
A: Oh no, I'm bound to offend someone if I didn't like their favourite team or if I criticize a team they're supporting but here goes: I really like Kim & Penn not just because they represent the older racers but they are clearly invested in the process - yes they're Youtube stars but they're not just some dumb reality TV stars looking to get on the next reality TV show to get more exposure whilst not knowing how TAR works at all. I like Raquel & Cayla as well as they really work well together, they look like fun people to hang out with. The only two teams that made me feel a bit uncomfortable with (and please, I am by no means a hater) are Akbar & Sheri and Caro & Ray - this is because both teams have shown a lot of tension on the first three legs. Akbar was quite mean to Sheri on the first leg in London and Ray was especially rude to Caro in Glasgow when they had trouble with the car and navigating. I hardly think that reality TV is the right medium to test your relationships out, it is far better to try to work things out in private rather than when there's a camera pointing right at your faces when you're having an argument. But we'll come back to this question next week - the teams have not really been tested much yet in that they ran the first three legs in the UK where we speak English. Let's see how they survive on continental Europe with the language barrier and we'll find out which teams rise to the occasion and which ones will crumble under pressure. Well, they will be in Switzerland next week and English is very widely spoken there as well, but then they will visit other countries like France, Greece and Portugal where English isn't as widely spoken there.
Okay guys, that's it from me on this episode, I'm extremely pleased with the kind comments and the responses I've had on Facebook to the previous post. As always - please feel free to leave a comment below and many thanks for reading!
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