The Amazing Race

The Amazing Race is back and just as good as ever. Before I get to my picks for favorite teams, a brief recap.

Eric and Lisa became the first team to get eliminated at the starting line. This year the teams had to find a licence plate of the first destination, Japan, and present it to Phil to get their tickets to Tokyo. It seemed that no teams noticed that the Japanese characters they needed to find on the licence plate were also on their clues. After a few trys some of the teams started to put it together. I would like to say that I would have noticed the characters at the top of the clue but I can understand why it was easily overlook in all the excitement. Never the less you should always read your clue very carefully on this show, if you don't it will always come back to bite you in the...well you know where. Eric and Lisa where the unlucky victims of this new twist and I can't say that I was sad to see them go, sorry. They just didn't seem like a team I would root for but now I will never know.


In Tokyo the teams had to go on a Japanese game show and swallow down a huge wasabi bomb that of course was on a roulette wheel. If they didn't get the wasabi then they got sushi (which to me would have been much worse then the wasabi) those teams that did get the wasabi had 2 minutes to eat it or risk thier luck on the wheel again. Once the teams had finished their wasabi bomb it was off to the streets of crowded Tokyo with a 20 game show audience members who they had to take to the pit stop. In the end, Maria and Tiffany came in last and without all their audience members. But in a twist that wasn't a shock it was a non-elimination round so they got a 2 hour penalty and the added speed bump the next leg.


The next leg was in Vietnam where the teams had to race on little wooden boats to a mud pit and them transfer mud to the roots of a tree before a local farmer would sign off and give them their next clue. Maria and Tiffany made quick work of the speed bump (which seemed way to easy by speed bump standards) and were back in the game. After the mud pit the teams race back to the mainland and one team member had to heard a group of unruly ducks over a small bridge and then back into their pen. A few teams (Sam/Dan, Zev/Justin, Gary/Matt) made quick work of this task but others (Garrett/Jessica, Brian/Ericka, Lance/Keri) seemed to have a hard time and the ducks quickly picked up on their frustrations. In the end Garrett and Jessica couldn't make up the time lost with the duck run and where eliminated and the end. Again I wasn't sad to see this team go either. Maybe that would have been different if we got to see more of them but what we did see didn't make them come off as a great team.



Now for the teams I like and their are a lot after the first episode. I really enjoy Zev and Justin and hope they make it all the way to end. My other teams to watch are the brothers Sam and Dan, the Harlem Globetrotters Herbert and Nathaniel, father and son Gary and Matt and dating couples Mika and Canaan and Marcy and Ron. And there you have it my top team picks after the first episode. Questions: Was the speed bump too easy? Could you have eaten the wasabi bomb in two minutes? Are you a Duck Whisperer? Who are your favorite teams?