Before I go through the whole thread and read what I've missed, I'm gonna share my opinions about the leg.
What I like:
I'm glad that instead of the usual 2 flights not arriving at the same time in the first destination, everybody gets to start (almost?) at the same time!
The last time this happened was in TAR16, but that was unplanned unlike this!
I really like the placement changes throughout the whole race. The models were first to Phil, but last at the detour. They ended up on the last batch to depart after the HoO, but they managed to finish the leg in the middle.
Here's another one: Sheri & Cole arrived to Phil last. I remember during the live that they were about 5 minutes or more behind all the teams who arrived in differences of just seconds. When they got to the HoO, they got the first departure time though.
To continue that, Sheri and Erin were the first ones at the roadblock after the HoO, but they finished towards the end despite being the first few to start.
Even at the roadblock, the team placements shuffled around, with Kurt & Brodie ending in 5th despite being the first few to start at the roadblock and Darius & Cameron arriving at the pit stop before them despite being at the last batch. It's all so cool, and it makes the race more exciting!
I like how the tasks are cultural, and especially since they haven't been to Mexico for 25 seasons iirc, then it's great to see some Mexican culture.
When was the last time a detour and a roadblock were both present on the first leg? I can't remember, but seeing it this season is great!
The intense footrace for first was amazing!
I didn't check this thread nor did I check Wikipedia for spoilers this episode, so watching the footrace was fun!
Same goes for the fight for last. I actually didn't expect Erin & Joslyn to arrive after Sheri & Cole.
The best part about the pit stop is that it's a non-elimination pit stop. TAR19 was the last time we had one, so I'm really, really glad we got a Leg 1 NEL this time.
What I don't like:
Where are the team names with the hashtags?
Even without the hashtags, I'm looking for the team names.
Some of them suck, but it's where creativity and uniqueness can be shown. Not even the relationship is shown anymore, just those usernames.
I like how consistent the team introductions are this time around, unlike last season. What I don't like is that they showed the episode intro first before introducing the teams. By putting my shoes on a casual fan's, I won't even know who these teams are, what they do, etc. It should've been intro of teams before episode intro imo.
I was disappointed with the models' introduction as well. What was shown was them talking about knowing Tyler Oakley only.
As a person who don't really know these 2 models, I want to know more of their background. I'm pretty sure they said something more that was not shown.
I was glad that there was no mention of the EP at the start of the race. I thought this season will be the starting season wherein the mention of the EP being won will be at the time Phil introduces the 1st pit stop. Obviously, I was disappointed with no EP being given to the 1st team.
Even worse, no prize was mentioned for them.
If they'll be consistent about this throughout the whole race, then it'll be somewhat fine, but I don't like it.
I'm glad the 4-hour penalty didn't happen this time. It just showed that Erin has a plan to quit, and I don't like it.
Second worst thing about this episode (first being the no mention of leg prize), it was crammed. The chaos after meeting Phil was so hard to fathom. I was confused during that montage. Aside from that, the roadblock look rushed. I wanted to see more drama and problems teams encountered from that task. It's sad for me how they didn't do a 2-hour or 90-minute premiere this season.
The one thing I'm quite neutral about:I like the detour. It was cultural and fun, but it was imbalanced.
I don't like imbalanced detours, but after analyzing the detour, the mariachi one requires patience and is less fun than the other detour. Meanwhile, the bulls detour was more fun than the other detour, but it took more time despite it being the finishable kind of task.
Overall, I like the premiere episode this season!