Archive > The AMAZING RACE 31

TAR 31 EPISODE 1 LIVE UPDATES & COMMENTARY WED 4/17/19 9PM EST *read Post 1*

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RaceUntilWeDie:
First Impressions:

TEAMS
1. Leo & Jamal - went from disliking them in TAR 23, to being indifferent to them in TAR 24, to absolutely rooting for them this season? I don't know how that happened haha but great to see them win this first leg!
2. Colin & Christie - I have never watched TAR 5 in full, but I've seen large chunks of Colin & Christie's time on it. I honestly think they might be boring/"bot"-like this time around but I can't help but adore them every time I see them on screen. The fact that producers reached out to them this season is a WIN itself.
3. Tyler & Korey - surprisingly under the radar?? Even their first season had tons of personalities but somehow they're overshadowed. Obviously, it's only the first episode.
4. Rachel & Elissa - I'm loving what seems like a really "fun" version of Rachel. There's clearly a different dynamic between her and Elissa compared to Brendon.
5. Becca & Floyd - also pretty under the radar, but that's understandable because of so many teams right now.
6. Nicole & Victor - they seem like a sweet couple. That's all I have to say for now, lol
7. Chris & Bret - One of them looks like JJ so thank god Art & JJ went out first lmao
8. Janelle & Britney - Yikes, navigation is not going to be their best friend, it seems...
9. Corinne & Eliza - the whole "mean girl" act is annoying.
10. Rupert & Laura - Rupert has an interesting voice and Laura is incredibly dry for a reality personality.
11. Art & JJ - From 2nd in their original season to 11th... I genuinely felt bad for them lmao but I think if I rewatch TAR 20 I won't feel as bad.

TASKS
Sand - this was a WASTE OF TIME considering all the teams were on the same flight and there was no advantage or disadvantage for the first/last teams. I don't think we've ever had a starting line task without a single advantage.
Route Info - I loved the camerawork through the crowded streets. Ambitious task for sure (with the "limited clues" and all) but it played out pretty boring.
Chocolate Roadblock - cool challenge! it got ruined by teams getting lost and being so far apart from each other though. I would've loved to see this task in action with like 6 teams at once.
Climbing Roadblock - when Leo first attempted this challenge I thought it was going to be super hard... but I guess it wasn't. This Roadblock should've been reworked.

ADDITIONAL POINTS
- The editing was atrocious as usual. Sooooo many "blur" transitions during the Route Info task, for what?? Just play it out without the transitions, dang it.
- I've seen people say that there wasn't any room for movement in this episode. I would disagree--there totally was, it's just that too many teams got lost :groan:
- Overall the "reality showdown" concept isn't bad, I just wish this was a full TAR cast </3
- I'm so glad I forgot a majority of the spoilers, lmao. This is gonna be a fun watch.

BourkieBoy:
The premiere episode was pretty good, however editing needs to be fixed up ASAP (especially the first ten minutes I was far too rushed lmao)

The two Roadblocks + Route Info was pretty good, but the Stating Line Task was a massive waste of time, considering all teams were on the same fight!

nrh2110:
Not gonna lie, was kinda disappointed. An overused destination with two Roadblocks relating to the same thing (Japanese game show). Really happy the Afghanimals won that leg, tho. I feel bad for Art & JJ, but I guess life will go on. Hoping Team Fun will be as strong this season as last time, I really loved them, but the editing makes it seem like they’re fairly irrelevant this season (which I really hope is not the case).

Here’s to next week!

NELs:
Welp, I have to agree with everyone else here. This was a pretty meh premiere. The editing could have been better (this premiere's editing was as atrocious as TAR30's). The only good task on this leg was navigating the Shibuya Scramble. The two tasks relating to Japanese game shows sucked, TAR needs to stop going to Japan and having each tasks relate to "Look, these Japanese game shows are absurd, let's emulate them on TAR." I thought this "Reality Showdown was gonna flop, but I'm interested in some of the teams from Survivor. (These teams might convince me to watch their seasons of Survivor, if I enjoyed them so much), because I've never watched Survivor before.

Rating, 3/5: Terrible editing, I love about half the cast, Two terrible Japanese Game Show Tasks, shocking elimination.

The teams I loved seeing:
Colin & Christie
Becca & Floyd
Rupert & Laura
Corinne & Eliza
Chris & Bret

The teams I'm meh on:
Leo & Jamal
Nicole & Victor
Rachel & Elissa
Janelle & Britney
Art & JJ

Team I don't like:
Tyler & Korey

NumfarPTB:
The episode was interesting was more interesting on a second watch.

- Probably due to limited runtime -  so in some ways, glad it didn't happen - but was initially surprised there was not a short recap of other former Survivor and Big Brother contestants that have run the race previously, especially considering who won TAR30 and also Rob and Amber for the old-timers.

- Also surprised that the opening sequence, didn't label the teams by the show they were representing, like the opening that identified who were the Blind Daters and who were the existing couples on 26.

- Last night, was initially a bit disappointed by number of challenges, as it was a double RB leg, with start line ARI that had little impact on actual placements, it did feel a bit wasted, other than having all 11 teams in the same spot for a little bit. But realized on second viewing how big was a navigation challenge once they were in Shibuya. Separating and limiting the number of clues in the initial RI was very interesting, that had teams lost, and did shift placements around. That probably doomed Art and JJ.
Still bothered by how the RB tasks were centered on, "look how crazy are Japanese Game Shows", instead of being more culturally relevant. I think UB still had one of my favorite Japanese legs for original TAR.

- Not a Survivor or BB viewer, so this was my first impression to those teams. Was surprised by how mellow Victor sounded, from following the spoilers, I don't know why I imagined him sounding gruffier, more Cody-like. First time learning about the legendary status of Rupert. So who's more legendary Rupert or Russell? Having helped out posting links for 2018's season of Australian Survivor, I became mildly aware of the latter who has nothing to do with the race, but being generally unfamiliar with the Survivor franchise, it made me slightly confused for "a minute'.

- Still wished we had a FF TAR team in this season, the feeling I got is that Kym and Alli (one of the teams who were considered during casting) would've smoked all those FF teams. 

- Were never an Art and JJ fan, so not sad to see them go.  Just disappointed we didn't get any Rachel drama, That would have been interesting.

- Excited to learn more about the teams that I am unfamiliar with and excited that US is bringing other twists from the international version, hopefully works better than US wonky implementation of the H2H / Face-Off.
I should try finding a post I did about how the Vote Uturn was used brilliantly by a team in TAR China a few years ago, and considering the make-up of the cast this season, it will be very interesting twist.

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