by David McAlpine

 

And they’re off! CBS’ Emmy-winning reality show (seven times in a row, I might add), The Amazing Race, is back for its 15^th installment, complete with professional poker players and an interracial couple (apparently the show’s first true one).

 

And does it ever start with a bang! The first twist of the season comes in the first minutes of the show: one team is going to be eliminated before anyone gets on a plane. As much as I love a new twist, I’m too much of a fan of the race to really be okay with this—the show is about racing and being able to get through the race, not who can find something the fastest.

 

Regardless, the teams are given a task to find, amongst a bunch of license plates, one from their first destination in Japan. It takes a while for several teams to realize that the symbol on their clue is a clue itself to the license place, but many of them eventually figure it out, leading to an intense battle for the last spots in the race. Though they seemed very competitive and into the game, married yoga teachers Eric and Lisa are the first ones eliminated, leaving only 11 teams to compete.

 

From the very beginning, the teams are bunched and it’s clear that no one is going to break away from the pack. Still, hilarity ensues because, since they’re in Japan, they get in a reality show within a reality show. Straight out of those crazy Japanese game shows, the teams had to sit around a sushi wheel and eat whatever landed in front of them. The only way that they could continue, however, was if they landed on a wasabi roll, which was a hell of a lot of wasabi inside a small layer of rice—no fun to eat. Even worse, they only had two minutes to eat it.

 

To top it all off, it’s not really true Amazing Race fashion without some annoying background drop or details that just adds to the situation. In this case, there’s Godzilla graphics and lots of funny voices everywhere, taunting the teams as they manage to finish the task.

 

I didn’t think it could get any funnier, but it does. After eating a very large portion of wasabi, each team has to lead 20 very confused looking Japanese people to the pit stop. It doesn’t seem that difficult to accomplish, especially after Meghan and Cheyne finish it, then check in first, but Maria and Tiffany lose two of their citizens, causing them to give up and take a penalty instead. Since Eric and Lisa were eliminated before anyone got a plane, though (which, I must reiterate, is lame), it’s a non-elimination leg, so the two face the Speed Bump on the next leg.

 

Lucky for us, the premiere is two hours long, so we get a double dose of the legs! Meghan and Cheyne leave first around midnight, when they find out their next stop is Vietnam. Being that it’s the middle of the night and they have to get on a plane, I’m just going to put it out there that a bottleneck is not to be unexpected. And, as the teams depart from the pit stop, they all manage to get on the same plane—surprise, surprise.

 

Many of them manage to get on the same bus and close taxis when they get to Vietnam, too. Even though the field starts to separate thanks to foreign taxi drivers, the entire field gets grouped again when they arrive at their next clue only to discover it’s not open yet.

 

When it does open, the task is about covering a tree’s roots in mud, which causes me to question how difficult the producers are making the challenges this time around. However, I’m proven yet again an underestimating machine, because the mud is super thick and everyone is struggling with the challenge. It gives Maria and Tiffany a chance to catch up after performing their Speed Bump, so now it’s really anyone’s race to lose. On their way out of the clue, Justin falls into the water, shortly after which his partner, Zev, sees that they lost their clue. Zev thinks it fell into the water, so they spend time searching around where Justin fell.

 

After that, the teams face their final clue for the leg: herding ducks. Again, not a huge fan of having animals control who gets to stay and who goes home, but I guess it’s understandable. Each team has to herd a group of duck out of their pen, across the bridge, back over the bridge and back into their pen. Brian and Ericka and Jessica and Garrett both have a hard time with the ducks, which seems to be a trend among the couples.

 

Meanwhile, Matt (originally from Montana) is proving more stereotypes to be true because it seems like he has a sixth ducky sense. Gary reaps the benefits of Matt’s herding skills, because they finish super quick and check in first. Zev is also a mastermind at this because he’s able to keep calm, and it seems like the ducks almost follow him.

 

Back to Jessica and Garrett, who are still miserably failing with the ducks. Eventually, they get it, but it’s not in enough time, because they come in last, making them the second team to be eliminated from the Amazing Race.

 

Who will be the last one to arrive at next week’s pit stop? Tune in to CBS on Sunday at 8/7c for the next episode of the Amazing Race!

 

(Photo courtesy of CBS)

 

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