Recap: The Amazing Race 37, Episode 1 – “Your father will be the female.”

Recap: The Amazing Race 37, Episode 1 – “Double the Stakes, Double the Eliminations”

Phil welcomes 14(!) brand new teams to the Starting Line at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. He teases the Fork in the Road and has a few teams introduce themselves before he flags them off to their bags waiting on the street below.

Teams must drive themselves to LAX to secure seats on the one of two flights, scheduled to arrive an hour apart, to their first destination: Hong Kong!

Making it on the first flight are Jonathan & Ana, Carson & Jack, Melinda & Erika, and Courtney & Jasmin. The remaining ten teams have to settle for the second flight.

The first flight ends up arriving in Hong Kong 16 minutes late while the second flight arrives 11 minutes early.

The leading teams arrive at Tian Tan Buddha and make their way up the steps. Carson & Jack and Jonathan & Ana reach the cluebox first. And that clue directs teams to take the Sun Ferry to Cheung Chau Island and search the promenade for the next clue.

When Carson & Jack’s taxi driver takes a different exit, Jonathan & Ana are able to be the only team to make the first available ferry. They tell us that The Amazing Race helped their marriage when there was tension in their family.

Carson & Jack, Melinda & Erika, Courtney & Jasmin just miss the ferry. And that allows some of the second flight teams to catch up to them.

Climbing up Tian Tan Buddha, Jackye talks about being afraid of stairs after a terrible accident when preparing for a hurricane. But with Lauren’s support, she is able to power through the climb to the clue.

Meanwhile, Jonathan & Ana arrive on Chang Chau Island and find the Road Block: Who’s ready for some ups and downs? For this Road Block, teams will take on a bamboo tower used by competitors to practice for the Bun Scrambling competition. Teams will climb up to retrieve their next clue.

With their big lead, they decide Ana will do the Road Block and she has little trouble getting the clue. That clue tells teams to take the ferry back and make their way to Lok Kwan Street Park where they will find the Fork in the Road.

Seven teams can go in either direction, creating a parallel race to the Mat where two teams will be eliminated.

With the ferry not leaving for more than half an hour, Jonathan & Ana decide to do some research about the next Route Marker. In the meantime, the other teams arrive and they quickly run to the Road Block where there are eight lines available at a time. Han, Bernie, and Lori start up first. But Brett, who is a climber, zooms up the tower and to the lead. Bernie, Joshiah, Han, Lori, Carson are next to finish followed by Mike, Bridget and Erika with Mark, Pops and Jasmin close behind.

All the teams catch up to an annoyed Jonathan & Ana at the terminal who are still waiting for the ferry. They leave as Jackye & Lauren are still in last, but not giving up just yet. Lauren does the Road Block and everyone cheers her on.

At Lok Kwon Street Park, teams open the clue revealing the options for the Fork in the Road: Dance or Sing. In Sing, teams will be made up and dress up and learn how to perform Cantonese Opera. In Dance, teams will learn how to and then properly perform a lion dance routine. When teams complete either task, they can head to the Pit Stop.

Teams must put their photo on the board locking in which fork they have chosen.

Jonathan & Ana decide to do Sing since there were already a lot of teams who chose Dance, even if it might have been easier for them to do.

Meanwhile back at the ferry terminal, Courtney & Jasmin have still not been able to hop into a taxi to get them to the park until they show the drivers the location written in Chinese. They choose dance having seen Nick & Mike and Mark & Larry choose it as well, thinking that gives them a chance.

Alyssa & Josiah are the first to attempt the Sing performance, but fail on the first note. Carson & Jack are the first to attempt the Dance performance, but also get the thumbs down. Nick & Mike also fail their first attempt and second too.

Carson & Jack pass on their third attempt and can now make their way to the Pit Stop at West Kowloon Cultural District Art Park. Brett & Mark are close behind them with Bernie & Carrigan and Ernest & Bridget next.

Nick & Mike pass on their 7th attempt. Courtney & Jasmin are able to get the thumbs up before Mark & Larry. All three teams have trouble finding a taxi.

Over at the Pit Stop, Carson & Jack head to the Dance Mat and check-in as Team #1, winning $3000. Brett & Mark are Dance Team #2. Ernest & Bridget and Bernie & Carrigan are Dance Teams 3 and 4, respectively.

Over at the Sing Fork, Alyssa & Josiah are the first to get the thumbs up followed by Jonathan & Ana. Alyssa & Josiah are Sing Team #1 and also win $3000.

It’s a footrace for the three remaining Dance teams. Nick & Matt and Courtney & Jasmin arrive are Dance Teams 5 and 6. Mark & Larry arrive just seconds after and are eliminated for being Dance Team #7.

Back at the Sing Fork, Pops & Jeff get the thumbs up followed by Han & Holden, Scott & Lori, Melinda & Erika.

Jonathan & Ana step on the Sing Mat and check-in as Sing Team #2. Scott & Lori and Pops & Jeff are Sing Teams 3 and 4. Han & Holden are Sing Team #5. Melinda & Erika are Sing Team 6.

That means Jackye & Lauren are Sing Team #7 and are eliminated from the Race.

Episode Thoughts

And The Amazing Race US is finally back. It definitely feels like a long time. Was the last season the one that everyone irrationally hated because it never left the Americas? I think so. I don’t even remember. I wonder what some fans will latch on to and whine about this time around.

Not gonna lie though, I might be one of those people. Lol But let’s hold off until we reach that *drumroll* Fork in the Road!

But seriously though, it’s always great to get started on a new season of any Amazing Race. And the prospect of a “season of surprises” is certainly interesting. We’ll have to see how that will all play out each Leg.

For this first Leg though, I think it was okay. Obviously the focus was on the new twists. But let’s start from the beginning first.

The Starting Line was fine. The drive to LAX and airport stuff was fine. But it was definitely a good thing that the flights were delayed/early so we got the teams all bunched up together.

Hong Kong is probably the closest TARUS will come to visiting China any time soon. So it’s a good, easy choice for an opening Leg. Especially when the Leg is pretty barebones anyway. As usual for modern TAR, they’re solid tasks. But the Leg certainly could’ve used one or even two more tasks.

The Road Block was actually great. Perhaps a nod to the bamboo scaffolding of Hong Kong in addition to the Cheung Chau Bun Festival. The show lucked out that all the teams were bunched up so we could have that 12-team scramble at the task and then at the ferry too. It’s one of those scenarios where the task probably might not have been as interesting to watch otherwise. But the task itself was good.

Now to the obvious focus of the episode, the Fork in the Road. When it was first announced, I expected that it would at least entail two tasks and/or Route Markers. I would never expect anything beyond that with the way modern TAR works. But to have it end up being simply a Detour where teams couldn’t switch is a bit disappointing and underwhelming.

Now, the Double Elimination, I absolutely get. There’s 14 teams. They wanted to be able to say “most teams ever”, but still wanted to get the number of teams back to a manageable number by Leg 2. So it was a creative way to work out the logistics for the show.

But it would’ve been nice to maybe have one more task or Route Marker between the task and the Pit Stop. Then again, I guess that would basically just make it a regular Detour. Unless the two Forks had different subsequent tasks/Route Markers after the initial Detour-like choice I guess.

The strategy involved with choosing which Fork a team would choose was interesting. Like, if there’s already six teams on one Fork, then obviously you’re going to choose the other side even if there’s still a slot left. Thinking like that, okay sure, it adds a bit more of a strategic element to the Race.

But I don’t know how much of a game changer it was as opposed to simply being a logistical shortcut for the show.

So, both tasks were okay. (Even with questionable level of difficulty, especially for the lion dancing.) But it actually didn’t have much effect on the show overall other than perhaps eliminating a team that might have otherwise survived.

If anything, this could basically be a Limited Stations Detour if you removed the Double Elimination element. Or a “Locked” Detour or something like that. (Something that I’ve considered implementing on TARPHDME lololol)

Speaking of, that was a familiar Pit Stop location! lol

I did love the rainy weather though. It’s fun seeing more rainy Legs on the show and having teams need to deal with the extra challenge like that.

A bit of a nitpick maybe? But I did spot another quality control issue or however you call it when they inadvertently showed Jonathan & Ana with a checkmark as completed for the Fork just before they actually did get the thumbs up:

So, overall, it was a solid premiere. Again, the Fork in the Road was a bit underwhelming. The Leg could’ve used one more task. But it certainly wasn’t the worst TAR episode in recent seasons. Let’s see what the surprises will be in the coming weeks!

Team Thoughts

So with 14 teams and even with 90 minutes, it was still a challenge to keep track of them all and get a sense of who each one was. But what I will give the show is they definitely at least introduced us to the eliminated teams very well to the point that I was really sad both were eliminated.

I legit thought the show was setting up Jackye & Lauren‘s comeback in the end. Since usually, the show does kind of ignore the eventual eliminated team. But Jackye & Lauren did get some great focus this episode. First with the moment at Tian Tan Buddha and then them at the Road Block. They had great attitudes and it would’ve been awesome to see them survive this Leg.

The same with Mark & Larry. Though a bit less focus, they were pretty good for what little we saw of them. They would’ve been fun personalities to watch on the Race.

For the biggest personality, I think that might have to go to Jonathan of Jonathan & Ana. Them building a momentary lead definitely offered them the opportunity to take the spotlight. But there were some interesting moments in the episode to show that we could be seeing some fireworks from them in the future. Keep an eye on these two!

As for other teams who made an immediate impression, Pops & Jeff seem like they could be a competitive and fun team. Nick & Mike finally getting on the Race after several tries is a great story and makes them a team to root for. Carson & Jack, even in this short Leg, was pretty competitive and in the front of the pack most of the time.

The parent/child teams can always be interesting. Married parents and siblings too. And the others, I think couples probably, were okay. But really not seen that much to have an opinion on them other than everyone was alright this premiere.