What are you opinions on this polarizing leg and what are other polarizing legs in TAR franchise?

Older Season

The Blind date season (season 26) first leg. It seems like people's opinions on it are all over the board. Either they think its forgettable, its terrible, or its very good. I personally thought it was really solid and my favorite leg that season other than leg 5 (Bergen and Kurt going so far off the race course was peak modern Amazing Race and gave such old school vibes).

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Anyway, I thought the first leg was super solid. The only real complaint I have is how sad the elimination was (loved Jeff and Lyda) and the fact that the detour was so ridiculously lopsided. The starting twist was also a bit silly but I loved three big things about this leg:

  1. The fact that 9 teams chose a task that was so difficult that it equalized so many and it was so nailbiting guessing how was going to finish next. It was so intense to see which team would finish next. The fact it was 90 minutes really got you invested in the teams and their success. Usually I don't like it when a musical based task is the determinant since I feel so much of it depends on prior skill but in this case the teams had a choice.
  2. The location after the pit stop was difficult to find. Not only that but there were so many ways of trying to reach it. Pay extra money for a taxi that doesn't speak English, try public transport and save money but go slower. Also, it was a rather obscure location so so many teams got lost, part of it due to luck but also part of it because they weren't searching in the right location. There was so many placement mix-ups from leaving the detour and arriving at this route marker and few were due to taxis getting lost but due to fault of the teams.
  3. SUPER unpopular opinion but I loved the pitstop. Do I want every pitstop to be a parking garage? Absolutely not. But once in a while I actually liked the fact the pitstop wasn't a landmark and just somewhere super obscure. Again, built up the challenge of trying to find it. We've had 100s of pitstops that are well-known landmarks, I like they for once had one that was just somewhere obscure.

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My first thought is I hated the fact you could U-Turn on the first leg but I would be lying if I said it didn't create excitement. I was crossing my fingers like crazy that Jeff and Lyda would U-Turn Libby and CJ (still like L and CJ a lot but was rooting for Jeff and Lyda to stay).

Posted May 4, 2022, 1:41 AM UTC · edited

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