I just watched the very first season of CBS's The Amazing Race and then their 25th anniversary season which took place about ten years ago and is typically rated by TAR fans as the best modern season. My goal was to see how the show changed from its first inception to a more recent edition, and WOW, it changed so much.
I was vaguely aware of TAR growing up, and I remember catching a glimpse of a tiny bit of an episode or two in the 2000s, but other than that, I never actually watched the show. As a fan of competition reality that requires some combination of cool physical challenges and intelligence, the only other show out there that really fit the bill for me on that end was The Mole, which is really just the highest tier of reality TV and competition TV you can get, no matter what edition.
Unfortunately, The Mole doesn't have very many seasons (though that could hopefully change with the Netflix reboot) so I decided to finally give The Amazing Race a try.
Season 1 was great, but when I went on reddit after finishing, I saw fans of the show talking a lot about how much the show had changed since then and I figured I should try one of the more recent seasons. But fans looked down on most of the show's modern seasons so I went with the fan favorite modern season, which was 25. Incidentally, this season kicked off with a celebration of the first season's 25th anniversary.
The first episode definitely had some fun adventures, but it just didn't have the same vibe as season 1. The first half was really boring, and it took until maybe the second Morocco leg for things to actually get more interesting. Despite that, it still felt like a slug to get through the season whereas season 1 was easy to binge watch all the way through. That being said, there were some improvements from the early edition, as well as some things I missed.
First, I'll go through the differences in the gameplay and game structure, and then afterwards, I'll do a spoiler break down of my opinions on each season and talk directly about the teams and events.
EQUALIZING
The first thing I noticed was the change in equalizing. THERE IS SO MUCH OF IT NOW!
While the first season's travel component definitely made for some good equalizing moments, it could also do the reverse and put people further apart, and that was great because it felt natural and sometimes came down to people's flight booking smarts. Admittedly by the end, the hours of operation challenges screwed two teams by increasing the gap to 24 hours, which is too much. But although season 25 didn't have a 24-hour gap, it had a complete equalizer like every single episode, and pretty much all the travel was equalizing.
That would get really annoying because what's the point of coming in first place by a huge margin and then having to wait till 6am to get on a train with all the other teams? Even with the equalizers in season 1, some tasks created big enough gaps that even an equalizer like the airport couldn't completely equalize the teams, instead just closing the gap by a few hours which is totally fair.
I much prefer to see a healthy mix of equalizing moments and moments where teams have to catch up after starting later, rather than seeing every leg reset them all completely. Even if there's only one flight that everyone has to take, and the time between the first and last place teams isn't too gigantic, I wouldn't mind seeing production have them leave the airport in staggered times.
TRAVEL
The travel as a whole didn't feel like as much of a factor, like where was the airport drama? The absolute drama of season 1 having the train arrive while one person was on the phone booking plane tickets for all of them and having his teammate and the others hold up the train was GOLDEN. Season 1 felt like an actual race where they had to travel extensively within the city or region to find route markers in addition to traveling internationally.
Though it could've gotten a little old on season 1 with travel complications in nearly every episode, this season focuses so heavily on the challenges, which really aren't all that interesting for the most part. Local travel especially really tested the relationships in season 1, and they had to use their heads to figure out where to go, interact with locals, utilize different forms of transportation, and debate between money and time.
In season 25, it felt like a lot of the time they didn't really have to work to find places, which was part of the drama. They would get a clue that told them the exact location rather than showing them a statue of a monument like they did with Paris and Agra in season 1, or give them hints about finding something like the cat statue or the Quasimodo's Bell in Paris. Actually the Paris leg of season 1 had them working a lot, like the roadblock of trying to figure out that they needed to go to the Arc de Triomphe.
The back half of 25 seems to have maybe a tiny bit more of this, as well as some more flight booking drama and transportation/navigation issues (heavy on the navigation issues), but it just didn't have the impact that season 1 did in that regard. Though there is generally an improvement in season 25 in the sense that sometimes season 1 teams were screwed over by getting stuck with really bad or expensive cab drivers which is out of their control. But I appreciated season 1 making the contestants responsible for finding their own flights and transportation pretty much the entire time. S25 only starts doing that maybe 4 or 5 episodes in.
I guess I didn't terribly mind the very first episode of season 25 having multiple flights pre-booked with a pre-determined number of seats that people could get on a first come first serve basis, but that's something that only really makes sense for the first episode, and I didn't like that it happened several more times. However, the addition of people going to travel agencies rather than having to book at the airport or by calling ahead is also a welcome change. But of course, they have this new rule where once you book a ticket you can't change it or you can't book multiple, which really sucks because I feel like that just makes the travel component more annoying.
When it comes to both seasons, I do wish they were allowed to get more innovative with the transportation. Like for example when they were respectively in Tunis and Marrakesh and trying to get to Italy, their only option was airport and not ship. In cases where the next flight isn't until many hours later and the flight itself will take many hours, it might be faster to get travel by ship. Same with driving or taking a train to a different country Europe to take an earlier flight rather than sitting in an airport for a super long flight with multiple connections.
But logistically speaking, it might just come down to the fact that production has already booked transport for themselves on planes and can't double book on a ship or book last minute if someone chooses that option, and it just overall might be more difficult to keep everyone in line.
It would also have been nice to see forms of transport other than taxis being available. Although it would be difficult to use rentals since they wouldn't be able to return them, maybe production could have some scooters or bikes available in traffic-heavy areas on a first come first serve basis. They definitely did this with cars in both seasons like the Sahara Desert part in season 1 and the many Ford cars in season 25, but for countries where that kind of transport isn't necessarily accessible or available, there has to be better options than taxis.
Having some type of self-controlled transport available for every leg might be better because one of the things that sucks in general is contestants obviously can't control transport that they're not personally in charge of. It's also hard to control things like flight delays and bad weather so getting eliminated because of bad airport luck is really unfair. This problem certainly cropped up more in season 1, but I was surprised to see season 25 never mentioned any time credits at all. Though such credits were given for production issues rather than travel issues, I still think it's a shame they had so much equalizing but failed to give people time when they really needed it.
The overall international travel itself was also a point of contention for me, and this might just be a specific season-by-season comparison rather than an overall show change. Season 1 felt like they covered a LOT of ground whereas in season 25, it felt heavily stacked in favor of Europe, and they didn't visit a lot of different cities overall.
Here's the season 1 city breakdown (not including cities that were simply for airports):
NYC, USA
Victoria Falls/Livingstone, Zambia
Paris, France
Southern France
Tunis, Tunisia
El Djem (mid-northern Tunisia, 2 hrs away)
Tataouine (southern Tunisia, 3 hrs away)
Sahara Desert in middle Tunisia (3/4 hrs away from both previous cities)
Rome, Italy
Bologna, Italy (4 hrs away)
Delhi, India
Agra, India (location of Taj Mahal, 3+ hrs away)
Jaipur, India (4 hrs away)
Deshnoke, India (5+ hrs away)
Bangkok, Thailand
Kanchanaburi, Thailand (2 hrs away)
Krabi, Thailand (10 hrs south) + Ao Phang National Park
Beijing, China
Anchorage, Alaska
Meanwhile, here's season 25's travel list:
NYC, USA
St. Thomas Island, US Virgin Islands
London, England
Oxford, England (1hr away)
Aberdeen, Scotland
Shetland Islands, Scotland (11hrs north by ferry)
Copenhagen, Denmark (with brief interlude in Sweden across the bridge)
Marrakesh, Morocco
Palermo, Italy
Malta (whole country is tiny)
Singapore, Singapore
Manila, Philippines (plus a couple nearby towns)
Los Angeles, California
As you can see, season 1 really made the most of its trip around the world compared to season 25 which spent either whole episodes or multiple episodes in the same city/region. I shouldn't even have counted London and Oxford separately since they're so close and similar anyway. Season 1 just felt like they went to so many different places, even within the same country. A lot of this journeying within the same country made for great travel/transport moments since they had to figure out whether to take buses, trains, taxis, or some other form of transport.
These decisions usually came down to money, which wasn't an issue at all in the newer season. Back then, it felt like money actually played an important role and teams had to choose between using money to pay for quicker cabs or saving money and taking the slower bus. It was these components like the travelling and the money that made the show feel like an actual race. Taking this out killed the tension and now this newer edition feels like every elimination comes down to these boring ass challenges.
(Note from the future: now that I've watched S5, money and airports definitely caused a lot of trouble here. I'll discuss that in my season 2 & 5 breakdown.)
CHALLENGES (Detours + Roadblocks)
So now let's get into how the challenges changed.
I feel like I'm not really a fan of the way detours worked in either season. In season 1, detours were like do this tricky or adventurous or more physically strenuous thing nearby that won't take as long or do this ridiculously easy thing that's either super far away or takes longer. The nearby thing was always the better pick in these cases which is why everyone always chose those. But at least it seemed like they were related.
For instance, when they were on the Great Wall of China, they had to choose between running a longer flat distance or walking up a ton of stairs to get to a clue. Not the most exciting thing, but it actually felt like a detour because it was two ways of achieving the same goal. Other examples include Air or Land (zipline or hike down), Tough Climb or Easy Walk (climb to ring a bell in Notre Dame or find which Foucault's pendulum has a cat statue), Near or Far (take three photos of tough-to-capture wildlife or one of a giant elephant far away), and Foot or Hoof (find a statue of a foot based on a clear picture or find a statue of a horse based on a partial picture that has taxis on standby).
Of course they also had detours like the brew versus massage one, but they were still in the same marketplace area, or the ping pong versus transportation rally one, which was more akin to the modern detours and thus felt like the odd one out.
In season 25, the difficulty of both detours on a leg generally seem on par, but they really don't have anything to do with each other so it doesn't feel like a real choice. Pancake race versus guard boot camp is so random, like yes they're both under the umbrella of British traditions, but they're both so boring and the contestants can only really make random guesses rather than puzzling out which detour will suit them better.
Same with the other detours like wedding cake versus parking lot, building the Viking torch versus the pony thing, twirling versus tea, camp versus milking, the fish versus building a sidecar, like none of these are fun challenges. Most of them were either difficult or torturous or straight up hard work and also time consuming. Some were randomly easy (like how did no one realize the opera would be way easier than painting), but almost all were definitely boring. I do appreciate that these challenges show more of the culture than the season 1 detours did, but season 1 showcased culture via heavy local travel and interaction with the locals.
Season 25 felt so Europe-heavy and so challenge-focused, I really missed when teams would have to go from place to place just to find route markers rather than just hitting up three spots and doing three challenges per episode.
Because it's not just the detours, it's the challenges overall that suck like what on earth was that boring but outrageously difficult waiter challenge? Season 1 challenges were actually interesting and adventurous, like climbing and kayaking and finding a location in a crowded environment. Apart from the cool water adventure in the US Virgin Islands, season 25's challenges are so bland. And why are they spending so much time on them? Season 1 felt like it emphasized going from place to place and finding route markers, with one detour and roadblock per episode/leg. This season scatters detours and roadblocks, with some legs having only one and not the other, and throws in other random challenges like the Morocco food trucks and the Denmark restaurant.
I also hate that they had blind detours, like that's such a massive waste of time and comes down completely to luck. Though I will say one improvement is that because of the similarity in difficulty of many of these detour challenges, a lot of teams will go back and forth between the challenges which can create opportunities for other teams.
Another thing I did like is that at some point they implemented a rule that requires the teams to split up roadblocks between the teammates so that one team isn't essentially carrying the whole thing. (They didn't say this in the show, but I learned this from the TAR25 wiki fandom page.) Unfortunately, this season didn't really tell us the vague clues that much while season 1 I believe told us the clue every time so we could see why the team chose a certain member.
Though sometimes in the newer season, people would be like "i wanted to do the roadblock because I thought I would be good at it." But you didn't know what it was before you picked it...right? This isn't a spoiler but Adam straight up said "We're strategic about which roadblock we do because some Bethany may not be able to do," which makes sense because although she's able to do a lot with just one arm, there are some things that she physically would not be able to do. But how would they know unless the clue was more specific?
I'm thinking maybe they can guess because of where the clue box is and they can probably see the challenge they have to do. I can't say that I'm a fan of the roadblocks being blind, though. The S25 challenge with the clue about "sliding things into place" which turned out to be a hire wire challenge with a sliding puzzle was awesome but if I was on that season and my partner did it, especially if said partner was afraid of heights and didn't know what the challenge was due to the clue, I would be so triggered that I came all the way around the world and didn't get to do this super cool thing and my hypothetical partner would be annoyed at having to do something that scares them that I could have done easily.
That's the one thing that truly sucks about the roadblock, that only one person gets to experience something cool OR one person has to suck it up and do something that sucks (looking at season 1 rat temple and bug eating roadblocks). I would rather the roadblocks be something where both teammates have to do a task, but they each do a different part of the task.
Like for a super random and simple example, maybe one has to put a raft together and the other has to paddle them on it. This ensures that both teammates are pulling their weight across the season. Also, I think better or more obvious clues would be helpful so that people aren't mismatched with their roadblocks because that would really suck, but I guess it hasn't really been a problem in either season.
NEW RACE ELEMENTS
Now let's move onto the new additions. I'm not sure which seasons implemented these, but they definitely did not exist in season 1 or changed drastically from season 1.
First of all, I don't know if I missed this, but I feel like nobody was calling anything a route marker. I'm not even sure if I remember seeing the route markers since it was mostly just clue boxes. Maybe clues and route markers are just collectively called clues.
Also, they added something called a U-Turn which is honestly just straight up hateful, like that would piss me off so bad if a nice team showed up at the U-Turn and saw they had to now go back and complete another detour. Luckily, neither U-Turn attempts in this season had any impact as the first one was used on a team who was already in last from just completing one detour and the second was used on a team who already got a fast forward.
There was also a really mean-spirited plan to U-Turn a team for no reason, but good thing they didn't go through with that, and that team ended up getting eliminated on their own anyway.
The non-elimination legs changed as well, getting more spaced out, which is good, but now adding a Speed Bump in the next leg for the team who placed last during such a leg. I hated this as well because there's no reason to penalize a team that already came in last since they're penalized by the fact that they have to start later than everyone else. Why bother slowing them down even more? It's called non-elimination for a reason. You came in last but got lucky so you didn't get eliminated. The end. Maybe if they didn't have an equalizer every single episode, they wouldn't have needed this.
They also had something called a SAVE this season which I learned from reddit only existed in seasons 25 and 26, and I completely understand why. It's so pointless and also overpowering for no reason. The people who won it this season never even used it but if you think about it, teams who are good enough to come in first to win the save in the first place don't really need the save. That team did come in last once, but it was during a non-elimination leg anyway.
Another front runner prize was something called an Express Pass. During one leg, this team arrived first at a particular clue and therefore got the chance to look for a not-so-hard-to-find Express Pass that they could hold onto and use to skip tasks later on during the season. It's kind of like a fast forward, but you get to save it for later.
The fast forward itself underwent a massive change. In the first season, I believe there was one available during every leg. It let all teams have a chance to jump ahead, and if you got one already, you couldn't get another one, which kept it fair. I really liked this way of doing it because you could strategically wait longer to use a fast forward, you could go for one if you had a massive lead and knew you could catch up if you didn't make it, and you could give yourself a chance to survive if you were one of the last teams to start. The non-repeating rule is great as well because if you're the starting as the last place team in the top five and you know you're the only team left that hasn't used the fast forward, there's no risk of going for it.
But in this season, there was literally ONE fast forward. Just one. Two teams went for it, and one team was fortunate that it catered directly to them. I hate that, because I prefer the fast forwards much more than the heavy equalizers. A fast forward in season 1 wasn't some magical guarantee of salvation either because a team that used it on one leg ended up last the next leg, and another team managed to massively screw their own lead (which we'll get to later).
Season 25 having only one is so ridiculous like you might as well just eliminate a team at random. I didn't like seeing two teams compete for the fast forward in either season, and while yes it's a risk that creates dramatic tension in the episode, at least in the original the teams had other chances. I think the only reason they really changed it probably has something to do with cost cutting.
But these cost cutting initiatives aren't all bad. This season had lots of partnerships with sponsors like Travelocity and Ford cars, and the winners of every leg either won a fancy trip or car or something else, which I think is a great addition because even if you don't win the entire race, at least you got a cool trip for two or a brand new car.
SEASON 1 BREAKDOWN
Most people don't really care for the winners of this season, finding the team to be boring, but I actually didn't mind at all. From very early in the season, I had a feeling that the lawyers would make it, and despite struggling a bit during a couple legs, they constantly hit the top three in every other leg. I liked that in the very first episode they acknowledged their privilege and wanted to take this opportunity to immerse themselves in other cultures and learn as much as they could. They were constantly respectful no matter which countries they went to, and I do think that they deserved to win. They never fought with each other either, which is something I strongly preferred over second place Frank and Margarita.
I know many people were rooting for those two, but I really couldn't. Margarita seemed really nice and good with other cultures, but Frank was such a massive jerk the entire season. He was constantly yelling at her for no reason, and even during times when he was being nice to her and it seemed like they had a shot at getting back together, he would then yell at her again. I'm glad they didn't win because Margarita needed to be free of that man, and while I certainly felt bad seeing her face fall when she saw the lawyers at the finish line, I can't help but think it was for the best.
Moving onto third place, the Guidos. When I went to reddit, I was surprised to see people saw these guys as villains because I thought they were great. They were also constantly respectful of other cultures and nice to the other teams. Their gameplay wasn't evil or rude or anything, I mean the attempt to block people at the airport was honestly just funny. The others may not have liked them, but they had good attitudes from start to finish, and even when they were stranded in Alaska when Rob and Brennan crossed the finish line, they congratulated them.
But speaking of, we need to talk about the RIDICULOUS decision they made when getting the fast forward. Ever since they did well in the first leg, I wanted them to at least make the finals because they were so good at the game and fun to watch. And then came the fast forward. To this day I'm frustrated about their decision to wait all day to go to the pit stop just so they could take a cheap bus. Getting the fast forward and coming in last...I mean, I was baffled, especially since Joe and Bill were supposed to be one of the smarter teams.
And then it got worse, as there were multiple tasks dependent on hours of operation that just pushed them, as well as Kevin and Drew, extremely far behind. This might be one of the reasons the equalizers amped up later on, though I still don't think that level of equalizing was necessary.
Kevin and Drew were a pretty funny team to watch, though Drew could be a bit too impatient or rude sometimes. Taking a whiz in the middle of the desert in the middle of a leg was hysterical, while the aforementioned scene of Kevin on the phone getting plane tickets for multiple teams when the train showed up was awesome. I did root for the Guidos over them, but I would've preferred a final three with them instead of Frank & Margarita.
These two were pretty close with Nancy & Emily who I really couldn't root for at all. Emily was such a brat! I felt so bad for her mother having to deal with her. When they were in India and Emily was straight up being racist saying the locals were stupid for not understanding her, I loved that her mom told her to shut up and stop insulting them. No amount of frustration justifies disrespect and prejudice like that, so I'm glad her mother called her out when she was also frustrated about the situation. Of course, the frustration wouldn't have existed if Nancy herself had been paying attention. On her way back from the roadblock, this dude straight up told her she needed to go to Agra, and then it cut to her giving up and saying she didn't know what to do.
The team eliminated before them was Lenny & Karyn, and I think they went out at just the right moment. Ever since the Paris episode, the drama these two caused was insane. It still blows my mind that Lenny didn't even complete the roadblock and came down without knowing where to go. I could understand Karyn's frustration, but as the episodes went on, you really couldn't root for either of them because Lenny truly was useless and Karyn was just yelling all the time. If they had lasted any longer, it would've gotten really annoying like watching Frank continue to stay in the game, but luckily they stayed just long enough to give us a mildly entertaining team to root against and got out early enough to give us some peace.
The one couple I did root against from the very beginning got out just before these two. Paul & Amie literally could not see eye to eye on ANYTHING. It was actually so annoying and I really wanted them out every single time. Paul would constantly be fuming and wanting to quit while Amie just kept screaming and crying. I was glad to see them gone, though it does suck that Amie got so sick (and also Lenny from the last team).
One team I would've liked to see last longer was Dave & Margretta. They were the oldest team there and got along very well. I feel like most reality shows only cast people in their 20s and 30s, and season 25 certainly didn't have anyone their age, so it was nice to see them. However, it did feel like maybe their season wasn't exactly elder-friendly. I've seen people their age or older go extremely far on The Mole, so I think this show's design is unfortunately more suited to younger demographics.
Pat & Brenda were the team that left before them. I did like them, but they made such a fatal error that sent them from first place to last place. They got a fast forward that had them in Paris before everyone else, but then didn't do enough research on the pendulum and ended up being the only team to go to the wrong place. It's a shame that the working moms left so early, but it really was their own doing which is a much better way to go out than coming in last because of bad transportation.
The first two eliminated teams of the season are entirely unmemorable except for the time that the teachers got into a bit of a spat with Paul & Amie. Other than that, I don't remember a thing about them.
While reviewing the different tasks they had this season, I realized the fast forwards were mostly pretty easy compared to the wave riding thing in season 25. The only hard one was the 108 coins for luck thing, and I wasn't a fan of watching the two teams compete for something that completely depended on luck.
The clues were also way more subtle, as Victoria Falls was referred to as "the smoke that thunders" which adds more to the overall race's complexity.
Probably one of the most memorable moments in this whole season was the first Paris roadblock where they had to look for the flag on top of the Arc de Triomphe. The way some of those people straight up couldn't find it was insane. Some of them never even found it and just asked tourists or guessed based on where the telescope was pointed.
The Tunisia legs were pretty cool, though I'm wondering why they did Southern Africa, then France, then northern Africa, then Italy instead of Southern Africa, Northern Africa, Italy, then France. Giving the teams the flag of the country and telling them to get on the right ship was a really cool idea since most of them didn't know the right answer, but it didn't end up mattering anyway because they all got on the same ship.
The next leg was really great, as they had the walkie-talkie detour and the camel riding roadblock which was hysterical because the one who did the roadblock was actually chilling while the other one was doing the grueling work of walking through the sand. I really like how in this season, they're not told exactly where to go, but simply given pictures of what they need to find.
The legs in Italy and India were pretty fun, and India especially took them all over the northern part of the country. My only complaint was the rat temple roadblock. If I remember correctly, it was here when Drew realized he always got the short end of the stick when it came to roadblocks, which is funny.
Of all the legs however, I would have to say Thailand was my favorite. Apart from teams wasting time looking for the private vehicles, the rest of the leg was super cool. The roadblock where they walked through the tiger pit and the rock climb-kayak-snorkel trilogy was excellent except for the hours of operation thing.
My least favorite leg was probably China. Rally and volley weren't the most interesting of detours, and the shopping task and eating roadblock was so disgusting, I could barely look at the screen. Chicken feet and squid is one thing, but beetle larvae? If I was on that show, I'd just quit right then and there.
The finale of this season took the top three teams to a two-episode leg in Alaska after finishing in China and honestly, I ended up sort of fast forwarding through most of it. The Guidos were so ridiculously far behind that it was really just a finale between two teams. The tasks would've been way more interesting if it was three teams competing pretty much neck in neck.
Rob & Brennan straight up asking that lady for her cell phone so they could secure a flight on the way to the airport was smart, but I do hope they mailed her phone back to her like they promised. Overall, I did think they were satisfying winners, as they consistently did well and genuinely appreciated every country they visited.
SEASON 25 BREAKDOWN
For this season, most of the cast is nice but I didn't like the Survivor ones. The girl felt so over the top and fake and the guy was a total dick which is unsurprising because those are the types of characters shows like Survivor produces. They were so nasty to Shelly and Nici: "I have some nasty words for them." Like okay, then say them. The karma they got when Shelley & Nici U-turned them was so satisfying and what made it funnier was that them getting the U-turn wouldn't have had an effect any way since they were so unbelievably far behind and even if someone else got U-Turned, they still would've finished last since they switched detours after most people had already completed it.
The wrestlers were annoying, too. They were being so disrespectful to every single culture in every single country they landed in. Brooke personally was so nasty and mean spirited like shut up. They were always asking everyone else for help but wouldn't help anyone themselves and then got mad when the people they were asking were literally trying to get on with the race after quickly helping. They wanted Maya and Amy to spell out for them where exactly the clue was with all details while the girls were literally halfway into a taxi trying to leave, and got mad when they didn't.
Like y'all are the worst, it's your own damn fault for not finding the guy. Maya and Amy found it right away without being told where it was. Later Brooke was literally rejoicing when Maya and Amy were in pain, being like "I'm enjoying this." Well you're a pro wrestler, pain is your job. There's no need to be so nasty. I really wanted to see them get out so bad but somehow they kept persevering, and of course the one time they came in last was a non elimination leg.
They were the first ones to get mad when Maya and Amy showed up for the finale. saying it was unfair, but y'all literally had an NEL too. A lot of people seem to think the Sweet Scientists were undeserving winners who didn't deserve to be in the finale and that it was some sort of special treatment from CBS to get an all-female or underdog team to the finale, but the four-team finale is obviously the result of having a SAVE this season. If the Dentists had used the SAVE during an elimination leg, then the leg before the finale would've had five people, and the finale would've had four. Since they didn't have to use the SAVE due to coming in last only during an NEL, there were four people during the second to last leg, and therefore there was no need for an elimination prior to the finale.
People also complained that they didn't do very well during the season, but ultimately what matters is staying in the game, which they did, and they won when it counted. I'm glad they won because Maya was genuinely so happy to be on the journey around the world and truly appreciative of all the cultures, and Amy was in such pain for many of the later legs so it was great to see her push through all that pain, especially when up against mixed gender teams, including a tough roadblock in the Philippines where she was up against three men much bigger than her.
The Dentists were a team I did expect to make it to the finale, and I wouldn't have been surprised if they won. They were consistently good racers, with both members contributing equally, and it was nice to see Jim constantly being supportive of Misty after seeing how Frank treated Margarita. They may have started out a tiny bit too overconfident, but coming in last that one leg really humbled them. It was also a really nice moment when they were in the Philippines and Misty teared up because seeing the kids in the street just reminded her of her own privilege. I love when teams are actually able to take something away from the race experience and being in other countries.
The third place team was also a team I expected to see in the finale. Bethany and Adam were a pretty strong team, but they did get kind of boring. It was tiring constantly hearing them say "honeybuns" unironically, and sometimes it did feel like Bethany was carrying the team. Overall, I liked their attitudes, but I was seriously hoping they wouldn't go for the fast forward so that Kym and Alli could win, and it was a little odd to see the surfers open it when they were already halfway to their detour destination.
I liked Kym and Alli a lot, but they were dumb as hell for going for a fast forward when they were only in first place by a matter of minutes, and then choosing not to leave immediately when the professional surfers showed up for a surfing fast forward. Also y'all didn't get a clue from the name Waveform that maybe the pro surfers would show up? Despite how well they'd been doing and despite the plot against them by the other teams (courtesy of nasty Brooke who targeted them just because they sat on their own during a ferry ride), they only had themselves to blame for their downfall.
The ice cream girls also had a dumb moment during that episode, believing Brooke and Robbie when they said there was no clue at a location where they passed, like you won't even go and check at least? If not for Kim and Alli trying the fast forward, these girls would've come in last place that leg.
My favorite team, Tim and Te Jay came last back to back. I knew they probably wouldn't make it to the finals, but I rooted for them anyway. They actually did quite well for the most part, but I don't know why they spent so much time at the flag detour that everyone else quit. If they'd just switched earlier, they would still be in the running.
Shelley and Nici got eliminated right before them. I was mostly eh on this team. They seemed nice, but the arguing would just be annoying. I'm just glad they were able to get on good terms before they left the show. In their short time, they did make a mark. I'll never forget Nici peeing in the river in front of a whole boat of guys in London. And I was 100% on their side during the confrontation with the Survivor couple, so it was good to see the mother and daughter prevail over them.
The remaining three teams weren't particularly memorable. I did feel bad for Dennis and Isabelle because they so badly wanted to be on the show and were actually doing pretty decently until they got to the punting challenge, which really didn't seem like a very good challenge anyway.
The firefighters and the realtors did make a tiny impression in that first episode with their instant beef and rapid karma. That girl grabbing the marker from the guy and then later the guys beating the girls in a footrace after they plus the Survivor team all quit the challenge was really just a perfect circle.
That entire first leg was very fun, but unfortunately it dragged a lot. I feel like I breezed through season 1 and season 25 took so long to get through. Episode 6 of 25 is where it felt like it started to pick up as we got back to the travel issues, taxis issues, slightly more interesting roadblocks and detours, though still not a huge difference.
That episode 8 equalizer though...that would've pissed me off so bad like you have these teams arriving way ahead of everyone else and getting stuck waiting till 7:30 so they only have a 15-minute lead.
The finale to the season was surprisingly short. Season 1 had a two-episode finale while this season's finale was only one episode long, but I was fine with it. I can't say it was the most exciting finale, but the final memory challenge that dealt with their travel destinations throughout the race was pretty good.
CONCLUDING THOUGHTS
Shows that run for such a long time will obviously evolve over their tenure, but even though I didn't watch the absolute latest edition, I still experienced a drastic change in what I was watching. As I watch more seasons of the show, it'll be interesting to see where some of these changes came into play. Maybe at some point there was a happy medium between the production issues of season 1 and the over-gamification of season 25. And maybe I'll change my mind on some of these modifications as I see people run into various issues throughout the seasons in between.
I definitely won't be watching too many seasons though. For now, let me jump into seasons 2 and 5, so stick around to find out if I liked those better or worse.
Update: I went on to watch seasons 2, 5, 7, 11, 12, and part of 17, and I just really got sick of it. I hated how terrible people kept making it to the finals, I hated how boring the legs got, I hated the arguing, and I really felt like I was just watching the same thing over and over again.