‘The Amazing Race 22’ premiere review: Sandcastles in the sand
“The Amazing Race 22” kicked things off Sunday night with an episode full of beautiful sights in Bora Bora, but also a pretty infuriating challenge. Let’s try to put this in perspective: you’re in one of the premier vacation spots in the world, and you force teams to spend a good 20 minutes of the episode digging for clues in sandcastles? While we liked the twist where teams had to rebuild what they knocked over, we hate that luck played such an enormous role in the first episode of the season after a sky-diving challenge that was at least intense. Ultimately, this gave bad teams a much better chance at staying.
There was also another twist this season, which you can see more about in the review of the team placement below.
1st – Jessica & John. The dating couple may not be particularly interesting, but they handled the challenges in Bora Bora without a problem or without fighting. Isn’t it obvious that these two will be around for a while? They fit the bill: a strong young couple who communicates pretty well. As the first winners, they received the Express Pass … and also have another one to give to another team moving forward.
2nd – Bates & Anthony. This was really all about luck. Despite the likable hockey guys being on the second flight, they ended up finding a clue in the sand almost right away. Ultimately, though, we still don’t know enough about them to determine whether or not they will end up going far.
3rd – Dave & Connor. If Jessica & John are true to their word, this father / son team with the inspirational story will actually receive the second Express Pass. This is a team that is still more than capable of going far, as they are both fit and do not seem to stress at all.
4th – Pam & Winnie. These two ladies were one of our pre-season picks, and the reasons why are simple: they are so likable, not afraid of challenges, and they’re not going to really annoy anyone.
5th – Mona & Beth. This had luck all over it. We don’t really see how they did anything, really, to deserve this placement except for finding a clue in the sand right away. After all, they were in last place going into this part of the race.
6th – Joey & Meghan. They may be the most annoying team of the season by far. Being loud and obnoxious may be great to get attention on YouTube … but doing it on the race is something more worthy of a finger wag.
7th – Chuck & Wynona. We love Chuck’s mullet … and so do the producers. Even though we don’t endorse taxidermy by any means, at least these two have a fun relationship that is part Mark & Bopper, and part Dave & Mary.
8th – Idries & Jamil. These OBGYNs were actually our pick to win the whole season, and we have to say we’re a little worried about their determination and fear of water. These two did persevere through the sandcastle challenge, but it took a great deal of moaning and groaning under the hot sun.
9th – Max & Katie. This is where things got interesting. The token villains came up with this “genius” idea to convince the other teams to take the four-hour penalty, and then beat them to the pit stop. It worked, but we don’t really think being this far behind the other eight teams is a great idea. Why not just take a break for an hour and then start digging again?
10th – Caroline & Jennifer. We still worry about whether or not they have the killer instict to win this season, but our pre-season pick to be out first narrowly escaped.
11th – Matt & Daniel. This was a pretty sad way to start off the season. Matt & Daniel seem like pretty nice guys who really could have used the money as firemen. Unfortunately, they were just done in by agreeing to take the penalty, and then failing to row to the pit stop properly.
What did you think of the premiere, and do you wish that there were actually more trials of skill in it? Be sure to share some of your thoughts below!
Photo: CBS