Amazing Race 17 - episode 1 thoughts...

This season, the Amazing Race has gone back to being challenging!

It looks like this season the clues they're given are actually clues! In recent seasons it seems the clues have been dumbed down and say exactly where to go. I like how they had to guess what "the opposite of Noreaster" was to figure out where to go. And that was tough as my first guess would have been Southeaster (that sounds like something that would be in England). But asking was the smart choice for most.

Much like the clues, the challenges now live up to their name as well. There really wasn't any simple "ride a zipline" type challenge yet and I'm thrilled about that. While riding a zipline is fun, that is in no way a challenge - especially in a contest for one million dollars. That weird boat ride across the river was also definitely an incredible challenge!

And speaking of challenges, the watermelon smash roadblock was insane. No matter how many times I saw that scene, it was still shocking. Ouch. I'm definitely rooting for Brook and Claire this season. So many other teams would have just given up at that point or whined about it for hours. That was amazing.

While that was definitely a highlight of the episode, there were a bunch of other crazy moments like when Chad and Stephanie got lost on the castle grounds. Crazy mistakes like that are what cost teams the game - they got very lucky.

But the funniest part of the episode was from Nick & Vicki as they struggled through the last set of challenges. The challenges themselves weren't the problem - it was the little details in between like when they endlessly searched for the flag on the battlement. At one point, Vicki even touched it! Then just minutes later, the same exact thing happened with the boats! I love when the cameraperson with them focuses on the very thing they're searching for which is right near them. I can't make too much fun of them though, because that's exactly the type of thing that would trip me up if I was on the race.

I think Nick and Vicki might end up being the most entertaining team this season. Not only were they confused about the flag and boat, but they were also completely clueless about where they were. When they arrived at the pitstop, Phil was awesome asking Vicki if she knew what country she was in. She was pretty sure they were in the country of London. And that wasn't just a moment of confusion for her. Earlier that day, she had mentioned she had never heard of Stonehenge and was stunned when she learned it was just a bunch of rocks.

They're definitely going to add a lot of comedy to the race - although I imagine that won't be for too long if they continue like this. But I'm rooting for them because they seem like cool people. Especially since they didn't seem to complain during all of that.

Overall, it's looking like this season of the race is going to be harder than previous seasons which means it'll be more fun! And I like the addition of the Express Pass - it'll be interesting to see if it actually gets used right the first time.

I can't wait for next week's episode...