The Amazing Race: I've Got The Smartest Dude

February 28, 2015 6:27 AM - Season 26, Episode 2

10 teams head from Tokyo to Nagano on a race around the world.

This leg features cubicle hotels, bullet trains, puzzle boxes, a bonus randomized prize (an evening at a hot springs spa while at the pit stop), ice chair sliding, very good arguments against selfies, feeding each other noodles, people dismissing their taxis before they know they'll need them again, a banged-up wrist, and endless questions about whether this is looooooooooooooooooooooooove.

One team is eliminated, and it wasn't that surprising.

posted by julen (10 comments total)

Yeah, they needed to be gone, especially after that dumb Selfie Fail where they missed their train.

What was up with the Oriental Riff they kept playing in the background. Ick, Amazing Race, ick.

I was happy Team New Kid won the Date Night.
posted by inturnaround at 11:04 AM on February 28, 2015

How is it some of them haven't learned that you always keep the taxi waiting?
posted by TwoStride at 11:32 AM on February 28, 2015

I so want to go to that hot spring spa. Hot springs are the best.

The second leg made it very clear that the the showgirl is the brains in that pairing.

Do you think they added the blind dates in the hopes they'd get drama out of it? The established couples so far seem pretty even keeled - no bellowing doofi, no shrieking whiners, no berating bombasts.

I assume they'll be going to India next.
posted by julen at 3:19 PM on February 28, 2015

I missed some of the beginning but I thought the female attorney blind dater was sort of mean to the guy during the dancing. She came around when they won the leg through their lawyerly parsing of the clue language (which I was afraid they were reading too much into!), but I worry for him if he displeases her in the future.
posted by onlyconnect at 3:53 PM on February 28, 2015

It was reassuring to see more than one of the blind-date teams shoot down the "Is it love?" question, especially the blond gay guys, one of whom has never even had a boyfriend before.

Also, since it's painfully obvious that the selfies are a not-too-subtle product placement, I wondered if showing the couple missing their bullet train because of it was sort of a subtle dig back at the sponsor on the part of the producers.
posted by briank at 5:22 PM on February 28, 2015

I honestly don't think that the selfies are product placement. They never mention the manufacturer or show the interface they're using and only Travelocity and Fitbit are listed as sponsors at the end of the show.
posted by inturnaround at 8:09 PM on February 28, 2015 [1 favorite]

Are the selfies some kind of supplementary material? Like, go to our website and check out all of the selfies from each leg of the race! Which they then post as the episodes air. I figured it had to be that, since they can't exactly post them as they're running the race.
posted by Weeping_angel at 8:57 PM on February 28, 2015

Yes, it looks like it's showing up on the website. Here's the selfies from episode one. And episode two.
posted by inturnaround at 10:18 PM on February 28, 2015

I felt really bad for the dancers who had to hang around forever for the contestants to finally get it together. Give those guys a big ol' bonus.

Also -- Phil always looks so refreshed when he's at the pit stops (and occasionally mid-point). He must be jet-lagged to shit since he has to beat everyone there. I know he doesn't have to do crazy crap like the contestants but he still has to fly, go through customs, check into his hotel....
posted by potsmokinghippieoverlord at 1:11 AM on March 1, 2015

They all have the exact same Lumia phone, so that didn't happen coincidentally, and the selfie moments are clearly staged for the benefit of the show, not spontaneously. We've also seen product shots of the phone's screen as they take the picture. It may not be as blatant as the Ford product placements have been, but c'mon.
posted by briank at 6:16 AM on March 1, 2015