Episode 14.1: Don’t Let a Cheese Hit Me

The first episode of the season starts with a bang as the teams leave Los Angeles and head straight for Switzerland. It was obvious that the episode was going to be a full one when the usual airport flight jockeying was reduced to a few short clips and a VO from Phil explaining which flight everyone was on.

In mere minutes, we arrived in Europe and watched teams start screwing up. Preston & Jennifer managed to get lost on the way to the train station and miss their train, putting them way behind the rest of the teams. It was no matter though, as the teams were bunched up that night and let loose in packs the following morning.

Christy & Jodi pulled ahead with help from the locals, but blew the lead when they had trouble finding a taxi in the morning. They went from first to middle of the pack in the blink of an eye and struggled to stay in the race, barely beating Preston & Jennifer in a race to the pitstop.

The required bungee jumping task made an early appearance this year, showing up in the first leg. And at 700 feet, it’s the second highest in the world. And if I’m correct, the second highest ever shown on the race. Lots of the usual drama with heights. The most intriguing moment for me was when Luke took the plunge. We got to hear every other contestant scream their way through the plunge. But Luke was strangely silent. Wonder if it was from him not screaming, or the crew simply not putting a mic on him.

I’m not sure who planned the cheese carrying task this year, but the prop department really needs to do a better job next time. Those backpacks they were given were more rickety than an IKEA bookcase. I’d be surprised if more than 2 of them survived the task intact. Instead of carrying them, most people were forced to carry/slide the cheese down the hill. Although a few people had the bad luck/good fortune to have their cheese wheels get away from them and roll down the hill. This meant they only had to get themselves down the hill and then go retrieve the cheese wheels. Certainly cuts down on the exhaustion.

All in all, this was an exciting start to the race and one that I think will go down as a classic. After all, nothing says fun and entertaining like watching people carrying heavy objects fall down on their butts.

2 Comments

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  By TV Fan , February 18, 2009 @ 3:28 pm

  Check out this hilarious video I found about the Cheese Challenge from Sunday’s Amazing Race!!
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQtlRqT9tBg

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  By CaptCosmic , February 18, 2009 @ 5:29 pm

  Certainly one of the classic moments in Amazing Race history.

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