The Pack season 1 episode 1 review: Los Angeles

What happened in The Pack season 1 episode 1, exploring around Los Angeles?

Hey guys, it’s Holland the Pup here. I just finished re-watching The Pack season 1 episode 1 of Amazon Prime Video’s new doggo-inspired reality TV show, and I wanted to share my thoughts with you. There are some spoilers in here so if you haven’t watched the episode yet, make sure to save this link and come back later.

If you remember, last week I picked my three favorite teams in my The Pack season 1 preview and now I want to share how they did along with all the other awesome doggo and human duos.

The Pack season 1 episode 1 started in Los Angeles where the host of the show, Lindsey Vonn, announced that the winning doggo and human team will win $500,000 for themselves and an additional $250,000 to donate to a charity of their choice. The show will also give away $250,000 to local charities in each of the countries they visit during the competition (The Warrior Dog Foundation for episode one). I wonder how many doggy treats you could buy with all that money?

At the beginning of the episode each team had to find one of twelve doggy tug toys that had been dropped out of a helicopter and open it up. Six of the tug toys were filled with green confetti and six were filled with blue confetti, the colors corresponding to the two different packs for the show. After the two packs were determined all the teams went to a back lot at Hollywood Studios and went through some orientation so they would be ready for all the crazy challenges they will encounter throughout the competition. I know some adventures can be a little scary, so I’m glad the doggos are going to have a safety team with them the whole time.

There was zip-lining from the clock tower from Back to the Future, and the street set was also very familiar – it might have also been used in Pleasantville. The introduction to all the different peoples and doggos was inspired by the opening number in La La Land, which worked really well.

For the first competition the Green Pack had to find puzzle pieces that were hidden on the decommissioned battleship USS Iowa and the Blue Pack had to serve dinner to guests aboard the decommissioned cruise ship Queen Mary, which was colossal. It was so cool to watch the doggos compete in these challenges. Dixie the Coonhound and Kepo the Border Collie have a great sense of smell and did an awesome job to help the green pack find puzzle pieces.

Meanwhile, on the Queen Mary, Snow the Labrador spilled a whole plate of spaghetti on the floor and I saw Duchess the Lab sneak over and eat it up. Way to go Duchess, I like your style! Both packs finished their challenges and then took a boat ride (the doggos even wore doggy life vests) across the channel and then run to the finish line where the blue pack arrived first to win the competition.

Since the Green Pack lost the competition they had to compete against each other in a separate challenge the next day where the losing team would be sent home. The teams had to find a clue in a newspaper that was left in their dog-friendly hotel room and then compete in a challenge course at a local dog beach. There were a lot of obedience commands that had to be followed, which looked really hard. Those dogs are very well trained!

All the teams did really well in the last challenge but at the end of the day Linh and her Chihuahua, Chance, were the last to cross the finish line and the ones to go home to close The Pack season 1 episode 1. It was indeed super sad but I’m glad I got to virtually meet them and learn of their story.

Episode one ended with an announcement that the packs would be traveling to south to Mexico City for The Pack season 1 episode 2. Make sure to check back next week to see what happens after I’ve had a chance to watch that episode! Until next time, enjoy the ride!