Good TV.
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Charley Boorman
boognish100 — 16 years ago(October 01, 2009 07:56 AM)
Good TV.
A lot of his output seems quite weak. The things I really liked about Long Way Round was the challenging terrain they overcame, the Gobi desert in Mongolia and the road of bones in Russia were exhilarating episodes to watch. That coupled with the explorer element, seeing things that so few people had seen before, made Long Way Round fascinating to watch.
Since that series, the Long Way Down, and the 'By Any Means' shows seem pale in comparison, there doesn't seem much of a struggle, just indulgent tourists sight seeing. Even Race to Dakar, which I guess had struggle, consisted mostly of incredibly repetitive bike riding and not a lot else.
What I don't think the producers have realised is, it's not "Charlie" that was the pull of the original show. He's hardly an interesting personality, he's not exactly a veteran explorer, or knowledgeable traveller. He's just a daft old relatively unsuccessful actor, who apparently got lucky because he happens to be friends with Ewan Mcgregor. The pull of the original show was the excitement and unpredictability, the fact you weren't sure if they were going to make it at points, since then it's all become a bit over planned, over cautious, less daring and contrived, and no amount of "Charlie Boorman" is going to change that.