Expedition Africa
Journey with four explorers into the heart of Africa retacing famous footsteps
Tags: Misc DVD 2009 Categories: DVD/TV Reviews, Reviews
Posted by Daniel "monk" Pelfrey on Oct 15th, 2009
Tell me if you’ve heard this one before…
A naturalist, journalist, survivalist and navigator head through Africa…
Expedition: Africa is a mini-series on The History Channel following an expedition through Africa attempting to recreate reporter Henry M. Stanley’s trek to find Dr. David Livingstone, the famed explorer. We get four people along with a string of porters as well as two Maasai warriors.
For a series on The History Channel, I was a bit disappointed that more of the historical aspects of the expedition were not featured more. The whole series is essentially a balance between the current expedition as well as the personality conflicts between the four strangers who meet the day their trek begins. At times the series of eight episodes seems to be edited in a way to simply emphasize the interpersonal conflicts, taking a page out of the MTV series Road Rules.
Along the way from point A to point B the explorers come across some dangers as well as some uniquely African experiences. Personally, there was a part where they met with a local Maasai tribe and the interaction with a cow that was quite disturbing and it was hard for me to sit through. The cow survived, that’s not the issue. It was just… very disturbing and so far removed from my own experience.
Each of the four bring a certain area of expertise, with the navigator winding up taking the point position with his compass. The team is attempting to recreate the historic journey using similar tools and methods as Hanry M. Stanley had available, without the aid of modern devices. This gives the geologist and experienced expedition leader the “de facto” responsibility for leading the expedition. Unfortunately, his goals are not necessarily the same as the rest of the group which is where some of the conflict comes in.
Another thing that seems… well, odd about Expedition: Africa is that the group is attempting to make the journey that took Stanley 8 months in 30 days. Especially at the beginning, we get some discussion about how the team absolutely has to get this done in 30 days, but there is never any explanation as to why the deadline is so paramount.
Despite the lack of historical retrospective, Expedition: Africa is an interesting program and a unique take on the reality television genre. With several people that don’t necessarily know each other and a common goal, the formula is fairly stale. It is Africa that provides the real entertainment and surprises. The villages, the local residents, the animals, the terrain, even the weather all provide the team with the opportunity to give the viewer a good experience.
Somewhere around the 4th episodes, it was mentioned in passing that Stanley’s team shot at him and there was a mutiny. Conditions were present to provide a modern day parallel, and the emphasis was clearly on this event. It would have been nice to have a bit more of the historical aspects of the original journey given to viewers. I had no idea there was a mutiny in Stanley’s expedition, so the opportunity for learning was clearly there, but missed.
And then there’s the issue I have with the car.
The shots of the car are clearly meant to be an advertisement for the specific brand. This is bad enough. But the voice over starts “We’ve arranged…” which comes as a complete shock, as this wasn’t part of the first episode’s planning. Instead, it seems like this was just something the producers did – especially as these 4 explorers apparently didn’t know each other before. I have no problems with their use of a car for certain portions of the journey, but the way it was done is somewhat offensive.
A 20 minute featurette looks at the making of the series, but it doesn’t go into quite as much the logistics of the crew as I would have liked. Another lasts less than 5 minutes and gives an introduction to the original expedition through the lens of the current expedition. About 35 minutes are spent over the next 4 featurettes looking at the Maasai, some animals of Africa, survival strategies and the dangers of undertaking an expedition of this type.
Even though it is flawed, Expedition: Africa was worth watching simply because over the course of the 8 hour long episodes (which wind up being a little over 6 hours without commercials) the viewer gets a sense of what it is like to traverse a long distance on the continent and gain an appreciation for what a massive undertaking it is.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
|
+ Interesting and varied trek + Gives the viewer a sense of just how varied regions of Africa can be |
6.5 |
| What Doesn't | |
|
- Not enough historical perspective on the original Stanely expedition, or Livingstone's work - Artificial 30 day deadline - Car advertisement |
|
| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| Not quite as good as I had hoped, with its emphasis on the conflicts and not the history. Oh well. Still worth watching | |
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Tags: Misc DVD 2009
Posted by Daniel "monk" Pelfrey on Oct 15th, 2009 and is filed under DVD/TV Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
