Finding Michael (Disney +) with spoilers

[AngeloMysterioso]

Anyone else watched this yet? Spencer Matthews (of Spencer & Vogue/Made in Chelsea fame) going to Mt Everest to try and retrieve the body of his older brother who passed away on his way back down from the summit in 1999.

On one hand I understood completely the desire for the family to bring Michael home, but parts of it made me feel uncomfortable… the way a clearly very wealthy family is just throwing money at the situation and sending people up into the death zone multiple times and paying them to risk their lives to bring back a body that is perfectly fine where it is.

The casual way all the climbers are referring to the people whose remains are on the mountains as “dead bodies” and nothing more… like they’re no longer people and they’re just fiddling around and disturbing their corpses until they confirm it isn’t the one they’re looking for.

I did think it was lovely that in the end they brought the Sherpa home to his family instead, but again felt uncomfortable with the way they were just filming that poor distraught little girl who has lost both her parents.

Side note- found it interesting there was no appearance by nor mention of the other Matthews sibling James, aka Mr Pippa Middleton…

All in all it didn’t really have the emotional impact for me that I thought it would.

Fascinating programme, it was sad they didn't find Michael but did at least they brought a families loved one home.
So many bodies up there.!!

It felt very much like two programmes joined into one.

the first half was absolutely stunning. The way they had the footage of Michael and replicating exactly with Spencer and interspersed with the interviews with the other climbers was brilliant. I actually wish they’d shown more of their reactions after it was confirmed they hadn’t found Michael.

then when it became apparent that they wouldn’t be able to find him (even before they set off beyond base camp) it felt so intrusive. I’m gobsmacked that allegedly Disney hadn’t blurred the bodies and I really hated the scene talking to the Sherpa’s mum where she broke down, and also the scene with his daughter crying. It felt overly personal and intrusive for that poor family.

I do think that Spencer had been over romanticising the whole thing and hadn’t really truly understood the scale of the mountain and the number of bodies. I hope that he’s had some counselling because that must have opened up huge trauma memories for him.

there were a few odd things though.

a). If the footage was readily available of Mike on his climb, I find it weird that 24 years later Spencer had never seen it. Surely the first thing you would do is give a copy of any film footage and photos to a family after they got back so they could see for themselves?

b). If the Matthew recieved the photo in 2017, why did it take so long to go to Everest to try and find the body? Surely waiting 4-5 years would be a huge issue in terms of snow fall/body decomposing? Also wouldn’t Spencer have needed to train for the climb? It felt very much like “see you later darling, I’m just heading out to climb a mountain…”

c). The Bear Grylls but was remarkable. What school would be so insensitive that they would invite a man to come in an do a talk about climbing Everest when one of the pupils in that room had a brother who had died during the exact same thing? Surely the teachers would have known that?????

It is believed there's a discrete operation in progress to move bodies out of view.
Before I looked into this I thought it was just a matter of finding a body and taking it back down.
However the sheer physical effort involved is almost overwhelming and makes removal very difficult, even causing death.
Everest will continue to claim lives. A way of managing the dead needs to be implemented.

People are often exploited by people from the west abroad, it is a disgrace indeed but this is only one small example of a much larger problem.

I thought the premise was weird really, I can see why the family would want some sort of closure. Even though a cadaver is just that and the 'person' themselves is no longer connected with that body, the thought of a loved one lost somewhere is still upsetting. You'd think though that someone would have highlighted just how unlikely this was and the reality of the number of bodies. His brothers story is interesting and of course sad, but a documentary showing the footage and perhaps being more of a documentary about Everest or even connecting with others who have been through similar would have been better than this, or even Spencer climbing it himself in his memory (appreciate it doesn't resolve the issues around exploiting the Sherpas).

I find it disturbing some on twitter are upset that they've blurred the dead bodies, like what on earth is wrong with people?

I watched it and all I could think why are you risking peoples fathers and husbands to bring back a dead body.

Doesn't sit right with me at all. I think if they wanted the body they should of gone and got it themselves and not risked other peoples lives for someone who died years ago.

I just finished watching it. I hope the family had some closure and can try to move on. I did genuinely feel for them.

I do however think that this death trap tourist attraction needs to be stopped. The mountain is now littered with rubbish and sadly lost souls. We dont disturb sunken boats/ships I think it's time to leave the mountain be. Sherpa are continually exploited for this "service" and it's just becoming increasingly distasteful.

Enough video footage and pictures exist of it and the view from the top, seeing it with your own eyes for 20minutes after standing in line for an hour during peak season is just barmy.

I do think there's huge questions to be asked about the amount of litter thats just left there stranded. If you can take it up, you can bring it back down. Simple as that really.

I thought it was absolutely tone deaf.
When Spencer was talking about the plan B of bringing home the body of the sherpa. Telling the family that obviously his plan was to bring his brother home, but if that plan failed, they'd bring the sherpa's body back.
So tone deaf, I was actually cringing behind a pillow. And on the walkie talkie in a lower camp whilst the other's looked for Michael. I thought Spencer himself was going to be looking for Michael. And why were his parents interviewed separately? Are they divorced?

I just watched it and found it horribly tone-deaf, the way Spencer spoke to Wong Dorchi’s family made me cringe, especially his poor mum.

The whole Everest industry is shocking to me, the way rich people pay to risk not only their own lives, but the lives of other people’s family members just trying to earn a living. Horrible.

Just finished watching this documentary and agree with a lot of opinions. Overall I was left heartbroken by the poor Nepal family who had their father returned and mother had died of cancer. I hope they received some donations to help the three poor children.
Seems very cruel to film them go through such a traumatic and sad time