Race Across The World - Series 3

[LindorDoubleChoc]

This starts Wednesday week on BBC1 (22 March).

Anyone want to join me on a thread about it? I saw some episodes of the previous two series but didn't watch them all and am kicking myself about it now because it really is such an interesting and beautifully shot reality series.

So am going to watch the whole of the next one - this time in Canada!

Claudia cant have lived with her Grandparents for all of her childhood as she spent last episode moaning that she was raised in a pub and never saw her parents as she was upstairs and they were downstairs.

As much as taxi dad grates on me Claudia annoyed me more this week. At the first petrol station she had a breakdown after only trying to get a lift for an hour. He was trying to go through their options and make a joint decision and she was saying "I dont care anymore" "do what you want" etc inbeteeen the tears and tantrum.

Then when he does make a decision to avoid another petrol station hitchhiking attempt as it caused her so much distress she is annoyed he made a decision without her. I think I would find her hardwork as well.

Also can we address why they call it car sharing instead of hitchhiking? Is that because hitchhiking is illegal in Canada?

Yes I got the sense that she spent a lot of time with her paternal grandparents after the divorce, because her mother had laid down the law to father about his inability to provide a stable home environment for her, and instead of changing his lifestyle he'd responded "fortunately my parents are really stable and great at parenting so they can have her".

Which raises even more questions because the natural thing to happen in that situation would be for her to live with mum full time. Possibly mum's work commitments meant that she decided she could only have her daughter 50/50?

Car sharing because you offer a contribution to fuel? As opposed to hitching a free ride?
In some cases the drivers have gone out of their way in exchange for payment, like an informal taxi.

Also can we address why they call it car sharing instead of hitchhiking? Is that because hitchhiking is illegal in Canada?

I think it's because it's a "pay your way" idea rather than cadging a free lift. Teams have contributed to fuel costs.

She went to her grandparents in her teens. Her parents were divorced when she was 12.

Why did they bother racing off the train in Churchill?

Presumably, if the only route, in or out, is by a bi-weekly train, it's not going to make a jot of difference re: time advantage next episode?

Agree with all previous comments about the slightly sloppy editing. Too many beats are missing and happening off-camera in terms of the journey.

I also don't care about the back stories, the scripted reality type conversations about their pasts, or the non-story mini dramas ("you eat tuna?") which, certainly in this series, all feel terribly contrived. But I would like to know how the heck Monica and Ladi overcame the broken down camper van last time or found their way out of the woods this time.

I'm sure previous series had more on the challenges each leg offers, more on the strategy each pair takes and the jobs and people they meet and the culture they're in - and didn't skip over how couples got from one place to another.

Perhaps I'm misremembering, but I'm so disappointed in this series. I wonder if its a different producer or commissioner from previous series? Somebody's making those creative decisions.

I agree about racing off the train. No one was getting eliminated so why bother pissing off the polar bears!! I was thinking I’d have spent the train journey asking the staff to let me work in exchange for food or even cash, for a 30 hour journey that’s plenty of time for cleaning windows and enjoying the views at the same time.

I thought Claudia went to grandparents from age 12 to age 16. While her dad was eating beans on toast because he’d only got half of the money from his super successful pub…

I agree this would be helpful. I'm sure they don't want to do it though as it would remove their ability to use editing to make the race look closer than it actually is e.g. repeatedly cutting between scenes of different teams approaching a checkpoint, when actually they arrived at different times.

I agree it was pointless to make the teams race to get to the checkpoint in Churchill if they're all going to be on the same train out anyway. I hope they're not going to have too many more of these bottlenecks as it detracts from the race element - what's the point of building up a lead if you're just going to waste it waiting around for the same train everyone else is getting?

I was actually quite grumpy about the late start imposed on the friends. They had a 36 hour layover, but then weren't allowed to set off before dawn which more or less wiped out their lead. Surely it would have been just as valid to hold everyone else back for a couple of hours and preserve the lead.

That 36 hour period is a bugger anyway, because as often as not you're going to be setting off in the middle of the night when you can't do anything useful.

I'm not surprised the Christian family had problems processing what Zainib said. The first thing she said when they arrived was that they were vegetarians and the family accommodated that and then she confessed that was actually a lie. I'd certainly have problems with the lie aspect.

That whole interlude with the devout Christian family was fake as hell. The vegetarian/halal/tuna thing did NOT come up naturally in conversation. This is more like Love Island than what I would expect from a serious programme like RATW.

I think the producers actively held back the two ladies as I suspect if any team gets too long a head start with one train a week or whatever if they catch the earlier train it’s game over really as they’ll get too far ahead of everyone else. They are trying to keep everyone more or less equal for the final episode imo. Then the team with the biggest budget left will jump in a taxi and win

Similarly with Ladi and daughter they clearly helped them at least twice ( camper can broken down and bear incident) and enabled them to catch the train to Churchill. If they’d missed it they’d get so far behind the others there would be no point continuing.
I wonder if Canada despite being beautiful is actually a poor choice for ratw as public transport options, availability and variety are so limited.
the South American one was great as they had trains, coaches, hitching, taxis, boats and could genuinely all take different routes even through different countries!

The next series could be "Race across the UK", but just on buses

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-65260394

I have seen a few people on twitter do epic bus journeys in the UK. They are really fascinating.

I don't think race across the UK as such, but I do think a separate series along these lines with mobile phones banned would be dead interesting.

I'd watch it.

Can't help but think there's some massive backstory involving courts as to why Claudia went to her grandparents. Or perhaps her mum was ill or sadly passed away. Or was even worse than Kevin at responsibility.

Claudia seems to be carrying a lot of unresolved trauma which she may have thought would be addressed by this trip, but Kevin's an arsehole, so it's just carrying her past into the present.

You could have a gameshow type thing where you have to go across the country, have a check point and complete a socially positive task or a scavenger hunt type task where you have to get / find some thing odd / local for free. If you have a bunch of people from different backgrounds and places around the country and a limited budget, it could be really interesting. Showing the contrast between different regions and who might or might not help. Settle the argument about whether the north or south is more friendly.

If any TV company would like to give me 50p for developing an original idea further...

I wouldn't class that as a lie - not a problematic one anyway. People who eat halal or lightly kosher describe themselves as vegetarian for simplicity all the time, especially in rural areas. Ditto lactose intolerant vegetarians just say they're vegan. But when the details emerge it's normally handled more elegantly with a "actually I just say vegetarian for simplicity rather than have you worry about halal rules" rather than a big "We're Muslims!!!"

I haven't even watched this week's yet and think I will leave it until I've nothing better to watch..its just so repetitive and quite frankly Boring(sorry for being negative but it's my view)
How many left until the final?
We're the other two series one a week?I think this adds to the lack of interest for me.

That's exactly what I thought too.

Yes the others were one a week

Slight aside from reviewing the programme: my 10:yr old son is OBSESSED with travel. We record the programme and then watch it while eating a Canadian dish we've made for the first time.every week . Last week we decided to make Saskatoon Berry pie. It was really exciting when they rocked up in Saskatoon this week!

I'm enjoying it but the editing does feel more gappy than in the previous series, not helped by the lack of avaliable options on routes/ transport.

It's interesting getting a sense of perspective as the landscape changes along the route. Praries and tundra are very different to the intense mountain ranges at the start.

How the heck did Monique and ladi get from “ omg a bear cub lock down “ to cat h the train at the pas ?