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!

I like the female friends best. There is friendship being really tested. The trust you'd have to have in someone when you are losing your sight and your confidence has bombed is huge.

Kevin is a plonker - why on earth with such a short amount of time to go he didn't just ask where the right desk was I cannot fathom. He's also argumentative, which doesn't help.

I like the female friends too, I'd like them to win. Feeling solidarity with being 50ish, menopausal and overweight!

You need a separate entry visa for the USA so that's probably why

Claudia and Kevin are great to watch but also so uncomfortable to watch at times because they have such different game plans. She wants to enjoy the experience and see the sights, he wants to race. He wants to be in control but she is really the one in control. Also they don’t go up and talk to people as easily as other teams do, for example Kevin walking around the boat with that sign saying they needed a lift to Toronto, why not actually talk to people? They’re generally a bit standoffish and aloof which isn’t helping them.

Kevin is a bit of an enigma. He enjoys working and seems to like playing the business man , but was reluctant to ask anyone for directions
I was surprised that Claudia didn't just go and ask someone instead. I would have done !
She seems to like seeing him fail rather than taking the initiative herself ( well, on that occasion anyway )
They have a kind of power play going on

Claudia and Kevin seem to have worked the least too.

Yes that’s a great way of putting it, they have a power play going on!

And it means they’re not thinking, or working as a team at all.

Claudia is growing on me. She's toughened up a bit and gets the logistics of it better now. Kevin just wants to win for the sake of winning and seems to be getting the least out of the experience as a whole. Any glitch and he just wants to throw money at it as a solution, either that or they've been really jammy at finding someone particularly generous to assist them.

The other 3 pairs, I all find likable in their own ways. They all seem to get on off-race too. Kevin blanking past them does nothing to endear me to him either.

Monique going for the night journey was a good call, as was the ladies bussing out of town for cheaper accomodation. I can't (well, just about can) believe that Kevin blew that much money on a swish hotel on an already weak budget.

Kevin did not look best pleased at emerging from the lift first to find that he was second by 11 hours after the day's head start.

I found this one a more varied and interesting episode than the previous ones because of the different transport options, cities and problems.

DH said it seems like Kevin has gone through life throwing money at problems rather than having to find creative ways to work around them. When Kevin paid fkr the rediculously expensive hotel DH said "there goes a man who has never said 'i cant afford it' and really meant it"

I wonder why the person they were staying with didn’t tell them this?

They probably didn't ask they just told him they wanted to go to Toronto. They are not the most talkative pair.

Oh and also Kevin is an expert at reading maps.

Yeah, the sign was small and he said he wanted to create a buzz. Such an idiot.

The sign was hilarious. He can't be bothered to approach strangers, yet expects them to approach him and proactively offer? He clearly knows nothing about human psychology. The trip to Niagara Falls was hilariously awkward. Kevin clearly didn't want to be there, he's only interested in winning. It felt like he let his daughter get one photo, then immediately bundled her into a taxi bus.

So pleased Zainib and Mosheen won!

You could almost see the tumbleweed as Kevin created his 'buzz' with his little sign.

He thinks he is a real wide boy but does virtually nothing to back that up.

I've just caught up and watched the last 2 episodes, I enjoyed them much more than the others.

I still absolutely love Zainib & Mobeen and they'd be my favourites to win. I think I see quite a lot of myself in Zainib and DH is very kind and just lets me be like Mobeen.

Otherwise Ladi & Monique are good too!

I thought Claudia was very rude at the station when she just grunted and looked away when Cathie and Tricia said hello.
Monique has modelled for Vogue! She is striking.
I felt for Zainib and Mobeen. 6 years is a long time. They were very open and honest about their feelings and cradling the little baby was quite a bittersweet scene.

Claudia is just odd. Not sure what to make of her really.

Claudia has a lot of issues, obviously feels abandoned by her parents and Kevin is a bit of a plonker. Walking round with that small sign , instead of just a friendly hello and asking people if they were going to Toronto yet expecting them to come to him, what an idiot.
I like the friends they work hard and I felt really sorry for them when the lady didn’t get them the work on the time that was promised. This was really unfair as the contacts for their work experiences is set up obviously before hand by production , so for her to say she got the day wrong resulting in another overnight stay, wasn’t their fault. I’ve never seen in any series someone letting them down when they have turned up for work.

Hello - please can I join in! I think the the 2 friends have had a really rough deal... they lost their huge lead (not their fault), they had someone say they would give them a lift and then leave by the back entrance of a diner without them; they have been badly let down on the last lot of work and they were really given the brush off when trying to get a coach (can't remember the journey) and hadn't got a ticket first when the driver just said, 'It doesn't work like that' and shut the coach door on them.
Of course they were also given the brush off by Kevin and Claudia too!

I really feel a lot of those incidents may have had a different outcome if they weren't middle aged women. Even in Canada, renowned for its friendliness, some people have treated them like shit!

I'm intrigued by the invisible mums. Was Claudia's mum really happy to let her spend so much time with grandparents rather than father or mother after the split? How's Claudia's relationship with her mother?
Were Monique's parents together growing up? Does her mum also view St Ladi as a man without flaws? Is mum present? Is she OK? (Would defo like to believe that Ladi is as great as he looks, but the cynical side of me says that Monique's mum might see it differently).

Not sure if Kevin had another job other than running a pub as I can't imagine him having the need to speak French much doing that.
I find the smaller friend woman a bit annoying and quite bossy - maybe she's just very focused. It wasn't nice when the other lady was asking something and she shut her out and said she needed some headspace so the other one walked off looking quite dejected.
It was hilarious when Kevin was bragging about having a great sense of direction then wandered aimlessly around and couldn't find the check in place. Claudia suggested asking someone but I think he sees that as failure as he'd rather walk around with a daft little sign rather than ask somebody if they could get a lift.

I don't think Cathie is "bossy" that's often a term used against assertive girls and women. I think they were a bit stressed when the work placement delayed them. Cathie had to redraft their plan. All seemed well later on.

I wouldn’t say Kevin actually speaks French in any known sense of the term….he just flung around a couple of (very) approximate words.