Race Across The World Series 5 Thread 2

[TwentyKittens]

With only five posts left on the old thread, thought I'd start this so we can link between the two.

This thread carries on from the first:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/telly_addicts/5314933-race-across-the-world?utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=share

This is exactly what I thought. It really is just impossible that the result has not been engineered.

I think you may have cracked it. If you’re married with an adult son, why should you talk of being lonely? She does have her horse friends too. She never spoke of her husband, while the older brother did ( his wife)

Loved the programme and those on it. I didn’t care who one as I liked them all and they all seem to have gained from the experience.

Yes it’s pretty much the same in every series

The competition isn’t means tested, anyone can apply. Something must have really stood out for them to get to the final selection, and I think the adventure of it all did mean a lot to her. I hope she capitalises on the confidence she got from the experience, and I felt she got more out of it than Tom.

For me, the brothers were the most interesting pair.

That was in reference to my previous quote about them finishing within just a few hours of each other

There's one more programme in this series so maybe there'll be a montage in that.

I thought the worry about being lonely thing was a bit odd since Caroline has a husband.

She said at the start that she didn't work because he wanted her to stay at home.

I think she's really blossomed since the first show.

Hopefully, she can take her new found confidence and live life more for herself than what's expected of her (horses included).

I mean you don't have to be 'not posh' to go on it. It's a mix of types of people and a 20k prize probably barely covers your 'work' for the production company when you add it up (no one ever talks about winning the money, they just want to be first). I don't think you can pick people who you think deserve it as the cast. The point is the race. We actually know very little about most of them - jobs, partners, hobbies- (guessing it's edited out) so why would Caroline mention the horses?

There's a good Rest Is Entertainment episode where they talk about the production that's worth a listen (i know someone professionally who was on Traitors and there was something of a spin on their job by the production crew, so take any life narrative with a pinch of salt).

But yeah less back story, more travel. Less producer narrative.

i so wanted the brothers to win . Oh well a valiant attempt .

why would Caroline mention the horses?

Because she said she was nothing but a housewife for 20 years, and made that her 'thing' for the show when actually she buys horses at auction, trains them to a high standard in eventing and presumably sells them on.

If she hadn't gone down the road of I'm just a poor housewife with no confidence, it wouldn't have mattered about the horses.

Every series when they're all so close DH and I ponder how after
50 ish days they are all so near and how much production steer them on certain courses etc. Past series they seemed to work more and we've had people drop out after running out of cash. I do wonder how much money they all had left , perhaps more than any other series overall ?

I think the 2 brothers seemed to do the most sightseeing on their journey

I imagine she did talk about the horses but it wasn't used. There was one section where she was mucking out animals and said she was in her element, and I thought then she must be horsey - she was so strong and fit that it was obvious she did something like that. The programme was a bit odd in the things it stressed and then left out. There was a big gap in the story with the lovely duo who got eliminated first, I thought.

I wish there was a way of showing this thread to the producers of the show. The majority of us are saying the same thing ie; too much prominence given to the back stories. It has also put my dc off watching - they find it a bit boring now which is sad as they used to be excited about seeing all of the cultural stuff and travel details and it was nice that we could watch together as a family. We want to see more of the actual travel and a ‘behind the scenes/how we made it’ after show would be great too.

There's been little focus on the places. The spectacular brightly coloured (huge) temple in Madurai barely got a 1 second flash and it's an incredible building. I wish I could have appreciated it more when I was there, but Madurai was where I ended up checking in for some IV antibiotics. I was watching on the green button and ended up having to rewind to check what I'd seen.
The other thing we did in that area was go to spice gardens. I hadn't realised that turmeric is very much like a ginger root. There's a lot of tea terraces in that area too.

The editing has been too repetitive on the personalities and inconsisent with it too. I'd rather see more travel/ logistics.

Kerala was a lovely area. Still very much India but not so intense as the Varanasi/ Agra area. Agra wasn't as tough as I expected from the guide book and we just spent two nights/ a day there for the Taj Mahal but it wasn't as full on as Varanasi.

When Brian and Melvin said about reviving old forgotten memories and making new ones, (rather dry and cynical) DS piped up "new memories to forget". I have found them the easiest watching for entertainment and they've gained a lot by reconnecting.
I liked their consolation that they'd closed the gap up noticably.

Tom, Fin and Sioned have all matured a lot through the process.

I hope Elizabeth and Letitia have gained a closer, warmer relationship along the way.

I think budget's been less of an issue in this series. China's decent value if you don't blow too much on luxury rail and a little goes a long way in Nepal and India. There haven't been any Singapore style curveballs at late stages.
Did they even show the final remainders of the budgets?
There didn't seem to be any work on this leg either.

Well I liked Caroline and Tom and was pleased they won. They all did very well in the end.

I think the initial budget was probably too generous for this particular route. Not having to balance budgetary constraints in the same way previous series contestants had to really took away some of the excitement, and as someone said , we didn't even see what their final counts were.

I also wonder if Caroline and Tom were told not to get a taxi from the first place they got stuck at for ages, as would have meant a runaway success for them? Most would taxi it when faced with almost a 24 hour delay, but waiting evened out the playing field.

I wish there was a way of showing this thread to the producers of the show.

According to ratings body Barb, just under 6 million viewers per episode have been tuning in or catching up on iPlayer within a seven day period.

Ratings are the best they've ever been, so It's obviously popular. I doubt they'll change it. It's just appealing to a different demographic, I guess, one that enjoys hearing about people rather than being more interested in the race elements.

There were three great series, one pretty good, and one just about passable with much use of fast forward.

Not really a bad innings compared to shows that go off after two series.

I think the initial budget was probably too generous for this particular route.

I agree. It was billed as the least amount of money ever, but it was obviously still a bit too much!

Or maybe it was decided to up the budget so it was less of a thing, then they could cut it out of the show to have more backstory.

Yes all of us at home thought they were a really interesting dynamic. I don’t get why they have to eliminate one couple anyway, it adds nothing to the contest.

I absolutely loved this series and it was a great final episode. I've just lost my mum and the words Tom said to Caroline about spending time with her made me cry, in a good way.

I think the elimination is there to keep it being a race mentality and stop couples being too slow and hoardy with their budgets early on in the hope of splurging and catching up later. It tends to feel placed a bit early and just as people are getting into the flow of it, but in some series it hasn't been used as a couple already dropped out for logistical reasons so it doesn't always feel consistent.

I love the back stories, we all do at work. I love seeing them unroll. It would just be a travel show without them. All generations watching it here.

Don't they eliminate one couple when they get too far behind/look like they will?

I guess it makes it quite difficult to produce if they're more than 24 hours behind and the gap keeps growing.

I am sure Caroline did mention the horses and they just edited it out. At one point she mentioned 'the animals' when she was mucking out the elephants. She won the BE80 which is very much grassroots, it's not professional eventing. Obviously that still takes a truckload of money to do well and she also produces horses but I can't get excited about the edit or think it reflects on her particularly.

They weren't my favourite couple either but the internet seems to love to dunk on someone. It's fine. They traveled, she enjoyed it, she had personal growth, her son grew up a bit. It's just a TV show.

The cynical X Factor type focus on back stories has been repetitive and tedious this season. It all feels scripted and managed in the same way that producers ruined Love Island. They need to be more hands off and the interesting conversations will emerge naturally. It all felt rushed, not enough footage of the accommodations, food and locations. Too much time wasted on watching them all read the first page of the book. Muzak non stop. Too big a budget. No point eliminating one couple, just keep them all in.