Inspirational, moving and fascinating
If you like eco-challenge races, this is the show for you. There are people you will have heard of (legends like Nathan Fa'avae, Mike Kloser, Mark Macy, Marshall Ulrich and many more) as well as first-timers and those teams in-between.Eco-Challenge is quite frankly a ridiculous event. The elite teams make it look easy and even those at the very back make it look easier than what it is.
The show may have some filler every now and then and its production is most certainly American, but it is genuine in conveying just how tough this event really is.
If you're even slightly interested in the sport and hearing about why the teams that are there are there, then give it a watch. It has Bear Grylls in it too, so you can't go too wrong.
To counter some reviews I've seen:
22 out of the 66 teams that participated are from the USA. This is a USA production. Combine the two together and you get... you guessed it, more teams from the USA than any other country involved. I'm perplexed by these negative reviews banging on about this. Is the math that hard? It's easy to understand and it takes away exactly nothing from this show.
Also, a lot of other teams from other countries are given a decent amount of screen-time as we follow their journies:
Australia: Team Gippsland Adventur & Mad Myrs
Brazil - Team Atenah
Costa Rica - Team Costa Rica
Estonia - Team Estonian ACE (earlier episodes)
Fiji - Team Namako & Tabu Soro
India - Team Khukuri Warriors
New Zealand - Team New Zealand (favourites)
Spain - Team Summit
USA - Team Able Abels, Team Bend Racing, Team Curl, Team Endure, Team Iron Cowboy, Team Onyx, Team Out There, Team Stray Dogs & Team Unbroken
We don't even follow more than a third of the teams in this race. Why? Because it would be IMPOSSIBLE to do so. How would you go about filming and documenting every single (66) team's performance and then make a show to reflect all of those teams equally? It's absurd.
To other people moaning about the inspirational stories:
We had a son assist his father who was suffering with Alzheimers.
Another guy was running whose father killed himself.
Another team made up of a man and his daughters, disabled army vets, a team of experienced racers over 60 years old etc...
We also had the first all-black team in an eco-challenge, racing to raise awareness for LGBTQ as well as racial inequality.
Another team consisting of two women from India to race for their equality.
If these things fail to resonate with you, I have to think the issue lies more with you than the show.
While the production may be 'Americanised' is it any wonder? It's a US production and most teams are from the country. And what does it take away from the experience? We are given inspirational stories to ponder whilst watching incredible athletes run themselves to the bone.
To anyone saying it looked easy... Are you crazy? The twin sisters who have scaled all major peaks including Everest called it far, far more challenging than reaching the summit of Everest (something only 5,000 people have done).
Another Ironman veteran said if you put 10 Ironman challenges back to back, this would be more difficult to do. I have absolutely NO idea what you're going on about - this looked incredibly difficult to do.
Also, did it occur to anyone else that those other teams who basically weren't shown didn't want to be on camera? Perhaps they wanted to do their own thing? Perhaps a lot of the 'foreign' teams didn't speak English? Or didn't want to be a part of the show? Quite a lot of people won't have the screen presence needed, either. There's probably more footage taken of other teams that was just rubbish. Notice how not ALL of the team members from one team are shown? Some stand out more than others.
These reviews that claim only the USA teams were part of the show are completely baseless and shouldn't be seen as legitimate critiques of the show.
Anyone complaining about a team talking about racial, gender and sexual equality for like 30 seconds every now and then needs to take a look at themselves. Normal people do not participate in these kinds of races. They do not do well even if they were to. The kind of people who do this sort of thing are elite, healthy and inspired people. They often have something pushing them on. This is often cathartic. That's how it is.
I notice nobody is complaining about how much screen time Team New Zealand got at the start? They DOMINATE screen time in at least every other episode if not more. A lot of ignorant people are giving their opinions - don't listen to them.
I would like to know what those people criticising the show for having so many American teams would do differently. I really would.
Basically, a lot of people reviewing seem to be anti-American, anti-liberal, anti-equality and would potentially rather watch a show with zero flair focused on teams from other countries who potentially can't speak the language, don't want to be filmed and have zero screen-presence. Sounds like fun...
Rant over, even though I could go on.
score 8/10
leboutaine 22 August 2020
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw6016224/14471
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