expedition africa

B

Bigdumplings

Joined
Nov 5, 2004
Messages
283
one last rant cause the show is finally over

8 episodes and here are some notes
-pasquale didnt once use his hipbelt on his osprey atmos 65
-bennet didnt do anything cool survival wise (made one fire, filtered some water)
-mireyna and bennet both had bows but didnt use them once
-the massai warriors had to carry their sheilds and spears the whole time and didnt use them once
-they never explain how much of it they actually walked in 30 days
-the pure tackiness of the shots of Subarus makes me ashamed to drive one

Was ANYONE else really unsatisfied with this show?
 
It was a total waste of time ... I so hoped it would've been better :thumbdn:
I'm sure it was a huge it with the reality TV fans out there though :barf:
 
From the only one episode of it I watched, I didn't really like it that much. I was having higher hopes than this for it.
 
It truly blew the big one.
Things i noticed:

-Lots of stock night-vision shots of dangerous animals that appeared to be nowhere near the "adventurers." Also, when they came across the hippos in the watering hole, the cast were exclaiming "There must be 40 or 50 in there!" But we couldn't hear the hippos on the audio and they never showed the "adventurers" or hippos in the same shot.

-The survivalist was very proud of being able to make a fire with his firesteel. At one point he was worried about lighting a fire because the wood was damp. Are we meant to believe that his FS was the only means of lighting a fire ANYONE had?
That's all he did. Well, aside from whine and poison Kevin.

-White "adventurers" still talk down to and patronise the indigenous peoples. They also like to show them how to do things that they already do everyday and have been doing for thousands of years. When they sailed across Lake Tanzania, Pasquale and Benedict were telling the sailors how to sail the boats. Unbelievable.

-When you're recreating an historical event, you can detour from it at any time if you feel you are being "true to the spirit" of the original expedition. This means you can take completely different routes, follow manmade paths, use Subarus and go sailing.

-Mireya was a whiny princess. But she had nice knockers.
 
It was a Bitchfest. I wanted to see skills. The show was not geared towards survival. I hope Pasqual bitches about how poor it was. I'm sure the cast was fine and qualified. They just didn't shine at what they do best. I quit watching it.
 
i agree loosearrow! i only saw bits and pieces but it seemed to be like one of those VH1 reality shows with drama and i just gave up on it...i must say though mireya wasnt to bad on the eyes at times!
 
Bigdumplings said:
one last rant cause the show is finally over

8 episodes and here are some notes
-pasquale didnt once use his hipbelt on his osprey atmos 65
-bennet didnt do anything cool survival wise (made one fire, filtered some water)
-mireyna and bennet both had bows but didnt use them once
-the massai warriors had to carry their sheilds and spears the whole time and didnt use them once
-they never explain how much of it they actually walked in 30 days
-the pure tackiness of the shots of Subarus makes me ashamed to drive one

Was ANYONE else really unsatisfied with this show?
Click to expand...

They edited 30+ 24 hour days into 8 - 42 minute episodes. They didn't show everything.

They COULD have used their weapons and knives more, they just didn't show it.

I was unsatisfied with the way they focued on the agruements which really didn't seem to be really important. In one shot, they are pissed at each other, in the very next shot, they are buddy buddy.

Since the show was produced by Mark Burnett - the guy who made Survivor- you are going to get shots of wild animals that have nothing to do with the scene at the moment. When they were walking in the tall grass, and they kept showing the Hyena's and Lions every couple seconds, it really pissed me off. How dumb do they think we are? Oh my God, they are about to get eaten at any moment!!! - give me a break!:jerkit:

All in all, I liked the show. But I've learned how to watch show's like this and Man vs Wild and Survivorman. They are all edited and are not what they seem. I can still enjoy them for what they are and that's entertainment.
 
Yeah, when I heard about the show coming out I was excited since Survivorman is over and I haven't seen any Man vs. Wild in a while.

It wasn't at all what I was expecting. All they did was argue the entire time :grumpy: I think the guys who did the editing forgot who their target audience was; not a bunch of bored wimmins, but Men, watching and wanting to see some surviving and african bush. They focused so much on the negative that the entire show was negative. They should have had them attempting to hunt something with their bows. On one episode mireya dropped her bow at night and they spent XX:XX amount of time looking for it, only to have it slung over her shoulder for absolutely NOTHING :thumbdn:

I'm sure the survival guide was feeling a little pressured, but he should have had enough experience to feel confident in his abilities.

I suppose my rant is finished, take care, J :p
 
I disliked the show, and I disliked being lead astray by Kevin Estela on the whole thing. Before it came out, he said "I'd hope you guys would support me and check out a few short movies I made for the History Channel last month. They are part of the promotional effort to build up the excitement for "Expedition: Africa." I did not go to Africa but I did provide the technical advising to the show. I built propper shelters, fires, traps and the like and I can say the show is very accurate with little if any Hollywood distortion." Then, after the show came out and flopped, he retracted and said he didnt do the technical advising for the show. And, obviously, it was full of 'hollywood distortion'. I dont know, I just thought that was lame.
 
EMT_LEE,

I'm proud of what I filmed, the promotional videos featured On Demand. I was referring to what I made and I stand by my statements for that. When I said I didn't do the technical advising for the show, I was referring to the actual series filmed in Africa. I didn't retract anything, I cleared up my original statement.

You're entitled to your opinion and I'm entitled to criticism for what I participated in. That being said, if you watched the promotional videos made (not the series) did you see anything "lame" in them?

It's just a show everyone, get outside more.
 
Well, aside from whine and poison Kevin.
Click to expand...

Kevin was wolfing those bugs down. Everyone else tried one or two, and left it at that. I think that's why Kevin got sick. He filled up on food that his body was totally unfamiliar with, and expected to be fine. Big mistake in my opinion.
 
k_estela said:
EMT_LEE,

I'm proud of what I filmed, the promotional videos featured On Demand. I was referring to what I made and I stand by my statements for that. When I said I didn't do the technical advising for the show, I was referring to the actual series filmed in Africa. I didn't retract anything, I cleared up my original statement.

You're entitled to your opinion and I'm entitled to criticism for what I participated in. That being said, if you watched the promotional videos made (not the series) did you see anything "lame" in them?

It's just a show everyone, get outside more.
Click to expand...

You said you did "technical advising" to the show. Then you came back after we'd got a taste of the show, and didnt like it, and said you hadnt - only filmed a couple promos post-production. That is a retraction. You can call it "clearing up", but semantics aside, it is what it is. You also said how great the show was going to be, and how BS-free it was. Clearly, that was untrue. You were letting people think you had a big part in the show, and that wasnt the case. If the show would have turned out to be really cool, would you have came back and said you only filmed segments post-production? That, Kevin, is what I found to be lame. You can stand by your words, and I'll stand by mine. Thanks.
 
Those who know me would say otherwise but I'm giving you the final word.
 
IMO ,I did not mind the show I watched it weekly and it was a Production show so there is a kinda script line to it. I still like it and would watch another one...
 
They should have done a promo with the four adventurers standing on a Manhattan street corner in their safari garb looking at traffic and the Diva saying "look at the cars, we could die crossing here."

This review cracked me up:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/29/AR2009052901701.html

Kevin, you didn't have anything to do with the writing, production, direction or the god awful editing and I never got the impression that you did. It looked like the production should have taken maybe a couple of weeks to film...any inside scoop on how long it did take.
 
Last edited:
I do not often watch TV but I actually watched the show and I enjoyed it. Compared to what is normally on TV every day I would rather watch expedtion africa 1,2 and 3 then some of the crap normally running.

I have wanted to visit Africa for years and almost made it there about ten years ago but a sudden job layoff put my plans on hold. Anything on tv or in print about Africa gets my attention.

I liked seeing what gear was being carried and used by the group and enjoyed seeing terrain that I would not have thought of when thinking of Africa. Like the swamp they trekked through.
Of course I would have rather seen more knife use and "survival" types of situations but the point I think of a well planned adventure is that there are no "survival" situations. I believe Benedict was along on the trip to so the show could pull in some of the Bear Grylis + Les Stroud hype.

Well thats my .02cents
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top