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From: sim Category: TV Date: 30 July 2008 Time: 06:55 PM Review: I just got home late and there was a rerun of Ewen McGregor and another guy on BMW's (Charley Boorman) with a film grew traveling through Central Asia. What a disrespectful bunch of spoilt prats those two men are. In the episode I watched they are treated to an amazing banquet (held in their honor) in Kazakhstan. McGregor examines the food with board indifference and says that maybe they should be careful because a friend back in England said they might be served horse penis. The table is beautifully laid out in a very traditionally British way with cups and saucers and silver knifes, forks and spoons. These same people greeted them, provided them with lodging, maids and presumably translators. The BBC might have paid for all this but the cultural indifference is staggering. In other parts of the program they are extolling the virtues of the natural life, untouched by the constraints of civilization. Maybe eating food they are not used to goes too far. The program is full of "guys" humor, which at times seems painful, forced and bored or else they feel compelled to say something profound and can't. At one point McGregor says, in a comment that is quite typical: "you know the Wellington Boot was named after a man who was called Mr Wellington so maybe the Potato was named after somebody called Mr Potato..." Did anybody find anything stimulating watching this program? There's a certain repetitiveness in the predictable outcomes. They breakdown, have little time to experience what they are seeing, they are always looking for "authentic" experiences etc. McGregor is now advertising aftershave for a big brand. I guess the image of ruggedness is well suited to that.