Boil It Down: Entertaining if derivative, Expedition Africa doesn't call itself reality, but that's exactly what it is, just dressed up for the History crowd.
In the latter part of the 1800's, famed explorer Doctor David Livingstone set off on a trek through Africa. When only one of 44 letters was received in Zanzibar, young journalist Henry Morton Stanley was dispatched to find him. Four modern day adventurers-a wildlife expert, a survivalist, a guide and a journalist-retrace Stanley's steps in Expedition Africa, an eight episode series from History, formerly The History Channel. It should be no surprise Expedition Africa is produced by Mark Burnett, the man behind Survivor. In essence, this series is Survivor for a more high class crowd. Or, in other words, Survivor minus tribal council, Jeff Probst and immunity challenges.
Aside from their man vs. nature themes, the biggest comparison between the two projects is the instantaneous way each person becomes less of a wholly realized individual and more of a personality. For instance, almost instantly Pasquale takes over control of the group. He's the navigator, always at the front of the pack and, by the end, appointed himself in charge of water. Along the way, his fellow explorers are constantly reminded-and, by proxy, so is the audience-how many mountains he's climbed or his experience with river expeditions. The series doesn't bother to let him be anything else except for the ostensible villain, the person with whom everyone else butts heads. (Episode seven tries to rectify this on all sides, but it's much too late.)
That's really the bread and butter of the show, the way these four disparate people interact with one another. It's less concerned with teaching with audience or being an actual survival/history documentary. Moments which should be devoted to teaching or some other sort of learning are instead taken over by petty squabbling. Granted, the group plans on completing the 950-mile journey in just 30 days, thereby necessitating a grueling pace, but they seem to have no patience for one another, even from the beginning. When survivalist Benedict and wildlife expert Mireya stop to talk about various trees or plants, Pasquale implores them to keep moving. Later, he stops the entire group to discuss rocks. Had Expedition Africa taken a combination of approaches-perhaps as cutaways or a pop-up trivia track-to explain the events on screen, it would have fallen more on the side of a History program instead of a Survivor rehash.
To its credit, the editing does allow Benedict to explain how he knows water is safe to drink or different filtering methods while Pasquale goes in relative depth about the types of rocks on the route. Journalist Kevin gets his moment late in the series as he interviews natives about finding food or their lives in general. (Meanwhile, Pasquale is nearly having a coronary, wanting the expedition to get on their way.) Expedition Africa may be a physical triumph, but it's also a master class in editing. Reality shows create characters and personalities, rarely allowing them to break out of a pre-conceived shell. Despite some knock down, drag out fights along the way, the finished episodes conveniently leave out how the quartet actually come to respect one another. It's a quick transition in the final two installments, going from cursing and demeaning language to an air of family.
What the series does exceptionally well is showcase Africa and, specifically, the different climates and environments on the continent. Filled with mountains, swamps, deserts, lakes, monsoons and aridity, the main characters are forced to figure out their surroundings on the fly. The main concern is a lack of drinkable water, a topic covered at length from all perspectives. Coming from a society where water comes easily from a faucet, watching these people fight to figure out how to keep hydrated in a land without the resource turns into one compelling storyline. It is the center of numerous arguments, either directly or indirectly. At one point, donkeys are used to transport water. First, they're late getting to camp and then walk far too slowly for Pasquale. This leads to the entire group being separated, hard feelings and long-simmering bad feelings to come to the surface. In a show totally devoid of actual tension and drama, this is the best the producers could come up with.
And no, the talk about not making it to Ujiji (where Stanley found Livingstone) is utter rubbish. It's a red herring, a manufactured storyline. Does anyone actually believe that, if the expedition actually got into trouble with a lack of water or a medical emergency, the producers wouldn't have stepped in? Is a case of malaria in the main four ever a life and death moment? No. Even if the crew got completely off course, they have the backup of knowing the camera crew and traveling production staff are not far away. Would any producer in their right mind let the focus of the show endanger themselves to such an extreme? Even on Survivor, the medics are standing by to airlift injured competitors away from the game. To truly be dangerous and in the vein of the original journey, there would have to be no "out" for the explorers. Pasquale comments this it the closest anyone will ever come to retracing Stanley's steps in the bonus material. He's right, to a point. Leave the camera behind and you automatically get much closer.
All this may make Expedition Africa sound as if it's not worth the time investment. That's not true. Far more realistic than Survivor, the program has a the advantage of introducing audiences to a world they'll never get to while, at the same time, imparting some useful nuggets of wisdom. Part travelogue, part reality show, Expedition Africa isn't quite the hoight-toighty material History is known for. In the end, it feels like History Light, designed for an audience unwilling to watch anything but reality.
(Need an example? Look no further than several lingering shots of a car-brand and all-which serves to move the group away from local tribes. Really? Burnett's been in this game far too long to talk down to the audience like that. And the audience should be keen on the tactic by now, considering how fellow reality competition show The Amazing Race does basically the same thing with the Travelocity Roaming Knome.)
THE LOOK
Presented in a 1.78:1 anamorphic aspect ratio, Expedition Africa doesn't have any major video-based problems. The picture is completely dependent on the type of footage being used; that is, video captured with night vision equipment is appropriately grainy while the actual trip vacillates between gorgeous and a bit soft. The mutitude of colors in Africa are rendered well even if they tend to run together in the Salt Flats or the desert not through any fault of the mastering process. There's simply little the original elements can do with a screen full of roughly the same color.
Establishing shots either run with a slight amount of contrast or look more realistic than anything else, as if they were filmed with a different camera. Rare bursts of color are vibrant on the screen, providing something different for the eye to focus on. Pure blacks-those seen without the filter of the night vision camera-are relatively deep, providing a moderate amount of texture. Some pixelation is evident in jungle or swamp scenes, though it's nothing terribly major.
THE SOUND
The only audio option on either disc is an English DTS Master Audio 2.0 track and I'm of two minds when it comes to the option. On the one hand, this is a miniseries aired in 2009, three years into the Blu-ray format. It should be a full fledged 5.1 version, not 2.0. On the other hand, after a little fiddling with the receiver, I successfully got the track to separate rather spectacularly, creating a fully immersive surround experience.
Whichever way you listen to the soundtrack, the same elements are present: clear dialogue, nearly brilliant ambient sounds and a Survivor-ish soundtrack heavy on creating artificial tension. The track nearly allows each raindrop hitting a plastic tarp in the fourth episode to be heard individually while the deeper, lower frequencies of booming thunder or stampeding animals is sure to grab attention for itself. English subtitles are also included.
THE STUFF
Expedition Africa comes packed in a standard Blu-ray case; disc one is attached to the front cover of the case while disc two is in the normal position on the back cover. No insert is included. Each of the eight episodes is broken down into six chapters which are not accessible through any menu. Five episodes are on the first disc while the other three, plus bonus features, are on the second.
A promo piece billed as Expedition Africa: The Making of History (20:35) seems to have originally aired on History as a build up to the series premiering. Cobbling together interviews with the cast and behind-the-scenes personnel, it spends a great deal of time explaining how the program was shot. One interesting factoid is glossed over here and not even mentioned in the series proper. Apparently, there were more medical issues during the journey than anyone let on. Crotch rot (otherwise known as a bloody crotch), bleeding feet and pneumonia all reared their ugly heads. Now why not include that information in the finished product?
Five vignettes which are either on the disc to serve as backstory or were used as further promotional pieces for the series are also included. Ranging in running time from 2:27 ("The Massai") to 19:47 ("Dangers of the Wild"), they help to fill in the educational moments left out. The set medic explains various "Survival Strategies," such as not removing a shoe if someone manages to twist an ankle; the shoe will not go back on. Pieces on "Stanley and Livingstone" (4:20) and "The Massai" (2:27) fill in the historical missing pieces.
Expedition Africa is available on DVD and Blu-ray.
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