Madventures

[HungFist]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q01wbB8lQWE (22 sec)

Apparently Madventures goes international; the third season will be shot in English, and broadcasted in the UK and US. Whether these will be uncensored versions, is not 100% sure yet. Finland will get the original version for sure (S3 starting in March 2009).

To those who are not familiar with Madventures; it’s probably the most interesting travel show ever made. Two guys; Riku usually in front of the camera, and Tunna usually holding the camera, traving the world with mini budget and no other crew. And they try to find more interesting places to visit than the usual tourist attractions.

Example 1: West Papua jungles. They're scared for their lives for a reason:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qg7_NQpz02c

Example 2: testing illeagal weapons (including bazooka) in Cambodia. They paid these ”army” guys 250$ for a trip to the mountains. Uzi, M60, Bazooka etc. are included in the price. A cow and goat (something to shoot) would have cost extra. Naturally, the guys running this activity did not know this was going to television (Riku actually says they probably wouldn’t have walked out alive if the guys knew what they were doing)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M_2Rs7yOHs

They do visit bigger tourist places too (the North American tour on S1 is really boring) and their occasionally very childish sense of humour may drive you crazy. But the show is brilliantly structured. It starts from the Helsinki airport, and then shows every part of their trip (they were traveling someting like 9 months non-stop). Often more important than the destination is how they get there (especially when they are traveling with mini budget). So, Madventures has some of that continuity and feel of adventure that is usually missing from travelling shows.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0369131/
http://www.madventures.tv/

[grim_tales]

That girl in the black (whose face you can see) is a cutie pie

[HungFist]

Trailer for S3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cX9vpnwRKs

Each episode will be available on the TV channel's web page for one week after it has been broadcasted on TV. So, unless there's some country limits, international viewers should be able to watch these on the web (which would be great especially if US and UK end up with censored versions).

http://www.sub.fi/netti-tv/index.shtml/ ... adventures

The first episode will be on TV April 5. Lets hope the show is still good. I'm a bit dubious about the language change and trying to fit so much content into 10 episodes.

[bradavon]

Cool, it looks good. Pity it won't air here.

[EvaUnit02]

Thanks, but I'll pass. I've seen enough travel shows starring 20-something guys clowning around to last me a life time.

Middle-aged Englishmen giving dry commentary is more to my tastes. (Eg Michael Palin, Martin Clunes, Stephen Fry, the Top Gear fellows, etc.)

[HungFist]

Thanks, but I'll pass. I've seen enough travel shows starring 20-something guys clowning around to last me a life time.

The concept has gotten a bit old indeed. But madventures originally started in 2002. Back then it was more or less new (and some of the content also caused a bit of controversy, like when they ate a dog). The jokes and fooling around has always been the weakest part of the show.

But the best part has always been the adventure. They don't have an exact travel plan, so often they just have to figure out a way how to get to the next destination. And that's not always so simple if they are in a jungle where there's a tribe war, or Cambodia where the friendly cab driver has an assault rifle on the back seat.

EDIT: anyway, I'll let people know if the new show is worth watching or not after the first episode has aired

[HungFist]

1st episode. Riku and Tunna go to Brazil and meet some gangsters but unfortuately have to keep the camera turned off most of the time (understandable, they're interviewing a guy with an assault rifle). Then to the jungle to meet some tribe and try some hallucinogen.

It's on ok episode, nothing new really, and not quite as interesting as some of their older stuff. But it may very well get better later. The language change hurts the show a bit as their english isn't as much fun as their finglish (in the old shows).

The episode can be viewed on the TV station's websiste. I don't know if it works from outside Finland.

http://www.sub.fi/netti-tv/index.shtml/ ... ures?11653

[HungFist]

Episode 2: Former Soviet Union countries. Chernobyl, sort bungee jumping between buildings, using leaches as medical treatment (Riku bleeds for the next few days as a result), sauna evening with Russian mafia, brief visit to mongolia, and polo using dead animals.

The language problem ain't improving. You really miss their old finglish. Also, this new show is too planned. Too much about destinations, not enough about travelling and randomness like the original show.

But it's not all negative. The second half the episode features some pretty cool stuff and even a little bit of "travelling".

Will watch the next episode, but, well, let's see...

[HungFist]

EP3: Africa, rituals, voodoo. This is pretty stomach churning stuff and will potentially be cut to shreds or omitted compeletely from the international editions. Riku and Tunna visit various villages and take part in rituals. The animal killings are difficult to watch, but it’s the cutting of childrens faces (very bloody and goes on for long) that is truly disturbing. But then, this is partly what madventures is about; to go where other travel shows don’t go, and show what really is going on. Riku and Tunna show a lot of understanding for local traditions (probably more than most viewers ever will).

EP4: Arabia, Yemen. Epic stuff. This is more like what madventures used to be (although still a bit too planned). This is travelling, not just locations. And the locations are stunning as well.
http://www.sub.fi/netti-tv/index.shtml/ ... ures?12970












+ Fun clip from episode 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xt-akNh8OhI

[HungFist]

EP5. Nippon. Not so much adventure here, but damn this episode was funny. Drifting, dutch wives, samurai sword, sumo, love hotel, Riku the human sushi...


http://www.sub.fi/netti-tv/index.shtml/ ... ures?13373

EDIT: sushi clip at youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7abc2ioeM9w

[HungFist]

As expected, the Africa episode raised quite a bit of stir, with viewers, newspapers and Finnish-African culture society (or something like that) all taking turns at attacking the show.

Riku and Tunna wrote a reply to them, in Finnish. I can translate if someone wants me to.

As I said, I wouldn't be surprised if this episode was censored or entirely omitted from the US/UK versions.

What's so funny about it is that everyone is mad at Riku and Tunna for documenting a real ritual in Africa. Maybe these people should aim their compaint at where the problem is instead of killing the mailman. Or perhaps the real problem is that two finnish gonzo journalists ruined people's nice sunday evening by showing what is going on on the other side of the world.

[HungFist]

EP6. India. More shock treatment. Expect a heavily cut UK edition. The plan is to travel the country by train and buss (usually on the roof) and join hindus on their pilgrimage. And to find out of humans are still sarcrificed. Easy going stuff, except first the decapitation of Frank (a goat) and then it gets truly fucked up when Riku and Tunna join a midnight ritual without knowing too much about it and things get out of hand (a religious guy biting bits off from living animals - not sure if it was a dog - pissing on people, and drinking blood, and making Riku drink blood. Fucking Texas Chainsaw Massacre moment. Riku and Tunna probably shit their pants.

[HungFist]

EP7. China. Not bad really, but very standard stuff. Riku and Tunna go look for kung fu masters, Riku gets his ass kicked by a 12 year old, and they go eat dicks. Yeah, all kinds, all sizes, with the biggest being a horse's dick. After they've finished the Chinese lady takes the left overs to her family, haha.

They also ate something else in a restaurant. I forgot what it was, but I remember Riku said he can't affort to throw up now because the entire restaurant is looking at him. Really, it was dead quiet, with every customer staring at these two foreigners, lol.



EP8. Papua New Guinea. This is great stuff. Riku and Tunna travel with a former solder deep into the jungles and mountains to find out if cannibalism still exists. Some parts of this episode are like an atmospheric 1970s / 1980s Italian jungle / cannibal adventure.

They find the tribe they are looking for... which was not an entirely safe thing to do... their guide (a former army officer who knows the leader of this tribe) constantly tells them to be extremely careful because arrows may start flying any second.

Thankfully they manage to avoid the arrows and make friends with the villagers. They even get to interview the leader who has eaten human flesh on several occasions. Finally they get to visit the gate of a place (but not the place itself) where cannibalism is still conducted. There's quite a few human bones and skulls lying around.

At the very end of the show there's an extra clip, shot afterwards in Finland. This may be cut out from the international editions. "You thought we wouldn't dare", Riku says.

Riku and Tunna have managed to get themselves Tunna's brother's girlfriend's placenta (I'm not 100% sure if this was genuine but so they claim) and do the usual rock, paper, scissors on who will eat it. Tunna loses. I'm not gonna say anything about the moral of this, but it's is incredibly funny. And made even funnier by the fact that Tunna is a vegetarian.





Cannibal episode:
http://www.sub.fi/netti-tv/index.shtml/ ... ures?14576

Yeah, this show isn't so much about traditional travelling anymore, it seems. But at least it's still good entertainment.

[HungFist]

EP9. Philippines. Ok stuff. Sleeping on a graveyard with poor people, taking part in gory religious (christian) ceremony etc. To be honest, I don't really remember what this episode was about anymore.



EP10. Final Episode. Thailand - Burma/Myanmar. Very interesting stuff, although for good reasons they couldn't achieve what they intended to. This is because in Burma Riku and Tunna couldn't get rid of the armed solders that were following them all the time. They actually pretended to be tourists shooting a holiday video (Tunna is constantly telling Riku to look less professional) and recorded almost all of the dialogue in Finnish so that the soldiers wouldn't find out they are actually making a "documentary". They also had to dump the professional equipment because there's no way they could've gotten into the country carrying that stuff. Instead they use an ordinary "tourist video camera". For these reasons there aren't many still pictures available.





Final thoughs. Madventures 3 is much more of a location documentary than the backpacking travel show the original series was (the second series fell somewhere in between). It's also much higher on shock value. Some of this content feels unnecessary, but I also appreciated much of it because of the information value. If shit is going on somewhere is it better to turn away the camera and pretend nothing ever happened? Or to ruin the viewer's sunday evening by showing him the reality.

A lot if viewers were angered by the fact that Riku and Tunna don't preach. Their "who are we to judge" - attitude seemed to piss the hell out of some concervatists. But content wise they do have a point. Was Madventures intentionally trying to find all the ugly pieces and provide shock "entertainment"? You draw the line.

Animal lovers should stay away from the show. But then again, Riku and Tunna also have a point. They show how a pig is killed in a religious ceremony. But you know what? That pig lived free before that, and the meat was used as food later. The pig that ended up on your plate in a developed western country was most likely far more brutally treated. And eventually killed in some factory where it lived all its life for one purpose only: to be killed later. If you can't stand seeing a pig or chicken killed, yet buy meat from your local grocery store with a smile on your face there just may be something wrong with you. Perhaps you're a hyppocrite?

And yes, whether using animal sarcifices in religious ceremonies is ethically acceptable is another question. As is the "madventures after shocks" dilemma.

What I disliked about the new show is that it's more "location-location-location" than "travel-location-travel". I'm more interted in how they got there than the location itself. That's why my favourite episodes where those that featured more travelling (4, 6, 8, 10), although a lot of this is not exactly normal travelling anymore (who goes to Burma to find an adventure?).

As mentioned before the language change weakens the show. The new mad-English just ain't as funny as the half-incomprehensible Finnish slang they used in the first two series.

Despite all the critisism, Madventures 3 is definitely entertaining and interesting. I didn't miss a single episode. Also, you have to keep in mind that this is the third series. While some of the changes were not so welcome, it wouldn't have made sense to shoot the same stuff three times. It's a good thing they made the new series different from the first two (although some of the locations are the same). Worth watching.

[HungFist]

National Geographic bought the third season. The news claims that the show has now been sold to 189 countries, but I suppose that mean the show could, in theory, be broadcasted in all of the 180 or so countries where National Geographics is available.

http://www.sub.fi/madventures/

I'm not so familiar with National Geographic, but I find it hard to believe Madventures could air uncut on their channels.

Finnish dvd release is also coming soon. It includes Finnish and English subtitles (the show is basically in English, but there's some Finnish bits). The extras seem pretty extensive: audio commentaries, extended episodes, 10 behind the scenes episodes. EDIT: more uncensored than the Finnish TV episodes, which were supposed to be "Uncensored". But now Tunna claims they did have to make some cuts to the TV versions.

http://www.superpirate.com/store/produc ... cts_id=275

Concerning the old releases, Madventures II dvds have English subs, Madventures I doesn't. Both are spoken in Finnish
http://www.superpirate.com/store/produc ... cts_id=168
http://www.superpirate.com/store/produc ... cts_id=164