Wow, folks sure rip this series a new one in their reviews. So I figured I'd throw in my two bits:
I'll start with, what I perceived, as "bad":
1. There are no paid actors, therefore, the acting sucks. Oh wait, its an adventure documentary;
2. Lack of multiple "generations" of participants. I.e., instead of picking nothing but drinking buddies, the producers might have improved some things if they had allocated spots for a couple young people, a couple middle-aged people, and a couple of older people. But, older, rational, non-drug-using, non-binge-drinking people usually demand money for their time, so if budgeting was a problem, then that would explain the lack of older people and the majority of the participants being young partiers.
Now, here is what I perceived as "good":
1. It was clearly pure reality. There wasn't anything scripted here. For both seasons they find a group of young, naive, and foolish people and basically throw them into the deep end of life. Absolutely fascinating to watch and observe how a leaderless group of young minds behave when faced with the unknown and insurmountable.
2. Both seasons (Trabant Trek and its brother Wreck Trek) are actual youthfully-foolish-poorly-planned "road trips", again, this is clearly pure reality. Young people are typically poor planners...sometimes due to youthful laziness, sometimes due to youthful indiscretion, and sometimes its just simply youthful inexperience. I don't think many of the previous "reviewers" have experienced long stressful road trips driving an unreliable vehicle. Anyone who has will immediately watch and be like "OMG, that reminds me of that trip I took in college with so-and-so and so-and-so!" This is because people are people. When faced with the stressful unknown, different people show different true colors. They show stress-colors, they show anger-colors, they show depression-colors...in fact, people go through pretty much the entire range of ALL emotions when experiencing what these kids experienced.
3. Keep in mind you are watching an actual, real-life documentary, of a bunch of foolish young people approaching the world with the naivety and inexperience of youth that we all wish we still possessed. I refuse to Monday-morning-quarterback these kids or even the kid who planned the whole thing. The only difference between these kids and the kids I ran with as a younger man is that these kids foolishly decided to videotape and record even their most embarrassing and foolish moments.
4. This documentary is one I made my teenage son watch with me. It is an excellent example of why having an old person along for "wisdom", "grounding", "mediation", and "authority" is always a good idea. Nearly every single episode contains a lesson on WHY the wisdom, life-experience, and knowledge of an older person would have saved these kids a major headache, or helped to deescalate the temporary personality conflicts that inevitably arise during these types of high-stress situations.
In conclusion, this is a unique, interesting, and fascinating documentary of human behavior, unscripted, raw, and as nasty as real-life people can get when under stress or overwhelmed by responsibilities. The fact that it includes cars is simply a bonus and adds some excitement for the gearheads such as I.
P. S.: I so hope that these young folks have matured enough to recognize that none of them did anything "wrong"...unless being young, excitable, eager, and hungry-for-adventure is wrong. I hope all participants have buried whatever hatchets need to be buried, forgiven each other for words spoken in anger, and can recognize that the entirety of both seasons is something everyone involved should look back on with absolute pride, fondness, and a certain romance. Regardless of any bad blood, all participants have done something few others can claim to have done.
I'll start with, what I perceived, as "bad":
1. There are no paid actors, therefore, the acting sucks. Oh wait, its an adventure documentary;
2. Lack of multiple "generations" of participants. I.e., instead of picking nothing but drinking buddies, the producers might have improved some things if they had allocated spots for a couple young people, a couple middle-aged people, and a couple of older people. But, older, rational, non-drug-using, non-binge-drinking people usually demand money for their time, so if budgeting was a problem, then that would explain the lack of older people and the majority of the participants being young partiers.
Now, here is what I perceived as "good":
1. It was clearly pure reality. There wasn't anything scripted here. For both seasons they find a group of young, naive, and foolish people and basically throw them into the deep end of life. Absolutely fascinating to watch and observe how a leaderless group of young minds behave when faced with the unknown and insurmountable.
2. Both seasons (Trabant Trek and its brother Wreck Trek) are actual youthfully-foolish-poorly-planned "road trips", again, this is clearly pure reality. Young people are typically poor planners...sometimes due to youthful laziness, sometimes due to youthful indiscretion, and sometimes its just simply youthful inexperience. I don't think many of the previous "reviewers" have experienced long stressful road trips driving an unreliable vehicle. Anyone who has will immediately watch and be like "OMG, that reminds me of that trip I took in college with so-and-so and so-and-so!" This is because people are people. When faced with the stressful unknown, different people show different true colors. They show stress-colors, they show anger-colors, they show depression-colors...in fact, people go through pretty much the entire range of ALL emotions when experiencing what these kids experienced.
3. Keep in mind you are watching an actual, real-life documentary, of a bunch of foolish young people approaching the world with the naivety and inexperience of youth that we all wish we still possessed. I refuse to Monday-morning-quarterback these kids or even the kid who planned the whole thing. The only difference between these kids and the kids I ran with as a younger man is that these kids foolishly decided to videotape and record even their most embarrassing and foolish moments.
4. This documentary is one I made my teenage son watch with me. It is an excellent example of why having an old person along for "wisdom", "grounding", "mediation", and "authority" is always a good idea. Nearly every single episode contains a lesson on WHY the wisdom, life-experience, and knowledge of an older person would have saved these kids a major headache, or helped to deescalate the temporary personality conflicts that inevitably arise during these types of high-stress situations.
In conclusion, this is a unique, interesting, and fascinating documentary of human behavior, unscripted, raw, and as nasty as real-life people can get when under stress or overwhelmed by responsibilities. The fact that it includes cars is simply a bonus and adds some excitement for the gearheads such as I.
P. S.: I so hope that these young folks have matured enough to recognize that none of them did anything "wrong"...unless being young, excitable, eager, and hungry-for-adventure is wrong. I hope all participants have buried whatever hatchets need to be buried, forgiven each other for words spoken in anger, and can recognize that the entirety of both seasons is something everyone involved should look back on with absolute pride, fondness, and a certain romance. Regardless of any bad blood, all participants have done something few others can claim to have done.
