Monday, April 20, 2009

Departures: The Ends of the Earth

On Sunday April 19, 2009 OLN aired the season finale of departures.. This episode saw Justin Lukach, Scott Wilson, and Andre Dupuis head to the very bottom of the world: Antarctica.

There, they wandered around a variety of scientific research stations, and collected passport stamps from every country that had set up shop there. Each country brought its own culture to this destination that all may claim, but none may own.

There, the trio played ping-pong with the Chinese, drank vodka with the Russians, and experienced the household belonging to the one Chilean family that actually calls the continent home. At this moment the trio were, very much, at the end of their road. A second year of travel had now come to a close.

Will they continue onward for a third season, once more leaving their friends and family behind them – or will this be the final episode of the show? Unlike so many travel shows where the hosts take weekend jaunts to one location or another, Scott Wilson, Justin Lukach, and Andre Dupuis live the departures. lifestyle. Their family, and in some cases girlfriends, are separated from them every day they are on the road. At what point does the weight of all those sacrifices become too much?

Watching from home – detached from the reality of their lives – it’s so easy to just say, “keep going, there are so many places you can still see!” and yet…

So they have a choice, continue on, or return home. But even if they choose to return home, they are not the same three who left two years ago. Where do they go from there?

8 comments:

  1. Now, this looks like a great show! Is it on in the States? I never heard of OLN? I might have to buy the DVDs! Thanks for introducing it to me: )

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm not sure if you can watch it in the states. For a long time you could only buy the DVDs in Canada too. However, they were recently picked up by National Geographic Channel, I believe so - - -

    ReplyDelete
  3. i LOVE this show - it's perhaps my favourite travel show and i must thank you for blogging about it because i initially read about it on your site.

    that's a tough question - 2 years of traveling...return or continue on? hard to say...

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hey, according to the 'departures.' group page on Facebook, there is going to be a third season. I'm so happy that the three guys will be back on for the third year. The show is so great for so many reasons. Just to name a few: great videography, fantastic selection of music, exciting adventures, and cool guys.

    So, since they're doing it again for the third time, I guess they won't have to wonder how to return to their lives after being on the road for two years.

    Honestly, I don't think the guys have been on the road for two straight years. I mean, they had to return back home to sell their show to get the first season shown on tv. Right? So that wouldn't have taken just a conversation over the phone, while they were struggling with emails during their time on the Ascension Island. I'm sure they needed to go back home after visiting Antarctica to take care of some business, to meet up with their family and friends (I know that this fact is true, but I will not divulge why out of courtesy), and, frankly, to recharge their batteries. I guess, what I'm getting at is that I don't think they're literally away from home everyday for two full years, unlike some of the other bloggers I have on my bloglist.

    However, I do think that they may be starting to live a life similar to what Tim Ferris talk about in his "Four Hour Work Week" book.

    ReplyDelete
  5. From what I gathered, Justin didn't return home between season 1 and 2. Perhaps he's gone back to the states now - on the show, and in the commentaries, they said how he crashed at scott's for a while, and then headed to europe.

    I would be quite impressed to see a third season - Although, now that I think of it, I'll probably be on the road at that point.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I just read that the third season is due on tv in January 2010.

    Oh, how I wish I could see the commentaries closed captioned on the dvd set! I need to figure out if there's a service that provide captioning on dvds that haven't been captioned.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Season 3 will air in March 2010.

    To answer questions earlier they do return home to Canada (one of them to Hawaii) once or twice a season. Remember, they don't travel with an entire camera crew, it's just the 3 of them. I traveled the world like these guys for a year and I had about 20-30 pounds of camera gear at some times. I had to stop home in Canada once to unload a lot of it, because it became such a nuisance.

    Great show, can't wait for season 3 myself!

    ReplyDelete

 
All original text and photographs Copyright © 2009 one.year.trip / previously.bitten | Theme Design by previously.bitten | Entries and Comments.Powered by Blogger