Home review at Long Way – The latest Ewan McGregor motorcycle adventure is a fascinating slow television | Television

THey went downstairs below, and now, for their fourth season, Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman are trying to go home. In 2020, the series of long -term trips on bikes was relaunched by Apple after a difference of 15 years, and it made its stars the task of traveling from the most southern South America to Los Angeles on electric motorcycles. Not all fans of the previous seasons were not in love with this, especially because he did not have the attraction of everyone from their previous races. Having a large team at Harley-Davidson Design and tailor-made vehicles for work, and bringing a business to install charging points along the route for them, was not quite the same as two old companions who jump on their bikes and the campsite wherever the mood dictates.

It is therefore logical that, at Long Way at home, brings it back to the essentials. It certainly seems that a concerted effort has been made so that McGregor and Boorman are more relatable. We see more with their families and children, and this seems to be a more intimate operation. Instead of the Fantasy Office of the London Central and the Massive Logistics team, there is a large pinned card on the wall of the McGregor garage, a small gathering of the original crew, and that should do so. Or at least, it is done to look at this way.

The plan this time is that the couple left their houses in the United Kingdom – McGregor’s is in Perthshire, and Boorman in Suffolk – and lead vintage motorcycles on a circular road which visits “17 of our closest neighbors”, which takes them to the Arctic Circle, and through Baltic and Western Europe. It is about 10,000 miles, should take them two months, offers them the comfort of leaving in June, rather in winter, and seems a little softer than their previous efforts. After the horrible motorcycle accidents that Boorman had, and the in -depth rehabilitation that followed, which can blame them? “He drives more carefully now, especially at his age,” said Olly, his wife.

Unsurprisingly, there is a quieter and more stable rhythm to this new adventure, and when it finally takes the road, it turns out to be a soft and largely pleasant driving. The first episode sets up the idea from which they will go and follow the two men as they prepare to leave. “We are going to follow our noses and see what we find on the open road,” explains McGregor.

He is not a zippy opener. This winds, delaying departure and gives a lot of time to the screen to try to locate a mobile phone that McGregor’s toddler’s son dropped behind a bench. But the idea of ​​making the journey on old and potentially drier bikes puts a few grains of sand in the fuel tank. McGregor opts for a 1974 Motorcycle Guzzi Eldorado police bike, with Siren, while Boorman opts (finally) for a BMW R75 / 5, although his injuries mean that he must choose with more care. The kick -off, for example, is not as simple as it was formerly. “My legs are fucked,” he says.

When they go up on the open road, in episode two, it starts. They left McGregor’s house accompanied by a fanfare. “I had to run half-naked on this bridge in Trainspotting 2,” he notes, while they head for Newcastle to catch a ferry in the Netherlands. In Amsterdam, they eat herring, buy cheese and look at the tulips. They go up north and look at it PrideOr lifting, a traditional sport in which people seize a post and propel themselves on a body of water. None of the two seem eager to try.

As it is often the path with travel shows and tours in general, pre-plane configurations are less interesting than spontaneous events. The pair heads towards Germany, in the end of the hometown of Boorman’s mother, and meet members of his family there. But on the way, they meet another fanfare, this time to celebrate a club of local firearms. The members of the club of firearms shoot, they socialize, and by its appearance, they celebrate life with enthusiasm. See also a Danish bar they visit, the best customers of which are equine variety.

Long way at home could be a little more concise. Ten episodes are a lot, and although these first countries are beautiful, the landscape does not have the drama of previous travel, at least until they arrive in Norway. He may not entertain viewers less invested in the friendship of McGregor and Boorman, or vintage motorcycles, or implacable rains. But the images of their conduct finally become fascinating, in a soft and slow way of television, and although it is stable, it is also perfectly pleasant.