Travel Channel

First off, I loved your show, Living with the Mek Tribe. That said, I am more than disappointed with how you've allowed your producers to undermine the "authenticity" of the new season so that you two can continue to accumulate wealth and international notoriety.

The show is so obviously scripted now that it is almost unbearable to watch. It's bad enough that Mark and Ollie are fed lines, but now the tribe is also being asked to say certain things which would underscore the show’s "trusted" formula.

Painfully formulaic, Mark is the hard worker who can do everything, almost as well as the indigenous people, thus appealing to the competitive audience members. Ollie is characterized as the cheeky friend who is a bit lazy, but extremely likeable. So, those audience members who are less adventurous can better relate. These character traits are then exaggerated by the director who asks the tribe members to reinforce it buy saying and doing certain things. The tribe is obviously egged on by the director and translator, in order for there to be some sort of digestible storyline for audience members to easily follow.

Seriously guys, I'm really surprised that you sold out. I was quite the fan, inspired by your humility and willingness to take risks. Now, I can tell that you've lost sight of your original goals, succumbed to puppetry and that you knowingly exploit indigenous people so that your show gets better ratings, thus padding your bank accounts and stroking your egos.

Actually, skym, Living with the Kombai (if that's what you're refering to here) came before the Mek, not after. If you read Olly's blog on LWTM though you'll see that there are many things that do have to be 'scripted', simply because of translation issues. What you see on the show, the free exhange of speech, is not actually how it really goes, it's called very good editing. I'm not going to bother saying more on all that though as it's all spelt out in Olly's blog here at TC, so if you really want to know what life is like living in a country far from home then go read it, you'll definitely learn a lot!

And far as watching in the future, of course TC can't force it on you, but you shouldn't give up on the show, especially when the new season is hopefully going to come out soon. Mark and Olly are not egotistical, aren't out to gain fame or fortune, in fact, pay isn't even a thought here. They're just two blokes trying to bring a bit of culture to a sadly misinformed Western world. And honestly, do you really think that they'd be spending 3 or 4 months at a time eating tadpole skewers, bugs of all sorts, sago, snakes, and whatever else the jungles provides if they were getting rich off these shows? Maybe the two Andrew's are, but I seriously doubt that if Olly and Mark were they'd live in the communial huts and 80 ft treehouses, they'd be down with the crew in waterproof tents eating good ol' UK foods, so I'd have to say no, they haven't sold out at all!

~~Piri~~