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"That would be my dream job," I told Shelley as we were deep into National Geographic Channel's six episode series called "Rogue Trip." "Travelling the world and bringing people to places they'll never have the chance to visit."
"Really?" She asked. "But what about being a pastor?"
"Well, I'll just have to be an adventuring pastor, bringing the gospel to the globe and the globe home to the masses!" I answered.
And it is true. ... If I were to be honest, while I am fully ready to serve out my call to the ELCA church, if I go back to my earliest notions of what kind of work I wanted to do for the rest of my life, it was travelling and writing about it. Going places that are extraordinary and so ordinary that it would surprise readers.
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One of the earliest nonfiction books to capture my attention was John Steinbeck's "Travels with Charley: In Search of America" that I bought with money that I made waiting tables as a young 16-year-old in my hometown of Fertile, Minn., a small and rural hamlet that seemed so very far away from the rest of the world. And so this book released my imagination that maybe even I, a poor kid from a nowhere place, might be able to travel the world, experience it and write about it for other 16-year-old kids from nowhere places who would follow me.
I have a wonderful special edition hardcover of the book, and I will forever cherish it for showing me that there was a great big world out there that I couldn't see from my porch step in my Upper Midwest farm town.
"Rogue Trip" is a travelogue starring ABC News Correspondent Bob Woodruff and his 28-year-old Son, Mack Woodruff, that is currently trending on Disney+.
The fact that I enjoyed the show really is no surprise, but the fact that the series was able to draw in Shelley a feather in their cap. She generally pokes fun at my nerdy TV watching habits because if I'm not endlessly watching reruns of "Star Wars" or the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, then I'm generally watching nature documentaries.
But for some reason, in the middle of Episode 2 of "Rogue Trip" featuring Bob and Mack's visit to Papua New Guinea, she decided to give the show a run with me, and she was hooked too. We proceeded to watch all the remaining four episodes together all in one night. And then later, Shelley went back to watch Episode 1 in Columbia all by herself. The other four episodes find the Woodruffs visiting Ethiopia, Pakistan, Lebanon and Ukraine.
I'm not sure what so so magical about Episode 4, but Shelley absolutely loved that episode in which Bob and Mack road tripped through Pakistan's rugged mountains from Swat Valley to Shangri La. ... I think I was more partial to Episode 2 set in Papua New Guinea as I found the indigenous people they featured fascinating. I also liked the fact that in Episode 2 we were still getting to know Bob and Mack, their family's story and the vibe they had.
All of the photography is as wonderful as you'd expect from a National Geographic production, and each episode is packed with powerful storytelling, with a mix of live video interactions and many, many voice-overs from Bob and Mack.
But this "docuseries," as Disney+ calls it, is about more than just visiting exotic, far off locales. Each episode is this intriguing enigma of part documentary, part family therapy session.
For those who don't know Bob's story, in short, he was a TV journalist who worked for ABC, starting there in 1996. In 2005, he succeeded Peter Jennings as a co-anchor of "ABC World News Tonight." And in January 2006, he was critically wounded by a roadside bomb in Iraq. On Jan. 29, 2006, Woodruff and Canadian cameraman Doug Vogt were seriously injured in an explosion from an improvised explosive device near Taji, Iraq, about 12 miles north of Baghdad. Woodruff had traveled with an ABC News team to Israel to report on the aftermath of the 2006 Palestinian elections, and then via Amman to Baghdad, so that he could meet with troops before President George W. Bush's State of the Union address for 2006.
After his injury, Woodruff was kept in a medically induced coma for 36 days to assist his recovery. As of March 7, 2006, Woodruff's brother reported that the ABC anchor was beginning to walk, recognize friends and family, and speak in several languages. However, he struggled with expressive aphasia for more than a year after the injury Woodruff was transferred on March 16 to a medical facility closer to his Westchester County, N.Y., home.
On Feb. 27, 2007, Woodruff appeared on "Good Morning America," "ABC World News with Charles Gibson," and "The Oprah Winfrey Show," in advance of a documentary that aired on ABC later that evening. Woodruff resumed his contributions to ABC World News the following day, Feb. 28, with the first in a series of follow-up reports centering on the problems that wounded American soldiers are encountering in their treatment and recovery, particularly at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
That as a backdrop, "Rogue Trip" both keeps that accident at the center of its narrative, but also as a subtle undercurrent, as many of Bob and Mack's conversations that aren't about travel are about life "pre" and "post" Bob's accident. And candidly intimate conversations sometimes lead to really strained moments. ... I credit all involved for leaving these special moments in the series because it makes this much deeper than your average travelogue to beautiful places. And bravo to the Woodruff family for being willing to share some of their most difficult memories and emotions with us. I think it's a courageous decision that I hope helps others open up about tragic experiences in their families' pasts.
All that being said, you cannot help but cringe at times in Bob's interactions with others, his son and those he interviews. While he is a truly excellent journalist, and that still shines through in this series, you can immediately tell that the bomb blast and his subsequent injuries took away some of his ability to seem relatable to other people. The conversations always seem awkward and unnatural. ... But that in itself endears the show to me.
The one question I have for the producers is about Episode 6 in which Bob and Mack travel to the Ukraine. But inexplicably, the show introduces Bob's daughter (and Mack's sister), Cathryn, to the cast. She then goes with Bob and Mack to tour Ukraine, including a fascinating trip to Chernobyl.
Cathryn (who seemingly doesn't have much of an internet presence) is a likable character, adding a new element to the show, but the insertion of the new cast member also introduces new awkwardness among the family members just as the viewer started to get used to the hard-to-describe paradigm between father and son. And the series producers, nor cast, never really explain why she enters the series in the final episode. ... Strange. ... Not necessarily bad, but it certainly changes the conclusion of the series though.
Overall, I'd give this series a definitive thumbs up. It's one that you should add to your watch list. ... That is of course if you have Disney+.
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