‘Ride with Norman Reedus’ Recap – ‘The Road Less Traveled: Behind the Scenes’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Caution: This article contains spoilers for the season five finale of ‘Ride with Norman Reedus’.

It is definitely safe to say, that a great deal of planning goes into a road trip. After all, you need to take the time off from work to make it happen, plus you need to plan your route, your stops and lodging for that matter as well. Plus, you also must carve out time for all the things you’re going to see at your destination, making these trips quite the daunting affair at times. But in the end, all that effort is worth it since the memories that are forged on that trip… do indeed last a lifetime. And really, the incredible amount of planning that goes into assembling a road trip is top of mind today… simply because it came up during last night’s season five finale of Ride with Norman Reedus.

Because Norman and his production team, saw now as the perfect time to give the audience some grand perspective. For if we think putting together a road trip can be a difficult task, imagine what it takes to assemble a television show about road trips and that made ‘The Road Less Traveled: Behind the Scenes’ quite the fascinating affair. Since we were indeed able to learn that a great deal of effort goes into putting this magnificent series together. To the point where emergency bikes and multiple cameras and caravans are on the road with Norman at all times, to ensure that safety is paramount during every trip and so that the production stays on schedule. So that we the viewer can settle in and enjoy the wonder of Norman's, and his companion of the week's, adventures around the globe. 

But while that alone made for one compelling episode, since we were able to see firsthand how much planning goes into a single day of filming on this series, this finale took things one step further, by taking the time to show the audience some of the challenges the production team runs into while filming on the road. Such as weather for example. Since it doesn’t obey call sheets and call times and on more than one occasion, it has brought about some difficulties for the crew. Since you cannot ride in snow or heavy moisture, and it is definitely not safe to hit high speeds when giant winds are bearing down. But regardless of that respective challenge, this is a crew that refuses to back down when twists and turns arrive, and that’s allowed for them adapt on the fly and make a show come to life, and up until now, we’ve been none the wiser about such problems.

Yet, despite some of the challenges that this team encounters when assembling this show, and the incredible amount of planning that goes into the creation of Ride, at no point has the show’s star or the crew of this series… ever lost sight of the fact that the road trip is designed to be a fun, memory creating event. And sticking with that mantra is what has made this show so incredible from day one. Because now we know for certain, that the crew has a good time when they’re out there and they genuinely care about preserving the vision of the series and really, this is a brilliant finale when all is said and done. Simply because the folks that put together television shows rarely have their day in the sun, and it is wonderful that Norman and his other Executive Producers saw an opportunity to put some faces from behind the scenes, on the screen, and show the audience all the hard work they put into making this series a reality.

If anything, this simply gives the viewer a newfound appreciation for this show, and knowing who does what behind the camera, will give future seasons of this series incredible gravity. Since we will be fully aware of how much passion goes into these adventures when we tune in, and it is those future adventures that we must now look forward to. For our unique season five journey with Norman and his incredible crew has come to an end, and all we can do now is sit and wait for new adventures and revisit the older ones as often as possible and that’s something we will be doing here at Nerds That Geek in the weeks to come. Since this is a travel show unlike any other and now really is the perfect time to start (or re-start) at the beginning and soak up everything this grand journey has to offer. Until next year.

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