Through the use of the TiVo (as George Michael might say, though not this one or this one), I’ve been watching the six-part series Long Way Round on Bravo over the past few months, leading up to the final episode last night. After treacherous roads and impassable rivers across Europe and Asia for five episodes, the final installment brought Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman from the airport in Anchorage, all the way across Canada and the U.S. to their final destination, the Sheraton in New York. Talk about an anti-climax.

Now, Anchorage doesn’t usually get much play on tv, unless you count that time “Insomniac” with Dave Attell visited, or “Cops” went to Spenard, so it was exciting to see some Alaska air time. Ewan and Charley stopped at a motorcycle shop to have their bikes fixed after they were damaged in the flight from Magadan to Anchorage, and they had breakfast at Snow City (not mentioned by name, but clear from the plates and mugs, as well as the Ship Creek Benedict that Ewan ordered, one of my favorites). They also hit Brooks Lodge and went kayaking in Prince William Sound, so while they might not have been able to see Denali because of the smoke, they did get to see some other nice bits of the state.

The show was a lot of fun to watch, a mix of travelogue and monologue, I guess, that was made bearable by the fact that Ewan and Charley seem to be normal, even charming, people, rather than fragile celebrity/actor-types. Throughout the show, Ewan manages to find ways to credit Scotland with the invention of pretty much everything great in the world. I love the place, too; it’s a shame they’re eating themselves to death on fried pizzas and beans on toast. The soundtrack to the show is remarkable; Blur, Radiohead, and Coldplay are heard throughout, as are just about every Stereophonics song every written, including one written especially for the show. Perhaps I’ll check it out on dvd to get the skinny on just how they crossed those Siberian rivers in six-wheeled ex-Soviet military trucks.