An Idiot Abroad: "Karl Comes Home" (2.8)
The worst episode of An Idiot Abroad‘s first season was its finale, and I wish that I could say that wasn’t the case here. But since the show’s creators decided to use the same format for season two’s finale, which is to say a glorified DVD extra, it was pretty much a foregone conclusion before it even began.... read more
Found in: TV, ReviewsAn Idiot Abroad: "Climb Mount Fuji" (2.7)
While it implies in An Idiot Abroad‘s opening credits that Karl knows what he’s getting into this time, the show’s second season hasn’t really captured that jadedness until now. With Karl finally at his last journey, he seems ready for the usual visit to a culture he can’t understand while partaking in various activities that he can’t hope to be remotely good at. In “Climb Mount Fuji” Karl is pretty much resigned to it and as a result the episode doesn’t have quite as much fun as some of the others. The torments have become standard and he’s ready for... read more
Found in: TV, ReviewsAn Idiot Abroad: "Route 66" (2.6)
An Idiot Abroad has always been a picaresque show, but whenever possible this has been tempered by heading towards a goal. While the journey provides the adventure, this prize at the end has frequently been exciting in itself, and even the anticlimaxes have been interesting. “Route 66” takes this to the furthest extreme, though, in that the entire episode is the journey. Travelling down the road isn’t so exciting—it’s a highway, that’s pretty much it—so as usual there are a series of events for Karl to check out along his route.... read more
Found in: TV, ReviewsAn Idiot Abroad: "Meet a Gorilla" (2.5)
Like many fans of An Idiot Abroad, I was led to the show through Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant. A basic familiarity with the pair is embedded in the show’s format. Not only is Karl only a pseudo-celebrity because of them, but since Karl is doing the show at their behest, it’s always had the conceit that he needs to continually check in with them for more information about what he’s doing next. While it’s the type of silliness and fake hurdle that you’ll see on pretty much any reality TV show, it manages to work because Karl himself believes... read more
Found in: TV, ReviewsAn Idiot Abroad: "Whale Watching" (2.4)
Part of the fun in An Idiot Abroad‘s second season comes from the surprising way Ricky and Stephen—or whoever it was that actually planned out Karl’s agendas—go about getting him to his bucket list destinations. The show has always enjoyed throwing random surprise hurdles in Karl’s path, but the second season seems more intent on screwing with the formula. We saw a huge twist of this last week, when they switched Karl’s “swim with the dolphins” item into swimming with sharks, but it’s an important part of the show every time out, particularly because the items Karl chose were largely... read more
Found in: TV, ReviewsAn Idiot Abroad: "Swim with Dolphins" (2.3)
One of the things that An Idiot Abroad has always struggled with is giving the show a storyline. It’s one of those problems of “reality” television that, while we wish for events to transpire onscreen in the same way that they actually happened, as humans we also want to watch a story rather than a series of largely unconnected events. Travelogues don’t really have a story, so An Idiot Abroad gives us one in two different ways. The more simple of these is by setting it up so that Karl has to cross through multiple hurdles every week before he... read more
Found in: TV, ReviewsAn Idiot Abroad: "Trans-Siberian Express" (Episode 2.2)
Pretty much everything that I disliked about last week’s premiere of An Idiot Abroad was missing from this week. While before we had Karl as an explorer showing us these “exotic” people and places, here we had Karl the bumbler, getting through his tasks with a minimum of expended effort and a desire for comfort above new experiences. That doesn’t mean that the show shouldn’t have Karl interacting with other groups, but “Trans-Siberian Express” shows a much better way of doing it. Whether Karl is visiting Mongolia or China or just riding on a train, he’s the object of derision... read more
Found in: TV, ReviewsAn Idiot Abroad: "Desert Island" (2.1)
If I had to describe the An Idiot Abroad in three words that aren’t its title, I would call it a travel documentary deconstruction. It’s not just a way of making fun of the show’s star Karl Pilkington, but also the very concept of going to these places and filming them for a television show. If there’s one message the show wants to get across, it’s that Karl Pilkington is an idiot, but if there’s a second it’s that there’s something fundamentally disturbing about this sort of anthropological tourism in general. Karl may be dumb, but in essence there isn’t... read more
Found in: TV, ReviewsRicky Gervais Show Review: "Munchies" (2.13)
In many ways, these reviews have been as much ruminations about Karl Pilkington as they are about The Ricky Gervais Show. That’s only natural, since much of the show is about exploring his strange, nearly alien psychology. For the second season finale, we’re finally down to one of the biggest questions that underlies any discussion with Karl: what exactly would make the man happy?... read more
Found in: TV, ReviewsRicky Gervais Show Review: "Art" (2.12)
The driving force of The Ricky Gervais Show has always been Karl’s stupidity. It’s why you tune in and why Ricky and Stephen have made so many episodes. And while that may sound kind of mean-spirited, Karl’s agreed to be there for this and has Ricky/Stephen’s ventures for him as his only form of income. Basically, if you don’t find him funny, then you’re not watching the show.... read more
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