Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown

Such an enjoyable insight into many cultures and food from countries far and close to home. Very sadly Anthony is no longer with us. But I'm glad I found this gem of a series on Netflix after watching his older one 'No Reservations' and enjoying it

Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown is simply the best television series of the 2010s. (I only wish I'd realized this sooner.) No program better enlightened the world of our times about ourselves than Parts Unknown.

Bourdain is somewhat of a pioneer in the genre of food & travel shows as his No Reservations was one of the first shows that combined passion for food with the need to Travel. That show was essentially Bourdain traveling to new places in search of good authentic food. He obviously knew a lot about food as he used to be a chef. No Reservations appealed to both food lovers and travel enthusiasts, but it was still very much centered around food (and Bourdain of course). It held the show back a bit in my opinion as Bourdain would travel to all these great places with lot of history and wouldn't really get to talk that much about the place and would instead focus on food.

In Parts Unknown, Bourdain is not only traveling to some of the lesser well known places (at least to Americans) but he is also exploring their culture, heritage and the current politics along with food. Heck, given the coverage of international news on CNN and other news media here in the US, this might the most informative show you could watch on TV (that pertains to international affairs).

Bourdain mentioned in an interview that in this new show (hardly new anymore) he had more freedom to do what he wanted and explore more and it shows. A lot of times he just meets an old friend in some country and they bar hop all night leaving Bourdain craving for even more food. But it also depicts the culture of the place he is visiting in a fashion that only few other shows would. And then, in some other places, like Libya and Congo, he interacts with locals who tell him what it is like to live (or survive) there day to day, all while having a meal of something exotic and making us drool.

I understand that this show may not appeal to hardcore food lovers, but in my opinion, this is a better show in every way to No Reservations and Bourdain is a lot more himself (which makes it even easier to watch). It's kind of like when Top Gear went from being a strictly motoring show to being a comedy/adventure/celebrity/motoring show. It ended up being better!

Believe it or not, there are often much more important things to talk about than dinner in many impoverished and/or war torn foreign nations around the world where this show is shot. Not every television program is going to be a mindless meandering list of topics that only impact American recipe lists and pop culture while ignoring anything important to other people in the world, some shows are actually meant to educate.

In a sea of seriously sigh-inducing series which pander only to the lowest common denominator with attention attacking headlines and overblown melodrama, a master chef of all people, has brought a level-headed and insightful peek into the lives of those in the world around us which many professional reporters are too busy worrying about ratings to take on. I, for one of many, unabashedly applaud his integrity. Time and time again it's been proved that it's often the people you'd least expect to know what they're talking about who outshow the most celebrated "news" casters of the click-bait/action news era.

Anthony Bourdain, culinary king and hilarious Archer celebrity guest-starring insult smith has now cemented himself among the ranks of legends like Jon Stewart as yet another intelligent human being with basic common sense who can stand with the best of cable's nonsense newsmen and give them a few pointers on proper news presentation. The show is intriguing, informative, entertaining and educational, not simply in terms of international cuisine but conflicts and complex social constructs as well. It's magnificently made in each and every way from shots, to scripts and settings and it deserves every bit of success it receives.

Very well done cooking, traveling, and current news programing. Antney does an excellent job introducing us to so many different types of foods, cultures, locals, et al. He really entices me to try all of these things and travel to all of these different places. He is excellent at bringing in a local and hanging out with them as though they were just good friends. You can tell he is authentic because it doesn't look like he's trying to hard. Bravo Antney... Impressive that CNN also brought this into their network and put a news spin on it... Very Very well done. I caught a few shows in a row on Libya, Burma, and LA Korea Town. All of these were fantastic. I was amazed that one person wanted to take Antney to Sizzler and he still went... shows that he is really listening to the locals no matter what they want to do. The Libya program and Burma were just amazing... a cook going around war torn areas... amazing.