The Reluctant Traveller with Eugene Levy

We know Eugene Levy is comic gold, even though this eight-episode 2023 series felt like a cross between a more jaundiced "Somebody Feed Phil" and Jack Whitehall's "Travels with My Father". His observations are less cynical than Whitehall Sr.'s and more dryly relatable except perhaps for his lifelong aversion to sushi. I think having a diametrically opposite travel companion like his son Daniel, or more ideally, Catherine O'Hara, could've made this series less one-note as we rely solely on Levy for his comments which remain consistent no matter the locale or how many exotic travel experiences he has.

Back in 2015, I went nomad for a long time and travelled cheaply, nonstop for a few years.

So, I love travel. But...

Some angry-at-the-world chump below slammed this series as some huge entitlement thing. Whatever. You do you, man.

But here's the thing: Not everyone likes travel. In fact, it's downright terrifying to some folks.

Because if you've got anxiety, travelling is number one with a bullet for triggering that stuff.

And Eugene Levy is a man who's made an entire career out of his anxiety. It's a huge part of his comedy and persona, and it's not a schtick. He doesn't like travelling. He likes to stay home or go to restaurants or play golf.

He's a boring guy because boring works GREAT for anxiety.

This series, however, is one that Apple aggressively pursued him to make. He did so as a realization that he was 75 and staring at ending life with a lot of regrets and questions about whether he could have lived more.

As someone who now sees travel as a part of who I am, I loved seeing this guy starting "getting" what travel is about.

And yes, it's world-class luxury, as a nod to Schitt's Creek, but every time Levy has a potentially lifechanging "aha" travel moment, it's doing stuff that's accessible to every income level - it's meeting the local people without agendas. It's experiencing the simple moments.

If this series shows anyone that there is more to travel than getting off a plane to see the known sites and visit all the popular neighbourhoods, I will be delighted.

As for Levy, he is self-deprecating, charming, droll, open, and even vulnerable as he narrates and hosts the entire show.

I love the series and plan to finish the final three episodes RIGHT NOW.

But if you want a lighthearted, fun, BEAUTIFULLY-shot travel series, despite the posh locales, you won't find any pretensions here. Just curiosity from a guy who's lived an entire life dictated by his fears of everything around him... and, for once, confronting those fears to see what it does for him.

It's a show as much about growth and anxiety as it is about travel, with a lot of good humour along the way.

Watching eugene's apprehensive way of moving thru the world but overcoming these feelings was so encouraging, he articulates what some of us may be thinking during our travels but too shy to express... his physical and facial comedy is hilarious and i barely laugh outloud but did several times during the watching of this show... he is also very respectful of local cultures and a pleasure to watch, i hope there's a season 2. I particularly liked to see the maldives episodes (knowing this is a country under threat and attention needs to be brought to it), i also liked his take on the wildlife of costa rica and his half-hearted sloth sighting (again can relate)... 'yeaaaah, i saw it' (said in a muted voice).

So glad we found this show. The photography is stunning, Eugene Levy is hilarious but at the same time humble and respectful as a tourist. The show seems to have no other agenda other than taking the viewer to beautiful and interesting places in the world. What a refreshing break from the political agenda that has ruined a lot of shows.

Levy's acting and narration really do a great job of making us feel like we are there with him, out of his comfort zone, in the elements, eating foreign cuisine, and doing many things that scare him.

If you want to watch something that elevates your spirit and curiosity instead of making you feel like you are the scourge of planet earth and the source of all its problems LOL, watch this! Highly recommended.

By now, we should all have come to realize and acknowledge the comic genius of Eugene Levy. From that prototypical, Canadian sketch comedy show, SCTV, that also gave us the late, great John Candy and also the equally incomparable Catherine O'Hara, to the faux-documentaries he co-wrote with Christopher Guest (I refuse to call anything a "mockumentary," even Spinal Tap dang it!), to his very own production company that he created so he and his equally hilarious son, Dan, could co-star (w/Catherine, of course) in the aptly named Schitt's Creek. So I am not sure who initially thought to take a home-body and confirmed curmudgeon like Eugene, who'd done surprisingly little travel (surprising to me, as somebody whose first million would be spent exclusively on it), and plop him into the widest range of cultural, geographical & gastronomical situations one could've imagined and then just trail his every move to see what happened. But it's a solid idea for comedy gold-so long as it's a lone, anxious, fish-out-of-water Eugene Levy. I think it helps if the viewer loves travel; hence, being astonished that our protagonist doesn't.