I would have given it 9 but for the second season.
This is the new benchmark (and maybe the first) for a comedy travel program. Sorry Bourdain - While your show is funny, I don't know if its intended (No Reservations and Travel with Bourdain; other shows worth watching). An Idiot Abroad is nothing but funny; no insight, no travel suggestions, just whingeing and hilarity.
Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant send Karl Pilkington on a journey around the world - in an attempt to broaden his pea-sized, bubble-wrapped mind. Pilko is the typically morose and simple Englishman tasked with touring the globe... camera crew in tow (with whom he interacts). Karl's journey twists and turns for the sadomasochistic pleasure of Merchant and Gervais. The two protagonists send Pilko on a host of bizarre adventures to help Karl understand the broad differences between our worlds' cultures... Hilarity ensues. It is firmly entrenched in must see TV territory.
Season two changes the scope slightly - giving Karl a 'bucket list' of things to do before you die, from which he must choose several adventures to be filmed for our pleasure (or maybe just for Gervais's pleasure - he spends an awful lot of this series cackling hysterically at the misfortune of Pilko...). I think the possibly the moment of the whole series unfolds at the first meeting in episode 1, with Gervais calming Pilko down "its not a list of things to do on your deathbed, Karl".
A few of the episodes glean some of the magic that flowed healthily through the first season, but i believe others are hit and miss. I find it hard to put my finger on why - the concept is very fresh and it has much real estate for hilarity... Maybe Gervais and Merchant are pushing too hard to writhe agony and misery out of Pilkington, when if they let the leash slack (first season), Pilkington creates and embellishes his own.
Regardless of my second season gripes, this show is BRILLIANT. Season 1 is a peach. Season 2 is still very funny, but feels forced. ENJOY with a deep, old Shiraz...
This is the new benchmark (and maybe the first) for a comedy travel program. Sorry Bourdain - While your show is funny, I don't know if its intended (No Reservations and Travel with Bourdain; other shows worth watching). An Idiot Abroad is nothing but funny; no insight, no travel suggestions, just whingeing and hilarity.
Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant send Karl Pilkington on a journey around the world - in an attempt to broaden his pea-sized, bubble-wrapped mind. Pilko is the typically morose and simple Englishman tasked with touring the globe... camera crew in tow (with whom he interacts). Karl's journey twists and turns for the sadomasochistic pleasure of Merchant and Gervais. The two protagonists send Pilko on a host of bizarre adventures to help Karl understand the broad differences between our worlds' cultures... Hilarity ensues. It is firmly entrenched in must see TV territory.
Season two changes the scope slightly - giving Karl a 'bucket list' of things to do before you die, from which he must choose several adventures to be filmed for our pleasure (or maybe just for Gervais's pleasure - he spends an awful lot of this series cackling hysterically at the misfortune of Pilko...). I think the possibly the moment of the whole series unfolds at the first meeting in episode 1, with Gervais calming Pilko down "its not a list of things to do on your deathbed, Karl".
A few of the episodes glean some of the magic that flowed healthily through the first season, but i believe others are hit and miss. I find it hard to put my finger on why - the concept is very fresh and it has much real estate for hilarity... Maybe Gervais and Merchant are pushing too hard to writhe agony and misery out of Pilkington, when if they let the leash slack (first season), Pilkington creates and embellishes his own.
Regardless of my second season gripes, this show is BRILLIANT. Season 1 is a peach. Season 2 is still very funny, but feels forced. ENJOY with a deep, old Shiraz...