The Reluctant Traveler, review: Eugene Levy is without a paddle in flimsy travelogue

The conceit is that Levy is a reluctant traveller, a man who prefers home comforts to discovering the world’s bounty. As he travels he stays in luxury hotels, which he likes, but has to experience local customs and activities, which he does not like. Or says he doesn’t. Especially in the early episodes, he reminds us constantly that he is out of his depth. So much so that you feel he might be protesting a little too much.

Levy is a perfectly affable presence. He looks the part, with a wardrobe of crisp suits and Hawaiian shirts. His dark eyebrows, never slight, seem to be on the verge of entering their chrysalis phase. You wonder if they have signed separate contracts. He does his best to imply that he is fazed by the things before him, but the things he is encouraged to do – floating in cold water in Lapland, or eating cicchetti in Venice, or having a sound bath underwater in the Maldives – are hardly trials by fire. For all he tries to protest, he is evidently a perfectly happy traveller. 

This is slight, ambient TV, aimed at an American audience. Finland is described as being in northern Europe and half the size of Texas, which doesn’t help this viewer in north London. Apple’s gloss is evident: there are plenty of gorgeous drone shots, sweeping over all these lovely places. Where it is just that, it might be fine, but it can’t help but try to offer a few thoughts, too. That’s where it falls down. “What is amazing is that Venice is actually a working city,” Levy says, trundling along a canal. You may not fall off your chair. In Tokyo, he tells us that Japan is the most seismically active zone on Earth. “Why am I here?” he asks. We’re wondering the same thing.

Source: telegraph.co.uk