Im really enjoying the first epi set in Myanmar. CNN Bourdain seems to be a bit darker and more serious. Its great to have him back.
They could change the opening pics; they are a bit creepy IMO. But Bourdain is still on top of his game.
Bourdain was allowed to say shit…shame on you Travel Chanel and Food Network. Hell hasnt frozen over.
The only thing I took away from tonight’s episode. I wish he’d stop using that damn slow motion effect through out the show. It just bugged the shit out of me and seemed totally out of place to me. (I mean that effect was ok in the movie Watchmen but it was movie based on a comic book. It’s as though someone got new video effects software and damn it, they’re going to use the effects.)
Yeah I liked it but the slow-mo for no reason was tedious. Like a new toy being used over and over and over.
I just watched the show on Libya. Pretty powerful for a food show. The Roman ruins at the end were kind of amazing too.
Is this show any different from his last show? And if so then in what way? I thought he ended his last show because there really wasn’t anywhere else for him to go. I thought it seemed odd to start a new show that’s more of the same.
I found this one interesting, too. My husband and I were in Libya in 2006 to see a solar eclipse. We also found the Libyan people to be extremely friendly and honest. The Roman ruins are indeed spectacular; there are lots more but Leptus Magna is the big one. They also have a huge and nearly vacant Mediterranean beachfront.
He seems to be concentrating more on the locale and less on the food. There is still a food element, but the Libya one, for example was more about the revolution and the current state of the country.
In the Quebec episode, he concentrated on the food. Of course, pride in local culinary traditions can be linked to Francophone pride.
Still, it was mostly food. Large portions of rich, delicious food–rough peasant stuff or refined, delicate fare. And drink! In fact, Bourdain twice referred to “The finest wines available to humanity.” All served by large, beefy men–often in ice-fishing huts or maple sugar shacks…
Parts Unknown feels very much like No Reservations with a much looser mandate. Bourdain’s primary interest (or maybe area of expertise is the better phrase) is clearly food and the culture surrounding food, but the CNN show feels more like he just wants to introduce Americans to some places they aren’t too familiar with, in whatever way seems most appropriate to the time and place. So, for Libya that is primarily the story of the recent uprising and revolution, whereas Quebec doesn’t currently have a story that dramatic, so we default to food and related interests.
Works for me.
Anthony Bourdain is the guy I wish I had met when I was traveling through Europe!
He is pretty much fearless in going places most people wouldn’t probably want to go, he loves trying the local foods being served in places that most certainly would never get an “A” rating by any health regulators in the USA, and he takes you to off-beat locations in off-beat countries that give you a glimpse into the daily life there. I am often just as fascinated with the “little things” in the background - the kids playing soccer, or the crappy cars parked on the street or the smiling grandmother hanging laundry from the fifth floor apartment above. He allows the viewers to get the feel for the location.
Loved his older shows, and happy to see he is still in his element doing newer shows again!
I am amazed he is not constantly hospitalized from hundreds of odd diseases and food poisoning - or arrested for for filming parts of countries I can only imagine governments are not thrilled to see filmed. Plus - he rides in things that are death traps - I would not be surprised to hear that he dies someday by getting killed riding some three wheeled motorized vehicle down the side of a cliff in some bizarre accident, 950 miles from the nearest hospital.
No matter what he’s eating, he seems to love it.