The Reluctant Traveler review: Eugene Levy is the best. His new show is not.
Our fish-out-water host sees the world in Apple TV Plus' latest. Unfortunately, his nervous Nellie routine wears a bit thin.
TV Reviews Eugene Levy
It’s been a rough era for travel television. While COVID kept us all cooped, looking at other, faraway places on a screen could feel somewhere between punishment and pipe dream. Even Anthony Bourdain, paradigm of thoughtful living room escapism, could be tough to stomach, the wound of his passing even today seeming too fresh. And just around the time one didn’t have to risk looking like a total miscreant for boarding a plane for pleasure, along came Stanley Tucci, manicured, casually classy, nibbling gnocchi, appearing the way we all imagine ourselves in our vacation outfits, in Searching For Italy. As if it had been lost, as if the country hasn’t been one of the top travel destinations in the world for hundreds of years. But something still seemed a little off, or maybe, it was what Eater writer Bettina Makalintal pointedly opined in her piece titled “I Am Tired Of Watching People Go to Italy.” The show was canceled after two seasons.
Wherever we are, be it post-COVID or near-post-COVID or lull-in-COVID, whilst dodging Greta Thunberg “flight shaming,” or incorporating that into vacation time reckoning, such travelogues seem to need not just a rebirth but a reimagining. Enter Eugene Levy, whose show The Reluctant Traveler premieres February 24 on Apple TV+, and some banal quote, not just by a great philosopher, but one attributed simply to “a great philosopher,” who once said “‘the world is a book and those who don’t travel read only one page.’” To which he follows, “I’ve read a few pages and I’m not crazy about the book.” From this voiceover intro, he’s already mid stride into his schtick of seductive mildness.
All professorial specs but guy-next-door befuddlement, an immovable silver quaff, expressively furrowing Scorsese brows, Levy steels himself to take on adventures, nudged along by some unseen and unknown motivations. He alternates between passive exasperation and polite flummox, always keeping a lid on with that button-down kind of Canadian conservatism. A constant half-grimace gives the type of disappointed dad energy of a tired man corraling multiple toddlers at an unfamiliar airport, one who has yet been unable to locate a beer. Or maybe one wondering as to why the lawnmower didn’t start on the first pull. It’s an air so close to knowable, real, and because he’s not your dad it all seems affable, or at least more sympathetic than annoying. Maybe it’s because his attitude is always somehow more smart aleck than smart-ass. Whatever it is, Levy’s characters come with a three-dimensional grounding, a soft humanity within the ridiculous likes of Christopher Guest’s Waiting For Guffman and Best In Show, giving a genuine pathos to such insular worlds of absurd passion and ridiculous dreams.
With a sort of naivete, he outlines, continuously, the reluctance of the show’s title: “I don’t look forward to traveling for a number of reasons,” “I don’t have an adventurous spirit,” “I’m more the great indoors type of guy.” He’s constantly uncomfortable in this world he’s spent avoiding, and nearly every episode he seems to ask some form of “would I have done this, on my own?” Arriving, every time, at “probably not.”
But maybe I should try something different is not really much of a frame for an adventure tale, especially with so many obvious contextualizations seeming, today, right at hand. Chef’s Table, as a kind of wandering foodie melodrama, seems overproduced almost with the intention of getting the type of loving mock that Guest and Levy penned together for folk music in A Mighty Wind. (Levy also co-wrote Guffman and Best In Show.)
Instead, he takes viewers along, for some reason or none at all, to a beautiful and random menu of places, skirting through, barely enjoying, warming up, coming out with bow-tying Hallmark sentiments: “It’s the families that are keeping the cities alive.” Perhaps when you start from a shoulder-shrug point of “I’m 75, and maybe it’s time to expand my horizons,” this is as deep as you might dive.
Levy starts in Finland, standing in the snow wondering about the feelings in his extremities, getting picked up in a snowmobile, sliding slickly forward in a land of huge hats, toward the Aurora Borealis and Insta-ready snowbound luxury cabins. It’s hard to put much stock in the fish-out-of-water narrative, even when he’s ice fishing, even when he’s digging his own hole with an impossibly Herculean looking corkscrew. Abundant warmth and lavish robes always feel just beyond the camera’s scope. Eventually, he follows along on some humorless husky sledding and vodka flights, reindeer tasting and reindeer feeding. There are pedestrian observations about clean air and happy people, conversations about Finnish “sisu,” a national ideal of stoic determination. Or something. It is broached and rehashed and recycled and attempted to be made a punchline out of so often that it seems to lose meaning.
It’s the same with the Costa Rican notion of “pura vida.” The phrase gets tossed around, used as a greeting, as a catchall tag near to the point of mockery, as Levy waxes on the tropical humidity and “general clamminess” of the place. The Nervous Nelly routine wears a bit thin on a jungle night hike populated by bullet ants and eyelash vipers. His guide’s easy smile, not to mention his room’s sliding door, shows that danger is anything but imminent. “I’m just not good with volcanoes,” he says, once again accentuating the out-of-his-element status. But it’s clear by episode two this is a man out of his element anytime the AC hums a bit too loud. He at least gets off one of the only funny lines of the early episodes, while realizing the mountain shadowing his $1K-per-night stilted jungle cabin is actually a volcano: “I was hoping it’d be more dormant.”
Such humor seems washed away by Venice, though, as the audience, yes, finds itself back in Italy. From the patio of the Gritti Palace, a favorite of the likes of Liberace and Chaplin, he seems bothered by the bustle of water taxis. He tempers appreciation for dried cod with an ill-toned beat of “I was expecting cat food.” He fawns over the hair of a gondolier, bristles at the advice of “go get lost” with a “that is so not me,” and winds up with raviolis, shaped like gondolas, fork action going in slow motion, strings swelling like this was a Proustian moment. “This is outstanding food,” he feels, eventually ending the evening with a dessert made to look like a cigar while sitting at Ernest Hemingway’s old table.
Having never been to Venice, we can still confidently say this is not an authentic experience of Venice. Or maybe that is jealousy and annoyance at the hotel itself, which starts at around $1,250 a night. Such an Orbitz search might finally beg the question: Who is this show for? Turns out that price wouldn’t even get you half-a-night at the resort he bags as headquarters for helicopter-traversing and such in Utah.
At the core of it all seems to be a marriage of “I can say I’ve been there” sentiment and one-percenter accommodations he barely wants to leave. It’d be hard to find a travel motivation more base, less Bourdain. Even when he finally takes a polar plunge in the backwoods of Finland, it is done in a cozy flotation suit, warm and protected, aptly skimming along the top of things at a scrunched-nose remove.
It’s hard to deny, or stop rooting for, Levy and his disarming sweetness, that nearly cheerful orneriness, his resounding nerdy normalcy. Even, or especially when, playing a bit of a cuck, his characters all seem loaded with history, with frustration and disappointment not of the lofty poet sort, but of the dentist with a dream. Of the loving Terrier dad.
“People say, ‘You must have been the class clown.’ And I say, ‘No, I wasn’t. But I sat next to the class clown, and I studied him,’” he straight faces as Dr. Pearl in Waiting For Guffman, a line so perfect it seems like an echo of the character, the actor, the writer, the man. Here he is the class clown. A role that, to his credit, he’s always seemed far too nice, too even, too comfortingly average to fully embody. As Gerry Fleck in Best In Show, in a beautiful aside of the sort where Levy always sparkles, he laments, “I have two left feet.” Seeing him so front and relentlessly center stage, it makes this kind of physical shortcoming almost literal—again. It also makes most of the steps of this travelogue more meandering, less revelatory, and not very funny.
The Reluctant Traveler With Eugene Levy premieres February 24 on Apple TV+
43 Comments
Looks like this will be a cross between Someone Feed Phil and Travel Man, the former a glorious warm hug and the latter an affected ironic shrug. Despite loving Ayoade normally – I’m hoping it leans more towards Phil.
Throw in a little An Idiot Abroad, too.
I’m guessing the “writer” didn’t like the show and decided to ALSO tear Eugene Levy down. What is going on with this site? Oh and the “review” was so overwritten it bordered on satire. But not the good kind.
The AV Club is now, essentially, the writers’ own personal extended-word count twitter.Look, not everyone can parlay three semesters of an English degree into something dignified, is what I’m saying.
Levy has had a long career of appearing in terrible stuff. Sure, he’s also done some very good things as well. But for every SCTV or Christopher Guest film, there is ten times the amount of dreck. Let’s not forget the multiple straight-to-video American Pie sequels (where he was the only returning original cast member). Before Schitt’s Creek (which I also don’t like, but acknowledge that he’s the best thing in it) his career was mostly forgettable bit parts and one-shot guest spots on bad sitcoms. I don’t think he’s bad, but his track record is terrible for a guy with his talents.
You got me straight trippin, boo
Then I apologize.
um, it has been unequivocally determined that catherine o’hara is the best thing about schitt’s creek.
Maybe so. I felt like she and Levy were in an entirely different show than the kids.
You guess that?Yeah, they didn’t like the show. Where did they tear Levy down? All I hear is the disconnect between praising him elsewhere and not caring for this pointless production.
Agreed, this reads more like “why watch travel shows, period?” Except in the form of a couple dozen run-on sentences.
I’ve never understood the appeal of “watch NPR-friendly white dude explore places” travelogue shows.
This did very much remind me of Tucci’s very similar feeling show.
Yeah, I don’t fucking get it. Why the fuck do I want to watch a celebrity fart around tourist traps and sip cortados?
NPR types are going to naturally gravitate towards NPR types. People generally like watching people that are like them travel, especially if they can’t do it themselves since that gives them a surrogate. The review seems to have a bee in their bonnet about Eugene Levy, not just the show, but I agree that a lot of travel shows rarely ever function as a real impression of a place—either they are highly-produced rich person tours, or they’re some faux “I want to experience what real living is like” bit, like “Common People” applied to travel, which romanticizes poverty or quaintness. I don’t think Bourdain ever really escaped that, he just had a more blue-collar manner to him so it went over easier. I think the reality is you can’t distill a place and its people down to a bunch of attractions and food you hit up in a week, and that’s fine as long as you don’t act otherwise.
Fair!
The only show of that type that I truly enjoyed was “An Idiot Abroad”. Karl is still the absolute best.
I do like to watch Rick Steves, who is the quintessential NPR-friendly white dude exploring places, but I like it because his shows are intended to be educational and accessible to the everyday traveler. He’s showing practical advice and where to go, and always keeping budget in mind.I also like Bourdain, who is decidedly not NPR-friendly. I don’t think No Reservations was meant to be educational, per se, but you could tell it was somebody really trying to *see* a place and show the value of travel and getting to know people not like yourself, not just ticking off a box.I had no interest in watching Tucci’s show at all. Nothing against him, but it definitely seemed like a “watch my lavish vacation” show.
Also, Rick Steves was there before all this recent craze of travel shows. And the Internet as we know it. Reading his books (can’t remember if his show existed then or if I had seen it) helped me when I first went to Europe in the late 1980s. His stuff seemed geared to inexperienced travelers without a lot of money and his “travel light” philosophy has guided me ever since.
Yes, I always use his books when I travel in Europe, even now that I’m pretty experienced! They’re the best one-stop shop to start with on a trip.
I do like Tucci’s 1996 movie Big Night about an Italian restaurant in 1950s America that is trying to expand American ideas of Italian food beyond spaghetti & meatballs, and failing, though.
I love Stanley Tucci in everything! I just had no interest in watching him vacation in Italy.
Rick Steves is the friggin’ best.
Pretty much agreed, but I will speak in defense of Rick Steves, who is on PBS, but is a professional travel writer/commenter whose target audience is Americans who are afraid to travel. He’s a decent fellow, not only being an episcopal deacon but one of the first “respectable” celebrities to join the fight to legalize weed. His show sometimes drives me bonkers because it is so basic. Really, the Lourve is a must see? Thanks for letting me know. But I’m not his target, and he’s genuine in his desire to see more Americans travel. I just wish more of his target audience would be open to watching him.
I appreciate the rebuttal! Seems solid.
More of a differentiation! I just didn’t want him lumped in with celebrity vanity projects, which are irritating. And I’m a big Schitthead, too. Love Eugene Levy, but I don’t need to watch rich people go places I can’t afford to.
They’re nice to look at. I watch most of the different types of travel shows. I know Bourdain is stuff I’ll never do. But once in a while, I like 4K footage of places I’ll never see.
“Even, or especially when, playing a bit of a cuck”Ex-fucking-CUSE ME?
This would be better with Bobby Bittman hosting.
“HOW AAAARE YAAAAAA” :: jazz hands ::
If this is anyone but Steve Allen, you’re stealing my bit!
It’s an homage!
…
only travel and food show one needs:101 Places to Party Before You Die (currently streaming on HBOMax). it’s not exactly international (yet, hopeful for a season 2) but they actually do what the locals do and, as a viewer, i find myself wanting to travel to places i never had interest in before. also the hosts are great improv comedians and actual friends so you just get to see them doing bits and having fun and its great!
Yes, but is it 30 minute episodes or 60? Because this sounds like exactly the type of “I really don’t have time for an hour long show before bedtime” filler that Men In Kilts was.
Interesting. I really like Eugene Levy, but this show sounds positively insufferable.
I felt it to be so.
The Finns were exceedingly kind, patient and good-humoured with him, graciously abiding his ‘I guess I’ll try, seeing as I’m here already’ dispassion towards virtually everything.
The minimal ‘all about family’ talk he landed on finally, was so banal and insipid, it bordered on ‘damning with faint praise’.
On the whole, it was not a good look; I’m kind of flabbergasted at the IMDB rating. Maybe he becomes less of a reluctant guest in later episodes?
It’s unfortunate and I wonder if he’s aware that he’s coming off this way, because in general he seems like a nice guy and I can’t imagine he wants to be seen as someone who’s rude to his hosts and host country.
I would watch a show with Eugene Levy & Emily Hampshire traveling around & recreating their coworker dynamic as Johnny & Stevie from Schitt’s Creek
I like Levy’s work generally well enough, but I’ve listened to too many commentary tracks and interviews to fall for a version of “him” where he’s this character.He’s kind of a condescending dick.
This is incoherent
Got around to watching the Finland and Tokyo episodes. It’s beautifully filmed and the locations are lovely. I have to grudgingly agree with the writer, Levy’s constant put-upon schtick gets really old… and I’ve loved Levy since his SCTV days. I won’t bother with the rest of the episodes.