By
December 02, 2020
It’s coming up almost a year without international travel for most of us. If you’re getting itchy feet, or wondering whereabouts you’d go when the world zaps itself out of this seemingly alternative reality – or even if you’re quite happy at home but just want a day-dream diversion we’ve lined up some of the best travel-inspired shows currently streaming.
And it’s not just actual travel, we’ve thrown in some fictional shows that will inspire you with their location and scenery.
The Best of British
The Brits love a good travel show: from Michael Palin to David Attenborough they’ve created a rich history. With Attenborough, it’s a question of where to start. There are so many great programmes from the great man on a variety of streaming channels. But given the state of 2020 the 93-year-old’s A Life On Our Planet is critical viewing for these times. It’s not so much a travel show in the usual sense, but a retrospective look back his six decades travelling the globe and what has changed in that time – for the worse in some cases and for the better in others. It comes with a set viewpoint on how modern human living has tipped the planet out of balance but it’s not preachy or finger-wagging – it’s just typically Attenborough observation.
The opposite of Attenborough
Richard Ayoade found fame as Moss from the tech comedy The IT Crowd and the application of his comic genius to travel is infectious, but Attenborough this ain’t. The beauty of Travel Man is the speed at which everything happens – it’s the travel of equivalent of Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee in that each episode features a different celebrity who goes off for a 48-hour getaway with Ayoade. Travel Man started as a spinoff of Gadget Man and while it’s only been going for five years we’re already up to season 9 but that’s because the series adheres to the show’s format: short and sweet. Hence series 8 streaming on TVNZ OnDemand is only four episodes long, with each just over 20 minutes in duration, giving you the perfectly snackable entertainment-travel bite. And if 20 minutes is too long, in this attention-deficit age, go to YouTube and search “Travel Man” for lots of 2 and 3 minute morsels.
A bit like Attenborough
Simon Reeve is the antithesis of Ayoade but he’s also quite different to Attenborough in that he’s more politically-minded than nature-oriented. But the boyish-looking writer and TV presenter is no less entertaining. You can stream three of his shows on NeonTV: Sacred Rivers, Colombia and Russia. His series on Colombia will rivet fans of Narcos – especially when he ventures deep into the jungle to interview a leader of the guerilla group Farc. It’s this sort of intelligent political commentary that makes Reeve such an appealing host. His trek across Russia, is more than road trip – there’s an element of genuine fear when he crosses paths with the notorious FSB (the successor to the KGB) who stop Reeve and his crew, taking some of them to a psychiatric hospital for questioning!
Food for thought
If there’s one photo that defines the late Anthony Bourdain – and our world before things went all up the wazoo – it’s the famous shot of the New York chef and writer sharing a beer with US President Barack Obama in a humble Vietnamese restaurant. As Bourdain himself said of the photo when he tweeted it out as part of the publicity for his series Parts Unknown: “Low plastic stool, cheap but delicious noodles, cold Hanoi beer.” It’s a summary of all that’s good about travel and discovering joy in simplicity. And – yeah – you cannot imagine Donald Trump in this scene, right? And the irony is that it was shot in May 2016, just months before Trump was elected president but Bourdain presciently talks to Obama about people who are “actually talking about building a wall around our country”. The beauty of Bourdain is his sense of curiosity coupled with a humility that allows to him (and us) to understand and appreciate the diversity of cultures around the globe. Parts Unknown – which spans 12 series, all of which are available on YouTube – is arguably Bourdain’s best work because he argues so strongly for Americans to ditch their insularity and travel more. It’s also worth visiting Parts Unknown website where the various destinations are broken up into a tapas plate of snacks for the mind. There’s a dozen other food and travel shows to stream but Bourdain remains the benchmark.
The Kiwi version
Kiwi journalist David Farrier is carving out a niche for himself doing, well niche television and film. His documentary Tickled was a weird journey in the world of competitive endurance tickling that got weirder the deeper he went. His fascination with the unusual and darker side of humanity continues in Dark Tourist (Netflix). It’s not super scary or grim, well not all the time. There’s an exorcism in Mexico that’s not anything like the famous movie, a tramp through a haunted forest in Japan and he checks out the locations where serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer committed his crimes. It’s slightly squirmish but compelling viewing.
Away from the documentary side of travel, there are certain shows and movies that do as much to advertise a place as any travel brochure. Look what Game of Thrones has done for Northern Ireland.
Emily in Paris
Depending on your viewpoint Emily In Paris (created by Darren Star who gave us Sex And The City) is vacuous, candyfloss TV or it’s so charming and self-aware to the point that the cutesy escapism is the very point of it. For a rom-com fish out of water type story there’s nothing new here: American lands in Paris, can’t speak French goes to soirees, a chateaux and has tete-a-tetes with various beaux, charms everyone … but no-one is arguing with the timeless beauty of Paris. Watch it and swoon.
Killing Eve
The third series of this spy comedy-thriller is streaming on TVNZ OnDemand. It’s a romp through Europe’s must-visit places: London, Barcelona, Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin and Tuscany. However, it’s Romania – standing in for Russia – that catches the eye. Most notably Viscri, a charming 12th century village, with a UNESCO-listed church, in the heart of Transylvania.