I am a huge fan of Eugene Levy. Even as a kid, he was my favorite SCTV actor and I coukdn't get enough of him in Splash as Dr. Kornbleauth. Schitt's Creek was one of my favorite shows and he is always kind of the glue that holds things together without being center stage as a main character. He steals the show as Jim's Dad in American Pie in only a few scenes. In this show, he is front and center as the main attraction.
While he is affable and dryly funny, the producers of the show focus too much on constantly broadcasting this theme that he is reluctant to travel. I get its the theme of the show ... but they go overboard to script him leaving poor Eugene seeming to play a characterized version of himself. This character is somewhere between Larry David's crusty nebbish on Curb Your Enthusiasm and Bill Murray's hypochondriac in 'What About Bob?'. While Levy is a master of the Jack Benny style reaction, it feels schitcky and forced.
Despite having to force belief that Levy is actually often worried about things like Venice being built on stilts and sinking, the show's cinematography is visually beautiful. It is very similar to the instagram-like photography of Stanley Tucci's show Finding Italy, although this show utilizes zoom in drone shots and ultra zooming techniques. Wherever they film, you want to be. We noticed that many of the episodes are filmed on grey sky or overcast days. This takes away from the 'perfect blue sky travel wish fulfilment' aspect of the show a bit.
Speaking of comparisons ... where does Levy stack up against Stanley Tucci or even the gold standard of Anthony Bourdain? I've always found Tucci a bit smarmy and wooden. There's not much you can do with the reactions without getting annoying when eating a lot each episode. Tucci seems to do, 'Mmmmm. Come on! ...' or 'Ohhhh. That's fantastic' a dozen times each episode, which annoys us to no end. Levy does show reverence to his server but we respect him making dry jokes as a reaction vs. The obligatory contented grunt and eye roll. Case in point when he does his suspicious curmudgeon act over a piece of salt cod in Venice before taking a bite and telling his host, 'That's actually good. I expected it to taste like cat food.'
Levy doesn't bite off as much in each setting as Bourdain or Tucci ... some of the things he does seem forced and overly dramatic. I'll leave the elephant thing alone ... but plunging into ice cold waters or retrieving floating breakfasts from an infinity pool. Eh. The producers make sure he seems skittish about being in the water while taking any sort of boat ... milk any kind of fear out of flying or swimming ... and even script the staff he speaks to. Such as when the director of a $7,000 per night luxury resort in the Maldives makes it a point to mention to the wide-eyed Levy the sharks that occasionally swim past their coral reef or the guest whose ear was bit off by a trigger fish.
It's hard not to be jealous of someone being paid to stay in a $1,000 per night resort and be pampered. As Anthony Bourdain showed us, the grass isn't always greener and this IS work, afterall. I'm not going to be jealous of Levy and his crew. Rather, I do enjoy seeing some of the 'other half' living it up knowing that a few of their spots are carefully selected by local fixers and you better believe I am going to try them when I am in that location. Bottom line is its hard not to enjoy the scenery and cinematography of this show and as far as travel shows go, Levy is a natural host. I just had hoped for a little less scripting ... the show seems too forced. The opposite is true of Tucci. In season 1, he was so wooden and boring the producers hired joke writers to jazz it up. Levy doesn't need that as his personality shine through but a little less forced by the producers would be nice. We get it ... he's reluctant.
