DVD Corner

An Idiot Abroad Season 1 DVD Review

“An Idiot Abroad” is funny at times, but it grows tiresome rather quickly.

The premise: In this 8 episode series, Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant send their oddball, simple minded pal, and podcasting partner Karl Pilkington on a trip across the globe to visit the 7 wonders of the world (the Great Wall Of China, the Taj Mahal, the Petra, the Chichen Itza, the Great Pyramids, Christ The Redeemer, and Machu Picchu). On these trips, Karl is meant to experience other cultures to “broaden his horizons”. Unfortnately for Karl, he doesn’t much like traveling outside of his comfort zone which results in plenty of awkward and amusing situtations. The season concludes with an episode in which Karl talks about his adventures to Ricky and Stephen.

If you’re a fan of the insanely popular Ricky Gervais podcast, you’ll probably enjoy this show as it’s more or less an extension of the podcast. The entire show just feels like an expensive experiment that the sadistic Gervais wants to play on Karl because he knows Karl will not enjoy his trips (for the most part). As you can probably guess, Karl doesn’t have much fun. Instead, he complains about everything, gets ill, and tries to experience other cultures by learning kung fu, getting painted, riding a camel, dancing at Carnival in Rio, etc.

While some of Karl’s complaints and bad experiences like the phony kidnapping and the freakout about the pilot eating a sandwich are undoubtedly amusing, most of the time the show just feels as exhausting as Karl likely is on his trips. ‘Abroad’ is basically a one joke show and the joke gets old rather fast. Personally, I found the show to be at its best when Karl was actually enjoying himself like in parts of the Mexico episode.

Another awkward thing about the show is that Karl really has no one to interact with. Since no one but the film crew is with him, Karl constantly has to talk to the cameras which essentially means he’s talking to himself since the crew isn’t talking to him while the cameras are rolling.

Summary: If you love “An Idiot Abroad,” you’ll want to pick up this DVD set. If you haven’t seen it, watch an episode and see what you think. If you’ve seen one episode, you’ve really seen them all.

Video/Audio:

The series is presented in widescreen and I have to say the cinematography is the best part of the show. I’m kind of baffled as to why the show wasn’t released on Blu-ray because it is one of the few shows that actually needs to be in hi-def.

The Dolby Digital Stereo audio track is decent. It does its job.

Extras:
* Trailers for “The Office” and “Men Behaving Badly”.
* “The Preview Show” is a featurette with Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant and Karl Pilkington talking about the show, Karl, the trips, and their friendship. Clips of the show are scattered throughout.
* Deleted scenes titled “What Karl Packed For India,” “Karl And The Man With Many Accents,” “Karl Meets Jesus,” “Karl Snorkeling,” “Karl On Cacti,” “Karl Gets Picked Up,” “Karl On Body Beautiful,” and “Karl Plays Connect 4”.
* A 3 ½ minute photo gallery.

January 15, 2012 - Posted by nicklyons1 | DVD review | An Idiot Abroad Season 1 DVD Review, Karl Pilkington, Ricky Gervais, Ricky Gervais Golden Globes, Ricky Gervais Podcast, Stephen Merchant