Common Sense Media Review
By Matt Springer
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Uncomfortable cultural encounters show how NOT to behave.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 15+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Watch
Videos and Photos
An Idiot Abroad
What's the Story?
Seven years ago, actor/producers Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant met a radio engineer named Karl Pilkington. Thus began a series of podcasts, books, and television series focused entirely around Pilkington's unique, closed-minded, frequently amusing view of the world. On AN IDIOT ABROAD, Merchant and Gervais send Pilkington to visit the seven wonders of the world with a camera crew in tow to capture his every inappropriate reaction.
Is It Any Good?
The past decade or so of reality television has given us some truly strange figures. Karl Pilkington may be the strangest. Stubbornly certain of his own narrow viewpoint, he speaks without thinking and delivers with such conviction that it becomes difficult to take him at all seriously.
To be fair, taking Karl Pilkington seriously is not the intent of An Idiot Abroad. Rather, show hosts and producers Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant fully encourage the viewer to laugh at Pilkington by placing him in situations where they know his innate instinct for distrust and closed-mindedness will kick in. At first, you may feel uncomfortable at how merciless Gervais and Merchant can be in probing and prodding Pilkington. But Pilkington remains unblinking; whatever his views, however outlandish or unfounded, he has a quiet certainty that almost dares you to keep a straight face. It makes for supremely watchable television.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about how the show deals with stereotypes. Is it easy to laugh at someone who is unwilling to open his mind to other cultures beyond his own stereotypes?
Would you ever want to travel around the world and visit all of its most amazing locations? Why or why not?
TV Details
- Premiere date : September 23, 2010
- Cast : Karl Pilkington , Ricky Gervais , Stephen Merchant
- Network : SCIENCE
- Genre : Reality TV
- TV rating :
- Last updated : September 24, 2022
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