If one were to describe Anthony Bourdain's Parts Unknown, it would have to, quite simply, be "just like No Reservations -- with slow motion."
Bourdain has said that he left he Travel Channel and moved to CNN to gain access to places that he couldn't go to with No Reservations. There was never any expectation of something completely new -- he said many times that he would still "travel the world on his stomach" and his production crew remained the same.
So, the only marked difference we could see was the introduction of strange slow motion cutaways that suddenly speed up.
In the premiere episode, Bourdain travels to Myanmar. The country has just emerged from a 50 year information embargo and dictator regime and it's interesting and disturbing to see Bourdain question his hosts over dinner about prison sentences and their still-shaky futures.
When Tony meets journalist Thiha Saw for tea, he asks the newsman how he avoided jail. Turns out he didn't. It's after some uncomfortable silences, we realize that even though the country has been opened for Americans to come visit, not much has really changed for the people -- especially people who dare to talk back to the government.
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Tony also sits down with local indie rockers, Side Effect, at a restaurant
on 19th Street, the Burmese equivalent of South Beach, for a few beers
and a chat. We learn that all song lyrics are submitted to the
government, who then, in turn, "suggest" alternative phrases. Though
that's a far cry from music here, there's one thing that all musicians
have in common no matter where they play -- a disdain for Christian
rockers Creed. "The worst band in the history of the world," Bourdain
enthusiastically agrees.
Serendipitously meeting up with owner of
Les Halles, Philippe LaJunie, the two take the "midnight train going
anywhere". A ten hour-long journey to travel 600 km turns into a kidney-jarring 19 hour odyssey of pain and boredom before they get to Bagan, a
surreal city of four thousand temples and buildings built thousands of
years ago.
Though there are still more goats than tourists, we
see Phillipe being cajoled and harassed to buy trinkets and postcards by
teens while Tony muses that with tourism comes prosperity, yes..but
also prostitution and hustling.
Tony then says what we're all
thinking. That while he and his crew can go home, the people that he
spoke to on camera are home and might suffer consequences of talking out
of turn. He confides that a lot of people politely declined his
invitation to appear on the show, stating that they had already been in
jail and had no appetite for returning. While for the moment, things seem
to be moving in the right direction, Tony muses that only time will
tell if the new-found freedom of speech will last.
Though this
first episode was certainly in line with a one-hour show for a
cable news network, it remains to be seen what the coming episodes will
be like. He'll go to Los Angeles (which is next week's episode),
Congo, Colombia, Canada, Libya, Peru, and Morocco. That's a world tour
geographically, politically, and culturally. Let's see how Bourdain
stirs the pot in the weeks to come.
Follow Laine Doss on Twitter @LaineDoss and Facebook.
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