Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown

Ugh, two episodes behind already. Must catch up.

It was indeed all right. The Lloyd Ultan bits, hip-hop detours, and coverage of unsung groups like the Tiano were great representations of the Bronx and its tendency to shelter the ignored and incubate their sub-cultures. When Bourdain did his NYC episode of No Reservations he clearly had no idea what to do with the Bronx beyond visiting a restaurant near Yankee Stadium and playing aloof tourist.

Before the Bronx episode first aired Bourdain tweeted that it wouldn't feature places like the relatively famous Arthur Avenue, but I think that was a missed opportunity to further illustrate my prior description of the Bronx. The truth of the matter is most people don't know about the origins of hip-hop, or that places like Arthur Avenue ever existed. If they do know of such places, they usually just assume they are lost to history. Arthur Avenue isn't Mulberry Street; like many neighborhoods in the Bronx, it's alive and constantly absorbing the people and customs of the immigrants that came after the New Immigration, all while preserving its roots. I can't fault the show for failing to capture the entirety of the Bronx, but it could have spent its time a little more wisely. The City Island and graffiti segments could have been spent saying so much more.

The Bronx never gets to be a living borough. It was either always a wasteland or a place that was once civilized, but currently a wasteland. If you're a suburban New Yorker, you'll just assume the white people you talk to from the Bronx practically live in Westchester, given the borough's borders. It's either too suburban to be considered the city or too moribundly urban to be a suitable place to live. It's never what it is.

I have no memory at all of the Madagascar episode other than Tony taunting Darren Aronofsky's vegetarianism.
The New Jersey episode could have used that halfway break where he does something else. Too many visits to ruined seaside towns. Could have gone upstate to where it's so surprisingly rural.

I liked the Scotland episode but would have preferred more time in Glasgow. The hunting trip was tense as that kind of stuff always is on his shows, but I don't think it deserved the entire back half of the episode. I'd rather have more time with that comedian lady. Her example of the Glasgow sense of humor was the highlight of the episode.

I've never had haggis. Never had the opportunity. Anyone here had haggis? Anyone here made haggis?

The Hawaii ep was surprisingly good. i think he finally got into the whole underside of a more popularly known destination thing.

The Jersey ep a few weeks ago seemed to be trying to ape his excellent Massachusetts episode from last season but didn't have the material for it.

I don't remember what's come in between.

I'm assuming that was the finale last night since I didn't see any promos for next week. CNN's really bad about letting you know finales.

A return to Beirut certainly had its work cut out for it, seeing as how it'd be going up against probably the best episode Bourdain's ever done, which also not coincidentally set the outline for this show. But again, I felt like it was too scattershot, kind of hitting the same points over and over again. Like a DVD extra almost. So this run of episodes wasn't all that great, i guess.

I haven't kept up well. I have like 5 or 6 episodes saved to the DVR still. Not sure when I'll get to them all, but I am really eager to watch the Istanbul episode, now that I've been there.

Oh, so apparently Tony is promising that Houston's gonna be in the next season, and they will be here early in '16 shooting. He's said his idea is for the show to be entirely about being Vietnamese in Houston, kinda like how the LA ep was basically about the Korean community there.

And, I'm fine with him not doing all the usuals, but it seems a missed opportunity to go that narrow. Houston is the most ethnically diverse city in North America. I'd rather him talk just about that, find out how that came to be, why that is, pick some even more obscure ethnic groups to highlight and hang out with.

Conversely, the Manila season premiere ep was really good. The angle of offshore Philippino workers was something i had no idea existed, and so portraying that life and how it impacted the national psyche was a really great insight.

Yeah, two episodes stacked up on the DVR already, and I never did finish last season.

We'll see.

I miss no reservations. :-(

Me too. You wouldn't think Parts Unknown would be all that different, but I think he's just tired of doing this and it's impacting the show. Not that it matters; this is apparently a blockbuster for CNN.

Senegal: Again, low hopes for the episode, but this was a really great outing. First and foremost, Tony seemed to actually want to be there. He asked good questions. He was engaged by the food and the locale. And that goes a long way for making the episode better all around.

Cologne, Germany: This is a template for a good PU episode: go someplace people may not know that much about, delve into the history, explore local customs and food, maybe hit on a few hot-button topics. That's it. He did it very well.

So, finally, 7 seasons in, the show puts up a pretty good run of episodes.

Next week is the season finale in Buenos Aires.

He also started shooting a Houston episode for an upcoming season here last night.

I'm excited, but that probably means he'll have a segment on the typhoons of rain we've been getting lately, and then how balls hot it is as a result.