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Is there a triumph of substance over style?
If this is the case, the new Netflix docuseries could be an example. Dark Tourist theoretically has everything I love. It takes a totally affable curator (David Farrier), a man whose ethical, down-to-earth, and charming focus of New Zealand is a big highlight for his subject: "Dark" tourism ", where people are deliberately desperate to avoid (like battle zones, or nuclear disaster sites, or a small village terrorized by killer bees – not literally bee killers, at least not that I I saw, but you get the picture). There are tourist industries created to satisfy adrenaline junkies, dishonorers, people who love the macabre and lovers of stories that tend to be forgotten. Farrier covers the entire world by documenting them: from an incredibly corny JFK assassination tour to Dallas (with an imitator Jackie) to a bus of very anxious people carrying Geiger counters through the ruins of Fukushima, to Japan, to an "interview with vampires" in New Orleans and a Segway scooter ride from a war-torn border region to Cyprus, where if you turn to one side, you could crush your absurd scooter and if you turn in the other direction, you could be shot by angry military guards.
So I was a little surprised to be disappointed by the series, which is a solid idea and not badly built. Why did not I completely like every minute? One thing that struck me was that it might have been helpful to know a little more about Farrier 's angle; it was sometimes difficult to tell if he was himself a "black tourist" or someone trying to understand them (depending on the episode, you could draw a conclusion). It has a flat, tongue-in-cheek delivery style that is loosely reminiscent of a character The Flight of the Conchords . Like, he is so laid back it's almost funny and then almost weird and then almost funny and then almost uninteresting and then really funny and then slightly disaffecting and … are you with me here? This. Whatever it is, it is nice to wall to wall. And to be fair, he introduces himself as a journalist, and neutrality and neutrality are character traits in a journalist in many situations. It could be slightly too disputed for this means. I am not sure I have yet made up my mind about it.
For one reason or another – probably a combination of some places being more intrinsically interesting than others and the genial but shy personality of the host – the episodes are quite uneven in their impact. The US episode focuses on a clan of vampires that makes the guys from Twilight positively carefree, plus JFK's assassination tour and another even sadder one whose "Dark Attraction" A tour of sites associated with serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer and has the nerve to take people's money and then use dowsing rods to suggest that Dahmer's ghost is now following . (A visit to Dahmer's lawyer is interesting from a redeeming point of view, but it's certainly journalism versus tourism). A trip to Southeast Asia to observe unusual rituals around mummified corpses is really intriguing.
The Latin American episode is arguably the star, as Farrier follows a Mexican "death cult", gets a few surprises – bringing me back to the scene of that awful period when I had to watch a Discovery Channel show about the hidden treasure of Pablo Escobar (the sicario known as "Popeye" and the ex-sister-in-law of Escobar have apparently become accustomed to the camera) – and of more poignant way, shed light on a craft industry that I had no idea: Apparently you can "simulate" an illegal crossing over the Rio Grande, with coyotes, guns, bandits, severe dehydration and a capture of the eleventh hour by "immigration". This may seem disgusting, but by far the most interesting segment. We understand that the purpose of the exercise is to show people how desperate you are to try to enter the United States this way. It's a well-orchestrated mimicry (by someone who has already been paid to get people out of Mexico), and it becomes very emotional for almost everyone, including Farrier.
So: The episodes are uneven and the host, affable, is sometimes a little too far from what it does to be totally catchy. I'm expecting the surface of the black tourism industry to be barely scuffed this season, and if there is a second one I hope a somewhat more fixed relationship between the host and the equipment, because it is difficult to know if "black tourism" or "dark tourist tourism. "And it turns out that it makes a difference." In times when he becomes discernible emotionally involved, the show has a little bit of flair. </ P> <p> In his most impassive units, he may be slightly licked.
Dark Tourist is now being streamed on Netflix.
Amy Glynn is a poet, essayist and fiction writer who really loves that you can multi-task by browsing TV and Cabernet glasses simultaneously. lives in the San Francisco Bay Area
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