In the wake of Anthony Bourdain’s passing, it feels like tons of male celebrities have tried their hand to fill the travel host’s shoes. Got an army of fans and a soft, calming voice? Apple TV+ is going to send you to Antarctica for a year—enjoy! For actors and other big personalities over the age of 35, these days, becoming a globetrotter has become a profitable profession. I can’t pretend I’m not jealous, having watched at least one episode of every one of these shows.
Though Bourdain and his Parts Unknown are the best pairing, a handful of these similar new series have been quite impressive. The best, by far, is Stanley Tucci’s Searching for Italy, though the CNN show only focused on cuisine in the Mediterranean country. Series like Down to Earth with Zac Efron and Eugene Levy’s The Reluctant Traveler have taken their stars all over the world, offering a more diverse array of new stories to tell. Conan O’Brien left his beloved talk show to film Conan O’Brien Must Go, yet another travel series that sees a lovable dude dragging his suitcase from corner to corner of our planet.
Most of these series have grabbed my attention in one way or another—it’s hard to pass on Tucci slurping up gobs of cacio e pepe, or Efron saying “wow” dozens of times—but there is one I was more hesitant about. I figured that Peacock’s Rainn Wilson and the Geography of Bliss might be only for avid fans of The Office, looking to see what the guy behind farmer Dwight Schrute is up to these days. Fortunately, I was wrong, and The Geography of Bliss is yet another playful way to travel from the comfort (and inexpensiveness) of your own couch.
Wilson’s presence wasn’t charming enough to pull me in on his own, nor was it a big enough detractor to convince me to stop watching. What really engaged me was that The Geography of Bliss has a premise so wonderful—based on a travel memoir of the same name by Eric Weiner—that any actor could lead the show. It follows Wilson as he travels around the world in a search for happiness, visiting the world’s happiest countries and most unhappy nations to shine a light on what works and what doesn’t. Out of all the travel shows I’ve watched (besides Parts Unknown), this is the most intriguing concept of the bunch.
Wilson, a pessimistic narrator, tries his hand at life in a handful of different nations with a variety of folks who live in city centers, farms, in the middle of nowhere—any spot where there’s a point to be made about happiness. The show loosely adheres to a recent international ranking of the happiest countries in the world. Why, Geography of Bliss asks, are Icelanders so happy? Ghana ranks in the bottom third of that happiness poll—but somehow, that same study also suggests that the country hosts one of the world’s most optimistic populations. And what can these nations teach the United States, which can’t break the top 10 happiest countries in the world?
While Wilson doesn’t add too much on his own, it’s nice to have a more skeptical view playing over this sunshine-y take on the world. Not everything is smiles and rainbows over in Iceland—or in any country Wilson visits, in fact—an acknowledgement that helps the series avoid an overly saccharine tone. Geography of Bliss also isn’t a show promoting tourism, as many travel series can be. Rather, it allows viewers to see how ways of life look in a country that isn’t their own, considering how they can apply these diverse perspectives to their own lives.
Despite the concept, it might be hard for The Geography of Bliss to find its audience, seeing as Wilson has had a tricky time developing his image following the success of The Office. He hasn’t become a bonafide superstar like a handful of his castmates. If you’re not hooked on reruns of The Office, perhaps there’s no reason for you to tune into The Geography of Bliss, which features a lot of Dwight Schrute-style behaviors.
The star has also had a few controversies in the past year, which made me feel even more apprehensive in covering this project. Just last year, Wilson came under fire for making a transphobic crack about using terms like “breastfeeding” versus “chest-feeding.” He apologized and deleted the tweet. But then, earlier this year, Wilson also faced backlash for attempting to call out “anti-Christian bias” in Hollywood online, after an episode of The Last of Us—though the actor does not identify as a Christian.
These social media comments led me to believe that Wilson is nothing like the blissful Tucci, who uses Instagram to share his basic pasta and cocktail recipes. Why would I have any interest in watching a guy who’s kind of annoying online, with a show I stopped liking after I turned 16? (Sorry to The Office fans—though I do respect your passion for the show.) I wasn’t immediately drawn to the show. In the end, though, I was glad to have seen it.
The appeal of Rainn Wilson and the Geography of Bliss, though, is not Wilson himself, but the greater idea that Peacock has introduced. Put just about any star’s name in, and you’d still have a great travel show. Wilson adds a bit of charm—he’s goofy enough to show his bare bum on TV in a hot spring in Iceland, for example—but the strongest reasons to watch the show don’t involve him. Watch the series to meet populations of three in Bulgaria’s countryside, to imagine having a drink with Iceland’s goofy mayor, and to learn how to be the happiest in your own life.
