Dark Tourist

:

Season 1
  • Network: Netflix
  • Series Premiere Date: Jul 20, 2018
User Score
5.8

Mixed or average reviews- based on 25 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 13 out of 25
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 25
  3. Negative: 7 out of 25
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User Reviews

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  1. azovka
    Feb 20, 2019
    5
    Among the positive aspects of the show, it is beautifully shot. Areal footage is great, and the editing and soundtrack choices do succeed in creating an atmosphere.
    However, the show host David's attitude towards the places he's visiting is a bit off-putting, and a lot of interesting things and questions are glossed over.
    As an example - his botched prayer at the Shinto shrine in the    Among the positive aspects of the show, it is beautifully shot. Areal footage is great, and the editing and soundtrack choices do succeed in creating an atmosphere.
    However, the show host David's attitude towards the places he's visiting is a bit off-putting, and a lot of interesting things and questions are glossed over.
    As an example - his botched prayer at the Shinto shrine in the Japan episode, where he doesn't show any respect for the locals' customs and is more of a "urgh, lets get this over with" thing. Or the glossing-over of the animist beliefs surrounding the "suicide forest", where locals claim to feel the presence of spirits. That is never explored either.

    The show doesn't seem to succeed neither in sensationalising these "dark" stories, nor in presenting their reality and gravity, what with the light tone it adopts. And at the end of each episode, there isn't any moral or lesson or anything to remember about it other than "place / thing X is weird".
    It doesn't help that a lot of disjointed stories and locales are crammed together in each episode, which makes any in-depth look at them impossible. And it's further not helped by the show host David that fails to ask any interesting question, and generally has a very, dare I say, "millennial" and judgemental attitude that can be summed up as "wow, okay, weird".

    Tldr: Show with an interesting concept and great production value, but whose execution is quite poor, and is presented by an annoying and seemingly clueless host. Even VICE documentaries have more substance.    … Expand

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
66

Generally favorable reviews - based on 5 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 5
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 5
  3. Negative: 0 out of 5
  1. The Atlantic
    Reviewed by: Sophie Gilbert
    Jul 26, 2018
    40
    In rare moments, Dark Tourist (the show) summons some sense of this appreciation for how resilient people can be. ... More often, Dark Tourist treats its subjects like curios in a junk shop, casually examining them from different angles and then discarding them. ... Dark Tourist is just another guide on the trip, cashing in on people’s morbid curiosities without caring what real wisdom it could impart if it tried.
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  2. IndieWire
    Reviewed by: Steve Greene
    Jul 20, 2018
    50
    There are plenty of questions to be had about many of the things Dark Tourist wants to capture. It just seems like this show never asks the right ones.
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  3. The Daily Beast
    Reviewed by: Nick Schager
    Jul 20, 2018
    80
    Dark Tourist is the work of a cheery, good-natured, curious individual drawn to the ugliest side of human nature, and it’s that contrast which gives the series its potent energy. Over the course of each 40-minute installment, Farrier gets himself into situations both strange and perilous, which is all the more captivating because he comes across as a fundamentally jovial sort of wide-eyed explorer.
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