Wasted Weekends

What’s it about? This is a travel show that condenses popular,mostly urban,destinations over a weekend squarely aimed at suburban,middle-aged Americans. The host,Samantha Brown is full of puns and pleasant conversation. Brown primarily visits American cities with a few ‘exotic’ destinations such as London and Vancouver thrown in. The show promises that Samantha will ‘take you to her secret,off-the-beaten-path discoveries,the places that she’s found on her travels that she doesn’t normally share’. This might be true for her urban adventures,but in the episode in which she goes dog-sledding in Minnesota,she visibly doesn’t enjoy herself enough to convince anyone that it was a great weekend. The town she visits,Ely,is too small to even have an oft-beaten path or any secrets.

Who’s in it? Samantha Brown. Lots of her. And a glimpse of the people she meets during her activities at each destination. Brown took voice lessons on over a decade with the intention of doing musicals,but has been a host for Travel and Living for just over a decade. Having mostly hosted shows that focus on luxurious destinations,this is billed as a more informal show in unique settings. While agreeable,she comes across as dull and her weekends could only excite those viewers who spend theirs sitting in to watch her show. We aren’t surprised that Anthony Bourdain’s travel show,No Reservations,has 10 times the number of fans on Facebook.

What’s hot? The show is watchable when Brown does things she’s comfortable with — drinking beer in Chicago,visiting the Italian festival in Boston and eating at diners in Orlando. We also applaud her dedication to her job and her resolve to do a thing thoroughly. In the sledding episode,for instance, Brown feeds the dogs,cleans their droppings,harnesses them,learns commands and builds them a twig-bed to sleep on. We learn about the personalities of these magnificent animals and,as with humans,the different elements that make up a good team. In some parts,Brown does manage to genuinely connect with them.

What’s not? The show could have been enjoyable if,simply,the host enjoyed herself. Perhaps visiting a non-luxurious destination was a bad idea for a woman who,upon concluding her sled ride (sledding being the point of the weekend) and finding out that the ice over the lake was thick enough for cars to go across,asks,‘We could have driven here?’. Brown simply isn’t funny or entertaining enough either — though she tries with her puns. While struggling to harness a dog,which requires her to stand on top of it,she remarks,“Never had to work so hard to get something between my legs.” There was much schadenfreude when we saw her conclude a sledder’s initiation of jumping into freezing lake water.

Should you be watching it? Even discounting the sanitised personality of the host,the format simply doesn’t work for India. Who,from here in their right mind,would consider any of these destinations as a weekend getaway spot?