Rainn Wilson hosts ‘Geography of Bliss’
Peacock streams “The Geography of Bliss,” a five-part travel and “wellness” series hosted by Rainn Wilson. Most of us know Wilson from his role as oddball Dwight Shrute on the NBC mockumentary series “The Office.”
Wilson uses his experience on that fake documentary series to pull back the curtain on some of the tricks of the reality TV trade. When he “just so happens” to meet a fellow actor on a street corner in Iceland, he jokes about how long it took to set up that “spontaneous” shot. He hops in a taxi in Ghana’s capital, Accra, and immediately begins chatting with his cheerful driver. But not before noting how she already was mic’d up before he arrived.
As the title implies, “The Geography of Bliss” is dedicated to searching for the happiest places on Earth and what visitors, or at least Wilson, can learn from their spirit of contentment.
His first destination is Iceland, known for its rugged terrain and Arctic latitudes. A small island with the population of Cleveland, Iceland’s history of Viking raids, plagues and volcanoes has been violent and uncertain. The country’s past is recalled, not in official “histories” but in sagas, songs filled with myths and enchantment. The people, Wilson discovers, seem to have a stoic belief things will turn out OK and a relaxed attitude about changing their own personal saga when the right time arrives. He chats briefly with the stand-up comic who, in 2009, shocked the world by running for mayor of Reykjavik on a lark. And winning.
Wilson makes no bones about dragging his own personal baggage. A born pessimist, he describes an unhappy childhood that includes being abandoned by his birth mother at 2 and parents who divorced shortly after he graduated high school. For the “Office” star, happiness is literally a foreign country.
In addition to laying bare his personal miseries, he’s ready to appear pasty and shirtless, letting all his sagging skin hang out.
Some might not be interested in his woes, but he seems genuine when compared to his fellow celebrity travel hosts, including Eugene Levy, who brings predictable, one-dimensional schtick to his Apple TV+ series “The Reluctant Traveler” or Stanley Tucci’s self-satisfied presence on CNN’s “Searching for Italy.”
All three of these hosts point up the shortcomings of the celebrity travelog genre. Unlike the late, much-missed Anthony Bourdain, you don’t get the sense they’ve read extensively or researched their destinations. In a TV genre built around self-regard and self-promotion, there isn’t much room for curiosity.
