Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Reluctant Traveler With Eugene Levy’ On Apple TV+, Where The ‘Schitt’s Creek’ Star Goes On Adventures, Even Though He Hates To Travel

Eugene Levy might be a fine actor, a loving father, a snappy dresser, and one of the funniest people in North America, but even he admits that he’s not big on travel or doing new things. But, as he says in his narration, at 75, he might as well get out of his comfort zone and try some of those new things. In The Reluctant Tourist, Levy travels to spots all over the world; he tries lots of things and eats lots of food that he never would do and try if he wasn’t being followed around by a camera crew.

THE RELUCTANT TRAVELER WITH EUGENE LEVY: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Spectacular scenes from all over the world. Eugene Levy says in voice over, “A great philosopher once said, ‘The world is a book. And those who don’t travel read only one page.” Then, as we see scenes of Levy looking at the camera with a chagrined look, he says, “Well, I gotta say, I’ve read a few pages, and I’m not crazy about the book.”

The Gist: The first episode takes place in Lapland, the extreme northern region in Norway that is known for its snowy climate, access to the aurora borealis, the all-day sunlight in the summer and its abundance of reindeer. He’s seen standing in a snowy forest, with that chagrined look on his face, but he’s picked up by a woman on a snowmobile, who tells him about the Finnish concept of “sisu”, meaning that “we never give up.”

As in all the episodes, though, Levy gets to stay in a unique and luxurious spot, like the Arctic TreeHouse Hotel, whose individual bungalows are well-appointed and give you a fine view of the Northern Lights — even at the foot of the bathtub. Levy is happy he has a place to get in and warm himself up.

Levy does some funny low-level complaining in his narration, like when the six-year-old son of one of his guides is much more successful at ice fishing than he is. Then he gets invited to dinner by the couple who own the hotel and he reluctantly tries some grilled reindeer. He then drives a dogsled across a frozen lake, which he seems to enjoy quite a bit. Then he and one of the hotel owners take a dip in a nearby lake, wearing massive insulated wetsuits that allow both to float in the frigid water.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Parts Unknown and Somebody Feed Phil, albeit with a lot more kvetchiness.

Our Take: We’re not going to say that the “reluctant” part of The Reluctant Traveler is an act; Levy definitely seems like this idea of being out of his comfort zone, especially in weather he does not like, makes him uncomfortable. But at the same time, he seems to be open to the experiences he’s going to have on these trips, so in a lot of ways, The Reluctant Traveler feels like an ever-so-slightly more sardonic version of a celebrity-driven travel show like Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy.

At least in the Finland episode, the only thing that Levy didn’t participate in was a near-naked morning dip to invigorate himself, like the woman who was going on the dogsled ride with him did. Everything else he was open to, even if he was, as the title says, reluctant.

Where the show shines, besides the amazing cinematography that turns everything into a postcard-ready vista, is when Levy cracks wise with the people he’s hanging out with. His complaints are never grumbly or vicious. In fact, much of the time, they’re self-directed, but almost always said in a way that makes the people around him laugh and breaks the ice.

Now, we’d imagine that many of the people he’s visiting with know of Levy’s work, whether it’s SCTV, American Pie, the Christopher Guest films, or Schitt’s Creek, so they’re already primed to take Levy’s lines as they’re intended. But Levy’s charm is disarming, and we think even he doesn’t realize how his uneasiness somehow makes the people around him more relaxed.

Sex and Skin: None. This feels like a show the entire family can watch.

Parting Shot: “My epitaph would read, ‘Here’s a man who ice floated in the Arctic Circle,'” Levy says with a laugh.

Sleeper Star: The woman who takes that daily morning dip in a hole in the ice is named Aksana, and God bless her.

Most Pilot-y Line: Levy keeps coming back to the idea of sisu, or never giving up. That feels more like a director-led thing than something that came up organically, but we could just be cynical cranks.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Despite his reluctance, Eugene Levy makes a charming and easygoing host and narrator in The Reluctant Traveler. Even if the reluctance is relatively mild, it does connect with people who are less inclined to be adventurous than the average travel show host.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.