I came to this right after watching Palin's "Himalaya" and thinking that his earlier work could not possibly be as magnificent. I was dead wrong.
Pole to Pole is not just entertaining or informative or impressive. It is important and relevant and borderline awe-inspiring. Palin is the perfect prism through which to view a disintegrating Soviet Union or the most barren and inhospitable parts of Africa: the man manages to never be patronizing or negative or simplistic; even though, am sure, not everything is impromptu and unstaged, even though there are the "this is gonna make a great TV moment" scenes, his timing and comic genius and general sense of the surreal, combined with enthusiasm and warmth and basic humanity, canvas out a lot of what is great and diverse and sad and decent about our world. This is one of the greatest travelogues of all time.
Special mention has to be made of Palin's utter unpretentiousness and honesty. And fearlessness. He is bloody fearless in the sense that he chooses not to edit out scenes where he is butt naked, visibly drunk, awkward, or overwhelmed.
This is grand stuff, TV at its very best.
Pole to Pole is not just entertaining or informative or impressive. It is important and relevant and borderline awe-inspiring. Palin is the perfect prism through which to view a disintegrating Soviet Union or the most barren and inhospitable parts of Africa: the man manages to never be patronizing or negative or simplistic; even though, am sure, not everything is impromptu and unstaged, even though there are the "this is gonna make a great TV moment" scenes, his timing and comic genius and general sense of the surreal, combined with enthusiasm and warmth and basic humanity, canvas out a lot of what is great and diverse and sad and decent about our world. This is one of the greatest travelogues of all time.
Special mention has to be made of Palin's utter unpretentiousness and honesty. And fearlessness. He is bloody fearless in the sense that he chooses not to edit out scenes where he is butt naked, visibly drunk, awkward, or overwhelmed.
This is grand stuff, TV at its very best.