Intcatinfo
A Masterpiece!
Keira Brennan
The movie is made so realistic it has a lot of that WoW feeling at the right moments and never tooo over the top. the suspense is done so well and the emotion is felt. Very well put together with the music and all.
Francene Odetta
It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.
p-chandarana
I do agree with others here in finding this Stephen Fry documentary unnecessarily glib towards other people's roots and culture. As an Englishman currently living in New York, I can certainly say there are extremes and quirks in all countries but the need to end most segments in the show with hurtful commentary just took away what could have been a programme about adventure and discovery.
Rob
Having watched dozens of travelogues about America, I can only say that this one has a pretty mean edge. Sure, everyone likes to see obscure places that are not the subject of the local tourism ads. No one wants to watch Disney-style travel shows. Even his visits to Angola prison, covering a burn-out homeless "hotel" in the ghetto, and showing off the best of Minnesota in January could be forgiven on this account. However, many of his social comments are intentional, thinly-veiled nasty digs, and they ruin what could otherwise be a top show in this genre.It was very hard to watch him make fun of the interesting, warm-hearted people who invited him into their missile silo. That part would have been excellent if he had simply resisted the urge to throw in his hideous final comments. Watching the cheese farm segment was truly excruciating. Here's an interesting subject that was ruined by Fry's diatribe, as he repeatedly expressed his disgust for American-made cheese while his shocked cheese-making hostess wondered how a Brit could could ever get that flipping rude.
randomjetship
Imagine a tour through Great Britain focusing on chavs, gypsies, and soccer hooligans and you more or less get the sense of how this series approaches the United States. The English have a weird fascination with the extremities of American culture. This brand of voyeurism is, I suspect, born from post-imperial insecurities, and the wry pretension Fry oozes during his tour though the 50 states fits squarely into that mold. Fry begins by telling us that he was very nearly born an American, and that the goal of his journey is to better understand the life he might have had. Instead, we see a man trying desperately to convince himself that he was lucky to be born an Englishman. That would explain the pejorative slant that marks his dismissive plodding through urban blight, gawking at rural squalor, and dilettantish dabbling in local trades and customs. Focusing on the downside of a subject isn't bad on its own, but Fry does so without any motivating theme to justify it. The result is a snide, mean-spirited little series that does not offer any particularly useful insights into the places Fry visits.Another deep inadequacy comes from the superficial treatment Fry gives the places he visits and people who show him hospitality. In many of the states he supposedly visits we never see evidence that he ever leaves his quaint London-style cab. His pass through Delaware, for instance, exhibits all the depth that state received in Wayne's World ("Hi... we're in Delaware"). Yes, the goal of visiting all 50 states necessarily means that each one gets limited treatment, but some don't even get a perfunctory effort, and when states do get considerable screen time they are defined by their quirks or their shortcomings—voodoo in New Orleans, witchcraft in Massachusetts, and homelessness in St. Louis, for example.In the end, the show does not succeed on the terms Fry himself sets for it, and it offers the audience very little else.
pfarley_99_1999
Wonderful series. I enjoyed everything about it with the exception of the study of cadavers - I skipped over that chapter. Mr. Fry was witty and well spoken and educational to boot. I laughed at the part when he was driving next to a cemetery and said that this 'must be the dead center of town'. I recommend this series for the whole family with the exception of the cadaver study - please skip over that (hit the next chapter button) - yuk - celebrate life please. It seems odd to me that a man with such wit and intelligence does not enjoy dancing, skiing, or 'fun' as he stated it. Mr. Fry must of been raised in a serious home. I give it a 8 out of ten. Thank you so much Mr. Fry!
