Eugene Levy initially passed on the offer for “The Reluctant Traveler,” which would take him outside of his comfort zone. Now he wants a Season 2.
It’s not a show about a grouchy old neurotic who learns to love to travel. Instead, it’s a show about a grouchy old neurotic who learns to deal with it. The scariest elements aren’t the deadly big five of the African savanna — lion, leopard, rhino, elephant and buffalo. No, for Levy the most frightening thing of all is playing a role he’s never played before — himself.
The first episode takes him to the frozen north of Finland, where he looks cold and uncomfortable and hardly happy to dine on reindeer. But by the fourth episode he inches toward embracing adventure. His fear of heights freezes him on a suspension bridge in the Costa Rican rainforest, and terrifies him during a desert copter flight in Utah.