Is it just me or is the Parts Unknown Shanghai episode seem like a propaganda piece?
Anthony said literally nothing bad about China, and continuously praised it. He hung out with only rich people, and didn't go to the shitty parts of town at all.
Usually he shows discusses the positive and negative aspects of the country, and goes to both good areas and bad areas within the country. But this time he only showed the good, which is unusual.
While China has made a lot of improvements over the years, it still has many issues and many people are still very poor. Yet Bourdain tries to portray China as a paradise.
Another issue of the show is that sometimes he barely discusses the food and spends most of the time discussing non-food things. Like in the Mexico episode, he spent maybe 10% of the time discussing food and the rest discussing issues in a sensational manner.
Elijah Richardson
Because he wants to keep going back and eating noodles.
Noodles > human rights
Asher Harris
>only showed the good, which is unusual.
I don't think that's unusual at all. If you look at his shows in general they're all over the board--sometimes they show the good stuff only, sometimes they show the "poor" areas only. Sometimes they show both.
>>Yet Bourdain tries to portray China as a paradise. I think that's all in your head. He's had just as many episodes that show the poor shit. A glimpse of what happens to be the nice side of china is not the same thing as trying to describe the entire country like that. And likewise, when he visits poor areas of a country that doesn't mean the whole country is poor either. You're drawing conclusions in your head that don't exist anywhere else.
Zachary Diaz
>spends most of the time discussing non-food things
What do you expect? Only his very first show (Cook's Tour) was on the Cooking channel. That was more than a decade ago. His more current shows are on the travel channel and CNN.
I'd prefer he focus more on the food too. But it would be silly to expect that given what networks are footing his bill.
Grayson Williams
I understand it has to focus on non-food things too, but there's a balance he can reach.
Benjamin Lee
Tony's a contrarian by nature, and an edgy little shit at times too.
Austin Kelly
bump
Leo Flores
Autocratic regimes don't like it when you show the shitty parts of their country. How many commieblocks did he film in Russia? He doesn't want any hassle
Gabriel Nguyen
this is intentional. it's not a food show, it's a culture/travel show
Charles Mitchell
I like how real Bourdain is.
A lot of people today especially the terrible combination of foodies and hipsters, foodhips if you will, act like you have to enjoy all different foods or you aren't cool.
While Anthony Bourdain does not shy away from trying new and exotic foods. When he doesn't like something you can see on his face that he is no happy with the experience, he doesn't maintain haughty airs saying shit like "Oh wow, this has a wonderful texture!" while suppressing a gag.
examples: check out his trip to Thailand, or when he eats boiled camel testicles
Camden Smith
This plus xiaolongbao
Andrew Garcia
>Anthony said literally nothing bad about China, and continuously praised it. He understands what happens to the people who host him if he bad mouths communists and political policy. It's called being respectful to other humans taking a risk on your. >He hung out with only rich people, and didn't go to the shitty parts of town at all. Tend to be the more education/more informed/more traveled and obviously better understandings of the past, the current and the future when you speak to people who have a clue. >Usually he shows discusses the positive and negative aspects of the country, and goes to both good areas and bad areas within the country. But this time he only showed the good, which is unusual. It's not unusual at all. He has no true formula. I think maybe you haven't grasped that many of his shows. He does a literary mecca kind of show very often, themes of writers that impressed him and walking in their shadows trying to imagine what the heydey was for them in their time of inspiration, from morocco to cuba to paris. He has episodes where he shits on the whole experience, beginning to end, like in Iceland (normally a place people fall in love, not in hate). He has political episodes, the the one centered around his displeasure with the wall to divide MX and the US, and discussed the backbone of the restaurant industry being the oaxaca worker and their families that inspired them, and not much else! He, basically does what he wants. I also think he throws a lot of the planning to episode producers to coordinate it all before he goes. My favorite episodes are when he visits with real friends, such as Chef Norman van Aken. That's the real Tony. Narrator Tony is the real Tony too. Those stilted conversations with people in danger are sometimes balanced by rich expats who are so influential and befriended they aren't afraid to run their mouth.
Caleb Carter
Loved the Mexico episode with Carlos.
Anthony Sanchez
>Mexico Think I missed that one Was there something disgusting in it?
Cooper Kelly
Which Mexico episode? He's done at least 4 in his shows
William Torres
He rarely says much about the food beyond "this is good"
Nolan Ortiz
Everything in the media that references China is Chinese propaganda. It's getting us ready for the more overt takeover.
Eli Baker
I remember the episode where some guy went to jail after talking to Bourdain, I think it was in Iran?
Bentley Moore
CNN is probably just stricter than the previous channels where he had shows. Parts Unknown is pretty boring IMO compared to No Reservations.
Colton Adams
What are the differences between his 3 shows?
Nicholas Edwards
This. I can't stand him because of this, every time it's just fucking "it's good"
James Walker
He went on some pseudo-philosophical rant about bars and something about old people vs. young people or some shit and it was far and away the most pretentious thing I've ever heard. Stopped watching this guy full-stop and never looked back.
Gabriel Allen
I watched no reservation religiously. When this show started i thought it was going to be good, but as previously discussed this show is nothing but leftist propaganda. Tony is a hipster douchebag who pretends to not be a hipster.
Isaiah Edwards
watching the episode right now.
seems like he really enjoys china and chinese food so it makes sense for him to talk it up.
Adam Ward
It's on CNN which is entirely propaganda. He only shows the good AND BAD, of first world western countries because he wants to undermine successful white capitalist societies, because jews being a minority of 2.6% (taken from 2012, see wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Jews) feel isolate in actual good societies. They only want culturally marxist shitholes to be seen positively. Everything else can be seen "objectively"
>inb4 you're not allowed to state facts on boards other than /pol/ He literally asked for propaganda information. What do you want?
Nolan Thompson
Can you nazi's just chill the fuck out for one entire day?
Carter Lee
Yeah but they pulled that shit on him in Romania and he threw a fit.
Matthew Mitchell
No Reservations is mostly about food.
Same with The Layover.
Parts Unknown is more of a culture information show.
Carter Harris
PU has been really underwhelming.
>obligatory le hangover cure scene every episode >obligatory le ironic capitalist american pig spiel every episode etc etc
he's bored
Jack Peterson
huang's world s3 was a lot better than PU. even eddie's political commentary was more substantial than tony's. he did go to law school after all
Charles Clark
The layover is supposed to have useful travel info but it fails at that. His travel tips basically consist of the few methods of transportation to get to your $800/night hotel.
Michael Clark
Idk, there's a lot bullshit in huangs world. He should of actually made an episode about orlando rather than just filming because he was in town for Chinese new year. He basically picked the dumbest shit to do here and perpetuated the "orlando is only chains and theme parks" meme.
Jose Lewis
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
this
what is media censorship OP?
Hunter Lewis
Don't forget "A Cook's Tour"
Hudson Kelly
Has anyone here been to Shanghai? What's it actually like?
Ian King
You know what's a decent show done by Bourdain with minimal Bourdain? The Mind of a Chef.
Nope The one where he went to Mexico with Carlos from Les Halles and he died sometime after that show.
Cameron Gray
bourdain can't talk shit after his show took traction of a larger crowd.
he had toput a lid on his shit pretty much.
Evan Allen
in addition, he didnt even have to insult them the rich folks were pretentious as fuck,
it felt like an ironic "life style of the rich and famous" bull shit in a world where the disparity is even more transparent
Jayden Bell
Yeah the people at the wine cellar place seemed pretty pretentious
It's kinda like them getting money for the first time so they do stupid shit like have oysters shipped from France
Ryder Torres
He showed the issues of Mexico, and talked to people who openly criticized the government.
Levi Evans
poor people have nothing to lose D:
Brody Bennett
It wasn't for talking to bourdain, he was clearly involved in other things. Also yes it was Iran, the guy was clearly involved in some other shit.
Christopher Miller
Obvious cia shit stirrer was obvious
Lincoln Martin
the bourdain family trains jiujitsu at renzos here in new york
pretty much everybody has fucked his wife.
is your opinion of him any different knowing he's a total cuck? I'm not sure if it's an open relationship type deal since he travels so much, or if she just cheats on him
Kayden Thompson
can someone make Bourdain the official cu/ck/ here? maybe a sticky with him somewhere being a cuck? I like him, so I'm not doing it. He seems like a guy you could smoke a joint and get drunk with.
Tyler Bailey
have you fucked his wife?
Luke Torres
meh, rich people cuck each other cause why the hell not.
its sad when poor people do it. nothing to lose but honesty and faith in each other.
Kayden Cox
who hasn't? yesterday I was sitting around with 5 other guys talking about fucking his wife/how out of her fucking mind she is
Jordan Adams
because god forbids if he just happens to you know
like shangai similar to when he went to são paulo in brazil and just liked it.
Levi Moore
shanghai is great when it comes to the food scene hands down.
but I think CNN's does try to inject some socio-economic factor (problem) into his narration of the host country.