Customer Reviews

Spain... On The Road Again

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

I'm nearly going blind watching this show as our antenna does not pick up PBS very well, but I am still addicted! Don't be fooled by the title "Spain". Yes, this takes place in Spain, but it is very much in the format of Mark Bittman's culinary explorations around the world, also aired on PBS. Bittman is a brilliant, self-abasing, mildly abusive food critic for the New York Times, & he is one of the four travelers on this sorta wacky foodie expedition across Spain. No, it's not an insider's Spanish travel guide (though a Spanish actress does join them & offer some bizarre dieting advice), but you're never meant to think it is. They do take some side trips away from food & mussels eaten straight out of the ocean (& wine, so much wine) to do interesting things one can only do in Spain. But mostly it's about eating in Spain & talking about eating in Spain. It might remind you of a college road trip, only with far more fascinating people & a better car (a convertible Mercedes, whereas mine was a Ford Tempo constantly on the verge of dying). Also the food is much better than your college road trips, but the conversation just as meandering & nonsensical & fun. I cannot wait until this comes out on DVD so I can actually see the food & the countryside! Pathetic, yes, I know. I didn't even like Gwyneth Paltrow before I saw this show, & now I think she's just charming & would love to scarf down a paella pan & a plate of french fries with her. We would also need some of that fantastic Spanish wine they keep raving about, & Mark Bittman to make dry assertions, Mario to wax poetic about EVERYTHING, & Claudia to tell us that olive oil cannot possibly make us fat.

"Spain...On the Road Again" answers the question that did not need to be asked: "What if we made an ELEVEN (11) hour version of 'Sideways', except instead of having two guys driving around California wine country with two beautiful girls, one blonde and elegant one dark and lively, we instead had them drive around Spain?" Oh, and what if instead of it being poignant, funny, endearing, touching and frequently hilarious it was instead self-indulgent, meandering, contrived, aimless and annoying? Oh, and rather than them driving around in a charming old Saab junker while eating and drinking in merely very nice restaurants and wineries they instead drove around in a $100,000 Mercedes convertible while eating in only the very best restaurants? And, oh yeah, another difference, they could also endlessly express vague, meandering opinions that, while displaying a lot of experience with wealthy celeb status consumption, were witless and consistently betrayed a Cliff Notes knowledge of the world around them.

Gwyneth Paltrow is rather touching in a vague, beautiful soccer mom kind of way, although the voyeurism of getting to see her in "real" life wears thin after a short while, and Mario Batali is just being Mario. Claudia Bassols, the Catalan actress pulled in to give Paltrow a gal pal on the trip, is charming and bravely bears her thankless task of escorting Mark Bittman, the food and wine writer from the New York Times. Bittman, the major flaw in the "casting" of this magnum homage to shallow self importance, may have thought that he was channeling a toxic know it all version of Thomas Haden Church's character from "Sideways". But mostly he brings to mind Woody Allen's line from"Annie Hall" when, trapped behind a pontificating self-anointed film "expert" while waiting on line he says "What I wouldn't give for a large sock with horse manure in it!" My feeling exactly. But instead all I had was the remote to turn off this interminable journey of wandering Hamptons-ites.

Bittman embodies the sort of top of the food chain, know it all, been everywhere and eaten everything, toxic, New York foodie snob behavior that is so insufferable to those who have made their lives outside the realm of Manhattan and Long Island. To every simple joy embraced by others he brings the sulphur if his self regard and baseball card collection of past facts, travels and meals. Whatever you are doing, whatever you are, whatever joy fills your life, it's just another catalog entry for Bittman. He is a one man de-joying machine, relating everything he encounters to other similar catalog entries in his collection of past snobistic experiences. The program could have featured just Mario, who we know can cook and has an at least entertaining ego, with Paltrow, who is lovely and kind of endearing in her not terribly bright but aristocratic self absorption, and cut the whole thing to "just" three hours, mostly of cooking and foods, and it would have been a decent program. As it is, you are being asked to be bear being trapped with these people on a VERY long vacation, from which there is only one escape, the eject button.

Spain is the star of this DVD set. It makes you want to go there and try all the food and visit all the places! This a good over view of Spain from a culinary point of view.

Mario Batali is unquestioned chefing talent and is a robust traveler who points out the finer qualities Spanish food delights. Gwyneth Paltrow who does not eat red meat and only once fowl in the serise. She eats lots of sea food and eats very well as everyone does. Claudia Bassols seems to just have a grand time effervesing though out the whole thing and why not this DVD shows many ideal situations. Mark Bittman's commentary and wit are much appreciated but I think His cooking skills should have been used more. He has a way of simplifying recipes for us mere mortals here in the mid-west USA. After all he is the Minimalist of the New York Times. Bittman cooks only once in the whole blessed thing.

If you are looking for a great overview of Spain's food and culture I would suggest to see José Andrés and the PBS series Made in Spain (ASIN: B001690X4M). This takes you to Spain and does a much better job of showing how to cook the food.

I bought this for my fiancee who LOVES Gwyneth, and hadn't seen the show. We sat down for the first episode, and it's an amazing immersion in Spanish culture with a very real representation of Spain. Gwyneth looks great and speaks fluent Spanish (who knew?!)while giving the novice viewer an insight into the culture without belittling them for not knowing more about Spain. The other cast members are really enjoyable to watch as they weave their way through the Spanish country side, with the exception of Mario Batali. His brightly colored Crocs, and bad haircut are only the beginning of the distraction that he provides throughout the episodes. I highly recommend this video for all Gwyneth fans, and everyone that would like to get a glimpse into Spain, but I feel obligated to warn you that you will want to fast-forward through every word that creepy and annoying Mario utters.

I had such high hopes for this series. The ingredients looked wonderful. I've really liked previous TV work by Batali and Bittman. Spain is one of my all-time favorite destinations, so I even bought a new DVR just so that I could catch every episode when it ran on PBS. Well, the DVR came in handy as I ended up doing some fast-forwarding once I got used to the episode structure. Holy cow it was dull! The banter between the four was irritating and appeared forced. I guess Mercedes Benz expected a lot of camera time, having provided a couple of high end cars for the show. We ended up with extended shots of the cars being driven around Spain at really slow speeds.

Anthony Bourdain is the king of food travel TV, and if you caught his Spain episode, you will get far more out of his one hour show than you will get out of the 13 hours of this hugely disappointing durge.

This series is definitely a travelogue---a journey into the SuperSized egos of Mario Battali, Mark Bittman, Claudia Bassols, and Gwyneth Paltrow. The episodes are divided thusly: 0.5% food, 0.5% Spanish history/culture, and 99% Battali, Bittman, Bassols and Paltrow endless banter about three things: themselves, themselves and themselves. A tv show about Paris Hilton and Nicole Ritchie driving through Spain would have been less egotistical, superficial, inane and self-absorbed than this tripe.

It's obvious that Battali wants to be the Dean of Spanish cuisine in America because he can't push Lydia Bastinich and Marcella Hazan out of the Italian spotlight. So he and his gang of egos invade Spain.

Save your time and money. Jose Andres' book and series is a much more informative, entertaining and sincere than this basura (garbage). Andres is the true dean of Spanish cuisine in the US.

PS: if your local PBS station uses this as a marathon for Pledge Week, call them up and tell them you are specifically NOT contributing money to them because you believe in QUALITY programming on your local public television station. That's what I did.

This series is a travelouge not a documentry. It's primary aim is to entertain and explore, albeit on a cursory level, some of the fine cuisine Spain has to offer. I think the guy who gave this series one star should tune into National Geographic. There he can get just the facts.

I suggest purchasing this series if you enjoy a more casual, entertaining and relaxed way of learning a few things Spain.

As background, I love travel and food shows, and I love Mark Bittman (I own several of his cookbooks), but this show is very, very boring and I've never been able to finish watching even a whole single episode! They zip through the beautiful countryside in their convertible (who cares about their stupid car--show us some scenery!), don't really present much information about the food and basically, it's all about them instead of the country or the food. I actually hate this show and its traveling egotists and their inane conversations! If you are truly interested in authentic Spain and its food, watch and/or buy Jose Andres' book/DVD "Made in Spain" as it beautifully presents the country's beauty, its people and its wonderful cuisine!

Prior reviews have amply covered the "self-absorbed, inane banter" that goes on in this series: hours of "GP" talking very proudly in Spanish and gifting us with her childhood memories of Spain before she jets back to the UK for her kids' Halloween. Who cares? Is this a cooking show or what?

The best of these scenes is in Barcelona when Claudia Bassols tries to verbalize some script about how Michael Stipe from REM (who they have pseudo-spontaneously picked up as a "hitchhiker") is such a big star in Spain. On cue, a friend of Claudia's appears and greets her as she is puffing up Stipe. The friend doesn't recognize Michael Stipe or Mario Batali as he is introduced by Cladia to each of them. They glumly receive the introductions and then Claudia says adios to her friend and continues on about what a huge, household name Michael Stipe is. Hilarious!!!

This series is a big celebrity ego stroke that, distilled down like a fine rich sauce, would have made a decent travelogue with some cooking elements. As it is, even with the ability to continuously Fast Forward through the non-sense, this show is very distracted in personalities and the fabulous lives of "star chefs" and their celebrity friends.

Weird and shallow.

Jose Andres and Made in Spain is a much better show if you are interested in Spain, festivals and cooking.

Not much in the book, a few recipes and a little dialog. Redundant to the TV series. CD,s were good but Mario and group seemed to miss the whole Spanish mentality which is eating as a social occasion and shouldn't be rushed. They ate fast like typical Americans and treated tapas like fast food.