Dwight Schrute goes looking for happiness and ends up naked in Iceland, checking out wild coffins in Ghana, and getting a scary warning from a monk in Thailand.
Trailer for “Rainn Wilson and the Geography of Bliss”
You Can’t Make This Sh!t Up
- In Ghana, Rainn visits a culture where people can be buried in giant custom coffins shaped like things that mattered to them in life. The episode includes one shaped like a giant condom box.
- In Iceland, Rainn gets completely naked and climbs into a hot spring with strangers while trying to understand why one of the coldest, darkest countries on Earth routinely ranks among the happiest.
- In Thailand, a fortune teller warns Rainn that doom is coming. He then spends the episode around cabaret performers, kickboxers, monks and farmers selling sexual-enhancement products while trying to learn how to relax.
Watch “Rainn Wilson and the Geography of Bliss”
You can watch “Rainn Wilson and the Geography of Bliss” on Peacock.
Ratings:
- My Rating: 92/100
- IMDB Rating: 7.7/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 92/100 (Users), not yet rated (Critics)
Director’s Note: The series is directed by Niharika Desai and created and written by Casey Scharf. It’s based on Eric Weiner’s book “The Geography of Bliss: One Grump’s Search for the Happiest Places in the World.” Rainn Wilson also serves as an executive producer.
Release Date: May 18, 2023 (Peacock)
Other Unique Stuff
- Rainn isn’t just the host. He’s also an executive producer, which helps explain why the show gets more personal than the typical celebrity-goes-traveling series.
- Director Niharika Desai won a DGA Award for the first episode, “Happiness Is a Bottle of Cod Liver Oil,” which follows Rainn through Iceland.
- The episode titles are almost worth watching by themselves: “Happiness Is a Bottle of Cod Liver Oil,” “Happiness Is a Stranger’s Shower,” “Happiness Is a Condom Box Burial,” “Happiness Is Quieting Your @#$%^&* Mind” and “Happiness Is a Piñata Full of Rodents.”
Wrap Up:
I expected “Rainn Wilson and the Geography of Bliss” to be another celebrity travel show, but it’s much stranger and more personal than that. Come for naked Rainn Wilson and coffin-sized condoms; stay because the people he meets make you rethink what makes you happy.
Thanks for reading!
Heather Fenty, Guest Writer, Daily Doc