Originally written for hobby blog on 4 May, 2018
Departures is perhaps one of my favoutite TV shows and I’ve watched and re-watched it several times. It follows the travels of mainly Scott Wilson and Justin Lukach (with Andre Dupuis emerging from behind the camera rarely) over the course of three years as they leave family and home behind to immerse themselves in different cultures around the world.
Much of your enjoyment of this show will come from whether you like Scott and Justin, as while the show is interested in teaching you about the genuine cultures and traditions around the world rather than documenting the world’s tourists traps, it is still reality TV and you see the travels through the lens of these men. Scott and Andre leave behind a successful business while Justin was simply living down in Hawaii with nothing but his girlfriend keeping him there. Scott and Justin vaguely fall into the straight man/funny man dynamic, with Scott seriously wanting to immerse himself into the different cultures, traditions, and languages with as little judgement as possible while Justin can at times be something of a man-child with eating candy for full meals, trying to communicate with the local wildlife, and boozing whenever possible.
While the show doesn’t have plot and characters like the traditional TV show, you do see Scott and Justin grow as people. By season three, Scott has loosened up at little more and is more accepting of Justin’s antics and Justin has matured more. While the show doesn’t get to My Little Pony level of friendship being magic, there is certainly emphasis on the men’s friendships between each other and the people they come across.
While the formula of an episode generally remains consistent (with the guys arriving in a country and travelling around it for one episode before moving onto the next one (barring some 2-part episodes)), I find myself preferring the first season over the third because the first feels more rough. The guys are still trying to find their travel-savvy and they show more of the in-between bits of the various commutes and their mishaps.
While there is a minimal cast to Departures, it’s by no means a grassroots or amateur operation. Scott and Andre co-founded a TV/video production company named Echo Bay Media who were the force behind Departures and Descending (Scott’s newer show). Andre and Scott also were nominated for Gemini awards for their work on Departures, and much of the crew had prior experience to working on Departures and it shows. The series is wonderfully shot and really shows off the best landscapes that each country has to offer.
If there was one complaint I had against the show it is that at times I don’t think it truly reflects a majority of world travelers’ experiences. I can’t imagine many people who could just take three years off their lives to travel. There are things Scott and Justin do, like ride a helicopter over the Rockies, give interviews and judge a beauty pageant at the Pole of Cold, etc., that make me think the show or Scott himself, is very well funded and connected, as he seems to have a friend in the majority of the countries they visit. The upside to this is that viewers get to vicariously live through their travels.
If you want a show to help you travel the world while accompanying the laid-back and funny antics of some Canadian bros, this is definitely the show for you.
Some Quick Stats:
Created By: Scott Wilson and Andre Dupuis
Starring: Scott Wilson, Andre Dupuis, and Justin Lukach
Original Release: March 17, 2008 – June 19, 2010 on OLN
Episodes: 3 Seasons, 42 episodes